Insurance Information Institute: U.S. Homeowners Insurers Given Record-High Satisfaction Score

NEW YORK, Feb. 29 -- The Insurance Information Institute issued the following news release:

U.S. homeowners who filed an insurance claim last year cumulatively gave their insurers record-high customer satisfaction ratings after being surveyed by J.D. Power, according to the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I).

U.S. homeowners insurers were given a record-high score of 881 (on a 1,000-point scale) in the just-released J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study. It examined five elements of the homeowners insurance claims process: first notice of loss, estimation process, service interaction, repair process and settlement. The 2020 study was based on responses from 6,025 homeowners insurance customers between April and December 2019. About one in 20 U.S. homes has a claim each year.

"The nation's homeowners insurers recognize a customer who incurs property damage is going through an extraordinarily difficult time and may even need to reside elsewhere while repairs are made to their home," said Sean Kevelighan, CEO, Triple-I. "J.D. Power's findings affirm how insurers are fulfilling their role as the nation's economic first responders while also scoring high marks from their customers."

According to the Triple-I, the leading causes of property damage to homes are wind and hail, fire and lightning, and water damage and freezing.

"Home insurers have spent a great deal of time and money refining their claims processing capabilities through a combination of improved client relationship management, enhanced technology and improved quality control," said David Pieffer, property and casualty lead for insurance intelligence at J.D. Power. "As a result of the industry's efforts, we saw year-over-year improvements realized across the majority of insurers evaluated in our study."

Other key findings from the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study included:

* Two of the factors most likely to drive customer dissatisfaction are claim-related premium increases and needing to exert a high level of effort to get their claim resolved

* Digital solutions in first notice of loss and estimation, along with self-service account management tools, are having a positive effect on the convenience and speed of the claims process

* More than one-fourth (27 percent) of customers still prefer the entire claims process to be handled offline and just four percent indicate they would prefer a digital-only claims experience