Measure quote turnaround without hiding unanswered submissions

A carrier can have a two-day median quote turnaround while several important submissions have waited for weeks. An average or median of completed responses tells only part of the story. The agency needs both completed-case timing and the age of open cases to discuss service reliability.

Define the data before the metric

One row represents: one valid carrier submission with its first meaningful response or current unresolved age.

Useful fields: Submission ID, carrier, line, submitted timestamp, completeness timestamp if used, response timestamp, response type, business-day calendar and observation cutoff.

State whether the clock begins at initial submission or when required information is complete. Decide whether business or calendar days answer the question. Calculate median and a tail measure among comparable completed cases. Show unanswered counts and age bands alongside them rather than substituting zero for missing response times.

Worked example

The following records and amounts are invented to show the method. They are not customer results, industry benchmarks or a forecast of Covirage performance.

The completed-case median is two days, based on A, B and C. Two of five cases remain unresolved at 12 and 18 days. Reporting only the median would present a much more favorable picture than the combined timing and open-age view.

Use the result in a review

1. Open material aged submissions and verify whether the delay is carrier response, missing information or a logging issue.
2. Compare timing within similar lines and complexity bands before ranking carriers or offices.
3. Use the tail and unresolved share when discussing workflow improvements instead of setting a target around the median alone.

Checks before publishing

• Reject negative or implausible durations and confirm timestamp timezones.
• Distinguish first acknowledgment from a meaningful quote or decline response.
• Keep the same clock-start and day-count definition across every comparison.

Where this analysis can mislead

Complex submissions may reasonably take longer, and fast responses do not prove suitable terms. Turnaround is a process measure that must be read with coverage requirements, response quality and case mix.

Explore this question with your own data

Bring a small, authorized sample to Covirage for insurance agencies and brokers. Use the sample to discuss the fields and views your business needs. A dashboard or AI analyst can help explore this question when the required data and definitions are available; missing records still need to be resolved.

Upload sample data to check its structure. Keep unnecessary personal, claims and policyholder details out of an initial sample. The sample check does not establish that every analysis in this guide is available automatically.

Related guides

• Attribute insurance referral sources to durable agency income
• Build a sector-specific cross-sell review population
• Commercial insurance broker KPIs

Reference context

These references provide terminology or governance background. The worked example and proposed review method above are original illustrations, not prescribed industry standards.

• Insurance data context
• Agency benchmarking context