How Toby Hansen Agency Cut Commercial Renewals by 95%
Most commercial insurance teams dread the 60 day renewal window. A small agency in Montana proved that renewal bottlenecks are not a staffing problem, but a file format problem.
The renewal nightmare: Static PDFs and scattered notes
Every independent commercial agency knows the routine. A commercial account comes up for renewal, and staff starts digging through old desktop folders for last year’s Acord forms. Policy limits are copied by hand. Building details get retyped into underwriter supplements. If an agency writes high touch commercial lines, this process takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half per policy.
Toby Hansen faced the exact same wall at his independent insurance agency in Missoula, Montana. Filing systems were masquerading as management tools. Data entered into static PDF fields lived in a vacuum, unreachable by other team members and useless for next year’s book of business.
“At the Toby Hansen Agency we use QwikSubmit daily to create new Applications, handle renewals of existing business, and facilitate electronic signatures. Many of the General Agencies we work with accept QwikSubmit supplements which allow us to work with one platform, making life easier on our staff. With QwikSubmit we cut our application creation process by 50% and renewals by an astonishing 95%.”
Splitting the work: The CSR handoff model
The primary drain on senior brokers is administrative mechanics. Typing basic contact numbers, business entity names, and mailing addresses should not consume producer time.
By migrating to QwikSubmit, the agency separated intake into clear operational tiers:
- Intake and basic data collection: Support staff and CSRs open the account file, populate basic insured credentials, and log company addresses into web forms instead of rigid PDFs.
- Producer finishing: The system logs progress in real time. The licensed agent logs in from any workstation, applies specific insurance knowledge like class codes and building limits, and routes the submission.
- Rapid effective date adjustments: When General Agencies require modified effective dates, staff updates the single source record instead of re-issuing four separate application files.
How the 95% reduction actually works
The drop from 60 minutes to under three minutes comes down to trigger automation. QwikSubmit monitors the agency database for upcoming policy expiration dates and fires automated renewal notices.
Instead of recreating the policy documentation, the previous year’s verified data is pre-populated into the renewal application. The agency simply sends a secure digital link to the insured to verify changes, captures an electronic signature through the portal, and delivers the finished file to the underwriter database.
According to benchmark data from the Big “I” (Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America), administrative labor represents over 60% of an independent agency’s internal operating overhead. Eliminating duplicate intake is the fastest path to preserving agency margins without hiring additional headcount.
Eliminate renewal drag across your agency
Put client records into a structured cloud database once. Generate instant supplements, collect verified e-signatures, and automate renewal triggers.