Customer satisfaction for P&C claims hits all-time high

Customer satisfaction among homeowners filing property insurance claims is at an all-time high, according to new data from J.D. Power. That’s in spite of record-high property losses in the wake of a string of hurricanes, earthquakes and fires in North America last year. And the insurers that reached the highest levels of customer satisfaction were the ones who were most effective at managing customer expectations about the time it would take to settle claims.

“The last two years of record catastrophic losses have put P&C insurers to the test, and many have risen to the occasion, driving overall customer satisfaction levels to new highs,” said David Pieffer, leader of J.D. Power’s property and casualty insurance practice. “While that overall performance is a positive for the industry, there is wide variability in the different ranges of performance among insurers in different regions of the country and between different service attributes. Particularly noteworthy, customer satisfaction in Texas and Florida – two of the areas hardest-hit by hurricanes – show below-average results, spotlighting areas where there is still room for improvement among insurers.”

Key findings of J.D. Power’s study included:

• Overall customer satisfaction for property claims hit an all-time high of 860 (out of a possible 1,000).
• Managing time expectations is a key driver of customer satisfaction. For customers, being well-informed seems to be more important than speed of claim settlement. When time-frame expectations were managed well, even groups who experienced the longest time to settlement still rated their experience above the industry average. Satisfaction ratings went down when insurers missed customer timing expectations – even if the total timeframe was short.
• Areas most impacted by weather events showed declining satisfaction.

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