Saturday, November 13, 2004
Advance expands insurance kiosk partnership
Advance Auto Parts is trying Nationwide kiosks in other Virginia locations after a test at some Roanoke Valley stores.
The latest from The Ticker blog
A partnership between auto parts and auto insurance is making headway in Virginia.
A test program placing Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. kiosks in Roanoke's Advance Auto Parts stores is complete. The kiosks, which Advance rolled out last year in four Roanoke Valley stores, offer all Nationwide services, including auto, homeowners and life insurance, along with bill payment.
By early 2005, Advance plans to have 53 kiosks in stores throughout the state. Since September, it has opened 19 kiosks in Virginia cities, including Richmond, Hampton and Harrisonburg, and in Northern Virginia.
Tony Rogers, a Roanoke Nationwide agent, founded the kiosk concept. Each kiosk is staffed by a Nationwide agent, and they are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Some stay open on weekends.
"With the time crunches of today, it provides an avenue for people who don't have time," said Dave Mueller, executive vice president for merchandising and marketing at Advance.
Rogers and business partner Jamie Craig are using AIB Group, or Agency In a Box, to manage the kiosk roll-out. AIB Group is an agency of Nationwide.
Through AIB, agents throughout the state receive a kit and other information in the mail, including a table, to operate a Nationwide kiosk at the Advance stores.
"My vision was that an agent can say 'I'd like to open a store in Advance,'" Rogers said. "We can ship him a box, and they are ready to do business."
Advance, the second-largest retailer of automotive parts in the country behind AutoZone, is one of the only retailers of its kind to offer insurance services in its stores, according to the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association.
Ray Pohlman, spokesman for AutoZone, the No. 1 automobile parts retailer, said AutoZone does not have plans to provide these services.
Advance executives would not provide details about the amount of store traffic that the kiosks are drawing.
"We're providing convenience to customers," said Bob Richmond, product director at Advance.
Rogers said business at the kiosks often is stronger in areas where there are more blue-collar customers.
"My industry is doing a good job of ignoring the blue-collar person," he said. "These folks feel like they have service coming to their communities. That's the whole reason for this."
One afternoon this week, Michael Poulos of Roanoke walked into an Advance store on 13th Street in Southeast Roanoke to buy car parts. He stopped at the Nationwide Insurance kiosk on his way out, seeking information about car, business and homeowners insurance.
"This was convenient," he said. "While I'm here, I'll stop by."
If all goes well with the Virginia program, Nationwide will consider opening kiosks in Advance stores in other states. Richmond said Nationwide would remain the insurance company for kiosks in other Advance stores.
"We had such a small sample compared to the number of [Advance] stores," Rogers said.
In Virginia, "We want to get a larger scale to make sure that this is not an aberration of Roanoke," he said.
Nationwide kiosks are located in five Roanoke Valley stores. In Salem, they're at Advance stores on Electric Road and West Main Street. In Daleville, a kiosk is at the store on Roanoke Road. And in Roanoke, they are at the 13th Street store in Southeast Roanoke and at a store on Orange Avenue Northwest.
Advance has approximately 2,600 stores in 39 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
