DataEQ has released the South African Insurance Sentiment Index, an annual analysis of more than 900,000 consumer conversations across social media, review platforms and other public channels from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The report shows that while the insurance sector continues to outperform banking and telecoms in overall consumer sentiment, critical operational weaknesses remain, most notably in the expectation gap through claims handling, customer responsiveness and billing processes.
According to the Index, the industry recorded an overall Net Sentiment of +35%, placing it above Banking (20%) and Telecoms (-25%). This performance was supported by campaign activity, brand engagement and praise from Hellopeter reviews. These sentiment drivers created strong brand positivity for South Africa’s leading insurers, with campaigns increasing reputational sentiment to 41%, compared to just 16% when excluding campaign content.
However, when isolating operational performance, the picture shifts substantially. Without the boost from Hellopeter reviews, Operational Net Sentiment drops sharply by 57 percentage points, exposing delivery failures that continue to frustrate customers. Communication through the claims process emerged as the single largest pain point, accounting for 67% of claims-related complaints, followed by claim rejections, which accounted for 30%.
“This kind of large-scale, unsolicited data gives insurers a uniquely honest view of real customer experience,” says Liska Kloppers, Head of Growth at DataEQ. “Because the Index draws from everyday consumer conversations, not surveys or prompted feedback, it highlights issues that customers are motivated to talk about, as well as the moments when insurers genuinely excel. For insurers, this provides an unfiltered and highly scalable signal for improving service performance, strengthening governance and protecting vulnerable customers.”
Customer service remains the critical battleground, with 35% of high-priority queries left unanswered and call centre and email channels recording the most negative sentiment at -27% and –82% respectively.
Vulnerable customers experienced disproportionately negative outcomes, recording -48% Net Sentiment, often due to delayed claims, unclear communication and financial strain linked to deductions and disputed payouts.
Finfluencers played an increasingly visible role, yet fewer than 1% disclosed paid partnerships, and roughly 2% identified themselves as accredited in some way to offer advise, raising concerns around compliance, transparency and consumer protection.
Short-term and long-term insurance segments both showed positive overall sentiment, with product promotions resonating with the market and driving positive interest. However, operational performance for long-term insurance remained relatively poor at -50%, signalling a gap between consumer expectations and actual delivery.
Despite this, positive experiences were also visible. Customers praised affordability, digital innovation and app-based access, emergency assistance features and empathetic staff in cases where service delivery met expectations, highlighting the sector’s capacity to deliver strong experiences when operational processes work as intended.