For the eighth consecutive year, J.D. Power has measured Canadians’ satisfaction with their auto insurance providers, and its findings are troublesome for the industry.
Despite growing satisfaction with regard to pricing, driven largely by Ontario’s drop in auto insurance rates, Canadians are by and large dismayed by their auto carriers.
“If we take a look at the study nationally, we saw satisfaction decline eight index points from 758 in 2015 to 750 in 2015,” said Valerie Monet, director of insurance practice at J.D. Power. “So price is the only factor where customer satisfaction increased, but when we take a look at all the other major touch points that the customer has with their insurer, the non-claim interactions with an agent, broker, call center or website, these are down 15 index points year over year.”
Several other communication problems lie at the center of these low insurance approval ratings as well. The study’s researchers found that satisfaction with call centers and websites both decreased from last year, largely the result of long wait times, discourteous employees, and the prolonged intervals it takes to resolve disputes.
Many of these issues, however, can be resolved by agents and brokers who are committed to providing better customer service for their clients.
“One of the best service practices that I’ve come across is making sure customers completely understand billing statements,” Monet said. “On average, only 65% of customers say they understand billing statements. So helping customers to understand what’s on their billing statement, when their billing period is, how to make a payment and any other helpful information would go a long way to improve customer satisfaction.”
These guided interactions should also extend to communicating discounted rates with clients, as only one-half of customers who receive three or more discounts are aware of their reduced auto premiums.
Going hand in hand with this is UBI, which has a twofold benefit for satisfaction rates. While Canadians cite telematics-based discounts as the most important feature of a UBI program, a compelling 28% rated control and participation in the calculation of rates as their preferred aspect.
“While customers may be motivated to try these programs based on price, the interactive nature of the product is helping to close that communication loop with customers so they better understand what’s being used to calculate premiums and what they can personally do to impact the premiums that they’re paying,” said Monet.
Not surprisingly, when insurers offer a UBI program, customer satisfaction increases from an index score 750 to 767, and for customers who actively engage with it, that number rises to 790. The index score for customers with an auto carrier that does not offer UBI is 744.
