James Moore: Survey reveals... unwelcome truth for insurance industry

Outlook The City has a whole industry devoted to studies and surveys. Just occasionally one of them has something interesting to say, beyond claiming that 67 per cent of the 500 people who happened to click on superdupercompany.com while browsing last Thursday agree that the world would be a better place if more people did business with superdupercompany.com.

An example comes from EDM, which helps companies to manage information and reckons 33 per cent of Britons have switched insurers over the past couple of years because of shoddy service.

As revelations go, that might at first glance appear to be on a level with urging people to tie their shoelaces because they might otherwise fall over. But hang on a second. There is a perception that insurance is a product bought largely, even solely, on price. And there's something in that.

However, EDM's survey – which has a reasonably high sample size of just over 2,000 – suggests that people will move from the cheapest provider if they are treated badly enough.

The problem is that they'll probably find the same old problems at their next port of call.

EDM's missive goes on to gush about the opportunities presented by cutting costs and improving efficiency without really addressing the fact that there ought to be an opportunity for insurers that go against the grain and try to improve customers' experience by actually listening to them, rather than paying attention to surveys.

It signs off, of course, with the conclusion that the world would be a much better place if more insurers did business with EDM.