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Who are the best and worst life insurers in South Africa? We take a look at the rankings of the top six. Do you agree?
Consulta have released their findings on the life insurance rankings in South Africa. Metropolitan have, for the fifth year in a row, come out topping the charts according to a survey of customers. The SAcsi Benchmark has, for five years running, been conducting these surveys to establish the best and worst service providers in the country.
CLICK BELOW to view the best and worst car insurance companies.Based on a survey of 2 460 randomly chosen customers, they rank the insurers based on the response. Various aspects are taken into consideration for the rankings. These include the Customer Expectation Index, Percieved Quality Index, Perceived Value Index, and how likely the customer is to refer the provider to friends and family. The six companies surveyed included Discovery, Metropolitan, Old Mutual, Liberty, Momentum, and Sanlam.
Metropolitan Dominates Life Insurance
Metropolitan has come out topping the charts with its 2.6 point lead against its closest competitor, Sanlam. It's 82.6 lead dominates the industry average score of 79 and has consistently improved its score over the last three years, climbing 1.8% this year. Discovery finds itself at the bottom of the ranking, with a 74.0 score, dropping 1.4% from last year. But, Discovery is not the biggest faller this year. Momentum has taken the biggest plunge by losing 2.3%, while Liberty has powered up 5.1% in the last year.“In this category, there isn’t a wide gap between the leaders and the laggards, compared to other industry benchmarks in the SAcsi. In other sectors such as short-term insurance, medical insurance and retail banking, the difference in satisfaction is much more varied as customers deal with the services more frequently and would be more cognisant of poor customer service.,” says Consulta CEO, Professor Adré Schreuder.
Brand Loyalty Depends On Service
The score is determined by various factors of how a customer perceives a brand. Interestingly, Metropolitan’s customer loyalty score is higher than the industry standard. This despite the fact that they received the most amount of complaints. It rests on how the insurer handles the complaints and turns them around, thereby retaining the customer. The Net Promoter Score determines how likely the customer is to refer friends and family. Metropolitan once again beat the industry standard by 8.6%, achieving 46%. Old Mutual scored 36%, Sanlam scored 33%, while Liberty and Momentum scored 30%. Discovery scored an NPS of 24%.“There is very little differentiation (at least not sustainable) in the type of life cover offered by each of the life insurers. The difference lies in the quality of customer experience and the level of engagement each brand provides,” concludes Schreuder.
The Breakdown
The score breakdown over the last three years of comparison looks as follows:| Measured Companies | 2015 | 2016 | % of Change |
| Metropolitan | 81.1 | 82.6 | 1.8 |
| Old Mutual | 78.0 | 80.3 | 2.9 |
| Liberty | 74.1 | 78.1 | 5.1 |
| Momentum | 79.3 | 77.5 | -2.3 |
| Sanlam | 74.9 | 77.5 | 3.4 |
| Discovery | 75.0 | 74.0 | -1.4 |