The latest Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Public Trust Index has revealed consumer attitudes to insurance – and insights into how the profession can better meet the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Duty requirements.
The FCA is set to introduce a new Consumer Duty across all forms of financial services including insurance later this year. The FCA will measure results under four headings: fair value, products and services, treatment of customers, and confidence.
By surveying 1,000 consumers of home, motor, and travel insurance between December 2021 and January 2022, the CII’s Public Trust Index benchmarks the performance of the insurance profession against these FCA Consumer Duty standards.
The latest Public Trust Index reveals that consumers expect a good level of cover at a competitive price and want to be rewarded for coming back to the same insurer every year. Loyalty, followed by confidence, remain the top two “opportunity themes” to improve customers’ trust levels – consistent with all previous waves of CII research.
Consumers also want their insurer to be attentive to them “when it matters”, whether by actively demonstrating that their policy is priced competitively and matching a competitor’s quote, clearly informing consumers about what the policy excludes and allowing them to change elements of cover, showing compassion and giving effective advice to consumers making a claim, or assessing their risks individually rather than generically.
Consumers prioritize quality of service over price. They consider having the cheapest policy less important than having any of the following: confidence their insurer will pay out, rewards for loyalty, an easy way to do business, an appropriate level of protection offered by a policy, quickly paid claims, and respect from the insurer when they make a claim.
“For consumers, having confidence that their insurer will be there when they need them is the most important factor in buying insurance, with consumers attaching more importance to the statement, ‘I know what the policy covers and excludes’ than any other,” said Matthew Connell, director of policy and public affairs at the CII. “For the insurance profession to meet the FCA’s Consumer Duty requirements, it will have to demonstrate that it is identifying and acting on areas for improvement, and we recommend insurers look carefully at two areas. First, assuring consumers that their risks are assessed individually rather than being based on generic assumptions, and second, the way the claims process is communicated before consumers purchase a policy.”
