Widespread Price Increases, Extreme Weather Events and Long Repair Cycle Times Strain Customer Satisfaction with Homeowners Insurance Claims, J.D. Power Finds

Chubb Ranks Highest in Property Claims Satisfaction

TROY, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
A homeowners insurance property claim should be a moment-of-truth opportunity when insurers make good on their coverage promises to their customers, but instead it has increasingly become a pain point. According to the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study,^SM released today, the sheer volume of catastrophic events, history of widespread premium increases and slow repair cycle times have conspired to strain customer satisfaction with the homeowners insurance claims experience.

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J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study

“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,” said Mark Garrett, director of insurance intelligence at J.D. Power. “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.”

Following are some key findings of the 2025 study:

• Repair cycle times continue to rise: The average claim cycle time—the amount of time from filing the claim to finished repairs—is now 32.4 days and the average cycle time from first notice of loss to final payment is now more than 44 days, both of which are the longest times since 2008 when the study began. The average overall customer satisfaction score for a claim that is completed within 10 days is 762 (on a 1,000-point scale). That score falls 167 points to 595 when repairs take more than 31 days.

• Insurer-initiated premium increases sap customer satisfaction: Half of customers who were surveyed for this year’s study experienced insurer-initiated premium increases in the past 12 months, with the largest proportion of increases occurring in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Overall satisfaction scores are 101 points lower (629 vs. 730) when insurers initiate a premium increase unrelated to having a claim than those who did not experience a premium increase.

• Ease of communication has major influence on customer experience: The one thing insurers can do to blunt the negative effects of higher prices and longer claim cycle times is to make it easier to communicate with them. Overall satisfaction scores are more than twice as high (777) when customers say it is very easy to communicate with their insurer than when they say it is very difficult or somewhat difficult to communicate with them (337). Common failure points in the communication process include often needing to leave voicemails; needing to call with questions repeatedly; and not receiving timely follow-up emails and text messages. “In fact, 82% of customers are interacting often with their insurer via their non-preferred communication channels,” Garrett said.

• Digital helps, especially with younger customers: Overall satisfaction is higher among customers who use digital tools when filing a claim, submitting photos that are used in the estimate and receiving proactive updates. Among digital channels, app usage results in the highest levels of satisfaction throughout the process. The Gen Z¹ and Millennial cohorts are most comfortable using digital tools, with 87% of customers in these generations indicating they are comfortable managing the entire claims process digitally. In contrast, nearly 40% of Boomers and Pre-Boomers say they are not comfortable doing the same.

Study Ranking

Chubb ranks highest in property insurance claims experience with a score of 773. Amica (745) ranks second and The Hartford (725) ranks third.

The U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study was redesigned for 2025, thus scores are not comparable with previous-year studies. The study measures satisfaction with the property claims experience among insurance customers who have filed a claim for property damages across eight core dimensions (listed in order of importance): fairness of the claim settlement; level of trust; time it took to settle the claim; people; digital channels; communicated with me how and when I want; ease of starting the claim process; and ease of resolving the claim. The study is based on responses from 5,178 homeowner insurance customers who filed a claim within the previous nine months. The study was fielded from January 2024 through December 2024.

For more information about the U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/resource/us-property-claims-satisfaction-study.

See the online press release at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2025022.

About J.D. Power

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services, and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 55 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies.

J.D. Power has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the company's business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business. The J.D. Power auto-shopping tool can be found at JDPower.com.

About J.D. Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules: www.jdpower.com/business/about-us/press-release-info

¹ J.D. Power defines generational groups as Pre-Boomers (born before 1946); Boomers (1946-1964); Gen X (1965-1976); Gen Y (1977-1994); and Gen Z (1995-2006). Millennials (1982-1994) are a subset of Gen Y.

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Media Relations Contacts
Geno Effler, J.D. Power; West Coast; 714-621-6224; [email protected]
John Roderick; East Coast; 631-584-2200; [email protected]

Source: J.D. Power