Policyholders filing property insurance claims have never been so satisfied with their experience in American history, according a J.D. Power study.
The 2017 US Property Claims Satisfaction Study directly follows year of volatile weather during which policyholders were in touch with their insurers more often than they might usually be.
“The successful handling of a claim goes to the heart of customer retention - if someone has a good experience they’re going to stay with you, if not, maybe not,” Michael Barry, vice president of media relations at the Insurance Information Institute (III) said.
“It’s a very competitive marketplace in the US and when a policyholder has a claim, the insurer recognizes that it’s their time to shine.”
Amica Mutual ranked the highest for customer satisfaction for the sixth year in a row but The Hanover received a 40 point bump, year-over-year, to tie Amica for most popular.
Nationwide, Encompass,
Chubb, Auto-Owners Insurance and USAA also scored highly.
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The J.D. Power survey looked at settlement, first notice of loss, estimation process, service interaction and repair process, finding overall satisfaction was up 13 points to 86%.
“Following the significant declines in customer satisfaction found in the 2016 study, property and casualty insurers have redoubled their efforts to improve the settlement process and fine-tune their customer interactions: efforts that have been clearly recognized and appreciated by homeowners who experienced significant losses this past year,” Greg Hoeg, vice president of US insurance operations at J.D. Power said.
“Still, despite the overall improvement, problem areas are evident, most notably in water-related and other complex claims that take a long time to settle and that cause significant lifestyle disruption. Insurers that manage to get the settlement process and customer interaction equation right in these types of disruptive and often catastrophic scenarios are those that raise the bar for the industry.”
Customer satisfaction varied by region with the West, where claims were low, seeing satisfaction rates rise, while Texas, Florida and Massachusetts had flat or declining rates of contentment with their providers.
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