National, April 8, 2025: Hansa Research has released its 5th edition of
the Insurance CuES report that tracks the experience, perceptions, attitudes,
and behaviour of consumers in India, with a particular focus on life insurance.
Based on customer
experience, the report ranks the top life insurance companies in India and has
captured feedback from more than 3600 customers across 13 life insurance brands
in the country. The 2025 Life Insurance CuES report provides important
insights that can help companies prioritize and better position their business
strategies and investments in the year to come.
In
a shift from 2024, the life insurance industry has witnessed a significant leap
in customer experience, marking a notable departure from last year’s stagnation,
particularly in communication, customer support, and the initial purchase
and on boarding journey. Hansa Research’s latest Life Insurance CuES 2025
report reveals that customers are associating life insurance brands more
positively, especially in aspects like ‘trust and transparency,’ ‘innovation,’
and being ‘customer-oriented.’ This improvement has resulted in a significant
increase in the industry’s Net Promoter Score from 54% to 58%.
Over
the past five years, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) for the insurance industry
has seen a remarkable increase of 20 points, rising from 38% in 2021 to 58% in
2025. This improvement can be attributed to insurers effectively meeting
customer expectations in key areas such as operational efficiency,
transparency, and post-sales service support. Additionally, there has been a
notable shift in customer expectations, evolving from mere transactional
interactions to fostering deeper relationships with their insurers.
Furthermore,
a significant trend observed over this five-year period is the narrowing gap in
NPS between leading and lesser-performing brands. In 2021, the difference in
NPS between the top quartile and the bottom quartile brands was 17 points; by
2025, this gap has decreased to just 10 points. This trend suggests an overall
improvement in service quality across the industry and underscores the
importance of continuous enhancements in customer engagement strategies. As
brands strive to enhance their offerings, it is evident that companies are
increasingly prioritizing customer satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately
benefiting consumers with improved service experiences.
Sharing
some insights on the Hansa Research, Life Insurance CuES report, Praveen
Nijhara, CEO, Hansa Research said, “The Life Insurance companies have
consistently demonstrated strong performance over the last five years. However,
differentiation in customer experience is diminishing, making the next few
years crucial for establishing brand leadership. Delivering
experiences and products tailored to the diverse needs, preferences and
communication styles of India's fragmented demographics especially customers in
non-metros, millennials and women will drive leadership.”
Key
Highlights
ICICI
Prudential Life Insurance and Axis Max Life Insurance have achieved
impressive Net Promoter Scores (NPS) of 65% and 64%, respectively, significantly
exceeding the industry average of 58%. Both brands are recognized as
innovators, delivering exceptional brand and customer experiences.
Tata AIA and Kotak Life Insurance have tied for the
third spot alongside HDFC Life Insurance, displaying an improvement in
their customer experience offerings.
SBI Life Insurance has also made significant strides improving its
NPS, and ranking high on trust and affordability. Additionally, LIC, SBI Life
Insurance and HDFC Life Insurance continue to lead in brand awareness among
non-life policyholders.
Piyali Chatterjee,
Executive Vice President, CX, Hansa Research said,
"To thrive in the future, brands must focus on addressing financial
literacy, behavioural biases, and simplifying product complexity. Success lies
in aligning products with customer needs and profiles while delivering
seamless, personalized experiences. Over recent years, customer expectations
have shifted from purely transactional interactions to relationship-driven
engagement—a trend that continues to strengthen and shape the industry's
evolution."
In 2025, five key trends emerge, which will play a
fundamental role in shaping the industry.
1.
Economic
Influence on Financial Investment Decisions: Consumers are increasingly influenced by economic factors
when making financial investments. However, concerns about lack of information and
transparency, as well as the difficulty in understanding financial products,
persist. Our findings from the study show that simple-to-understand products
and plans are critical for both acquisition and customer retention. Infact, 40%
of respondents (non-life policyholders) in the survey mentioned that they did
not find it easy to understand the features, terms and conditions of life
insurance product & policies.
2.
Evolution of Life Insurance needs: While ensuring ‘financial protection for the family’ was
the key motivator for purchasing life insurance among the current policyholders
(34%), there is an increased focus on savings and retirement among the
customers. Insurers need to start aligning their products to meet the evolving
needs of the customers, especially with the impending demographic shift towards
maturity in the near future in India. Brands can fine-tune their marketing and
communication plan by targeting specific products towards existing customers. Infact,
when asked about their primary reason for purchase, twice as many customers
aged over 40yrs mentioned a need related to their children’s education.
3.
Millennial Expectations: The millennial customer is emerging as the most ‘at risk’
in terms of brand stickiness and is more likely to explore alternative options.
They prioritize experiences over brand reputation and rank aspects such as affordability,
easy access, 24/7 customer support, frequent advisor
engagement and seamless digital solutions for purchasing and
managing their policies - high on their list of expectations.
4.
What Women Want: Women
are driving growth in the industry, highlighting the need for tailored products
that emphasize affordability, seamless on boarding, and effective communication.
Their need for interaction and engagement with the advisor before and after purchase
is higher than that of men. Their product needs differ from those of men. While
protection remains a key motivator, their needs gravitate largely towards ‘savings/
income for future/ retirement’ and ‘child plans/ savings safety net for your
kids' future’.
5.
Digital Services: Interestingly
while digital services and support in life insurance continues its wide, spread
adoption among customers especially those in Metros, its role as a
differentiating factor between brands is reducing as it is becoming a standard
expectation rather than a unique selling point. Brands need to move beyond
using digital services and support options for efficiency and instead leverage
it for building value for customers.
About NPS: Net Promoter Score (NPS) is used by many
brands as a loyalty metric to measure the health of their customer
relationships. A superlative consumer experience is a critical aspect driving
the Net Promoter Score.
About Hansa Research Group: Hansa
Research is the largest Indian Consumer Insights Provider who are in the
business of insights and analytics for over 40 years having undertaken client
assignments in over 100 countries. It is the first Indian insights and
consulting company to acquire a US-based firm, GCR (formerly called Gartner
Custom Research). The multi-national company headquartered in India has offices
in Singapore, Germany, USA and Bangladesh.
Hansa Research Group is a part of R K SWAMY | HANSA Group
of companies which are India’s leading multi-discipline, multi-location,
marketing communications, and services groups, serving the needs of a wide
array of companies globally.
Website:
https://www.hansaresearch.com/
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/hansa-research-group/
Media Contact:
Vidhi Shah - 9930840442 - vidhi@bloomingdalepr.com
Khushboo
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Riya Shah – 9769405832 – riya@bloomingdalepr.com