Trust in insurance sector was improving pre-crisis: survey
Before the coronavirus outbreak consumer and business trust in the insurance profession was improving, according to the latest Chartered Insurance Institute Public Trust Index, published today.
The CII's survey revealed that, overall consumer and SME satisfaction with insurance increased slightly between 2019 and February 2020.
The survey canvassed 1,000 consumers and 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and took took place in October 2019 with a second phase having taken place in January and February 2020.
The data that we have gathered will form an important baseline so that we can understand the impact on trust in insurance of recent events."
The poll showed knowing exactly what an insurance policy covered and excluded was only ranked the seventh most important factor (out of 50) for SMEs and the eighth most important factor out of 50 for consumers when buying insurance.
Loyalty, complaint handling, ease of doing business and assessing risk individually was ranked by SMEs as more important when buying and renewing insurance. For consumers, loyalty, speed of claims, price and complaints handling were ranked as more important.
Matt Connell, director of policy and public affairs of the Chartered Insurance Institute, said in light of headlines relating to travel and business interruption insurance and the nation's experience of making claims as a result of the coronavirus it will be interesting to see how consumers' and SME's confidence that policies will pay out for risks that are relevant to them will be affected by their experiences with covid-19.
He said: "The CII Public Trust Index is the only index that tracks public trust in insurance for consumers and SMEs on a quarterly basis. The data that we have gathered will form an important baseline so that we can understand the impact on trust in insurance of recent events, when we publish the next round of results in the summer."
"In addition, the CII trust index is the only index that identifies issues with trust in insurance - such as the confidence people have that all their relevant risks are covered, or the speed in which claims are paid - and identify ways in which insurers can change the way they operate to improve trust in future. As a result, we expect the trust tool to play a key role in improving trust in insurance through 2020 and beyond."
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