Satisfaction among motor vehicle insurance policyholders is on the increase, with 82.1% saying they were satisfied with their provider, up from 80.1% in the comparative period in 2013, and well up from 74.1% in 2006.
The findings were taken from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of over 50,000 consumers which included detailed coverage of over 40,000 motor vehicle insurance policies.
RACT led the customer satisfaction ratings with a score of 95.9%, followed by APIA (91.0%) and Shannons (89.3%).
The range went to the low point of 75.4%, with
QBE, with next lowest being Budget Direct (77.9%) and Coles (78.4%).
Another key statistic was that most of the largest insurers improved their satisfaction scores, with 96.8% of their policyholders being at least fairly likely to renew their insurance with their existing company.
Among the 18 largest insurers only five showed declines in satisfaction over the last three years.
They were QBE,
Suncorp, Youi, Coles and Shannons.
Norman Morris, industry communications director for Roy Morgan Research, said it was a positive sign that the satisfaction levels had improved over the last decade.
However, he said around a quarter of policy holders were still shopping around at renewal time.
“Roy Morgan data shows that price is the major reason for looking around but other reasons such as bad claims experience, poor service and changing vehicle all play a part,” Morris said.
“To be successful, it is crucial for insurance companies to retain existing customers. But although a very high proportion of policyholders say they are likely to renew with the same company (96.8%), less than one in three (30.5%) indicate that they are ‘extremely likely’ to renew.
“In order to increase the likelihood that customers will renew, more attention needs to be given to improving the proportion of ‘very satisfied’ policy holders. Although overall satisfaction with these insurance companies is high at 82.1%, only 34.4% of policy holders are ‘very satisfied’.
“Increasing this will raise the proportion of policy holders who are likely to renew without shopping around.”
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