Active Insurance Solutions Thriving Thanks to "Immediate Impact" of Real-Time Data Visualization

Company Background

Active Insurance Solutions is an independent insurance agency based near Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA). The agency specializes in personal insurance such as auto and homeowner insurance, but also offers commercial insurance solutions. Active currently provides insurance solutions to more than 1,300 American households.

Challenge: A data visualization solution to bring out the best

Every insurance company is dealing with a whole host of data points on a daily basis. To name just a few, there are new business premiums, retention rates, customer service metrics, all of which update numerous times a day.

For Active Insurance, the situation is no different. The Minnesota-based firm sought to visualize their insurance data to obtain a complete overview of team metrics, in the hope of reaching new heights with employee productivity, motivation and performance.

To gain a better understanding of how Active is using Plecto, we spoke to Ben Feldman, Agent and Partner at Active, who was responsible for implementing and building the firm's Plecto dashboards.

Solution: Why Plecto?

The insurance industry is awash with tech solutions that are tailor-made for insurance companies. So what stood out to Active about Plecto?

“Plecto enabled us to create monthly KPIs tied to our existing workflow and software solutions, and then display them in a way that is motivating and engaging for the entire agency team," Ben says.

Also crucial to Active’s decision to adopt Plecto is the fact that it allows data to be displayed in real time and updates instantly. Below, we'll take a quick dive into the main ways Active is using Plecto to optimize performance.

Dashboards tailored to the insurance industry

Plecto is a fully customizable platform, so Active made use of Plecto’s custom formulas feature to create dashboards that are best suited to the business and its employees. Plecto is designed to be used by anyone, whether you have a tech background or not, so Ben was able to create Active’s dashboards himself.

Here are some of the main KPIs that Active uses to measure the company’s performance:

• New Business Premium
• New Business Production by Producer
• Premium Retention Percentage (both year to date and current month)
• Cancellation Reason (both year to date and current month)
• Referral Sources
• Percentage Calls Answered
• Google Review Count and Rating

These KPIs can be further adjusted as Active’s circumstances change, and the targets they outline can be adapted to meet each user's experiecne.

Active also utilizes the available Plecto Integrations (Google Sheets) and Zapier (Agency Zoom, Ring Central, Google Reviews) to connect their agency data in real time to their dashboards.

Monthly incentive program to drive motivation

Along with creating a primary dashboard, Active Insurance has developed a secondary dashboard focusing on some of the main targets that employees are expected to hit each month. This has become known as their Monthly Incentive Program.

There's a countdown with how much time there is left to hit the given target, along with some widgets containing the key KPIs of New Business Premium, Premium Retention, Call Answer Percentage, and Google Review ratings and scores.

The widgets turn green when the targets have been hit, and notifications are sent to employees when certain milestones are reached. For instance, when a new policy has been sold or a new Google Review has been submitted, the whole team is notified and a customizable sound plays on the TV in the office.

"Each month, if we hit, two, three, or four of these goals, the team gets a financial incentive," Ben says. "We adjust our target figures for each metric monthly based on historical performance and results from the last month, ensuring the targets are reachable but challenging at the same time."

Ben also says that while having incentives themselves is a key driver in motivation, it’s just as important for employees to be able to keep tabs on their progress.

"If you are going to have incentives, it’s important that employees can track their progress in real-time and it is visible by their peers. Before Plecto, there was far less visibility and wins were not celebrated by the team nearly as frequently."

Results

Increase in productivity and motivation

Although it’s still early days in Active’s Plecto journey, Ben notes how there has been an “immediate" and "absolute" impact among the team.

“Plecto has absolutely impacted the team," he says. "The team’s just talking about it, talking about our goals, whether we are going to get the incentive this month, and we’ve never had that before. When the agency has a great month, our employees are rewarded in real time.”

This is particularly relevant for the insurance industry, where employees are expected to work hard, reach their targets and constantly attract and retain customers in a highly competitive industry. "It’s a day in, day out grind in the insurance industry, and being able to see the outcome of your hard work on a daily basis is important," Ben says.

So while insurance employees are accustomed to working with KPIs and targets, giving employees the ability to see their progress keeps them motivated and productive and recognizes their performance.

Better oversight and tracking of KPIs in real time

Before using Plecto, Active found it hard to visualize and get a full overview of their numbers. Despite this, there is a big emphasis on working collectively towards company targets.

Therefore, introducing big screens in the office has proved a natural next step. By visualizing data on big screens, all colleagues are able to keep track of the team's progress. "Having distribution of these numbers in real time is really helpful," Ben says.

Overall, Ben describes how Plecto is essential for making sense of your company’s data. “In a way," he says, "Plecto takes away the fog of your day-to-day execution by putting some numbers and visuals behind it, so that people can see what we’re working toward.”

Bring your KPIs to life with Plecto

Ready to maximize employee engagement, monitor data in real time, and obtain firsthand insights on your KPIs?

Book a personalized demo, and start boosting your sales team's efficiency today.

Here are your quick links to the resources of Active Insurance Solutions' winning formula:

Real-Time Insurance Dashboards | Plecto

Start skyrocketing your sales team's performance | Plecto

*Disclaimer:
We are committed to data privacy. All dashboard images in this blog post have been provided by our customer, Active Insurance Solutions. Data has been changed for security. Plecto does not access customer dashboards without written consent.