Efficient data collection: Formstack & Catalyst Insurance podcast recap

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 HawkSoft partner Formstack, where HawkSoft host Kenny Hendricks interviews Zak Pines, Vice President of Partnerships at Formstack, and JC Wogomon of Catalyst Insurance Group, an agency who uses HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack Sign).

Zak and JC discuss how the e-signature solution helps Catalyst Insurance Group better serve their clientele and refine internal processes with automation, and explore Formstack's additional offerings for independent agencies.

In this article:

• Part 1: Formstack (Zak Pines)
  
  • What is Formstack's reason for participating in the independent agency channel?
  • What one aspect of Formstack draws agencies in and keeps them working with you?
  • How does Formstack  approach data ownership & security with regards to your customers?
  • What is the hardest part of working with insurance agencies?
  • What is the best part of working with insurance agencies?
  • How does Formstack  work with HawkSoft?

• Part 2: Catalyst Insurance Group (JCWogomon)
  • Tell us about your agency
  • What was your agency looking for when you first encountered Formstack?
  • What is your agency able to do now with HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack Sign) that you couldn't do before?
  • What is one thing you would change about Formstack Sign if you could?
  • How would you describe the value that Formstack Sign brings to your agency?

Part 1: Formstack (Zak Pines)

Watch the video podcast - Part 1

Question 1: Why does Formstack exist? What is your reason for participating in the independent agency channel?

• Zak Pines explains that Formstack was created to empower businesses to get their work done more quickly and efficiently, and enable them to be more responsive with customers.
  
  
• Formstack offers tools for data collection, document automation, and e-signature, and specializes in integrating with systems of record (such as HawkSoft agency management system).
  
  
• Kenny Hendricks reminds the audience that HawkSoft E-Signature is powered by Formstack Sign, Formstack’s e-signature tool.
  
  
• Zak talks about Formstack’s history as one of the first form builders that didn’t require users to do the coding themselves.
  
  

“Formstack allows insurance agencies to operate more effectively, save themselves time, deliver a better customer experience. We love delivering a product to customers that makes their lives easier and does so in a really practical way and works with great partners like HawkSoft.”

Question 2: If you had to pick one aspect of Formstack that draws in and keeps agencies working with you, what would that be and why?

• Zak mentions that Formstack’s seamless integration with other systems makes it stand out. Agents can use HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack) without leaving the HawkSoft system.
  
  
• Zak says Formstack’s text-to-sign feature, where users can sign forms via a text on their mobile device, is also a customer favorite due to its convenience and ability to get signatures faster.
  
  

“Everyone's mobile first these days. As an agent I'm able to directly send that document straight to your phone. That's a great experience for my customer, and that's a great experience for me as the agent to be able to get that taken care of so quickly and in such a modern fashion.”

Question 3: How does Formstack approach data ownership and data security with regards to your customers?

• Zak says that while Formstack products, such as forms, may be used to collect data, Formstack does not claim ownership of that data.
  
  
• Formstack users maintain total control over their data and how they collect client data with Formstack tools.
  
  

“The sole job of Formstack is to serve the customer’s use case: to collect information. The forms product is very empowering to a business to truly own their own data and control how that data is collected, and not being reliant on other companies to do that for you.”

 

Question 4: What is the hardest part of working with insurance agencies?

• Zak observes that because agents provide a personalized service to their clients, they often expect the same level of personal service from their technology providers, so it can be difficult to automate support or service.
  
  
• Kenny and Zak discuss how Formstack and HawkSoft have worked together in the past to come up with processes for supporting their mutual customers, and that this takes a level of effort and input from each side of the partnership.
  
  
• JC Wogomon adds that independent agencies all have different processes and points out that it can be difficult for any vendor to satisfy the needs of all agencies at once. However, he appreciates companies that take the feedback of their users into account, rather than simply doing what’s easiest for the company.
  
  

“It's difficult when you have tens of thousands of people out there throwing feedback at you. How do you start to coagulate it together so that we can find some common themes and solve them?”

Question 5: What is the best part of working with insurance agencies?

• Zak shares that he loves being able to help an agent be more effective at their job, and enjoys seeing “that moment of delight” when a product makes a task easier for an agent.
  
  

“The tangible business value is really great to observe, being able to help an agent be more effective and have that moment of delight. it's enjoyable to know it's happening at such a high volume of joint customers on a day-to-day basis.”

Question 6: How does Formstack work with the HawkSoft management system? 

• Zak speaks about the integration between HawkSoft and Formstack in HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack Sign), which allows the user to use templates to build forms from inside HawkSoft once they’re signed into Formstack.
  
