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 Canopy Connect, where HawkSoft host Kenny Hendricks interviews Ray Huang of Canopy Connect and Nicole Johns of The Johns Family Agency, which uses Canopy Connect's insurance data intake platform to collect insurance information from prospects.
Nicole and Ray discuss the difficulties of collecting the pertinent information from clients to begin the quoting process, as well of the benefits of automating the transfer of this data directly from the prospect's carriers.
In this article:
- Part 1: Canopy Connect (Ray Huang)
- Part 2: The Johns Family Agency (Nicole Johns)
Part 1: Canopy Connect (Ray Huang)
Watch the video podcast - Part 1
Question 1: Why does Canopy Connect exist? What is your reason for participating in the independent agency channel?
- Ray Huang shares that Canopy Connect is an insurance data intake platform that does the work of collecting insurance information from prospects so they don’t have to enter it again.
- The prospect simply selects their carrier and signs in, and Canopy Connect shares the policy data from the carrier to a dashboard for the agency. This makes it easy for the agent to rate and provide quotes without doing a lot of data entry.
- Canopy Connect’s goal is to remove friction and frustration from insurance processes. Ray discusses the inception for the product, which was when the founder had a conversation with an insurance agent who described how arduous it was to get a dec page from a client – so much so that the agent had to go to their house to assist them.
- Ray likens Canopy Connect to products in other industries like PayPal, which allow you to log into an account (e.g. your bank account) to use it in other places.
- Nicole Johns agrees that prospects often don’t even know what a dec page is, so it can be time intensive to get that information from them.
- She also appreciates that Canopy Connect does everything digitally, so clients don’t have to bring physical dec pages to the office.
“All you have to do is send a link over to your prospects, have them find their carrier, sign in, and you get all their information shared with you in a matter of seconds: policy information, drivers, claims history, dec pages, renewal docs. You can quickly send it over to HawkSoft or to your rater and get quotes generated without having to do a bunch of double entry.”
Question 2: If you had to pick one aspect of Canopy Connect that draws in and keeps agencies working with you, what would that be and why?
- Ray explains that being trustworthy is one of the company’s core values, and he believes that customers come to them and stay with them because they appreciate that Canopy Connect wants to operate ethically and empower their clients.
- Many competitors in Canopy Connect’s space have come and gone because they didn’t have a clear value proposition for agents.
- Nicole observes that agents have to build a similar relationship of trust with their clients, and that trust must be given from both parties, not just one. She says clients can sometimes be hesitant to share their current policies or dec pages, which makes it difficult for the agency to advise them.
“To be worthy of trust is one of our company's core values, and that's something that permeates what we do. How much of an advisor can you be if you don't have the right information? That's why our product has been sticky, because we enable that level of trust.”
Question 3: How does Canopy Connect approach data ownership with regard to your customers?
- Ray shares that their view on data is tied to the company’s emphasis on trust. Canopy Connect does not sell customer data. They consider Canopy Connect a conduit for transferring data, but does not view themselves as the owner of that data.
- Ray discusses the move in many sectors, including finance, to give the consumer more control over their data and the parties they share it with, and feels Canopy Connect is ahead of the curve for when this will impact the insurance industry too.
- Ray shares the vision Canopy Connect has for the future, where an insured could choose to share their data in Canopy Connect with other parties aside from their agent, such as a mortgage broker.
- Kenny Hendricks asks Nicole whether her clients ever have questions or concerns about security when using Canopy Connect, and she says they tell clients up front that it’s a secure site and that their passwords aren’t being shared with the agency or anyone else. She feels most clients don’t have further questions or concerns.
“We don't sell customer data. The agency wants to get information from the insured and we're just a conduit to enable that to happen. We keep the data secure throughout that process, but we don't touch it. We don't sell it. The consumer should own the data and they should be able to do what they want with the data.”
Question 4: What is the hardest part of working with insurance agencies?
- Ray feels many agencies are still very fearful or hesitant to try new technology and adjust their processes, even if would lead to significant savings for them.
- Agents sometimes balk at the upfront cost of a new technology, rather than recognizing that it will pay for itself by helping them get more business and service policies faster.
- Nicole adds that agents have an overwhelming number of technology options available, and it can be hard to know which ones to trust and where to spend their limited budget.
- She observes that using a digital tool like Canopy Connect might make her lose a few clients who are less tech savvy, but it also helps the agency self-select clients that will be a good fit for their digitally inclined agency.
“I hear ‘what if it doesn’t work?’ a lot. ‘What if people don’t fill out the link?’ And maybe they should be thinking more like, ‘what if it does work?’ What is that going to enable or unlock for your agency?”
