“I’ve taken the perspective that growth should not come at the expense of customer experience.”

-Eric Reingen

Eric Reingen has built a career centered on fostering growth and innovation in the insurance industry while prioritizing the needs of his clients. As the Chief Financial Officer of Nexo Insurance Services, Inc. for over a decade, and with nearly 12 years at CrossFit RRG, including his current role as Chief Operating Officer, he has been at the forefront of creating tailored insurance solutions for fitness professionals. Reingen’s professional foundation includes a degree in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine, where he was a scholar-athlete and member of the men’s soccer team. He also spent nearly nine years as a goalkeeper coach at Slammers FC, where he applied his experience to developing training programs for athletes across age groups.

His approach to leadership has focused on integrating technology with customer service, streamlining complex processes for over 20,000 fitness businesses. Reingen’s contributions have been rooted in team building, operational efficiency, and process improvement. In this interview, he shares insights into his philosophy of balancing customer experience with business growth, offering a perspective shaped by years of experience and a commitment to supporting fitness and wellness professionals.

Can you share the journey that led you to become the Owner and CFO of Nexo Insurance, and what inspired you to focus on the fitness and wellness industry?

I don’t know too many people who strive to be insurance professionals from a young age. If they do, they may have a bit of a screw loose. For me, I wanted to play soccer but that didn’t work out. The next best thing was ANY job which would pay a salary. I stumbled upon Nexo Insurance who needed help with a very small client in 2009. The client had a few hundred locations and asked us to start an insurance company for them. The client ended up being one of the largest chains in the world with 16,000 locations by 2020, CrossFit. With that great jump start insurance became very fun to create, grow, and manage, a large business with thousands of gyms as clients.

How has Nexo Insurance’s integration of technology with customer service impacted the way you deliver insurance programs to fitness professionals?

Nexo’s technology strategy focuses on making life easier for the customer. In many cases, that means streamlining access to human response. We’ve removed technology barriers like complicated phone menus, but enhanced self-service tools for things like address changes, getting certificates of insurance, submitting claim reports, etc. – heavily focusing on technology tasks where human touch is unnecessary. Most customers value speaking to someone quickly about technical insurance questions, where many other companies can let technology interfere with solving the customers issue. On the administration end of the business, we’ve used technology to greatly reduce the time it takes to process policies. We’ve integrated our systems across many platforms to reduce manual data input, allowing our team to focus on revenue-driving tasks.

In your experience, what are some of the key challenges fitness professionals face when it comes to insurance, and how does your team work to address these?

Fitness professionals need comprehensive insurance without breaking the bank. Unfortunately, many carriers remove valuable coverage to maintain a lower price. The largest challenge is knowing how to identify restrictions that are buried deep in insurance policies. Unlike home or auto insurance, the coverage can change wildly based on the carrier. It’s important to find a trusted advisor who can guide you and whose expertise is within the fitness community. It’s helpful when you find a team who works with fitness facilities every day. Our team knows the different carrier options, and in NEXO’s case, we control and underwrite our own programs. This allows the team the power to make decisions quickly and adjust the insurance coverage to match the client. We’ve removed many layers of complexity, allowing our clients to get quick answers and valuable knowledge about the process.

Your team has built a reputation for simplifying complex processes. Could you elaborate on some of the process improvements that have been most impactful in achieving this?

It sounds archaic, but many industries including insurance are still using paper forms to collect applications, sending paper checks for payments, and snail mailing insurance documents to a client’s business. Our proprietary software allows us to collect the information needed for a quote, present the quote online, and issue an insurance policy within minutes. This should be the standard, but sadly, it’s not in the insurance world. Administratively, we must be cognizant of ways to improve when we identify frequency in claims activity. For example, many of our insured gyms were seeing a frequency of dog bite claims. To ensure the insured takes the issue seriously, we added questions to our underwriting application such as, “Does this location have a dedicated space for dogs?” If they don’t, they may consider one now. This risk management technique has drastically reduced the frequency of dog bite claims.

