- Canadian policyholders are unlikely to recommend a friend to their insurer, according to customer satisfaction measure.
- Fewer than 30% of Canadians said they are completely satisfied with their insurance provider’s COVID-19 response.
- Less than one in four Ontario residents shopped around for car insurance or coverage on their home last year.
Most Canadians would not recommend their insurance provider, a new study by market research firm Ipsos has found.
Canada’s insurance market scored a –8 ‘net promoters score’ (NPS) — a market research metric that rates the likelihood a survey respondent would recommend a company to a friend or colleague.
NPS can range from –100 to 100, and a negative NPS means more people say they are dissatisfied with a product or service than there are those who are happy with it. It is usually indicative of a poor customer experience.
The poor performance of the industry is unmatched by other sectors in Canada, say the researchers. For comparison, the banking sector is said to have an NPS score of 12 during the same time period.
The Ipsos Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) Insurance Study is based on an Ipsos poll conducted last July and November. A total sample of 13,000 Canadians who own at least one type of insurance policy aged 18 and over was interviewed online.
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Room for improvement
Fewer than 30% of Canadians said they are completely satisfied with their insurance provider’s COVID-19 response. A similar number (just one in three) are happy with the quality of customer service they generally receive.
The study also found that personalized communication is important but is generally lacking, as fewer than 25% of survey respondents are satisfied on this front. All of this is to say there’s plenty of room for improvement by the insurance industry.
Dissatisfaction was particularly high among those who have held their policies for a long time and feel they have lost touch with their providers.
Ipsos said that insurance has always been characterized by low engagement compared to other sectors, and the pandemic reinforced this trend with fewer people driving or travelling.
What’s a dissatisfied policyholder to do? Many people would say if you’re dissatisfied with a product or service you’re receiving and paying for, you should take your business elsewhere. Yet, many of us, strangely, don’t.
Stuck in a rut
Despite dissatisfaction with the insurance industry, a recent RATESDOTCA survey found that Ontario drivers are less likely to shop around for car or home insurance than for other common expenses such as cellphone plans or internet services.
Less than one in four Ontario residents shopped around for car insurance (23%) or coverage on their home (22%) last year, the survey found, compared to nearly one in three that shopped around for their internet.
What’s it all mean? From our perspective, there’s a whole lot of people unhappy with their insurance but who have not yet taken steps to try to change their situation. Let’s turn your frown upside down. Whether it’s car insurance, home insurance, or life insurance, it’s easy to take the first step at RATESDOTCA.
With files from Thompson’s World Insurance News. Used with permission.
