The Insurance Perspectives Podcast involves contributors outside of HawkSoft. The participants' views are entirely their own and may not reflect the views of HawkSoft.
This recap of the Insurance Perspectives Podcast summarizes highlights of the two episodes about Ascend, where HawkSoft host Kenny Hendricks interviews Kailyn Despotakis of Ascend and Teresa Crane of Crane Insurance Group, which uses Ascend to streamline and automate their agency bill processes.
Kailyn and Teresa discuss the inherent difficulties of the agency bill process for independent agencies, and how technology can automate the process to offload hours of manual work for the agency.
In this article:
- Part 1: Ascend (Kailyn Despotakis)
- Part 2: Teresa Crane (Crane Insurance Group)
Part 1: Ascend (Kailyn Despotakis)
Watch the video podcast - Part 1
Question 1: Why does Ascend exist? What is your reason for participating in the independent agency channel?
- Kailyn Despotakis explains that Ascend is a comprehensive financial operations automation solution built specifically for insurance, which helps agencies simplify their agency bill processes with carrier payables and commissions.
- Kailyn observes that the insurance industry is notoriously behind on the technology curve, and billing and payments is a place where technology is especially lagging.
- Ascend’s mission is to simplify the payment process so that the agency doesn’t have to spend time and effort on it.
- The founders of Ascend started out working in an MGA. They saw the need in the independent agent space for tools to help agents collect payments from the insured, set up financial agreements, and track commission received from carriers and paid to agents.
“Our whole goal is to give agencies a very simple and seamless process when it comes to billing, collections, as well as accounting on the back end. What we're doing is helping agencies take the operational burden off of their plates when it comes to managing the back end of the carrier payables.”
Question 2: If you had to pick one aspect of Ascend that draws in and keeps agencies working with you, what would that be and why?
- Kailyn feels one of the biggest value propositions of Ascend is providing a single consolidated solution for managing all agency bill needs, so the agency doesn’t have to use several different tools for one process.
- Teresa Crane mentions that having one end-to-end system to manage digital payments from the insured as well as process payables for carriers and producers, has saved countless hours for the agency.
- Teresa stays with Ascend because of the quality of the people and the service they provide, and she feels their support is very responsive and helpful.
- Kailyn mentions that Ascend is also expanding its offerings for MGAs and wholesalers, as well as providing some options for direct bill.
“One of the main value propositions that we bring to agencies is the holistic approach to agency bill. In their current state, agencies are utilizing a lot of different vendors to handle those different functions of the agency bill process. What we're doing at Ascend is offering a consolidated solution.”
Question 3: How does Ascend approach data ownership with regard to your customers?
- Kailyn discusses the high level of digital security that Ascend offers for insured payment info, compared to other methods such as receiving credit card info over the phone or email.
- Ascend also makes as much data visible to the agency as possible, such as emails that have been sent and the statuses of payments, so that agencies can make business decisions using their data.
- Teresa confirms that prior to Ascend, she felt trepidation about storing client payment info, and that she feels much more confident to have it go through Ascend’s secure system.
“Everything that Ascend collects when it comes to payments that have been made from insureds, if someone comes into overdue status, amount of emails we've sent to them, is all stored within the Ascend system and agencies have 24/7 access to anything that they want to see from us.”
Question 4: What is the hardest part of working with insurance agencies?
- Kailyn feels that simply handling the change management aspect of moving to a new system and process for accounting and payments is usually the most difficult part for agencies getting started with Ascend.
- Teresa agrees that the initial reaction to a new system can often be negative from staff, but that she tries to lead with what the end result will look like so that her staff understands the benefit from the start.
- Teresa also appreciates it when a vendor understands that change will be difficult for the agency and is willing to help them through the process.
“Bringing on any new vendor or making updates or changes to operational processes that in some instances have been in place for decades, it's very difficult to get everyone on the team on board and help them understand that short term, this might be a bit of a headache, but in the end this is going to solve so many issues for you.”
Question 5: What is the best part of working with insurance agencies?
- Kailyn loves the relationships Ascend is able to build with their clients, and likes that independent agents have that same focus on relationships with their insureds.
- She also appreciates how open and willing independent agents are to share knowledge and help each other, rather than treating each other like competitors.
- She loves being part of something that creates solutions. She enjoys seeing the evolution from an agency sharing a problem with Ascend, to Ascend being able to make an enhancement that solves the problem.
