Poor insurance company: CBA, IAG and Suncorp
A shunned Suncorp is the caustic detail found in a Roy Morgan Research report on household insurance satisfaction released yesterday.Top ranked insurance names in this list may warrant respect, based on the assumption that satisfaction surveys indicate how much their customers will renew their policies with the firm.On that measure, some key ASX listed insurance names are not among the most loved brands.CBA, IAG and Suncorp (the operators of CommInsure, Coles and Suncorp, respectively) are three big names found lacking in something the others - mostly mutuals in one form or another - have to offer.The stellar names are survivors of a mutual insurance model from the early years of motor vehicles."South Australia-based RAA leads in customer satisfaction among the 18 largest household insurers with 92.1 per cent - up 6.8 percentage points since 2013," the Roy Morgan report said.Following RAA is APIA - a Suncorp brand - on 89.3 per cent (up 400 basis points), then RAC with 87.5per cent (up 470 bps). "The other biggest improvers during this time," Roy Morgan industry communications director Norman Morris said, "were RACQ (up 850 basis points to 84.5 per cent), NRMA (up 410 bps to 83.3 per cent) and GIO (up 380 bps to 79.8 per cent)."Only three of the 18 largest insurers showed declines in satisfaction over the last three years, Morris said. These were Coles (down 280 bps), Westpac (down 250 bps) and QBE (down 190 bps). Satisfaction among household insurance policy holders is made up of those who are 'very satisfied' and those who are only 'fairly satisfied'. Morris said "the significance of the 'very satisfied' group was that a much higher proportion of them than any other segment (including the 'fairly satisfied') said they were 'extremely likely' to renew their policy with the same company."This measure divides doers from leaners in general insurance - that is , if the multi-brand strategies are ignored.Morris said that "Overall, only 33.7 per cent of policy holders are 'very satisfied' but this is much higher for APIA (47.2 per cent), RAC (WA) (46.3 per cent) and South Australia's RAA (45.7 per cent)." This trio all top the pops in the headline measure.Coles (27.1 per cent), Comminsure (29.1 per cent) and Suncorp Insurance (29.2 per cent) have the lowest proportion of 'very satisfied' customers.APIA at least is one glimmer in an otherwise weak Suncorp story, with the main brand limping along among the laggards in the 'very satisfied' group. As for IAG, Australia's largest insurance company, the Roy Morgan report serves up a mixture of questions, mostly around why none of the many brands have anything like the number of satisfied customers as the top performers. Further, IAG's efforts to white label Coles Insurance products via its wholly owned brand WFI (formerly Wesfarmers Federation Insurance) seem to have flatlined - a worry when Roy Morgan has been stressing the link between very satisfied customers and likelihood of renewal. Conversely, the negative publicity generated by Comminsure doesn't seem to have affected its satisfaction measures which,