Consumers want insurers to act on pricing

More than 80 per cent of travel, motor and buildings insurance customers in the UK are reportedly satisfied with their insurers’ performance, but they stipulate that they think insurance providers need to act to address the issue of pricing for new and existing customers, should these insurers want to keep their customers’ business when renewal time rolls around.

Respondents to the survey – which took in data from 1,000 consumers and 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses – were asked to rank a number of factors in order of importance, and the CII found that improving customer loyalty represented by far the biggest opportunity for insurers to improve their standing.

“Insurers are doing many things well, and command a strong level of overall customer satisfaction,” commented CII CEO Sian Fisher. “However, despite the efforts of regulators, trade associations and many individual insurance companies, including the ABI and BIBA’s ‘Guiding Principles & Action Points for General Insurance Pricing’ industry-led initiative, more work needs to be done in the area of renewal pricing. Having an ongoing measure of how insurers are performing against customer expectations allows our members to build up a detailed picture of how they can increase public trust.

“Through our trust tool, which is a database of 50 statements about the things that consumers have told us are important features of insurance, they are telling us the factors that would increase their trust in the renewal process, from offering the same price to new and existing customers, to matching renewal deals from other providers and making no-claims bonuses easier to understand. Although the issues around renewal pricing have been with us for a long time, the solutions do exist – we need to take heed of what the public is telling us.”