It’s easy to tell when open enrollment starts by the level of commercials for Medicare supplement plans. After all, depending on the source, there are somewhere between 63 and 68 million people in the US on Medicare plans. While not everyone buys supplemental insurance, the level of commercials indicate it is a pretty good market to be in.

Compare that with the individual market which has only 11 million people spread out across all the states, with many counties having only one provider as option because there isn’t enough demand to support more than one provider.  It is no surprise that there are no commercials or other ads. And given the small population, it has taken many years to figure out the pricing/profitability in the market.

The dynamics in a market can be pretty easy to spot if you just look for them. When was the last time you stood back and looked at the dynamics in your market?

It should have been a very simple process of buying my exercise gear. I knew exactly what I wanted, put it in the online cart and hit the checkout button like I had done many times before.  All of my information was already there, so it should have processed and sent me a receipt.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, I was taken to a screen asking me to set up Apple pay. After spending time with the person at the other end of the online chat, I was told that for all Apple devices, customers are routed to set up Apple pay. The only way around it is to download another browser, and use that browser to complete the transaction. You know this brand and probably have it in your closet. They don’t need to make it that hard to buy from them.

It is a good lesson in how a likely partnership with another company has made it harder to do business with customers. Have you unintentionally set up processes that make it harder to do business with you?  It is a good time to look at your end to end customer experience and get rid of anything that makes it harder to do business with you. You’ll be glad you did!

The department of transportation is reconfiguring the freeway to add a bus lane to avoid traffic during rush hour. The project basically takes the left shoulder, narrows the three existing lanes and takes a portion of the right shoulder.

The first step taken was marking where the new lanes will be with white dashed lines about 2 feet from the existing lane markers. As a result of the new lines, people were confused where to drive. Some were driving in the existing lanes while others were driving in what will be the lanes in the future.

I’m sure there were lots of good reasons for marking the lane in preparation for work that would happen a few weeks down the road. But it created a lot of confusion for those using the road, not working on the project.

These sorts of situations happen all the time in business. People take actions that will help their work. In the meantime, it confuses customers and co-workers operating in the same space. How are you making sure you aren’t confusing people?

I’ve noticed a curious trend over the time through the stay at home orders—I’m listening to podcasts less, but the number of podcasts being released has increased. About a month ago, one of the podcasts even noted the trend of reduced listening is happening. But as it turns out, while total listening is down, it is up in some categories and down in others. And the categories I listen to are up.

The trends demonstrate why it is important to understand your specific customers and their interests. When you do, you know when to ramp up and when to pull back.

A number of websites recently (or that I looked at recently) have moved to a format of pictures or images that are rather large in size and akin to what you’d see on social media, rather than a small image and a headline or lists of headlines. In order to see what is available, the viewer has to scroll down and through many pages to see the desired content.

Similar trends have emerged in using videos rather than an article to communicate. The view is video is richer and has more context. But many times, the video content can be 30 to 60 minutes.

For me, I want to quickly skim and the new formats take much more, causing me to skip them. I’m sure there are lots of people who like the new look or format. The thing is, when communicating, you need multiple formats for customers to consume information the way that suits them best.