In order to fully understand Sarah Griffin's accomplishments, one must reconsider the covenant between carrier and insured – and how the value of insurance protections can be conveyed through a mutually proactive experience.
"At the end of the day, we're selling a promise," she explains, noting that "in the traditional model, insurance is only there to make you whole if you experience a loss. That's the way most customers perceive how they get value out of it. We want to shift that paradigm; we think of it as being partners in protection."
Creating real, tangible value for the customer beyond the moment of a claim is the ongoing mission for Griffin, who is senior vice president, product & underwriting at Nationwide.
She is accountable for P&L for Nationwide's standard personal lines portfolio, which includes auto, property and powersports products. Her teams lead both national and state-level product development and management, business insights and advanced analytics, and underwriting. As such, fostering cross-functional collaboration and championing a culture of innovation are key components of Griffin's day-to-day work.
While she considers the buzz around "predict and prevent" throughout the P&C industry a positive development, her organization – which includes over 260 associates across product development and management, analytics and underwriting – continues put those ideas into practice, reimagining the relationship between customer and carrier to loss-reducing, revenue-driving effect.
During Griffin's tenure, personal lines have delivered record turnarounds in profitability for Nationwide. More currently, she's focused on guiding the organization to achieve growth through disciplined underwriting, the adoption of cutting-edge solutions, and empowering agents with the products and insights they need to meet evolving customer needs.
Advancing the insurer's telematics and smart home programs has been integral to this endeavor. Under Griffin's leadership, the smart home program has grown exponentially – and her forward-thinking approach has helped transition the organization to focus on proactive risk prevention, with a strong emphasis on customer-centric innovation.
To that end, Griffin sponsored the offering of two risk-prevention tech innovations that are free of charge to Nationwide policyholders. One is a device called Ting, which once plugged in looks for anomalies in the electrical system and identifies arcing spots and other potential hazards, both inside the home and through the external power lines. The other is LeakBot, which clips on to the main water line and monitors the home for potential leaks.
Policyholders who use these devices not only experience greater peace of mind, but also benefit from notifications in the event of an issue and support in booking licensed electricians and plumbers – with parts being covered for necessary repairs.
Griffin says both pieces of smart home technology "deliver tangible value to customers in a very different way than they traditionally think about insurance. Customers don't think about how they can prevent a loss. They're trying to protect the things they care about."
She's equally proud of Focused Driving Rewards, an app available to both the carrier's customers and non-customers. It coaches drivers from becoming distracted behind the wheel, and over time users can earn rewards like gift cards after breaking such habits as picking up your phone while driving. "If we can get consumers thinking about how they can make roads safer, ultimately it benefits everyone," says Griffin.
Her work on the telematics and smart home programs has contributed to measurable growth in policyholder engagement and retention.
Continued investment in risk prevention, she adds, is a win-win for customers and carriers. The smart home program has grown from a negligible number to being included on almost 20% of new writings year-to-date; Griffin says she's working to increase the number of active devices another tenfold in the next two years.
Griffin also devotes time in support of YWCA and Habitat for Humanity. Her volunteerism with YWCA is particularly important to her; she says she's drawn to the mission of both organizations because "providing shelter and safety are so foundational to life and health for families, especially for women."
