Insurance claim satisfaction rises – but not so much in Fla.

NEW YORK – March 10, 2017 – Overall customer satisfaction among homeowners filing property insurance claims has reached a new all-time high, according to the J.D. Power 2017 U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study. The surge corresponds with a 10-year high in catastrophic events, which usually heralds a decline in satisfaction scores.

Though customer satisfaction improvements are industry-wide, they vary considerably by region and claim type, and a handful of states in the Central and Eastern regions – most notably Texas, Florida and Massachusetts, which had more volatile weather – posted flat to declining customer satisfaction scores.

The West region posted the largest improvement nationwide amid a relatively calm year for claim activity.

Outside of those specific examples, however, weather-related claims drove the highest overall improvement in customer satisfaction, with high wind- and hail-related claims leading the way. Conversely, water-related claims, which tend to take longer to resolve and disrupt the daily lives of homeowners, are linked to lower overall satisfaction scores.

The study measures satisfaction with the property claims experience. Satisfaction is calculated on a 1,000-point scale. It surveys customers who filed a damage claim and examines five factors (listed in order of importance):

• settlement
• first notice of loss
• estimation process
• service interaction
• repair process

The overall Customer Satisfaction Index increased 13 points year over year to a score of 859 in 2017 – a new all-time high for the study. The largest single driver of the improvement is the settlement factor, which encompasses the fairness of the settlement amount, followed by estimation process and service interaction.

"Despite the overall improvement, problem areas are evident, most notably in water-related and other complex claims that take a long time to settle and that cause significant lifestyle disruption," says Greg Hoeg, vice president of U.S. insurance operations at J.D. Power. "Insurers that manage to get the settlement process and customer interaction equation right in these types of disruptive and often catastrophic scenarios are those that raise the bar for the industry."

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