The short-term insurance industry recorded a customer experience (CE) score of 69.5 in 2025, placing it behind banking (73) and life insurance (74.1) but slightly ahead of medical schemes (68.8), according to the 2025 CE Index for the Short-term Insurance Industry.
The results, compiled by Professor Adré Schreuder, head of the Industry Chair in Customer Experience at the University of Pretoria, are based on a national sample of 6 384 consumers across product and customer touchpoints. They show an industry positioned in the middle of South Africa’s financial services landscape, performing relatively well on some fundamentals, but still challenged by unresolved customer problems.
“This is a highly contested industry, with sophisticated brands investing heavily in systems, people, training, and processes,” says Schreuder. “The data shows us that short-term insurers have made significant strides in preventing problems and resolving complaints. However, inconsistency in resolving issues when things go wrong continues to have an outsized impact on customer experience and long-term loyalty.”
Top performers across the CE Index
The Index assessed CE across a broad cross-section of South Africa’s short-term insurance market.
Auto & General emerged as the overall industry leader across the CE Index model, with a score of 73.7, supported by strong results across the quality of experience, value of experience, satisfaction, loyalty, and problem resolution.
Second place overall was shared by Budget and Virseker, followed by Dialdirect and 1st for Women, reflecting the strong performance of the direct-to-customer, or non-intermediated, segment.
“We have not often seen this degree of separation between the leading brand and the industry average. Auto & General has attributed this performance to the tangible value of their customer-obsessed approach – one that prioritises operational excellence, builds trust, and delivers measurable impact across all customer touchpoints,” says Schreuder.
Beyond overall rankings, the Index provides insight into where insurers are differentiating themselves across specific parts of the customer journey. Dialdirect stood out as product category winner, with customers responding positively to the flexibility and simplicity of its offering. The brand also featured strongly on digital channels, sharing top digital performance with Budget.
Auto & General’s lead was most evident in its contact centre performance, which the insurer attributes to its customer-led culture and operating practices.
Among broker-led insurers, Discovery Insure and MiWay delivered the strongest broker channel experience, reinforcing their position in the intermediated segment.
“Intermediated insurers operate under very different service and cost dynamics because of broker channels. As the market evolves, separating these benchmarks will give insurers and customers a clearer picture of who is genuinely delivering value,” says Schreuder.
Future editions of the CE Index are therefore likely to introduce separate benchmark categories for intermediated and non-intermediated insurers.
Problem resolution remains a key challenge
At an industry level, only 7% of customers experienced a problem, well below the international best-practice benchmark of 10%.
Furthermore, 60% of issues were resolved to customers’ expectations, outperforming the global benchmark of 50%. However, 27% were only somewhat resolved, while 13% remained completely unresolved – a figure Schreuder says remains uncomfortably high. By comparison, OUTsurance recorded a problem resolution rate of 78%.
“Ideally, unresolved issues should sit below 5%. Anything above 10% creates a pool of upset customers, and those cases often escalate to the ombudsman. That is where reputational damage begins, especially since six insurers had non-resolution of higher than 10%,” he says.
In terms of what customers complained about most, 72% of problems related to functional performance and service delivery, with speed and accuracy as dominant drivers.
“Nearly half of all complaints came down to how quickly something was handled, and whether it was done correctly the first time, pointing to basic execution failures,” Schreuder explains.
Ironically, the same functional performance factors are also the biggest drivers of loyalty when delivered well.
“It’s interesting that the category that’s the number one cause of problems is also the number one category for making people loyal. That’s why getting the basics right is so important,” he says.
From customer intent to advocacy
Despite these execution gaps, the Index shows that short-term insurers are converting customer goodwill into advocacy more effectively than other financial services sectors.
In 2025, 41% of customers were classified as promoters based on the strength of their likelihood to recommend their insurer. Some 28% further reported recommending their insurer, resulting in an Intention-Behaviour Ratio (IBR) of 68%, well ahead of medical schemes (60%), banking (42%), and life insurance (33%). IBR measures how often stated intent translates into actual behaviour.
Interestingly, some brands with a lower Net Promoter Score (NPS) achieved intent-to-action ratios above 70%, including OUTsurance and Old Mutual Insure. By contrast, Auto & General achieved the highest NPS of 33 but a lower conversion rate. NPS measures how likely customers are to recommend a company, product, or service to others.
This reflects the growing practice of post-interaction nudging, where customers are directed to platforms such as Hellopeter to share positive reviews immediately after service engagements, says Schreuder.
“This inflates advocacy signals. It boosts visible recommendation metrics, but does not necessarily reflect organic, voluntary advocacy.”
Overall, the 2025 CE Index shows a short-term insurance industry that has strengthened its customer experience fundamentals, but one where execution gaps still undermine trust.
“The takeaway for the industry is that customer experience depends on reliably delivering the basics, especially when something goes wrong. Resolving issues well, and consistently, is what ultimately protects trust and builds loyalty,” says Schreuder.
