The latest South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SA-csi) for life insurance has just been released and it shows who has the most satisfied customers in the country.
According to Consulta that conducted the research, life insurers face “their biggest battleground” yet in South Africa. Contributing factors are:
- a heavily constrained economy;
- high unemployment;
- a growing burden of disease;
- technology and distribution disruption;
- changing customer expectations;
- social media; and
- citizen journalism
All of these impact, when a dissatisfied customer feels they have been treated unfairly or when trust is breached.
In the 2018 SA-csi for Life Insurance, FNB Life clinched the top spot with SA’s most satisfied customers. Metropolitan still registered above industry average, whilst Old Mutual, Sanlam, Absa Life, 1Life Insurance and Discovery Life all following on par, while Liberty and Momentum are below industry par. All insurers showed some decline on the previous year’s index scores with the exception of Discovery and Sanlam.
But what are customers complaining about?
Of the complaint incidence across all brands, customers complained most often about fees and cost 14%, problems and issues 9%, response time 8% and personal contact 7%. It is notable that customers who highlighted feedback and personal contact as their key complaints also have the lowest overall satisfaction scores – indicating that these are significant points of contention for customers.
The degree to which customers feel they are being treated fairly by their insurer is:
- FNB Life (87.6) is the highest and well above the industry par of 80.2,
- Absa Life (81.5),
- Old Mutual (81.5),
- Sanlam (81),
- 1Life Insurance (81) and
- Metropolitan (80.8).
Discovery Life (78.6) and Liberty (77.5) come in below par, while Momentum comes in significantly below par (74.4) with the lowest score.
Financial advisers are the face of customer experience – you can therefore manage the customers’ satisfaction.
Click here to read more about the SA-csi results that also showcases customer expectations, perceived value and customer loyalty.
