Guardian Launches Campaign to Bolster Use of Web Capabilities to Advance Green Initiatives and Enhance Service

NEW YORK, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to help brokers, employers and employees reap the operating efficiencies and service advantages of technology while reducing their carbon footprint, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), a leading provider of employee benefits for midsize and small businesses, is launching a campaign focusing on its self-service benefits website, Guardian Anytime.

Guardian's campaign will include advertisements and marketing materials (mostly in electronic formats) that encourage use of Guardian Anytime for access to benefits tools and service.  A Web tour touting the features of the portal can be found at http://www.guardianwebtour.com and a demo of its employee online enrollment capability, offered as part of the website, can be found at http://www.guardianenrolldemo.com.

Guardian recently began rolling out a program across its customer base which encourages planholders to access bills and benefits booklets solely online at www.GuardianAnytime.com. The aim of the program is to promote the use of online services, reduce use of paper and streamline processes while enhancing service levels.

The Guardian Anytime campaign launches at a time when employers are stretched due to the economy and may not have much time to dedicate to administering their benefits offerings or fielding questions their employees have about their benefits.

"Less time spent on benefits administration adds up to time employers can focus on more strategic and revenue-generating activities, and Guardian strives to help businesses large and small achieve it," said Elena Wu, Group Marketing & Worksite Officer.  "While there is a bigger push today behind environmental issues, it is still difficult to change behavior strictly around green initiatives.  When Amazon and Sony market their e-books they don't simply state that you are saving trees, they outline all of the key benefits of the products they are offering.  It is important for insurance marketers to tout not only environmental advantages, but also cost-saving and time efficiencies that are significant benefits of advanced enrollment technology and benefit portals."

Guardian Anytime features and benefits include:  

Key employee tools

Self-service access to information that answers common questions and improves understanding/use of employee benefits:

• View benefits (so employees know what's covered under their plan)
• Enroll/update benefits (so employees can make changes to their benefits and not have to go to their employer)
• Electronic notifications when claim response available (so employees know right away if the cost of a recent service was covered or if they have an outstanding payment)

Key employer tools

One-stop resource that can help ease benefits administration and reduce employer disruptions and paper clutter

• Management of ongoing employee changes (so employers can submit and track benefits changes employees frequently have)
• Manage billing activity (so employers can view bills, make payments and reference a history of payments)
• Download forms and plan materials

The Guardian Anytime portal was originally launched in 2007 as part of Guardian's customer service and technology overhaul.  

"Guardian has ranked very high in independent research studies due to our focus on customer service across the breadth of our employee benefits products, but we never want to grow complacent," added Andrea Csaszar, VP of Group Operations, Guardian. "In the same way getting one bill for multiple products or having one customer service phone number makes it easy on our customers, we decided to make an investment in overhauling our Web capabilities to make online benefits administration simple too. We always have to be in a position to deliver on the high expectations that brokers and clients have when they work with Guardian."

About Guardian

A mutual insurer founded in 1860, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America and its subsidiaries are committed to protecting individuals, business owners and their employees with life, long term care insurance, disability income, group medical and dental insurance products, and offer 401(k), annuities and other financial products. Guardian operates one of the largest dental networks in the United States, and protects more than six million employees and their families at 120,000 companies. The company has more than 5,400 employees in the United States and a network of over 3,000 financial representatives in more than 80 agencies nationwide.

For more information about Guardian, please visit: www.GuardianLife.com

SOURCE The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America