· On average, more than one-fifth (22 percent) of respondents said they were likely to stop doing business with at least one of their insurers in the next 12 months but the figure rose to 31 percent amongst the 18 to 24 age group and was significantly lower at 10 percent among the over-55s.
· Customers in emerging markets are also more likely to switch insurers to get products more relevant to their needs. For example, 96 percent of consumers in China were likely to switch, compared to 76 percent on average and only 59 percent in the US.
Despite this, both young and emerging markets customers are the most willing to pay a premium to get products more relevant to their needs:
· Almost three-quarters (70 percent) of 18 to 24-year-olds said they were willing to pay more for this, compared to only a third (33 percent) of over 55s and 38 percent of 45 to 54-year-olds.
· This is also true of consumers in India, China, South Korea and Brazil, where 93 percent, 92 percent, 76 percent and 73 percent of respondents respectively would pay more, compared to an average figure of 52 percent and only 21 percent of French respondents.
Commenting on these trends, John DelSanto, global managing director of Accenture’s Insurance practice, said: “The fast-growing middle classes in emerging markets are determined to protect their new-found affluence and this has led to strong demand for insurance. This is a big opportunity for global insurers that are keen to expand. But they need to have a thorough understanding of the different groups of customers, especially the younger ones, and it will be important to develop innovative, personalized products and services and deliver them across all of the preferred channels.”
Among other key findings:
· More than three-quarters (78 percent) of respondents think that insurance products and services are not easy to understand.
· Almost the same number of respondents (75 percent) believes that insurers generally offer the same products and services.
· More than three-fifths (61 percent) of respondents said that it was very important for their insurer to provide prompt and effective service, or to answer requests in a timely manner, but only 32 percent of respondents were very satisfied with their insurers’ ability to deliver such service.
· While 53 percent of respondents stated that access to the information they need whenever they need it is very important to them, only 29 percent felt very satisfied with their insurers’ capacity to provide assistance on a 24-hour, seven days per week basis.
Methodology
Accenture commissioned a survey of 7,010 owners of life and/or property and casualty insurance policies in 13 countries. The online survey was designed by Accenture and conducted by Lightspeed Research during February and March of 2011. Respondents were representative of the population in gender, age and income. The 7,010 respondents included 1,000 from the U.S., 502 each from China, Germany, India, 501 each from Australia, Brazil, France and the UK, and 500 each from Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Spain.