Property-casualty insurers gained 1.3 percentage points on the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), climbing to 81.

The ACSI credits a drop in premiums in 2008 for driving the slight uptick in satisfaction.

P-c insurance companies outpaced the “Finance and Insurance” average score of 76, and beat all sectors in that category except for credit unions, which scored 84. The Finance and Insurance sector includes commercial banks, p-c insurers, life and health insurers, and credit unions.

Outside of Finance and Insurance, p-c insurers scored higher than all sectors within other measured industries except for e-commerce retail outlets.

The ACSI is a quarterly national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States. It is produced by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in partnership with the American Society for Quality and CFI Group.

Smaller insurers lead the way for p-c, the ACSI noted in a statement, with a rating of 81. This mirrors the score these insurers received last year. After the smaller insurers, the ACSI said, “There is a tight grouping of companies within this highly satisfying industry, with State Farm and GEICO at 80 and Progressive and Allstate very close behind at 79. Only Farmers Group lags the industry and its major competitors by a significant margin.” Farmers was up 1 percent to 77.

Claes Fornell, head of the ACSI, said small insurers received higher satisfaction scores for the same reason smaller companies in most industries score higher: they have no alternative other than to provide better service. In general, these companies cannot compete on price, Mr. Fornell said.

If insurers raise rates in 2009, Mr. Fornell said the industry could feel an impact with respect to future satisfaction results because all other industries are lowering prices due to the economy.

P-c insurers have increased their percentage every year since 2004, and have risen from an all-time low score of 75 in 1995.

(Phil Gusman may be reached at pgusman@nuco.com, 201-526-2346)

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P-C Insurers Reach New High In Latest ACSI

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