Question 5: What is the best part of working with insurance agencies?
- Ray loves seeing the enthusiasm of agents when Canopy Connect helps make a positive impact on their business.
- Many agents aren’t even aware that solutions like Canopy Connect exist, and Ray enjoys seeing their excitement about the possibilities it opens up for them.
“I love hearing the positive outcomes and stories from our insurance agents, the level of enthusiasm that comes through when people tell me that this is game changing or this has shifted the perspective in how we operate our business.”
Question 6: How does Canopy Connect work with the HawkSoft management system?
- Ray mentions that Canopy Connect now offers more integration with HawkSoft. Once the prospect information is in Canopy Connect, the agent can click a button to import a file into HawkSoft that will map their policy data into the correct fields in HawkSoft so they don’t have to do duplicate data entry.
Part 2: The Johns Family Agency (Nicole Johns)
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?
- Kenny Hendricks introduces Nicole Johns as the owner of the Johns Family Agency in Dobbs Ferry, New York. She's been running the agency for 12 years, and the agency has been with HawkSoft for a year.
- Nicole shares she started the agency from scratch with no insurance experience and a single appointment from a regional carrier.
- One of the incidents that helped Nicole decide to become an agent was a negative experience with her own insurance agent, where she was forced to go into the office to sign physical paperwork while she was a new mother with a newborn baby. She knew she could offer a better experience for clients.
- The agency is about 75% personal lines, with some commercial accounts as well. They work with a lot of first-time home buyers.
- Nicole enjoys being to help people in their time of need, and change people’s perspective on insurance.
“When something happens and you're able to make a couple of phone calls and immediately get them in a hotel, get them a check for a couple thousand dollars to get started, it's a really good feeling in a time of crisis and uncertainty.”
Question 2: What was your agency looking for when you first encountered Canopy Connect?
- Nicole discovered Canopy Connect by seeing their link in the signature line of another agent colleague she was emailing. She asked about it, and they told her about Canopy Connect. She signed up right away when she saw how it worked.
- Kenny, Ray, and Nicole discuss how word of mouth referrals are the most powerful and likeliest to become customers, because agents trust other agents who have seen real success with a solution.
“Sometimes you have to solve a problem you don't know you have. That's what we do in insurance, right? I saw Canopy Connect and thought, this is going to really make it easier for us to get better information so that we can do our job better.”
Question 3: What is your agency able to do now with Canopy Connect that you couldn't do before?
- Nicole compares getting policy information from prospects to fishing in the dark. The information is vital in order to provide an accurate quote, but it’s difficult to get the right information from prospects. Prospects will often read off information to the agent, or take a low-quality picture of paperwork.
- Canopy Connect helps the agent get that information quickly and instantaneously, without a lot of data entry.
- Nicole reiterates that Canopy Connect is a good qualifier for her prospects. If a prospect isn’t willing or able to use it to share their data, she knows they won’t be a good fit for her digital-forward agency. This helps them to only do quotes for customers that are serious and will be more likely to close.
“Every day in the agency, there is friction on every end. We're dealing with the same situations with our carriers, our underwriters, our clients. So however we can do things better and easier, grease the wheels and make it smooth, it's really helpful.”
Question 4: What is one thing that you would change about Canopy Connect if you could?
- Nicole is extremely happy with Canopy Connect, and feels they continue to proactively improve the system to keep pace with changes in technology and the industry.
- Kenny asks if there are any wishlist items Canopy Connect has for the future, and Ray mentions that they would like to look at additional data entry methods aside from carrier sign-in, such as uploading a picture of a dec page or driver’s license, for those who may not have access to their carrier logins.
- Kenny, Ray, and Nicole discuss the balance of making the transfer of information easy and discrete, especially for information a prospect might feel is personal or private, without removing the personal relationship that the independent agent offers.
“It's difficult because you want to marry the local relationship-based agency with technology. We still do want to have a conversation. You just enter everything in online so we can be more informed and advise you better when we have that conversation.”
Question 5: How would you describe the value that Canopy Connect brings to your agency?
- Nicole says Canopy Connect has made collecting info from prospects much faster and easier. The agency is now able to have a VA do all the prospect intake and have all policy info prepared before an agent quotes the policy.
- She mentions that being able to collect information digitally is essential in today’s landscape, and is expected by most customers.
“It [Canopy Connect] makes our process so much easier. It allowed me to hire a VA to do the full intake, have the conversation, make sure that we have full policy decs and full driver information and a completed file before we're even moving it to the next stage of our process, which is having it quoted by someone else.”
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