Small Business & Insurers — Trust a Huge Issue

J.D. Power does all kinds of insurance surveys. This one is on small business trust and insurers. The survey found companies that gets the highest level of trust and that help customers understand coverage will also personalize products to specific business needs, retain more customers than those that don’t.

Steven Crewdson is the company’s senior director of global insurance intelligence. He said 36% of small businesses said they had premium increases in the past year. That’s up two points from the 34% a year ago. Of those surveyed, 81% with the highest level of trust say they’ll definitely renew with their carrier again this year.

Of that 81%, a staggering 79% say they’ll recommend their insurance company to others.

"Trust is the single most important variable in the customer relationship with commercial insurance providers,” Crewdson said. "Across virtually every business metric that matters to insurers — customer loyalty, advocacy, premium retention and share of wallet — small business owners who trust their insurers represent significantly higher value. While some insurers are doing a great job cultivating that trust, others have a lot of work to do.”

Here’s more from the survey:

• On average, small business customer satisfaction with commercial insurers is 697 on the 1,000 point scale
• Customers with the highest level of trust rate their provider at 877, a staggering 187 points higher than the average
• 51% of increase in 2023 were initiated by the insurer
• 16% of the changes were from business needs and 13% from a change made by the customer
• When customers totally understand the reason for a premium increase, the level of trust is 142% higher than if they don’t

J.D. Power’s survey ranks American Family as the company with the highest level of customer satisfaction at 727. State Farm is second and Allstate is third.

Source link: PropertyCasualty360.com — https://bit.ly/3YYuozR