  
• Users can set reminders for people who haven’t yet signed a form, and can easily store signed documents in the client’s file in HawkSoft once it’s signed.
  
  
• Kenny mentions that he personally uses FormStack Sign in his daily work, and can speak to how simple and seamless the integration with HawkSoft is.
  
  

“HawkSoft is what I like to consider the brain of the operations. It's the mothership where everything's stored. Any time we have an application or a document that we need a signature on, we simply upload that document to the proper policy. A right click bridges right over into Formstack. That’s it. It’s very, very seamless.”

Part 2: Catalyst Insurance Group (JC Wogomon)

Watch the video podcast - Part 2

Watch the video podcast - Part 2

In this episode:

• Tell us about your agency
• What was your agency looking for when you first encountered Formstack?
• What is your agency able to do now with HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack Sign) that you couldn't do before?
• What is one thing you would change about Formstack if you could?
• How would you describe the value that HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack Sign) brings to your agency?

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 introduces JC Wogoman, founder, owner, and agency principle of Catalyst Insurance Group in Greenwood, Indiana. JC has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, and the agency has been with HawkSoft since 2021.
  
  
• JC shares that he started out at a captive commercial agent. He eventually left the industry due to his dissatisfaction with being a captive agent, but 8 years later he started his own independent agency from scratch.
  
  
• JC's agency is passionate about serving the local community, and gives a portion of all profits back to the community in different ways.
  
  
• Catalyst focuses on personal lines and making insurance processes as easy as possible for their clients. The agency now has two producers and a virtual employee, in addition to JC.
  
  
• JC observes that the insurance industry is full of companies that do the bare minimum for their customers, and his intention at his agency is to stand out by going the extra mile to provide excellent service.
  
  

“Insurance is not fun. We try to make it stink a little less. We don't have to be leagues better than our competition. We just need to stand on our tippy toes and we're going to stand out like a sore thumb compared to our competitors. Our industry is very old, very stale. I saw opportunity there to really make a difference and to give people a better experience and try to make this thing easier for them.”

Question 2: What was your agency looking for when you first encountered Formstack?

• JC wanted to make the process of getting forms signed easier for both his agency and for the client. He was looking for a tool that was affordable, scalable, easy to use, and easy to set up and maintain on the agency side.
  
  
• After Catalyst moved over to HawkSoft agency management system in 2021, they decided to use HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack Sign) due to its features, close integration with HawkSoft, and affordability.
  
  

“When I'm looking at a technology partner, number one: is it affordable? Number two: is it scalable? Number three: is it easy to use? Is it going to be easy to set up internally, easy for our employees to use? And fourth: is it going to be easier for the customer?”

 

 

Question 3: What is your agency able to do now with HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack Sign) that you couldn't do before?

• JC notes how easy it is to send documents for signature from inside HawkSoft, as well as how simple it is to train new staff members on.
  
  
• From the start of Catalyst, JC wanted the agency to be entirely paperless, and  Formstack has helped them accomplish this goal.
  
  
• JC also appreciates that Formstack can be accessed from anywhere, so he can access it even when he isn’t at the office.
  
  
• Zak and Kenny discuss the costs and disadvantages of having paper files for an agency.
  
  

“I hate paper. I don't do paper and that means I don't do wet signatures. So I had to have an e-signature platform that was easy to use, that was scalable and affordable.”

Question 4: What is one thing that you would change about HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack Sign) if you could?

• JC mentions that he would love to be able to make the e-signature experience more branded for his agency.
  
  
• He’d also love to see an automated process for adding the form back into HawkSoft once it’s signed.
  
  
• Kenny and Zak agree that automating a document’s “round trip” back into HawkSoft is an item they’re aware of and plan to work on developing in the future.

“I've talked to a lot of tech CEOs in our industry and everybody's like, yeah, you all think it's so easy to just put a button on an app somewhere or a web page, but you have no idea the amount of programing that goes in behind that.”

Question 5: How would you describe the value that HawkSoft E-Signature (powered by Formstack Sign) brings to your agency?

• JC reiterates that the point of his agency is to make insurance a little bit easier for his clients, and Formstack is one of the tools that helps him accomplish this.
  
  
• He shares an experience of being able to send a document for signature from the poolside while he was on vacation, illustrating that an urgent document didn’t have to derail his time with his family.

“I’ve literally sat at the resort by the pool at Universal Studios with my laptop open, setting up an e-signature document so that they can sign it and I can forward it on to the next broker wholesaler. That's the kind of functionality that makes both their lives easier and mine, and the value that FormStack brings is the fact that it's easily integrated, easily stored in our document records.”