View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2019/11/13/548236.htm
Nationwide is introducing Nationwide Express, a technology platform that promises agents can quote policies for auto, homeowners and renters insurance in two minutes as well as tailor coverages, bind coverage, and process payments and trailing documents quickly.
Nationwide Express cuts the time it takes for agents to quote multiple (auto, home, renters) products by 15 minutes or more, the company said.
The portal has been launched in 22 states with additional states to be added.
Nationwide Express will be made compatible with comparative raters in 2020.
The company said Nationwide Express also makes it easier for agents to accept a single payment for multiple policies and package together documents for emailing to customers automatically at the end of the sales process.
Agents can access Nationwide Express in Ala., Ariz., Colo., Conn., D.C., Ga., Iowa, Ill., Ind., Ks., Maine, Md., N.H., N.Y., Ohio, Ore., S.C., Tenn., Texas, Va., Vt., and Wash. Additional states will be added in the months ahead.
Nationwide announced in 2018 it plans to shift entirely to the independent agency distribution model by July 1, 2020.
Roughly 2,000 existing agents operating under the Nationwide brand were given the opportunity to transition to an independent agency model between the announcement and when the new distribution model is completed, according to the company.
Digital Offerings
Nationwide has also announced plans to compete head-on with digital insurer upstart competitors with Spire, a digital auto insurance mobile app with an eye on millennial customers. Spire, which is scheduled to be rolled out in the 2019 fourth quarter, promises a quote in about a minute. All that’s needed: a driver’s license and answers to four short questions.
Nationwide debuted Spire during the InsureTech Connect Conference in Las Vegas in October.
Spire will compete with rivals such as the online auto insurance startup Root, which pulled in a $350 million venture capital infusion earlier in September.
Nationwide has said that it is pursuing a strategy to keep and nurture its customers who work with agents while also attracting users who want to purchase their insurance digitally without agents.
“We do believe that there is plenty of space for those two [approaches] to live in parallel,” Scott Liles, Nationwide’s innovation leader, said atA the InsureTech Connect Conference.
Nationwide has recently launched a commercial insurance digital storefront targeted to small businesses. Small business owners can use the site online directly to generate a quote and bind a policy, or do the same thing through a Nationwide agent.
Meanwhile, the insurer has said it will rollout a similar digital portal for its independent agents in 2020.
Insurance advisory firm Strategy Meets Action this week awarded an Enterprise Transformation in Action Award to Nationwide. The award honors insurers, MGAs, and vendors that are “rethinking, reimagining, and reinventing the business of insurance.”
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