The insurance customer experience has taken a hit for homeowners over the last year amongst increasing natural catastrophes, widespread premium bumps and slow repair times. J.D. Power recently released its 2025 U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study, which delves into the intricacies of customer attitudes toward their home insurers.
“There were 27 catastrophic events in 2024 and 28 the year before. Homeowners insurers are currently losing roughly one nickel on every dollar of premium they collect, and with total cost of events like the California wildfires still being assessed, there seems to be no end in sight,” Mark Garrett, director of intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a release. “Customers are, in essence, paying higher prices for slower service. The average claimant does not receive final payment on a claim until 44 days after the first notice of loss, and unless insurers are communicating frequently and clearly along the way, customer satisfaction suffers.”
Findings from J.D. Power’s 2025 Claims Study included the following.
Repair cycle times are still ticking upward
According to the study, the average claim cycle time now averages 32.4 days, with the average time from first notice of loss to final payment averaging 44 days. Both of these represent the longest time periods for claims since the study began in 2008. When claims are completed in fewer than 10 days, J.D. Power found that the average overall customer satisfaction score is 762 out of 1,000. That score drops by 167 points when the repairs take longer than 31 days.
Insurer-initiated premium increases hurt customer satisfaction
Half of the customers in J.D. Power’s survey said they had experienced an insurer-initiated premium increase in the last year. The largest instances of these increases were reported in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Oklahoma. It found customer satisfaction scores dropped an average of 101 points when insurers initiated a rate increase unrelated to a claim.
Customers care about ease of communication
Increasing the ease with which insureds can communicate with them goes a long way for insurance companies, even amid higher prices and longer claim times. J.D. Power found overall satisfaction scores were more than twice as high when customers believed it was easy to communicate with their insurer. Common failure points in the communication process include needing to leave multiple voicemails, needing to call repeatedly with questions and not receiving timely follow-up emails and text messages.
Digitalization helps satisfaction, especially with young customers
J.D. Power found that overall customer satisfaction is higher among customers who utilize digital tools when filing a claim, submitting pertinent photos and receiving claim updates, with app usage leading to the highest satisfaction levels. Gen Z and Millennials are the most comfortable with these tools, with J.D. Power reporting 87% of customers in those generations indicated they are comfortable managing their entire claim process digitally. Among older customers, Boomers and older, around 40% said they aren’t comfortable with a fully digital claim process.
In the slideshow above, we’ll look at the ten property insurers who ranked the highest in customer satisfaction last year, according to J.D. Power.
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