Study Measures Client Respect

The largest insurance firms in the nation recently were ranked on how they treated online customers in the first quarter of this year. Insurers received improved marks in their responsiveness to online inquiries, but they continue to share user data at higher rates than other industries, the Customer Respect Group, an international research and consulting firm, summarized in its Online Customer Respect Study.

Although a direct comparison among industries is difficult, the average customer respect index throughout 2004 was 5.9. Insurers in the most recent survey scored slightly better, at 6.1. In the property and casualty category, Progressive Corp. was ranked number one, while Mercury General Corp. was last on the list.

“We're seeing some of the same trends in the insurance industry report as we saw in the recent financial service report,” said Terry Golesworthy, president of the Customer Respect Group. “There are some qualified gains in responsiveness, which are offset by continued privacy issues. The stakes are the same in both industries. Users object to having their submitted online data shared with third parties or even internally without their permission.”

Overall, insurers' responsiveness, a measure of how many online inquiries went unanswered, improved from 36 percent to 19 percent. Despite a rise in the volume number of inquiries addressed within an hour, however, the number answered within a day fell from 67 percent to 54 percent. Taken one level further, only 25 percent were answered within the day and were considered helpful.

Insurance firms continue to share user-submitted online data with business partners and other third parties at an alarming rate, the study noted. In 2004, the data-sharing average was 24 percent for business partners and third parties across all industries, while the insurance industry's 2004 average was 34 percent. This year, insurers have pushed that rate slightly higher, to 35 percent.