Price Drives Auto Insurance Customer Satisfaction, Shopping Around: J.D. Power
By: Insurance Journal September 2013
Rate increases are driving more customers to obtain competitive price quotes, while satisfaction with the buying experience is trending downward among new-buyer customers due to lower price satisfaction among new buyers, according to the latest J.D. Power study.
According to the J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Insurance Shopping Study —Wave 1:
Price satisfaction, the leading driver of overall new-buyer satisfaction, declined to 808 (on a 1,000-point scale) in 2014 Wave 1 from 821 in 2013.
Auto customer retention averaged 97 percent, with 3 percent of auto insurance customers switching insurers, fueled by a shopping rate of 8 percent.
More than 20 percent of new buyers purchased auto insurance online. Therefore, J.D. Powers says, insurers lacking viable quote website are not well-positioned to acquire or sell to one in five customers.
The average annual savings when switching to a new insurer is on par with 2013 ($387 vs. $386, respectively).
