Submitted by Bradley Kauffman, CEO, Bost Benefits
Is your business back to normal?
I think like many small businesses in the region, we went through a shock period. Since our business operates in many states, we worked through the unique guidelines and mandates of each state. What we knew as normal we can now call it history and how we used to do things.
What is your “new normal?”
Our new normal is focusing more time of our support team and advisors on the essentials like customer service and client retention. The shock of the pandemic made it clear we needed to put on hold any growth plans and divert all our resources to supporting our small business clients. They had so many challenges of their own so we wanted to make sure they knew we were here for whatever they needed.
Our business model was built on face to face interaction with our clients. We have used technology for years and had occasional requests for virtual. The past year has been mostly virtual communication with occasional requests for face to face. Our business focuses on medical health plans, HR advising and benefit education to employees at the workplace. We also have a Medicare division to help seniors understand their Medicare health plan options.
Our new normal has been keeping up our standard of service and education to our clients with a virtual mindset. Some clients and prospects allow you onsite, some do not. Our Medicare offices have remained opened and safe for seniors to visit if they prefer a face to face appointment.
How do you Rally Around Small Business and support the business community?
Many of our clients are small businesses who are concerned about their employees, the economy, budget decisions, benefit decisions, opportunities in the market, acquisition of new clients and the retention of current clients. The list is quite large for any small business and the pressure is significant. We are making sure we are in a good position so our small business clients can lean on us during this time and have one less concern about the parts we handle for them.