Customers 'unhappy over complaints'

Last Modified: 24 Jul 2008
Source: PA News

Insurers are being urged to improve the way they handle complaints after it emerged that more than half of customers were unhappy with the process.

Around 57% of people who had complained to an insurer during 2007/2008 said they thought their complaint had been handled poorly, according to a survey by the Association of British Insurers' Consumer Impact Panel.

Although only 3% of those questioned had complained, the proportion who were not happy with the process had increased by 7% since the survey was last carried out a year ago.

Just 10% of people thought the way their complaint was handled was excellent or very good, down from 14% during the previous year, while only 44% were satisfied with the outcome, compared with 51% previously.

People were most likely to complain about a product at 42%, while 37% complained about a general error being made.

Around 26% of customers complained about the service they had received, up from 22% a year ago.

Melanie Johnson, chair of the Customer Impact Panel, said: "We're recommending that firms review their complaint handling processes to ensure improvements continue, and that the valuable insights complaints provide are captured and acted upon."

But the Panel praised the ABI's board for following up on previous recommendations it had made, saying considerable work had been carried out during the past year at both an industry and individual company level.

The survey, which was carried out among 19,425 insurance customers, also highlighted some positive results, with 53% of people saying they thought the industry had an excellent reputation, up from 48% a year earlier.

Around 77% of people also said they thought their provider really cared about customers, up 1% from 12 months ago, while 86% said they were easy to do business with. But only 50% of people who had made a claim thought the process had been very good or excellent, down from 53% last year, with people most likely to be unhappy about not being kept up to date with the progress of their claim.

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