Public Trust Index

This is the insight that led to the creation of the CII, and the instruction in its Charter to 'secure and justify the confidence of the public'. 

That is why the CII created its Trust Index in 2018. Through an exhaustive process of interviews, video diaries and other qualitative techniques, the researchers found that trust in insurance is made up of nine key ideas about ‘what good looks like’ – both in terms of competent service and ethical standards.

The research then measured trust in insurance against each of these building blocks of trust, through a survey of 1,000 consumers and 1,000 small businesses.

The opportunity scores measure the distance between consumer expectations and delivery – the bigger the gap, the bigger the opportunity to build trust by doing something about it. 

As a rough guide:

• If the scores are 8 or above, there is a big gap between expectations and delivery, and urgent action is needed across the sector to improve trust.

• If the scores are around 4-6, investment in this area is likely to pay dividends in terms of improved trust.

• If the scores are 3 or below, increased investment will still improve consumer trust, but at a slower rate.

The tabs in the spreadsheet show different results from the research. They include:

• An overall satisfaction score for the sector.

• Reasons for taking insurance.

• A ranked opportunity score by statement. This allows you to tell how consumers react to different statements about insurance, such as "The premium doesn’t increase because I’m not a new customer anymore" and "I am happy to pay a little extra for a brand that I recognise". The scores rank both the importance consumers place in these statements, and how they think their insurer is performing.

• The ranked opportunity scores are also split by age, gender, ethnicity and product, to give a more granular view of how trust is developing, and where the opportunities are to increase trust in insurance.

By comparing the weight that consumers give to different answers in the Trust Index, we can build a detailed picture of consumer attitudes to complex issues, such as the use of personal data.