I left my office a couple of Fridays ago, with weekend on my mind, only to find my car on the top level of Zywave’s parking structure with a flat rear passenger-side tire. Bummer. Fortunately, I have great co-workers and was able to call one who has the misfortune of living a couple of miles from me, about 20 miles west of our Milwaukee headquarters. He had just left work ahead of me and agreed to turn around and pick me up. My husband could help me with my tire Saturday morning to make up for the fact that I had made his lunches all week! I digress. This flat tire was an inconvenience, a somewhat anticipated expense (we all have a bucket in our personal budgets for miscellaneous auto repairs), and I knew I was in for a fairly blind shopping experience (I mean, how can the price of a tire vary so greatly from shop to shop?).

Does any of that last bit sound familiar? I’ll keep going.

My husband, our 13 and 10 year old sons, and I returned to the office early Saturday morning. Early on a Saturday; especially one of our first cold Wisconsin autumn Saturdays, is not my thing, and the process of changing the tire took longer than it ought to have; due to dad trying to make this a teaching opportunity for his sons, but we finally had the spare on and made our way to a service station. Here’s where my analogy should start sounding very familiar! The service tech examined my flat tire and was ready to make his recommendations – or so I hoped. Instead he came back in to inform me. There was a nail in my tire, too close to the edge of the tread to allow for repair, but the rear tires were about an 8 out of 10 tread; whereas my front tires were at a 6 out of 10 tread. He regaled me with many more numbers and what I’m sure where pertinent factors in my making a decision (I don’t recall any of them), but then asked “What do you want to do?” HUH?

I stared blankly at this young man, and asked him “What do you recommend I do?” He stared back. We seemed fated to spin into a never-ending cycle when I remembered that my husband was still in the store – getting a hard sell from the aforementioned kids regarding a purchase they wanted him to make, no doubt. I would call him to respond to our tech, who had a lot of information, but no actionable recommendations. Now, my husband is very knowledgeable about a number of things: workplace safety, presidential history, and woodworking, to name a few. He is not a tire expert. He knew some questions to ask, and was able to make a recommendation that I trusted. We purchased one new tire. Crisis averted.

Let’s pull this all together.

Your clients want and need data to make decisions: about plan designs, renewals, communication strategies, disease management, wellness programs, etc. They get overwhelmed with the volume of data presented to them. They need someone to guide them through the process, ask the appropriate questions of the data, and most importantly make recommendations that they can act on. Tell them what to do! Have you seen the newest version of DMW 7.0 with an easy button client recommendation letter? If not, take my recommendation and check it out! Decision Master Warehouse, combined with the plan design toolkit and decision support offered in PlanAdvisor, will help you help your clients navigate the inconvenience of their health plan renewal, manage expenses, and take blinders off.