If you are a home insurance agent, you may be interested in recent studies that show that many customers are less satisfied with their home insurance than they were in years prior.
According to a study conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, customer satisfaction with home insurance agencies is at a five year low. The number one cause? Customers are displeased with service interactions and unhappy with the policy offerings that home insurance agents and companies have on the table.
To look at the numbers, the average customer satisfaction rate with home insurance companies received a 750 on a scale of 1,000 point scale, which indicates a decline of 23 points from 2009. Satisfaction with home insurance companies and agencies has actually fallen over four of the last five years, with 2009 being the sole exception to the trend.
The holders of home insurance are already hyper sensitive to changes in the system due to the dismal state of the economy, and what’s worse, most of them don’t understand the changes that are occurring in the system. According to the study, nearly fifty percent of customers don’t understand the kind of home insurance coverage they have on their home and what kind they need. Additionally, many customers have expected the premiums they pay on their home insurance to decline, as the prices of homes have declined since 2008.
What makes the situation worse is the automotive insurance industry. Most people who have home insurance also deal with insuring their cars, at the automotive insurance industry has made great strides over the past few years with advertising and offering discounts to their customers. Home insurance, in comparison, has done very little to reach out to the customer base, and lots of clients are confused as to why this is the case.
What agents should take out of this is that the customers who are best pleased with their home insurance are the ones who bundle home insurance together with car insurance. Customers who carry all of their insurance though one company are also more likely to receive discounts and better benefits alongside their insurance packages. Keep in mind that Generation Y is starting to buy homes in greater numbers, so the likelihood of package insurance is higher. Make your home buying automobile-owning customers aware of these discounts available, and you’re more likely to have pleased customers.
It’s also worth your while as an agent to suggest that your clients to keep an inventory of valuable home items – such as entertainment systems – in order to smooth the claims process. Doing everything you can to ensure that your customers are at their ease throughout the insurance process will do a lot toward bolstering customer satisfaction no matter what kind of insurance you work with.
