According to J.D. Power & Associates, the satisfaction with the pricing among auto insurance customers is now comparable with those levels that were earlier reserved for those policyholders who bundled their homeowner’s policies and auto insurance policies.
The study conducted by J.D. Power measured consumer satisfaction with the auto insurers based on 5 factors such as policy offerings, price, interaction, claims, and billing & payment. The study has found that satisfaction levels in those who had purchased a homeowner’s policy from another insurer and those who only had an auto insurance policyhad gone up now when compared to 2010 (it is up by 26 and 21 index points on a 1,000-point scale). But in comparison, the satisfaction levels among the auto insurance customers who had their homeowner’s policy from the same insurer had averaged at 727, which is an increase of only 7 points since 2010.
Jeremy Bowler who is from J.D. Power and the senior director of insurance practice stated that for the first time the unbundled consumers were satisfied with price than the bundled consumers. So, consumers are now expecting to get better discounts for holding on to multiple policies with their insurers. But the positive impact of this discount seems to have become diluted.
Bowler states that 58% of the consumers actually bundled their homeowner’s and auto insurance policies with one insurer to avail discounts. The bundling of auto insurance with other additional products has also gone up significantly since 2011 and has reached 77% when compared to 70% in 2010. Due to this, discounts for purchasing multiple policies have become more prevalent now along with other discounts for those who are safe drivers.
Bowler also added that though there are discounts given to consumers for being safe drivers and for purchasing multiple policies, the satisfaction levels are not really high even when consumers receive these discounts. But comparatively, ticket forgiveness, accident forgiveness, claims-free discounts are less common but have a huge impact on consumer satisfaction. There is a 40-point lift in satisfaction levels when consumers get these discounts.
The overall satisfaction has averaged at 790 while it was 777 in 2010. The increase is due to the overall improvement in terms of driving satisfaction and especially the billing and payment as well as interaction factors. This is the most important factor in driver satisfaction, as customers can interact online with their insurers and finish their whole interaction through these websites.
