These are the best insurers in South Africa – according to customers

Social media analytics company DataEQ has published its Insurance Sentiment Index for South Africa, which tracks and measures how consumers feel about the country’s biggest insurers.

The group tracked and assessed over 900,000 social media posts relating to South Africa’s top insurers and categorised them as either positive or negative, which was then processed to determine a net sentiment score for each brand.

The posts were tracked from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

The brands tracked include King Price, MiWay, Momentum, Santam, Auto & General, Dialdirect, 1st for Women, 1Life Insurance, Budget Insurance, Sanlam, Discovery, Liberty Holdings, Hollard, OUTsurance, Old Mutual.

Across the various sectors DataEQ analyses, South African policyholders are quite positive about the insurance sector, with the industry carrying an overall net positive score of 18%. This is below only banking (2023) which is at 24%.

Among the insurance companies tracked, King Price emerged as having the most positive sentiment score at 57%.

“King Price achieved the highest Net Sentiment overall. This success was largely driven by positive reviews on Hellopeter, where customers commended the insurer’s staff for their efficiency and general helpfulness during sign-ups and policy adjustments,” DataEQ said.

“Customers also engaged favourably with the brand regarding pricing and affordability. This was evident when customers expressed positive sentiment towards a decrease in monthly car premiums relative to the depreciating values of their insured vehicle.”

After King Price, MiWay, Momentum, Santam and Auto & General emerged as the other top insurance brands in the country.

DataEQ only publishes the top 5 brands and their linked scores.

Among the remaining insurers, a further six managed a positive score, with four having a negative score and one unnamed insurer tanking the index with a negative sentiment score of -78%.

The main topics driving sentiment in the sector include customer service, product offerings, pricing and the claims process.

South Africans are quite positive about insurance pricing and customer service, but are not happy with the claims process in the industry.

“Insurers continued to face challenges in customer service, with significant bottlenecks within the claims process,” DataEQ said.

The most pressing issue across the industry was prolonged turnaround time, with customers often citing problems around the claims process and policy updates.

This generally occurred alongside mentions of staff, with customers frequently questioning the competency of staff members, mentioning a lack of necessary knowledge and professionalism to handle their queries and claims effectively.

The group noted that a lack of response from insurers further added to customer frustrations.

Negative claims experiences often led to frustration and distrust of the insurer. In some instances customers threatened legal action and taking the insurer to the ombudsman.

Short-term insurance was the most frequently discussed type of coverage.

“Despite some positivity, the overall conversation was still net negative with dissatisfaction around overall service performance, particularly in the areas of claims and policy management,” DataEQ said.

While receiving less online conversation than short-term insurance, long-term insurance was characterised by overwhelmingly negative sentiment, reflecting many of the same issues.

Read: The best retailer in South Africa according to shoppers: Woolies vs Checkers vs Pick n Pay