A new report has claims that the home insurance industry “needs a revolution” to meet the demands of customers fed up with confusing policy documents, unimpressive customer service and pricing tricks.
The report from Consumer Intelligence – The Voice of the Consumer: Home Insurance – asked customers how they would improve the service offered by insurers through an innovative survey of nearly 4,100 people.
Key areas identified for improvements are policy wording and documents chosen by 33%; customer service chosen by 18%; and quotes and pricing chosen by 12%.
Policy wording complaints focused on making policies easier to understand with 15% claiming insurers hide items in small print, while customer service complaints focused on non-UK call centres and a failure to treat customers as individuals.
In addition, pricing and quotes complaints focused on pricing tricks such as not offering the best price at the start – 35% say insurers often offer a price which can be reduced through haggling.
Consumers would like to see the introduction of basic affordable home and contents insurance at around £75 a year to help low income families pay for policies – Association of British Insurers data estimates one in four households have no contents insurance.
Ian Hughes of Consumer Intelligence said: “Consumers want clear, simple insurance written in plain English with no weasel words sold in a simple and fair way with the best cover and best prices going to the most loyal customers.
“Meeting the challenge of the consumer to be clear, fair and loyal requires a revolution on an industrial scale.
“Policyholders would rather build and maintain a relationship with one insurer that works on both sides to avoid the hassle of switching.”
Ideas from the research include insurers providing a comparison of their policy against those of other insurers to help consumers weigh up what’s on offer. Some suggested that all insurers should offer the same application questions and insurance policy coverage.
Consumers suggest more insurers should offer discounts to those who had more than one insurance policy with the same insurer. Others suggested premium discounts for those that keep their home well maintained or work from home.
