policy (through an agent vs. online or at a call center), the price of the policy and the quality of the policy itself.

Not surprisingly, customers will vote with their feet. About 14% of customers said they started shopping for a new insurer because of a poor customer service experience. Among those, 73% switched insurance companies. Also, in the last year, 36% of customers requested an insurance quote, up from 31% from 2007.

The 2008 Insurance New Buyer Study is based on responses from 8,452 consumers who requested an car insurance price quote from at least one competitive insurer in the past 12 months and includes evaluations of 17,677 unique carrier quotes. The study was conducted in April 2008.

You can find out what insurers do business in your state, plus get more consumer information, by visiting A.M. Best’s Consumer Insurance Center at www.ambest.com/consumer. Page 1  |  Page 2