20 homeowners' insurance companies ranked highest for customer satisfaction

By Danielle Ling

News November 06, 2017 at 07:00 PM

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U.S. homeowners' insurance customer satisfaction scores have never been higher, according to the new J.D. Power 2017 U.S. Home Insurance Study. The annual study found the score has reached an all-time high of 808 (on a 1,000-point scale), driven by improvements in policy offerings. This number is up 4 points from 2016, and J.D. Power researchers say the record score comes after years of declining catastrophic losses and stable pricing. However, researchers note insurers face a critical test maintaining this high score following this season's string of devastating natural disasters that created historic property losses and profit strains. Related: 5 client takeaways from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma "Although property insurers have made great strides in overall customer satisfaction over the past several years, the areas where they consistently see the lowest satisfaction scores are price and direct customer service," said Greg Hoeg, Vice President of U.S. Insurance Operations at J.D. Power. "Those two areas in particular will be under enormous stress as insurers address losses from the recent hurricanes."

InsurTech and its impact on insurers

J.D. Power researchers say these challenges are worsened by the threat of rising insurance technology innovators. These InsurTech companies have raised over $7.1 billion globally since 2012, and are attempting to infiltrate the marketplace by offering lower premiums and technologically advanced self-service interactions via the web and mobile. However, traditional service providers are adapting to the technology curve by partnering with smart home assistants like Google Home and Amazon Echo to increase customer engagement and improve customer satisfaction, the report states. Related: Regulators take note: Consumers want better insurance technology "The risk to customer satisfaction in the wake of catastrophic events transcends those directly affected and expands to other insureds whose satisfaction with service is also affected by the image of their carrier," said Robert Lajdziak, Business Consultant for the North American Insurance Practice at J.D. Power. "Further, if carriers need to raise rates they need to execute on several best practices that mitigate the potential negative effect associated with premium increases. Examples include ensuring customers understand their policy, explaining what the policy covers and discussing premium change options." Related: 5 top insurance tech trends for 2017

Study rankings

The results of the U.S. Home Insurance Study are based on responses from 15,909 online interviews. To conduct this annual study, satisfaction among homeowners insurance customers was measured by examining 5 factors:

Interaction.
Policy offerings.
Price.
Billing process and policy information.
Claims.

Satisfaction is calculated on a 1,000-point scale. Here are the top 20 homeowners' insurance companies ranked highest for customer satisfaction, according to J.D. Power's 2017 study: Farmers Insurance logo