This article at a glance:
- More power for policyholders
- Interview with an agency: certs at CDL Associates
- Purchasing Self-service Certificates
Imagine this: it's midnight, and one of the truck drivers you insure is sitting at a warehouse dock that requires a Certificate of Insurance with their warehouse listed as the cert holder. The driver can’t get that without your help, but your office doesn’t open for hours. They’re out of luck, right?
Not anymore. Self-service Certificates is a new add-on available for purchase in HawkSoft. This feature puts the power in the hands of your policyholders to generate the certificates they need for the cert holder they choose.
More power for policyholders
Self-service Certificates allow your agency to publish a Certificate of Insurance from HawkSoft to a web-based portal. Your insureds can access the portal from any device to select or add cert holders, generate and download certificates, and email them to the cert holder (with a copy to you). That means no more waiting on certificates for your insureds, and no hassle on your end to create certificates for multiple cert holders.
Publishing a certificate from HawkSoft to the web-based portal
This product is perfect for agencies with a focus on commercial lines, including truckers, contractors, and more.
- Unlimited certificates
- 24/7 access
- Cert holder flexibility
- Time savings
- Your agency controls certificate access
- No login required
Go to our Self-service Certificates page to learn more about this product and its features.
Interview with an agency: certs at CDL Associates
Amanda Lucas, a licensed agent at CDL Associates Insurance Agency (one of the pilot agencies to test this new feature) shares what she and her insureds think about HawkSoft Self-Service Certificates.
"Self-Service Certificates makes the entire certificate process very efficient and automated. I love being able to tell our insureds that they can process their own certificates and they don’t need to call us every time. It’s very easy to get a customer set up, and every single client I've set up on the portal has enjoyed it."
What does your agency use Self-service Certificates for?
About 70% of our business is commercial trucking. Certificates are definitely #1 on our to-do list. We do 10 to 15 certs a day—about 150 a month. The trucker is our insured and the broker, who books the loads to be delivered, is the certificate holder. In order to assign a trucker a load, the broker needs to have confirmation of the coverages the trucker has—auto liability, motor truck cargo, some of them require general liability—to verify it meets their requirements. That’s why they need the Certificate of Insurance.
How have Self-service Certificates changed your agency's process for certificates?
Before, for any certificate the insured needed, the broker would have to call or email us. Or, the insured would give us the broker’s information. We would process the certificate and send it to whoever it needs to go to, which could only be done during business hours.
Self-service Certificates make it easier because the insured can process certificates for different cert holders themselves. If Bidwell Trucking needs a certificate for broker XYZ, they go to the web portal and add XYZ as a cert holder, and email the certificate to them—all in one process. Bidwell, our agency’s customer, doesn’t have to wait on us. We’re fast on our certificates, obviously, because we don’t get paid if the truckers don’t get paid. But the truckers like Self-service Certificates because they don’t need a middleman involved. The entire process is very efficient and automated.
Insureds can access the web-based portal to add cert holders and send or download certificates.
After the insured creates the certificate, I’ll get an email confirmation with the certificate that was generated. I will go to their client file in HawkSoft and the certificates window will show who our customer (i.e., Bidwell Trucking) has made certificates for. I’ll then attach the certificate for the cert holder so we always have a record of the certificates the customer has processed and which coverages were on it. It’s very simple.
"Knowing that an insured can only change cert holder information and not anything on the certificate gives us peace of mind."
Do you feel that Self-service Certificates allow you to remain in complete control of your certificates?
Yes, we feel like we’re in control. Knowing that an insured can only change cert holder information and not anything on the certificate gives us peace of mind. The fact that we also get notified when an insured processes a certificate on the portal is nice because we know when they’re using it.
What does your agency like most about Self-service Certificates?
The most important thing to us is that it’s convenient for the customer. That takes the cake. We are licensed in 42 states and not everyone is in our time zone. Our insureds have the freedom to access the portal themselves and still get their certificates outside of our business hours, or on a holiday, or on a Saturday.
I love being able to tell our insureds that they can process their own certificates and they don’t need to call us every time. It’s very easy to get a customer set up, and every single client I've set up on the portal has enjoyed it. It’s definitely been successful.
"Our insureds have the freedom to access the portal themselves and still get their certificates outside of our business hours, or on a holiday, or on a Saturday."
Purchasing Self-service Certificates
Self-service Certificates are available for purchase as an add-on through HawkSoft Marketplace. The cost is a flat rate of $95/month per agency, with unlimited certificates. Add Self-service Certificates to your Hawksoft offering today!
