A recent survey by J.D. Power 2014 found that overall customer satisfaction with homeowner insurers improved in 2014, and that Amica Mutual was the ranked the best by homeowners insurance customers.

GEICO took the top customers ranking in the renters insurance segment.

The study also found that millennials were the least satisfied customer segment overall. (See related article, “Millennials Most Dissatisfied Among Homeowners Insurance Customer Groups.”)

Across all customer segments, overall customer satisfaction improved to 790 in 2014 on a 1,000-point scale, up from 787 in 2013.

The J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Household Insurance Study examines overall customer satisfaction with three distinct personal insurance product lines: homeowners, renters and individual life insurance. Satisfaction in the homeowners and renters insurance segments is measured by examining five factors: interaction; policy offerings; price; billing and payment; and claims.

The increase in satisfaction in 2014 is driven largely by a significant seven-point improvement in the price factor.

• 60 percent of customers in 2014 indicated their homeowners insurance premiums have remained the same during the past 12 months, up from 58 percent in 2013.
• The proportion of customers who experienced an insurer-initiated premium increase dropped slightly to 29 percent in 2014 from 30 percent in 2013.
• Interaction, the leading driver of customer satisfaction with an insurer, has an overall score of 832. However, 27 percent of customers in 2014 have to wait to speak with an agent when they call, up from 22 percent in 2013; and 13 percent of customers are transferred to another agency representative, an increase from 10 percent in 2013.

Renters Insurance

Overall satisfaction among renters insurance customers dropped to 802 in 2014 from 809 in 2013.

The leading drivers of that decline are lower scores in the interaction and billing and payment factors.

The largest gaps in satisfaction between renter and homeowner insurance customers are in the price and policy offerings factors: price satisfaction is 35 points higher among renters insurance customers, and policy offerings satisfaction is 16 points higher among homeowners insurance customers.

Insurance rankings

Amica Mutual scored 839 to top the homeowners insurer customer ranking, performing well in all five factors of overall satisfaction. Auto-Owners Insurance ranks second (829), followed by State Farm (813), Erie Insurance (810) and American Family (805).

On the renters insurance side, GEICO’s score of 811 was followed closely by State Farm at 810. GEICO performs particularly well in the policy offerings, price and billing and payment factors, while State Farm performs particularly well in the interaction factor.

The 2014 U.S. Household Insurance Study is based on 22,934 responses from customers who have one or more of the following insurance product lines: homeowners; renters; and individual life insurance. The study was fielded in June and July 2014.

Source: J.D. Power & Associates