Setting up the CRMDAY One Open Enrollment Orchestrator: a step-by-step playbook for 2027

Most agencies prepare for Open Enrollment by preparing lists. The CRMDAY One Open Enrollment Orchestrator asks for something different: a campaign. The portfolio is activated in batches, every household moves through visible stages, and each card carries an owner, a status and a next action. When that structure is in place before November 1, the season becomes a matter of execution rather than improvisation.

This playbook describes the setup in the order we recommend. It assumes you already use CRMDAY One, or that you're in a trial and want to see what a prepared season looks like.

1. 6-8 weeks before

   Clean the book and confirm ownership

2. 4-6 weeks before

   Design batches and sequences

3. 2-4 weeks before

   Prepare forms, quotes and team capacity

4. Nov 1, 2026

   Activate the first batches

5. Dec 15, 2026

   Last day to enroll for January 1 coverage

6. Jan 15, 2027

   Open Enrollment closes on HealthCare.gov

Step 1 · Clean the book before you orchestrate it

An orchestrator amplifies whatever data it receives. If households are duplicated or policies are missing, the campaign will contact the wrong people, twice. Before touching the orchestrator:

• Bring enrollment data up to date. If you enroll through HealthSherpa, load the latest file, preview the changes and confirm. Clients, policies and household members are created or updated, manual corrections are preserved and ambiguous records go to a review queue.
• Empty the review queue. Every unresolved record is a household that may be missed or contacted incorrectly.
• Confirm contact data and preferred channel. Phone, email and the channel each client actually answers on.
• Check consent. Make sure the documentation you need for communication and for any application work is on the client record.

Unsure how enrollment data should flow into CRMDAY One? See the HealthSherpa integration →

Step 2 · Make ownership explicit

Every household that enters the orchestrator needs a visible owner. In most agencies, ownership is implicit: the producer who sold the policy. That breaks when producers left, when books were inherited or when a household has policies sold by two people. Resolve it before the season, not on November 3.

Step 3 · Design batches, not one giant list

The orchestrator activates the portfolio in batches. Batching is where strategy enters. A good batch groups households that need the same conversation, so the sequence and the agent's preparation fit all of them. For 2027, useful batches look like this:

Batch A, B and C are the ones where waiting costs the most. Starting them in the first week gives the team time before December 15 for clients who need to compare, collect documents or decide.

Need the policy background behind these batches? Read: Open Enrollment 2027 dates and changes →

Step 4 · Build multichannel sequences

Each batch gets a sequence of touches that follows the client's preferred channel. With Voice + SMS enabled, calls and texts land on the same client timeline as WhatsApp and Instagram messages, so the owner sees every reply in context. A sequence for Batch B might look like this:

1. 01Day 0. Message on the preferred channel: premiums are changing, we'll review options with you, please confirm your income and household.
2. 02Day 2. Reminder with the confirmation request if there's no reply.
3. 03Day 4. Call attempt by the owner, with a task created automatically.
4. 04Day 7. Final message offering a time slot, then the card is flagged for manager review.

Keep messages short and specific. Clients respond to a clear request (confirm your income) far better than to a general announcement (Open Enrollment is here).

Step 5 · Prepare forms and quoting before the rush

Two things slow renewals down more than anything else: documents and quotes. Prepare both in advance.

• Forms. Review your consent and Self-Employment templates in the signed forms library. Prefilled forms sent through single-use links are signed faster and the signed PDF with its audit trail stays on the record.
• Quotes. Practice the Healthcare.gov quote workspace with the team on a few sample clients. Launching the quote from the profile and returning the selected plan to the policy workflow should be second nature by November.
• Exceptions. Agree on what counts as an exception (a household with an open verification request, for example) and who handles it.

See why quoting inside the client record matters more this season. Read: embedded ACA quoting in the CRM workflow →

Step 6 · Plan team capacity

A campaign is only as fast as the people working it. Before activating, estimate how many cards each owner will carry per batch and compare that with the hours available in November and early December. If the math doesn't close, you have three options: stagger batch starts, move stable renewals (Batch D) to service agents, or use Aria to collect confirmations and answer routine questions, with a human handoff whenever judgment is needed.

Step 7 · Run the season from the Kanban

Once batches are active, the Kanban becomes the team's shared picture. Each household moves through the same five stages:

Managers should review the board daily in the first two weeks and at least twice a week afterwards, focusing on cards that haven't moved. Dashboards show pending work by owner, which makes rebalancing a quick decision instead of a meeting.

Step 8 · Close the loop in January

When the window closes on January 15, the orchestrator has produced something most agencies never have: a record of every household, what was confirmed, what was quoted, who acted and when. Use it. Look at which batches renewed fastest, which sequences drew replies and where cards stalled. That review is the first draft of next year's setup.