Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Slane, Steve

Subject Headings

Customer relations -- Management, Consumer satisfaction, Property insurance -- Customer services, Casualty insurance -- Customer services, CRM, Insurance, Customer satisfaction, Retention

Abstract

Customer relationship management (CRM) emerged in the 1990's, promising to revolutionize the business and customer dynamic. At present, CRM has yet to live up to its promise of individualized customer relationships with carefully targeted customers. In property and casualty insurance, customer and insurer relationships are important. It is more cost effective to retain current customers than to acquire new ones. This thesis explores the history of CRM and how its proper implementation can help identify areas of customer satisfaction and retention in the property and casualty insurance industry. Data were collected from a regional property and casualty insurer and analyzed to determine customer satisfaction standards. A factor analysis and several multiple regressions were conducted to determine whether satisfaction on identified standards was a predictor of stated likelihood to renew the policy. The overall regression examined independent variables under the control of the insurance company and showed a significant overall prediction, with 48.0 percent of the variance explained. When looking at the significant unique contributors, satisfaction with premium/policy factor had the greatest influence, followed closely by people service factor and claims service factor. The second regression was conducted with customers of high-value agencies and explored variables under control of the agent. The model explained 33.8 percent of the variance, and found satisfaction with the agent had the greatest influence, followed by ease of billing, and satisfaction with explanations of premium costs. The third regression looked at the same variables but with customers of low-value agents. The model explained 47.4 percent of the variance, and found ease of the claims process had the most influence, followed by satisfaction with explanations of premium costs, and ease of billing The goal was to investigate how variables identified through previous research would predict likelihood to renew with the insurer. The results o

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