The Critical Data Fields for Useful Reporting & Data Analysis

Data Analysis for Life and Health Insurance Agencies

A key component to running a profitable insurance agency is having access to data analysis that can help you continually stay ahead of your competition.

Data analysis is how businesses in any industry assess the overall health of their organization, remain proactive about possible pitfalls, and identify trends to help them plan for the future. 

The process of data analysis involves taking your largely unintelligible big data and visualizing it in a way that can be used for insight (smart data). 

One of the main ways to create smart data is through reporting, and you must have a system in place to create useful reports.

Data Analysis & Reporting in AgencyBloc

AgencyBloc’s health and life insurance-specific agency management system comes equipped with a few different data analysis tools:

• Dashboard Analytics. Dashboard Analytics are graphs, charts, and lists you can customize to show you the key data points you need. Each user can build their own Personal Dashboard that’s a spotlight on the specific information that pertains to their role. These quick snapshots look from 10,000 feet for overall data insights that give cause and direction in which to dig deeper.
• Standard Reporting. All AgencyBloc accounts come with Standard Reports that are pre-built with filters to find the data you need. These reports help you draw conclusions of what is happening within your book of business and how you may need to pivot/plan for the future.
• Custom Reporting. Similar to Standard Reports, Custom Reports give you a chance to build the exact reports you need with very specific data in the form of filters and columns. Where Standard Reports give you a great report of the information you need, Custom Reports can dig even deeper, allowing you to be as granular or as overarching as you wish. 

When building Custom Reports in AgencyBloc, you choose what the basis will be, the core data you're looking at, then build up from there. The Standard Reports are already built with this functionality, so you can easily select them and start your filtering process. For example, a report about adds and terms in a given timeframe would be a policy-based report because you're looking specifically at how many policies were added and lost. Whereas, a report identifying clients from a given lead source would be based on the individual.

The difference in using these types of reports versus building one out in a generic system or spreadsheets is ease of locating and pulling the right information. AgencyBloc’s fields are life and health insurance-specific, which makes data entry and organization significantly easier. This corresponds to simpler data analysis as the data is more intuitive to pull.

On the reporting side, Custom Reporting allows us to quickly pull insightful reports for any role. We’ve been able to save 1,000 hours in creating and generating reports resulting in nearly $30,000 of savings every year.”
— Jeannette T., Health Insurance Store

The Data You Need for Reporting and Data Analysis

Reporting on your book of business will only be as useful as the data you put into your management system. It’s the term GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). If your data isn’t uniform and consistent throughout your records, then your reports won’t be either. 

For example, let’s look at AgencyBloc’s Standard Individuals Report vs. an Individual’s client profile screen. 

Source | AgencyBloc

The client detail screen is on the left, and the report builder is on the right. You can see how information matches up, which fields are more important, and how it draws the information. 

This is crucial to note: not all fields are of equal importance in reporting.

When creating detail screens for your policies, individuals, groups, carriers, etc., you need to know what data you care about most and which is critical to your reporting needs. Determine what information you want to know to narrow down the information you must collect. 

In this example, for an individuals report, the essential information is:

• First and last name
• Date of birth
• Individual type (client, prospect, lead, x-client, etc.)
• Individual status (enrolled, quoted, deferred, not contacted, etc.)
• Servicing agent
• Location (state, zip code, area code, etc.)
• Lead information (especially important if you want to identify profitable lead sources, leads in a specific period, or all leads from a particular source)

Now, this doesn’t mean the other pieces of information like gender, social security, driver’s license number, etc. aren’t necessary. They are, and you need them. However, they don’t add to the reports you need. That information is not as valuable from a reporting standpoint. 

When filling out detail screens, note which data you need for the reports you desire, then ensure you have that data filled out. If you don’t have that data, then your profiles are incomplete and your reports will be equally incomplete. 

Remember, in reporting, the level of your reports equals the level and state of your data. Reporting is only pulling in data that applies and it only works off the data you have. This is why it’s crucial to maintain clean, consistent, and clear data. Because your data makes your reports. Your reports inform your decisions. And your decisions create your future. 

You want a profitable, goal-achieving future, so start at the first step: your data. 

Once you have your data cleaned up and ready to go, the next step is to have a system that can support in-depth data analysis. AgencyBloc’s industry-specific agency management system (AMS) gives you those deep insights you need—the ones that are crucial to your growth—and makes finding that information simpler. 

If your agency is looking for a better way to monitor your business and make more informed decisions, then it’s time to consider an industry-specific AMS like AgencyBloc. One of the best ways to know if we’ll be the right fit is to speak 1-on-1 with someone on our team.

Posted by Allison Babberl on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 in Reporting & Data Analysis

1. data management
2. productivity