The best insurers in South Africa – according to customers
A new study from PwC, in collaboration with DataEQ, has looked at the popularity of insurers in South Africa.
The 2023 Insurance Sentiment Index aims to benchmark consumer sentiment on social media towards South Africa’s 15 major insurers.
The index tracked over 530,000 public non-enterprise posts across Twitter/X, Hellopeter, and other online sources from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.
“This report aims to present the sentiments of South African consumers in relation to their experiences with claims handling and insurance staff, as well as views expressed regarding short and long-term insurance products,” PwC said.
Overall, the South African insurance industry set the benchmark for Net Sentiment, far outshining banking, retail, and telecommunications.
The insurance industry has seen three years of Net Sentiment increases, rising from 0.4% in 2021 and 6.8% in 2022 to 16.1% Net Sentiment in 2023.
This is far higher than banking (9.4%), retail (3.3%) and telecommunications (-14.0%) in 2023.
PwC said that Discovery had the largest share of insurance conversation at 10.2%.
“The brand is more than an insurance provider, offering an ecosystem of medical aid, banking, investment and insurance services,” PwC said.
“While the data in this report was cleaned to exclude overt mentions of banking, investments and medical aid, general mentions of the brand were still included. This contributed to Discovery’s high share of voice.”
However, retaining its gold medal from 2022, MiWay had the highest Net Sentiment among individual insurance providers in 2023, with a 10.1 percentage point increase to reach 73.3% in 2023.
PwC said that employee praise and recognition on Hellopeter and education marketing campaigns were essential for MiWay’s success.
Overall, the insurance industry measured an aggregate Net Sentiment of 16.1%, with eight industry members above the aggregate.
“Although the industry saw widespread improvement, three insurers experienced a decline in their Net Sentiment from the previous year,” PwC said.
“Recurring themes within drivers of negative sentiment were customers venting their frustrations over delayed payouts, poor customer service, and billing issues.”
“Unauthorised deductions and difficulties with the claims process led to concerns about a lack of transparency in both the sales process and ongoing management of insurance products.”
In addition, Hellopeter had a serious impact on Operational Sentiment within the insurance industry, and without it, Operational Net Sentiment, which MiWay again won at 80.1%, dropped from 26.9% to -46.2%.
When excluding Hellopeter, 1life Insurance had the most positive sentiment, with most of the conversation surrounding the company found on Twitter/X.
“The insurer drove positive sentiment through itsWinningWednesday weekly competition series. The competition required entrants to share a time they referred 1Life to friends or family, and why they did so,” PwC said.
When looking at the Reputational Net Sentiment, Momentum was the winner, with its 43.8% far higher than the aggregate of 15.6%.
“A large portion of Momentum’s reputational success can be attributed to the #SheOwnsHerSuccess campaign and workshop series,” PwC said.
Customer service
Staff was the most mentioned in regard to customer service, with the topic being the only one to receive a positive Net Sentiment Score – mainly due to positive Hellopeter reviews.
Customers would often acknowledge how staff members were helpful whilst also drawing direct comparisons with competitors.
“However, a segment of customers expressed discontent, often pointing to delays in service, occasionally attributing these to staff competency,” PwC said.
Despite being the second most spoken topic, turnaround time registered a negative Net Sentiment of -19.9%, mainly due to frustration over communication delays, particularly when claim information and the status of logged claims were concerned.
“Despite the increasing influence of Hellopeter in positive staff praise, insurers’ underlying service processes and organisational structures continued to hamper overall operational efficiency,” PwC said.
“A lack of proactive communication and visibility for the customer continues to be the dominant pain point for the industry, regardless of channel.”
“PwC’s 2022 Customer Loyalty Survey indicates the growing importance of customer experience in every interaction with the brand, specifically in relation to service. Among survey respondents who stopped using or buying from a specific business in the past year, a bad experience with customer service was among the top reasons.”
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