Seth Godin’s blog post yesterday,”Lousy Tomatoes and the Rare Search for Wonder” really hit home with me. In the staid but lucrative business of large company employee benefits consulting, I’ve often said, “Mediocrity is profitable”.
Why is excellence so hard to find? Because excellence is expensive.
I’m convinced that most of our competitors believe it’s better to deliver just enough service to satisfy their clients and ensure that they retain the business and keep the commissions flowing.
Well, we don’t believe that’s a sustainable strategy for success and growth.
When I started NextLogical in 2000, I decided to employ healthcare clinicians in addition to employee benefits experts in order to fundamentally enhance the scope of services we could deliver to our clients and their employees and families – and at no greater cost than they incurred with their former broker/consultant.
According to the national carriers and vendors we work with, NextLogical is still the only benefits consulting firm in the country with a collaborative team that includes healthcare clinicians. How other consultants believe they can effectively manage health benefits plans with no healthcare expertise on staff is beyond me…
The results we help our clients achieve, simply stated, are healthier people and healthier profits. We’ve improved the health and vitality of the people we serve and have even helped save lives. Our clients have consistently realized health insurance cost increases of 2-3% per year (with many receiving cost reductions) versus national averages of 10-12%.
It’s expensive to employ both healthcare clinicians and benefits consultants, but excellence demands it.
