Churchill, Llyods and Sheila's Wheels top online insurance survey

The research from customer experience benchmarking company, Global Reviews, measured customers' experience on twelve motor insurance and fifteen home insurance websites.

The sites were assessed against more than 550 objective criteria including the information available to prospective buyers, customer support, service offered to customers, and general site usability.

The study found that there is a huge difference between the home insurance websites.  Lloyds leads the way with 62% and Zurich has the lowest score with 46% (see below for full benchmark). 

Lloyds is top of the table because they are head and shoulders above the rest for the quality of the customer support online with a score of 70% for this category.  

-         Churchill received the highest score for online applications with 64%, closely followed by Lloyds at 62%. 

-         Privilege and Churchill were found to offer the best sales support online with scores of 68%. 

-         Lloyds ranked number one by some way for customer support with a score of 70%.  Churchill came second with 51%.

-         When it comes to the quality of the homepage, search and overall navigation, Norwich Union and Halifax received the highest scores of 79%. 

-         Direct Line was found to offer the best content online, with the highest score of 56%.

The variance across motor insurance websites is much less with only 10% difference in the scores. Churchill and Sheila's Wheels lead the way with 51%.  Tesco (44%), Admiral (43%) and Budget (41%) have the lowest scores (see below for full benchmark).  Churchill and Sheila's Wheels are top of the table because they receive good scores in all areas.

-         More Th>n received the highest score of 57% for online applications, closely followed by Admiral and esure at 54%. 

-         Sheila's Wheels was found to offer the best sales support online with a score of 52%, closely followed by More Th>n with 51%.  

-         Swiftcover (61%), Direct Line (58%) and Churchill (52%) are head and shoulders above the rest for customer support.

-         When it comes to the quality of the homepage, search and overall navigation, Norwich Union received the highest scored of 75%. 

-         The AA was found to offer the best content online, with the highest score of 55%, closely followed by Swiftcover and Churchill with 54%.

The Home Insurance scores may seem higher than the Motor insurance scores, but they are different benchmarks, so they cannot be compared like for like. It is only possible to compare companies within each product benchmark.  

Global Reviews director, Bertie Stevenson said: "The vast majority of consumers depend on websites to research their insurance options. If customers find it difficult to find the information they are looking for, or to apply online, their competitors are just a click away.  Even those at the top of the benchmark need to look regularly at what competitors are doing as change can happen quickly online."

Source: www.globalreviews.co.uk