Active Insurance Solutions thriving thanks to the "immediate impact" of real-time data visualization

Company Background

Active Insurance Solutions is an independent insurance agency based in Minnesota, USA. The agency specializes in personal insurance such as auto and homeowner insurance, but also offers commercial insurance solutions. Active is currently providing insurance solutions to more than 1,300 households across the US.

The Challenge

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 a solution where they were able to start visualizing their insurance data to get 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 and responsible for implementing and building their Plecto dashboards.

The Solution: Why Plecto?

The insurance industry is awash with tech solutions that are tailor-made for insurance companies. So, we had to start by posing the question, why Plecto?

For Active, it was an easy decision. Ben says “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 total agency team.” Also crucial to Active’s decision to go with Plecto was the fact that data is displayed in real-time and updates instantly.

Below, we 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, meaning that Ben was able to create Active’s dashboards himself.

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

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

Active Insurance Agency Dashboard.
Data in images has been changed to protect sensitive information.

Because Plecto is fully customizable, these KPIs can be adjusted as Active’s circumstances change. When it comes to KPIs, you can customize the target to meet each user’s experience. Active uses 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 the main dashboard, Active Insurance has developed a second 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 is a countdown with how much time there is left to hit the target along with some widgets containing the key KPIs of New Business Premium, Premium Retention, Call Answer % and Google Review ratings and scores.

Active Insurance Monthly Incentive Dashboard.
Data in images has been changed to protect sensitive information.

The widgets turn green when the targets have been hit and notifications have also been set up 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.

Ben describes how 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, stating that “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.

Active Insurance Monthly Incentive Dashboard displayed in office

What have the results been?

✅ Increase in productivity and motivation

Although it’s still early days in Active’s Plecto journey, Ben notes how there has been an “immediate impact” amongst the team. While motivation was not previously an issue, Ben recalls how “It’s absolutely impacted the team. 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. So, while insurance employees are accustomed to working with KPIs and targets, giving employees the ability to see their progress keeps them motivated, productive and recognizes their performance.

Active Insurance Account Manager Dashboard.
Data in images has been changed to protect sensitive information.

✅ 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 on big screens, all colleagues are able to keep track of the progress the team is making.

Overall, Ben describes how Plecto is essential for making sense of your company’s data. “In a way”, says Ben, 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 towards.”

The Next Steps

By visualizing its data with Plecto, Active ensures that the insurance firm is able to get a complete overview of its data. In the future, Ben tells us how he plans on expanding on the dashboards he has built to include more gamification features, such as achievements.

In the insurance industry and want to replicate Active’s success? You can get started today by signing up for a free 14-day trial, where you can start discovering the benefits of data visualization.

*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.