It’s a truism in business that you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Insurance carriers and restoration contractors alike need key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine whether to keep doing more of something when the numbers are good, or less of something when the numbers indicate a new course of action.
In a perfect world, everyone would use the same system or measurements to not only track performance, but also quality compliance. When compared to legal standards and industry regulations, do you have indicators to ensure you comply?
One important reason to know and use KPIs is that insurers use them to rate restoration companies and award work to those vendors that score well. Why? Because KPIs allow insurers to better track the efficiency of the work being performed. Also, they serve to help shorten the claim lifecycle and control claim costs.
If you’re wondering how you can get a bigger slice of the claims pie, you should start by looking at your KPIs. When choosing whom to award restoration jobs to, carriers are not only going to make a judgment call based on your reputation for getting work done on time and on budget—they are also going to look at your data. Will you be ready?
Each measure of performance should be laid out in the Service Level Agreement contract that is signed by the restoration company who does the job. This means the restorer needs to complete each particular service requirement within a predetermined time period. By having a time component tethered to most service requirements, insurers can use KPIs to measure performance and efficiency.
Not only is tracking and reporting on performance metrics part of a restoration business owner or manager’s job, but to truly succeed, it should be the responsibility of all members of the restoration company’s staff to know where they can improve the company’s performance. All staff should also be able to report on the status of their piece of the job, so that the owner can get a clear and accurate picture of any given job.
Efficiently managing KPIs
How will you efficiently measure KPIs? Not only do KPIs serve a cost and performance purposes, as mentioned above, but they are also a critical quality compliance measure. Additionally, whether your company completes the restoration job within the prescribed time frame or not can determine how fast your payment is processed.
For example, you might be contacting the customer within the prescribed time frame, but are you also completing the required task within the allotted time frame? In most cases, this means very simply clicking a button, adding a note, or uploading files. Although this may seem pretty simple, it remains a challenge for some restoration companies.
Being compliant goes beyond just understanding how insurance carriers are measuring your restoration company’s performance. It’s about adhering and completing those requirements in real-time. Plus, without a reliable system for accurately tracking and reporting the completion of tasks, it can be challenging to manage KPIs efficiently.
The key to successfully using restoration KPIs is developing a clear workflow and process that your team can easily follow, the same way, every time. For example, the standard workflow for the typical process of a claim includes many distinct steps, such as:
- Contacting the client
- Arriving on site
- Taking and uploading initial loss photos
- Filling out and filing the preliminary 48-hour report
- Researching and providing estimates
However, just identifying and following this process is not enough. According to Property Casualty 360, it’s vital to ensure there’s a way to gather, track, and measure the data. This source further warns about the problems with using spreadsheets to manage important tasks, because data entry is labor-intensive, prone to human error, and difficult to migrate to different departments or aggregate for reporting purposes. Further, owners and managers are unable to truly analyze the information contained on separate spreadsheets.
Instead, restoration companies should consider using a cloud-based restoration management platform, which helps streamline and automate the management of KPI with cutting edge tools that help companies become top performers in their market. Knowing and improving your company’s data footprint will keep you ahead of the metrics driven by insurance carriers, while keeping your customers happy and bringing you more claims business.
Better KPIs equals more restoration jobs
As they say, it’s easier to fix something when you know where to look.
Based on a proven Six Sigma methodology, DASH’s Value Progression Adjusted Sigma Score—or VPASS—is a real-time compliance monitoring system. This dynamic and transparent method for measuring and quantifying the key performance indicators outlined in a service level agreement ensures restoration companies stay on schedule and complete each job with the highest quality.
With better data management, VPASS helps restoration companies track time-sensitive components of the job. Through DASH’s compliance manager and VPASS score, owners and managers can quickly see trouble areas in their companies, which in turn allows them to improve on these areas easily.
With a reliable compliance manager, it is easy to track the progress of each task, measuring and analyzing the KPIs along the way toward the job’s completion. This makes it easy for owners and managers to know which employees have completed which jobs and what additional duties need to be done, providing greater oversight and management over daily operations. By using the time component for each task, VPASS is similar to a credit score that uses past performance to predict future performance.
We recognize that some delays are unavoidable. VPASS allows for some exceptions to be made, which lets managers pivot and respond to the changes that arise during the ordinary course of operations. For instance, if a customer makes a particular request that throws off the scoring guidelines, and this is out of the service provider’s control, the final score will not be affected.
Stay on top of your “claim game” with DASH. Talk to a Next Gear Solutions Specialist today to learn how DASH helps restoration companies like yours increase capacity, improve customer service, reduce cycle times and errors, and ultimately increase profitability.
Want to learn more about KPIs for the restoration industry? Download What to Know in Order to Grow—The Seven KPIs Every Restoration Company Should Follow today!
Read More:
Blog: 5 Questions to Ask Before Buying Job Management Software
Blog: How to improve compliance with your restoration project
Blog: 7 Tips to Avoid Data Entry Errors in Your Restoration Business
White paper: What to Know in Order to Grow—The Seven KPIs Every Restoration Company Should Follow
