October 23, 2000

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Nationwide Increases Business, Customer Choice On Web

By Candee Wilde

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ince Nationwide Insurance Co. began developing its Customer Choice strategy, business operations and IT employees have worked together to build the E-business customer-service program.

So far, the Columbus, Ohio, insurer has linked its customer-service operation to the Web by letting Internet customers buy auto insurance and report auto claims online. Encouraging customers to contact the company through a toll-free number or a Web site isn't the norm in the insurance industry. Local agents have traditionally handled most contact with customers.

That option will still be available because the point of the Customer Choice program is to open new customer channels that have the same level of service. "The business reasons we are moving ahead with Internet-access opportunities are simple: our customers demand it," says Orysia Meyers, the company's associate VP of claims call centers.

Nationwide's top goal is to re-create every aspect of its business on the Web so it can do everything from calculating insurance rates to selling and activating policies in real time over the Internet, Meyers says.

Accomplishing the goal will be the culmination of many smaller steps Nationwide started taking about 18 months ago when it invited consultants from Microsoft to help design the technology infrastructure that would support the program's goals. Nationwide Insurance Systems, the company's IT group, built the application in-house over Windows 2000, creating an architecture that ties in to Nationwide's legacy client-server and mainframe systems.

Since then, the IT group has focused on writing and deploying Internet applications, says Mary Johnston, Nationwide's systems officer of claims solutions. The first application it deployed, eCCAp (electronic Call Center Automation project), lets customer service reps initiate claims based on information customers provide. The app, which runs on a browser, can automatically schedule an appointment for an estimate between a customer and a claims representative, for example, or help a customer find a repair shop.

During the fall, Nationwide will deploy eClaims, a Web application used by customers to report losses on the nationwide.com site. Before the end of the year, Nationwide plans to add a function that will let customers check the status of their claims on its Web site, as well. When project is fully deployed, SQL Server will deliver the information that customers supply through eClaims to service reps' desktops.

Nationwide is also linking its 6,500 remote agents to its intranet through a browser application called Agency Claims Delivery. Because agents will be linked directly to service reps in the call center and to Nationwide's data warehouse, they'll handle more aspects of claims than in the past.

Nationwide also plans to bring some of its suppliers online by establishing an extranet. The goal is to have instant resolution online for certain claims, Meyers says. For example, a customer with a claim for a broken windshield, would report the loss using eClaims. A service rep would use the eCCAp to validate the claim and send it over the extranet to a repair shop., whose system would schedule an appointment. Says Meyers, "We would generate a check and the claim would be resolved without the customer ever having to have telephone contact with an agent."

Return to main story, "Web Call Centers Benefit Customers And Businesses."

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