How do you approach team building at Nexo Insurance, and what strategies have you found most effective in fostering collaboration and innovation?

We utilize various levels of team building throughout the year. We hold 15-minute weekly staff meetings for the core purpose of accountability and transparency. But, we also include a few minutes to answer a personal question about ourselves. What’s your favorite snack? What are you watching on TV after work? Our employees are remote so we must find a connection through Zoom calls. At our annual meeting in person, we remember the answers provided and give each person a care package with their favorite foods and items. It’s small, but we hope people will see we care. We’re highly focused on keeping collaborative environments small. Too many cooks in the kitchen leads us to execute slowly, with everyone pointing the finger at another. If the group is 2-3 people, we can control assignments better and ideas flow more smoothly.

What role does new business development play in Nexo Insurance’s success, and can you share any recent initiatives or milestones that have contributed to your growth?

New business is absolutely vital to the success of any insurance brokerage. Many larger firms will grow through acquisition, however, NEXO grows organically and with no outside funds. The typical insurance brokerage will lose 10-15% of its clients each year! We need to replace those clients with new customers or we cannot grow. Our 2024 initiative is gaining Points of Distribution across the country. We believe our infrastructure is strong, our organic opportunity is healthy, and we can grow through more folks learning about our products. Milestones can cut both ways. We try to forecast growth, but find if we set the bar too low the team can lose steam over time. If you’ve already hit your goal, why push forward? For this reason, we have micro and macro goal setting – sometimes our big ideas are moon shots we may never hit, but that’s okay if we are progressing on micro goals each day (calling 100 people, sending out 50 quotes, etc.).

With over 20,000 fitness professionals relying on Nexo Insurance, how do you ensure that the products and services you offer continue to meet their evolving needs?

Communicate and listen to client feedback. We excel and live the customer experience. By adjusting our systems to accommodate rapid changes and feedback, we know we’re at the forefront of product needs. Our weekly meetings routinely pose the question, “are you seeing any patterns or consistent feedback from customers that we should address?” Media tends to hyperbolize fitness trends and where the industry is going. While important to note the trend, it may not be where our target customer is going. We try to sift through the noise, take our time, and listen to our core customer.

Can you discuss any specific awards, recognitions, or accomplishments that Nexo Insurance or your team has achieved, and what these mean for your business?

Our word of mouth recommendations from customers are the most important recognition we can receive to accelerate growth. While awards are great, we focus on making the client the star.

Looking ahead, what trends do you see shaping the future of insurance in the fitness and wellness industry, and how is Nexo Insurance positioning itself to lead in this space?

The largest trend we see is the continued marriage between fitness (gyms), wellness (spa and recovery), data-driven tracking (whoop), and GLP-1 type drugs (ozempic) being offered as packaged solutions to one’s health. Facilities are starting to offer all of these products in one place. It presents a challenge for insurance companies and owners of the business to source the correct insurance coverage. Historically, carriers have not provided products which would cover fitness with healthcare in one policy. For those going this route, they should find an insurance advisor who understands fitness and healthcare.

Finally, what advice would you offer to other business leaders in the fitness and wellness sector who are looking to innovate and grow their organizations?

I’ve taken the perspective that growth should not come at the expense of customer experience. Offer a platform where your community can grow and prosper. Do the little things right, and growth will come naturally. If you are unsure what’s right, ask someone who’s been successful in your business. Make it easy to join your gym, make it just as easy to leave. 

“Do the little things right, and growth will come naturally.”

-Eric Reingen

Eric Reingen’s Links

• LinkedIn
• Website

Share Your Insights

We’d love to hear your thoughts on Eric Reingen’s approach to combining innovation and customer experience in fitness insurance. Join the conversation by answering these questions in the comments:

• How do you think businesses can balance growth with a focus on customer satisfaction?
• What role do you see technology playing in simplifying complex services?
• Which insights from this interview resonated most with you?

Your perspective could spark meaningful discussions!

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