The Medicare opportunities are rapidly flying past us Each month a new group of Baby Boomers qualify for Medicare. In fact, approximately 10,000 individuals per day search for information with keywords such as: “What is Medicare?” “What are the financial implications to me?” “What should frame my Medicare choices?”

Chapel Hill, NC – Dino Fire, President of Research and Analytics at datadecisions Group and Wendy Weathers, Senior Analyst in Grid Planning and Performance at Salt River Project, present a white paper at the EPRI Grid Analytics and Power Quality Conference and Exhibition 2018. The white paper is “The Power of One: Electric Grid Reliability and Its Effects on Individual Customer Satisfaction,” and explores three primary areas empirically relating residential utility customer satisfaction and electrical grid reliability.

Each year I ask my friends — colleagues who work at a healthcare-related entity — when does your Medicare marketing plan indicate that you should start evaluating the adjustments for the new year? You might be surprised how many companies are behind schedule and waiting too long to ask some of the most critical questions to set up for a successful year. As datadecisions Group only works on a few of the issues involved in offering Medicare to the senior American, I will limit my comments to those topics.

The foundation of successful customer acquisition is prospect data that targets consumers who are in the market to buy a specific insurance product. Too often, insurance marketers rely on simple targeting criteria such as age, income and gender. The use of this commodity prospect data results in a higher effective cost per lead, fewer policies sold, and higher lapse rates. Fortunately, the use of life event trigger data can help you target individuals who are highly likely to purchase an insurance product in the near future.

The foundation of successful customer acquisition is prospect data that targets consumers who are in the market to buy a specific insurance product. Too often, insurance marketers rely on simple targeting criteria such as age, income and gender. The use of this commodity prospect data results in a higher effective cost per lead, fewer policies sold, and higher lapse rates. Fortunately, the use of purchase propensity data can help you target individuals who are highly likely to purchase an insurance product in the near future.

Suppose you are driving your car on a dark and curvy mountain road, on a rainy night, with a very foggy front windshield, dim headlights, and a perfectly clear rear view mirror to guide your path forward? It’s not a comforting scenario. Surprisingly, this is how many companies still operate when attempting to understand and improve their customers’ experiences and the resulting customer satisfaction (or JD Power/Net Promoter) ratings. They know a great deal about the past but very little about the future; they know a lot about the average customer but very little about the individual customer.

When it comes to life insurance leads, too many companies are wasting their marketing dollars. In fact, their cost per lead is 2-3 times too high. 

Like most people pressed for time, I scan the news headlines just to get a sense of what’s going on in the world, from the missile antics of North Korea, to the frenzy state of bitcoin. Speaking of bitcoin, there’s been a wave of news lately regarding the legitimacy and astronomical price increase of bitcoin. Many financial analysts are warning the bubble will eventually burst, while others claim it’s the digital currency of the future, and you need to invest now.

Data Decisions Group has been conducting primary marketing research studies for over three decades. That's a lot of survey data!  For many years, these meticulously and methodically collected survey results, and the ensuing insights, were our only deliverables to our clients.  Not anymore.  In 2018, the best solutions we have to offer our customers often begin with the marriage of survey data and some other data source.

You have probably read the incredible sales outcomes from this holiday season, but allow me to reiterate. Not only did sales go up, but digital sales skyrocketed.