The latest CII Public Trust Index, which surveyed 1,000 consumers and 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses (SME) in two waves (once in October 2019 and again in January/February 2020), revealed that consumer and SME satisfaction with insurance had increased slightly during that period.

The trust index also highlighted that loyalty, complaint handling, ease of doing business and assessing risk individually was ranked by SMEs as more important than knowing exactly what an insurance policy covered and excluded when buying and renewing insurance. For consumers, loyalty, speed of claims, price and complaints handling were ranked as more important than having a comprehensive understating of what an insurance policy covered and excluded.

Matt Connell, Director of Policy and Public Affairs of the CII noted that the data gathered will form an important baseline for understanding the impact on trust in insurance of recent events when the next round of results is published by the CII in the summer. He said it would also be interesting to see how consumers’ and SME’s confidence that policies will pay out for risks that are relevant to them will be affected by their experiences with Covid-19.

“In addition,” Connell said, “the CII trust index is the only index that identifies issues with trust in insurance – such as the confidence people have that all their relevant risks are covered, or the speed in which claims are paid – and identify ways in which insurers can change the way they operate to improve trust in future. As a result, we expect the trust tool to play a key role in improving trust in insurance through 2020 and beyond.”