independent agents, what does your tech stack actually look like? mine feels duct-taped together

independent P&C agent, 4 years in. I've got about 350 active clients across maybe 8 carriers. the agency management side of this business is something I underestimated completely when I started. I thought the hard part would be selling. the hard part is keeping track of everything once you've sold it.

my current setup: hawksoft for my agency management system. it's fine. not great at search, the mobile app is clunky, but it holds all my policies and client info. I use google workspace for email and docs. calendly for scheduling client meetings. quickbooks for bookkeeping. canva for the occasional social media post when I remember marketing exists.

the biggest gap in my stack is the space between a phone call with a client and that information making it into hawksoft. I talk to 15-20 clients a day. some are quick, like a coverage question or a payment issue. some are longer, like a new client intake or a renewal review where we're going through all their policies. after each call I need to note what we discussed, what I promised to do, and any changes to their account. if I don't do it right after the call it's gone by the afternoon.

I've been doing a thing where right after I hang up I just talk my notes into my phone. "talked to frank about his homeowners renewal, premium went up 18% because of the roof age, I told him I'd shop it with safeco and travelers this week, he also asked about adding a scheduled personal property endorsement for his wife's ring." I use willow voice for dictation and then paste the note into hawksoft when I'm at my desk. it's not elegant but it keeps me from losing client conversations.

the other tool I've been messing with is chatgpt for explaining coverage to clients in plain english. insurance language is confusing and clients don't read their policy documents. if a client asks me what their UM/UIM coverage actually does, I'll sometimes paste the policy language into chatgpt and ask it to explain it like you're talking to someone who's never bought insurance before. then I rework it into my own words for the email. saves me from writing the same explanation from scratch every time.

other independent agents, what's your stack? especially for the CRM/notes side. I keep hearing about agency zoom and better agency but haven't tried either. is hawksoft just what everyone's stuck with or have some of you found something better?