4 Insurance Providers Rated Best for Customer Service
There are a lot of things to consider when you choose an insurance provider.
You want to make sure your insurance rates are low enough that you can pay your premiums on time. Finding discounts is another huge factor. Not every auto insurance company rewards their customers for good driving behavior the same as others.
The customer service an insurance company provides is arguably just as important as anything else mentioned above. Insurance topics are often confusing and require explanations and patience from agents, especially now that health insurance premiums are increasing. No amount of discounts or good pricing is going to help you ignore an insurance company with lousy customer service.
We’ll review some of the insurers with the best customer ratings so you can be prepared to shop for a new provider with the peace of mind that you’ll be taken care of and treated excellently. We’ll make sure to cover a good variety of companies, from auto insurance to homeowners insurance.
#1 – USAA
USAA is known for being committed to insurance services for people who’ve been in the military and the family members of those service members. This automatically makes them a company with a social mission, and it would seem silly not to back it up with excellent customer service.
USAA ranks very highly in customer satisfaction ratings, especially in the last year. There are several ways to determine whether customer service is sufficient, with categories like website navigation, social media communication, and explanations of payment and other plan options. USAA has a majority of positive reviews in all of these spaces.
It’s important to find out how you can decide if the customer service of a company is great before you sign up for insurance coverage. If you’re a military member, you probably have co-workers who are signed up for USAA. This means it’s simple to ask them how insurance works with USAA and if they’ve gotten good help from the representatives at the company.
Google reviews are another good option, but there’s a mixed bag of results when you don’t look at specific insurance-related websites for reviews. Some people might review-bomb a company on Google for unusual reasons, and this is never helpful for people who just want an honest answer about whether a company has good customer service.
#2 – NJM Insurance Group
NJM Insurance isn’t a national brand like State Farm or Progressive. This gives it a small-company advantage that the big guys don’t have. When small businesses can dedicate their attention to their customer base, it presents opportunities for excellent customer service that goes above and beyond the usual interactions between agents and clients.
NJM Insurance only services the states of Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. This means they understand the unique struggles of their customers from a Northeastern perspective. Weather events, hazards, and coverage that protects against Northeastern disasters can all be explained thoroughly.
Reviews online show the NJM Insurance Group does a great job of putting together customer loyalty programs. This is a great personal touch, and it’s something regional companies like NJM have been doing for years to gain a good reputation. Reviews show their rates are flexible, but their social media team is lacking compared to companies like USAA.
NJM Insurance Group is sure to have strong business growth if they address these issues while continuing with the strategies spurring their success forward. It’s always nice to go through a local insurance company instead of a national one because it’s more personal.
#3 – Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee
Talking about small insurance companies, Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee’s scope is even more narrow than NJM. As you can tell from their name, the company only serves people in the state of Tennessee. Their excellent customer service doesn’t have any bearing on other people around the country, but people in the Volunteer State are lucky to have them.
One of the best things about the Farm Bureau is its commitment to all aspects of the insurance industry. If you go on their website, they have a simple layout with explanations for several different types of insurance, from auto and homeowners to life insurance. Pairing all of your insurance policies together, or bundling them, can sometimes get you discounts.
Many online reviews say the Farm Bureau employees are very kind and considerate, giving credence to the southern hospitality stereotype in the region. You can pay bills online, look for quotes on their website, and even search for agents by county in the state. This makes the company a very modern insurance firm.
Always make sure you shop with an insurance company with a prioritization on easily–navigatable websites. This streamlines the process of shopping for insurance, and companies like the Farm Bureau of Tennessee are a great example of small insurers with a large range of options for their base.
#4 – Lemonade Insurance Company
Speaking of using online tools to sell insurance, Lemonade encourages all of its interactions with customers to be on its website. They’re an online-only company, and this makes them the most modern insurance company on this list. Customer service reviews are top-notch for Lemonade because their sites are so easy to understand.
Filing claims, talking to agents, learning what money you owe, and more are all available options on the Lemonade website. They are known for their automated responses through their website that can get you information back on claims and other questions within a couple of business days. This is much quicker than waiting for a person to respond manually.
The only downside to automated online responses is the difficulty in getting someone to answer questions for you that the machines can’t answer. Sometimes you need a real person on the other end of the line, and some reviews have claimed it takes a little longer to get these responses.
You can see that the best insurance company customer service teams have many similar attributes. Insurance companies with modern online tools and a commitment to small areas of the country are often better options than the bigger names in insurance. Talking to an agent online and filing claims on a website make the process very easy.
Author Bio:
Shawn Laib writes and researches for the insurance comparison site, Clearsurance.com. He wants to help people understand the best ways to find insurance companies with excellent customer service.