Brokers have a great opportunity to cross sell or bundle two or more insurance policies together and make their clients happier, according to research released this week.
The annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), released Tuesday, found that customers who bundle their auto and homeowners coverage together are more satisfied on average (78) than those purchasing only auto insurance (76) or homeowners (75).
The ACSI is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services based on data from roughly 70,000 customers. Measures are reported on a scale of 0 to 100.
The findings make interesting reading when compared with a report from Verdict Financial, which looked at the UK market and found that while three quarters of consumers hold two or more insurance policies and so can be effectively targeted by cross-selling strategies, brokers are not yet capitalizing on this opportunity.
Bundling opportunity is at its highest for home and car cover but even here Verdict found that only one in five clients buys both products from the same insurer.
In the UK, the most popular policies are home, auto, travel and pet insurance, with three quarters of consumers holding at least two, suggesting a significant market for bundling is out there.
Independent brokers also have the upper hand it would seem as another interesting finding from the ACSI survey is that smaller companies provide better service, with the aggregate of smaller insurers gaining 5% year on year to score 83.
