Hungarians want consistency and empathy in financial services

Hungarians’ attitude towards insurance companies differs greatly from the global average, a new study by ING’s Dutch parent company reveals.

The study was carried out in eight countries including the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and South-Korea. The most important criteria were simplicity, security, reputation and service quality.

It is good performance and emotional factors that Hungarians value most. Consistent and good performance, a criterion that ranks third on Hungarians’ priority list, however, is not even in the top five of the global ranking.

”In a society lacking confidence as much as Hungary, people look for clues, even when selecting a financial service. Consistency is one of them," said Zsolt Kovács, CEO of ING.

Asked about how they envision their finances in the future, Hungarians gave a more emotional response than the rest of the world.

More than 50% of those queried see their future positively; significantly more than the global average.

However, negative feelings, particularly despair, also appeared more frequently in their answers.

For Hungarians, the emotional-empathic approach of financial service provider seems to be more important: 51% as opposed to 46%, the global average. Rational-functional approach, however, is of less importance: 49% and 54% respectively.

Nearly half of the respondent said they were unwilling to use more complex services and stayed away from financial services. Only 22% trust both themselves and their insurance agents, thus one of the priorities of insurers is to rebuild trust, said Kovács. To achieve this goal, a more customer-focused approach is needed, he added.