Key Insurance Unlocks Winning Strategies for Customer and Employee Satisfaction

Based in Overland Park, Kansas, Key Insurance, goes beyond offering auto coverage. The carrier is dedicated to protecting its customers, educating them on the claims process and restoring order to their lives. Central to this mission is clear and effective communication.

Recognizing its policyholders preferred text messaging to communicate, Key adopted a text solution integrated with its existing phone system. However, the tool quickly became frustrating. The system was clunky, limited in its capabilities and lacked necessary features.

For example, if adjusters hadn’t texted with a policyholder in a while, the conversation thread would disappear, losing all associated information. Consequently, texts from the policyholder would come through to the rep as just a phone number without identifying details or context.

“When we lost a text thread, it was embarrassing to say, ‘what’s your name?’ or ‘what’s your claim or policy number?’ and make the policyholder repeat basic information,” said Marie Alcocer, Claims Manager at Key Insurance. “These interactions negatively impacted the customer experience and overall efficiency.”

“We understood the importance of text messaging; it’s how people wanted to communicate,” said Joshua Stadler, Total Loss Manager at Key Insurance. “But, that’s the only thing we could do with the phone system— text back and forth. It wasn’t a long-term solution. We had to find something better for our business. And that’s when we found Hi Marley.”

Automation Increases Efficiency and Improves Customer Service

Hi Marley made an immediate impact for Key Insurance.

“With the phone system, we had to take a screenshot of every text conversation and manually upload it to the case file. If you forgot, you’d have to search for that text and hope you could find it to add it,” said Marie. “Hi Marley takes care of that step, automatically uploading conversation transcripts and related media files to the claim.”

She continued, “Now, adjusters have all relevant details in one place, so we always know who we’re texting and can keep the conversation flowing. That makes a huge difference; our customers feel that we know who they are and care about what they’re going through.”

“Hi Marley not only helps us provide great customer service but also makes our adjusters’ lives easier,” said Justin Atwell, Claims Team Manager at Key Insurance. “We didn’t need to beg or convince anyone to use Hi Marley—the second our adjusters began incorporating the platform into their daily activities, they experienced immediate benefits.”

He continued, “Hi Marley streamlines our workflows and increases our efficiency—it’s easier for our adjusters to receive photos, and they can communicate quickly without needing to pick up the phone. Also, a significant number of Key’s insureds speak Spanish, so the translation feature has been a game-changer.”

Surveys Capture Positive Feedback, Boosting Morale

Key Insurance also unlocked the value of using Hi Marley’s surveys to capture positive customer feedback.

“Adjusters naturally get feedback when something goes wrong, but we had no mechanism to capture feedback when something goes right,” said Justin. “But now, on Monday mornings, we circulate all our five-star survey responses from Hi Marley to start the week off on a high note.”

For example, some recent five-star responses include:

• “They took care of me when I needed them; it was great treatment and service.”
• “I appreciated everything—the service, the professionalism, the way they handled the situation.”
• “My adjuster was very kind, knowledgeable and made me feel at ease.”

“We’re proud of our survey results and our adjusters, and love highlighting their great work,” said Justin. “At the same time, adjusters want their name on the five-star survey list; it’s something they can feel good about—and it drives more usage of Hi Marley.”

Sharing the survey responses not only boosted employee engagement and satisfaction, it also increased the number of survey responses by 76 percent in just one month, with an average survey score of 4.3/5 stars.

Friendly Competition Drives Engagement and Adoption

As a smaller carrier, Key Insurance adheres to an in-office work philosophy conducive to a very engaging, fun and collaborative environment for its employees—and a great atmosphere to highlight outstanding work and for friendly competition.

For example, Key Insurance awards a WWE-style belt to an employee “champion” on the first Wednesday of every month. The award recognizes those who have exceeded various criteria, including Hi Marley metrics.

“We have this big, drawn-out, overly dramatic announcement of the new champion, and then the current champion has to relinquish the belt to the new winner,” said Marie. “Some people display the belt in their cubicles, or others wear it around the office. It has really helped get our adjusters engaged with our tools, including Hi Marley!”

To continue this momentum, Key Insurance is hosting a month-long “Hi Marley Challenge” that measures adjusters’ surveys, opt-in percentages and number of Hi Marley cases. Every week, Key Insurance’s Customer Success Manager, Jazz Singh, sends over a report, and Marie keeps a tally of the ongoing results on a scoreboard in the office. Every couple of days, the current top three adjusters get candy, cookies or another fun prize. At the end of the competition, the winner will receive Hi Marley swag and a crown.

“It’s so awesome to work with different carriers and help them develop creative ways to drive adoption of Hi Marley that work for their specific company culture and bring those ideas to life,” said Jazz Singh, Customer Success Manager at Hi Marley. “These fun and engaging competitions have been highly effective in boosting Hi Marley case creation for Key Insurance, with 70 percent of their claims in Hi Marley month-over-month.”

“Our adjusters get really into these competitions; when they see their colleagues winning prizes, they want to win, too!” said Marie. “We love working with Hi Marley. Jazz and the rest of the team are always helpful, always available and take time to ensure we can get the most out of the platform.”