March 8th was International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
A Mintel survey in 2015 found that 84% of mums are involved in their family’s financial decision making, compared with 49% of dads. So when it comes to satisfying female customers, is there anything different about the way women shop for insurance?
Using data from Consumer Intelligence’s motor Insurance Behaviour Tracker, we can see that women are more pro-active shoppers. They are more likely to shop around - both in general and on price comparison websites – and consequently they are also more likely to switch than their male counterparts.
Amongst those who did not shop around at renewal, men are more likely to have consciously decided not to shop - saying that ‘they couldn’t be bothered’ – whereas females are more likely to say that they didn’t have time or left it too late – suggesting that they had planned to shop.
But as with men, for the minority of women who don’t shop around, the chief reason is simply that they like the brand they’re with.
This all means that men stay with their motor insurer for longer, albeit through a mix of active loyalty and inertia. A higher proportion of men have stayed with their motor insurance provider for 6 years or more (14% compared with 10% for women) and at the other end of the scale, female drivers are five percentage points more likely to have only been with their motor insurer for just a year (27% compared with 22% of men).
Amongst those who chose not to purchase through a PCW, women are more likely to say that this is because are more likely to want to speak to someone directly or to seek reassurances about the cover – whereas men tend to be more price driven – they think that they can get a better price by going direct.
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