2022 was a banner year. Spark grew our agent partners 7x (from 190 to 1,300) and Medicare enrollments 10x (from 2k to 20k in the last twelve months), serving 50k+ Medicare beneficiaries along the way. And most importantly, our agent partners grew right alongside us.

As part of our ongoing effort to improve our service and products, we collected feedback from our agents on their experience with Spark and are excited to share the results below. Before we jump in, thank you to everyone who contributed to our annual agent satisfaction survey!

Overall agent satisfaction: 77 Agent NPS

One of the key indicators we use to track agent satisfaction is Net Promoter Score (NPS), a widely used metric based on the question “How likely are you to recommend Spark to another agent?” Agents select a score between 0-10, which is calculated into an overall score. 

84% of our agents rated Spark a 9 or 10 out of 10! Our overall score of 77 compares to an insurance industry average of 37. 

What made agents more or less likely to rate us highly? In short, the level of interaction they had with Spark. Lower scores of 3 - 5 were generated by agents who have had no or limited interaction with Spark’s services, such as our platform or weekly trainings. One important learning is that the onboarding process is critical to capturing agent attention, so you’ll see us focus more on that in the next year. 

‍Performance vs. other  FMOs: 87% say Spark has been a better business partner

Spark supports both new agents, and existing agents who want to find a new FMO partner to help them grow their business. Of those who moved to Spark from another FMO, 87% say that Spark has been a better business partner. Our promise to our partners is to do exactly that, and we’re excited to see that we’re making good on our promise.

Our top 3 product features: CRM, integrated quote & enroll, and prospect forms

Spark agents use Spark’s proprietary software platform to run their business. We asked which features they used the most and why:

1. Spark CRM

• Agents consolidate all of their workflows and efficiently manage their book of business with digital needs assessments, scope of appointments, prospect forms, and Medicare-specific fields for policies, low-income subsidies, and health data. 

“Spark has an excellent all-in-one platform to allow our agents to grow their business exponentially.”

2. Spark Quote & Enroll

• Our integrated CRM and quote & enroll software reduces double entry and enables agents to collect health information and send a quote in less than a handful of clicks. 

“The Spark Platform and Sunfire quoting tool has freed up more time to understand clients’ needs and confidently enroll them in the plan that meets their needs.”

3. Sources tools

• Agents easily track marketing campaigns with QR codes and digital permission-to-contact forms to report on their performance to referral partners and evaluate which marketing initiatives to pursue .

“The automation of various pieces of our business practices has been absolutely wonderful!”

We have a number of other features on our platform, such as client support requests, provider search, admin hub for the back office, dashboard reporting, and activity timelines, but the data shows which features are most impactful and where we’ll be investing over the next year.

‍

‍

‍Our Success Team: 90% of agents say they are fully trained

Our Success team does exactly what their name implies. The team runs Medicare, marketing and software trainings, creates marketing materials, walks through the Spark platform, and shares the most relevant updates with agents. Each agent requires something different to succeed, and our team takes a personal approach alongside our local market Strategic Growth Managers. 

Our agents said the following services were most impactful this AEP:

1. Book of business upload

• When you join Spark, our team will take all of your contacts lists, clean and consolidate them, before uploading to your Spark account. You’ll know exactly how old your book, your carrier mix, and your performance year-to-year. Once your books is uploaded, you can turn on our automated white-labeled client retention program to proactively engage your clients during AEP.

“I appreciate that if I send new member information your staff will input it for me. I am doing it myself this year and making changes I've collected, but it is very helpful and time saving.”

2. Spark Platform training

• Our team runs weekly training sessions focused on how you can generate new business and save time through our automated workflows.

"The responsiveness and trainings have been great. One of my customers who is in a networking group was telling the group what a good job I did, and I talked about the extra level of support that I have with Spark.”

3. Quote & Enroll support

• AEP is stressful - with Agent Success you get dedicated support partners to help you resolve any enrollment, contracting and commission issues.  

“The overall timely and thorough responsiveness of all the team members has been fabulous. It is greatly appreciated!”

‍

‍

While we love to celebrate the wins and hear how impactful Spark has been, we care more about how we can continue to improve and support our agents. What are agents asking for? Keep reading.

‍Top requested capabilities: To-Do Lists, Social Media Assets, Field Training 

We asked agents what they want added to our Platform and more from Agent Success. Here’s what they said:

1. To-do lists and other CRM features: we love that agents are running their business from our CRM. Agents asked for more ways for them to track their daily tasks, such as through to-do lists or calendar integration. We’ll be exploring how to integrate these requests into our CRM.
2. Social media assets: agents want to post on social media and share professional marketing assets with their local partners. We’re excited to announce the launch of a new marketing platform that will give agents customize-able assets already tailored to their brand. Coming to you this March!
3. More, and then even more training: agents want to learn about… everything. There’s too much to cover in even a week of training sessions, but agents will see more training series and video libraries so they can return to anything they missed.

As we’re nearly two months into 2023, we’re already working hard to build what agents are asking for – and what they didn’t even know to ask for! If you’re interested in partnering with Spark, please send us an email at agents@sparkadvisors.com and share how we can help. And if you’re already a Spark agent and want to request a new feature or service, you know where to find us!