moneyland.ch asked 1500 residents of Switzerland how likely they are to migrate to new banking, insurance and telecom service providers in the foreseeable future. Survey participants were rated their readiness to migrate on a scale of 1 (not at all likely) to 10 (very likely).
The result: The vast majority of the population do not see themselves moving to new service providers in the foreseeable future. “The survey results confirm the cliché that Swiss consumers are generally lazy when it comes to switching service providers,” states moneyland.ch CEO Benjamin Manz.
That can be a positive sign: Low readiness among consumers to migrate indicates high levels of customer satisfaction. On the other hand, unwillingness to change service providers even when economic advantages are significant can be a sign of carelessness caused by high levels of disposable income. Over the long term, lack of readiness to migrate on the part of consumers can result in prices becoming or remaining uncompetitive.
Readiness to migrate is higher for health insurance and telecom services like mobile plans than it is for other insurance types and banking.
Readiness to migrate compared
Of all the services included in the survey, consumers are most likely to switch health insurance providers. 25% of participants rate the chances of their changing health insurance providers in the foreseeable future as likely to very likely (ratings of 7 to 10). This is followed by mobile plans (23% of participants are likely to migrate) and fixed Internet, TV and telephone plans (22% are likely to migrate).
Consumer willingness to change banks and insurance providers other than compulsory health insurance is notably lower than readiness to change health insurance and telecom service providers. 16% of consumers see changing car insurance providers as likely, followed by legal insurance (14%), household insurance (14%), stock brokers (14%), savings accounts (13%), private accounts (13%), mortgages (13%), pillar 3a retirement accounts (12%), wealth managers (12%), personal loan providers (11%), life insurance (11%), pillar 3a retirement funds (9%) and pension funds (9%).
Readiness to migrate by age and gender
Age directly impacts readiness to migrate. Younger consumers are generally more likely to change service providers than older consumers. Mobile plans are a clear example: 30% of adults aged 18 to 25 years old are likely to very likely to change mobile service providers in the foreseeable future, compared to just 21% of adults aged 50 to 74 years old.
A different trend is visible in health insurance, with adults aged 26 to 49 being the most likely to change insurers (31% see a change as likely), compared to just 23% of adults in the youngest age group and 20% of adults in the oldest age group.
Gender-based differences are more pronounced. Women are less likely to change service providers than men across all categories.
French-speaking Swiss are more likely to migrate
“An interesting fact revealed by the survey is that residents of German-speaking Switzerland are generally less likely to migrate between service providers than French-speaking Swiss,” says Benjamin Manz. This is most clearly seen in health insurance: 34% of French-speaking Swiss are likely to change health insurers in the foreseeable future, compared to just 21% of German-speaking Swiss. Another example is mobile plans: 27% of French-speaking Swiss see a change of mobile plans as likely, compared to just 21% of German-speaking Swiss.
