Professional Focus: Dual pricing

As part of a major research project to find a meaningful way of measuring trust in the insurance profession, the Chartered Insurance Institute created a tool examining how to take practical steps towards building trust.

The ‘Public Trust Index’ (Index) was designed to measure consumer confidence in insurance. The Index reveals where people are confident in the insurance profession and areas for improvement, and is based on detailed research with consumers, SMEs, insurers, regulators and public bodies. The researchers looked at what those buying insurance consider to be important and compared this with how those same individuals perceived insurers’ performance. The research included in-depth interviews with consumers, SMEs and those working in the profession.

This first Index indicates that the number one issue for consumers is the perceived lack of loyalty from their insurer, this is where researchers found the biggest gap between consumers’ expectations and insurer performance. Consumers are fed up with retail insurers offering cheaper premiums to new customers than they are offered at renewal. This marketing technique, known in the profession as ‘dual pricing’, has come under fire in recent years as the growth of comparison websites has made it easier for people to shop around for insurance and see that they could get a better price with their insurer if they were a new customer.

Our latest lecture examines dual-pricing in more detail by examining the following:

• What does ‘trust’ mean in insurance for a consumer?
• What consumers value most
• Loyalty penalties
• Action taken so far
• Rewarding loyalty
• Commitment to action

You can also read the results from the Public Trust Index HERE.