Highest ranked insurers for customer experience revealed

NFU Mutual has been named the best insurer for customer experience in new market research by Insurance Data Lab (IDL).

Published yesterday (12 December 2023), the research highlighted the firm achieved a CX rating of 77% for 2023, meaning it secured first place for the second year in a row.

And the data showed that it outperformed the market average by nine percentage points, driven by a customer satisfaction score of 80% – the highest in the analysis.

Covéa, Natwest, HSBC, Santander and Direct Line Group were also recognised as top performers within the research and like NFU Mutual, were awarded a gold award for 2023 by IDL.

“The companies that have picked up gold awards this year have all demonstrated exceptional performance across each key metric, demonstrating that they put the customer at the heart of what they do,” said Matt Scott, cofounder of IDL.

Overall experience

For the research, IDL rated 24 providers across four key metrics – claims, complaints, customer satisfaction and transparency – using data from Consumer Intelligence, Fairer Finance, Insurance Times and Trustpilot, as well as its own analysis of Financial Ombudsman Service and FCA complaints data.

The research also found that overall customer experience across the industry had declined over the last 12 months, with the average CX rating falling one percentage point to 68%.

The only pillar to receive a higher average score this year compared to the last report was transparency, which rose five percentage points to 71% for the 24 companies in the analysis.

This was despite the Consumer Duty regulation, which came into force earlier this year (31 July 2023), requiring companies in the sector to ensure that their products provide fairer value to customers.

Scott said: “At a time when the regulatory spotlight on customer outcomes has never been greater, it is worrying that the industry has taken a step backwards when it comes to customer experience.

”Insurers need to do much more to monitor their performance on these metrics, particularly with the regulator becoming more interventionalist.”