Compare and carry on

Millions visit comparison sites every year, most of them come home to the deal they already had.

Comparison sites spike every time Britain gets scared. Google searches for "compare insurance" surged during the 2009 financial crisis, surged again in 2022, and are climbing again now. The assumption: people compare, people switch, people save. Wrong!

The data tells a different story. Across insurance, energy and mobile, 53% of people renew their existing contract. Only 23% switch. And here's the uncomfortable bit: comparison site users are no more likely to have switched than the general population. But they are 8 percentage points more likely to believe their price went down.

Same switching rate. Higher belief they saved.

What's happening is an effort justification loop. Before the visit, you have a bill that arrived. After the visit, you have a bill you chose. Same number on the page. Totally different feeling. The act of looking transforms a renewal from something done to you into something you decided. Victim becomes verdict.

Before the visit, a bill that arrived. After the visit, a bill you chose. Same price. Totally different feeling.

This matters because comparison site users are more anxious about renewals than the average Briton, not less. 39% dread the renewal moment. 40% feel renewals are designed to catch them out. They aren't shopping. They're soothing. The click is the paracetamol.

For every brand selling a contract, the implication is sitting in plain sight. More than half your customers just went out, looked around and came back. Treat every renewal as the moment someone chose you again, and you change the entire relationship. Ignore it, and you're banking on apathy and calling it loyalty.

Comparison sites were built to help us switch - but we use them to give us permission to stay. So your best customers just compared you to everyone else and came back, act like you noticed.