- Kenny mentions that he appreciates how willing Ascend was to build a solution that worked with HawkSoft before any other provider in the space.
“The most fulfilling part of this job to me is being able to be a part of creating solutions for our agency partners and feeling more of an extension of the team, as opposed to just another vendor that's helping them run their business.”
Question 6: How does Ascend work with the HawkSoft management system?
- Teresa explains that Ascend integrates with HawkSoft to flood client data so she doesn’t have to re-enter it.
- She also appreciates that Ascend has taken her suggestions and implemented features to help make her processes more efficient.
Part 2: Crane Insurance Group (Teresa Crane)
Watch the video podcast - Part 2
In this episode:
Question 1: Tell us about your agency. How long have you been in the business, and how did you get into the business? Do you have any specializations? What gets you excited about insurance?
- Teresa Crane owns Crane Insurance Group with her husband, and oversees accounting at the agency.
- The agency was started by Teresa’s father in 1974. She started at the agency over 20 years ago, and took over when he retired.
- Teresa’s father was very tech-forward with the agency in his time, and Teresa and her husband have carried that legacy forward as they’ve managed the agency.
- The agency has an office in Pennsylvania, four in New York, and one in Portland.
- The agency has a mixed book but is 60-65% commercial lines and has been focusing recently on bringing on more commercial business. They focus on contractors, real estate, auto services, and small retail businesses.
“My dad was very tech-forward for the time. There were software companies that he started using that had just started coming into the insurance industry. So I inherited that desire for tech, and my husband, who runs the company with us. Anything that's out there, we want to know about it.”
Question 2: What was your agency looking for when you first encountered Ascend?
- Teresa shares that agency bill was extremely time consuming for the agency, and was taking up almost all of one staff member’s time, when she was needed in other parts of the business as well.
- There are a lot of steps to the agency bill process, so it takes a lot of time to manage and follow up on each part of the process.
- Teresa heard about Ascend at a conference, and loved their premise of making agency bill as easy for the agency as direct bill.
- Kailyn Despotakis adds that many agencies have at least one employee dedicated to agency bill, if not several, and it’s a huge benefit to able to free up their time for more productive activities.
“We were having issues with our agency billing. We have someone who does it, and it was just so time consuming that it was almost her full-time job. It’s constant and it took a lot of hours in the day. Ascend’s pitch is making agency bill as easy as direct bill, and that was music to our ears.”
Question 3: What is your agency able to do now with Ascend that you couldn't do before?
- Teresa says Ascend handles the entire agency bill process, including agency bill and premium finance. Before, the agency had to complete every step of the process manually, but now it’s handled in an automated fashion with Ascend.
- Teresa notes that the entire process is much shorter now that they use Ascend, and that her clients also like having a way to pay conveniently online.
“Before Ascend, we would send the finance agreement, wait for the signature to come back. Now send this to the client. Now send this to the company. Now we no longer have to do all that, so that in itself is hours saved. I no longer have to call the client. They get the invoice and click the button and they’re good to go.”
Question 4: What is one thing that you would change about Ascend if you could?
- Teresa mentions that any feedback she has, she’s already given to Ascend. They have already implemented several things she’s requested, and are actively working on others.
- Her only suggestion is for Ascend to do more to notify users about new features and enhancements, as she sometimes doesn't realize new features are available.
- Kenny shares how hard it can be on the software provider’s side to keep users informed of all the updates that happen, and to understand which ones are the most impactful to share. HawkSoft releases dozens of items each week, and is striving to find the balance between overwhelming users with information and keeping them informed.
- Kenny mentions that HawkSoft now has invoice and receipt APIs available, and is excited for the potential this has to bring further integration with Ascend in the future.
“With notifications about new features and upgrades, sometimes there are little things that I didn't know we could do. Like the split payment feature they just added, we didn't realize it was there.”
Question 5: How would you describe the value that Ascend brings to your agency?
- Teresa says Ascend has provided huge time savings by taking away the manual work of sending invoices and payment reminders, and notifying the agency quickly if there are any issues.
- Teresa also values the relationship they have with Ascend and their team.
- Ascend has freed up time for the agency’s staff, as well as making the experience easy and convenient for their clients.
“The time savings are priceless. Ascend is indispensable in our toolkit. Our clients value its simplicity, and our agency has freed up precious time to focus on other aspects of the business. We're very grateful.”
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