Direct Line to cut jobs as customers mostly online
It’s been a difficult start to the year for Direct Line. The company has paid out £1m worth of travel insurance claims as trips get cancelled due to the spread of coronavirus, and £35m in home insurance payouts due to last month’s storms.
The Direct Line insurance group, which also owns the Churchill and Green Flag brands, said that the changes were necessary for the company to economise and “reflect changing customer behaviour”.
However, YouGov data shows that the changing customer journey for insurance isn’t unique to Direct Line, and that when it comes to buying
financial products such as life insurance, very few Brits prefer to buy in-store or over the phone.
More than two-fifths of consumers purchase their financial products online, either completely from start to finish or at least for most of the buying process (44 per cent).
Almost a fifth of this group (17 per cent) purchase solely online — from comparing options on comparison sites to completing their order.
While one in 10 (11 per cent) Brits say that they split their purchasing equally between online and offline, nine per cent prefer to shop for
financial products mostly offline —and 13 per cent do so entirely.
Main image: Getty