Absa Life has emerged as the leading life insurance provider in South Africa in the Consulta South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SA-csi).

The life, disability and critical illness insurer has led the market on all metrics in the 2021 SA-csi study published recently, attaining an overall customer satisfaction index of 84.9% which positions the business ahead of the industry average of 81%. 

“We are passionate about service and this magnificent achievement validates one of our foremost goals of prioritising customer needs in pursuit of our closer to customer strategy. The past year continued to challenge many individuals and families as a result of the pandemic. We prioritised payment of claims, to provide our customers with the peace of mind that possibilities for their future generations are enabled,” said Eugene Strauss, Managing Executive: Absa Life.

“A customer will never forget how you made them feel in their greatest hour of need. In the past year we paid out significantly higher volumes of claims than previously. Amongst further interventions to cushion the blow of the pandemic, we introduced premium relief to assist our customers when they needed it most. We place value on engaging our customers - we integrated human interaction into our digital offering to customers and our sales volumes soared,” Strauss added. 

Consulta, who conducted the survey, noted an increase in complaints incidences across brands in 2021 but found lower incidences of complaints for Absa Life over the past year. Additionally, the degree to which customers feel they are being treated fairly by their insurer is highest with Absa Life, the results show. Absa Life led on all other aspects under evaluation.

 “We thank our customers for their support and loyalty. We are focused on continuing to delight customers with a superior product experience whether they opt for our life insurance, disability, critical illness, credit life and loss of income products or funeral insurance cover. In our persistent efforts to become the leading bancassurance ecosystem, we leverage an integrated bank offering to better service customer requirements,” Strauss added.

The SA-csi is an independent national benchmark of customer satisfaction of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in South Africa. The SA-csi uses a combination of weighted indices across perceived quality, perceived value and customer expectations in addition to tracking customer complaints and indications of likelihood to repurchase in future.