Successful travel advisors routinely search for ways to be more efficient and provide the highest level of customer service. A well-designed technology stack, in which a travel insurance offer is integrated within the travel advisor’s booking platform via an application programming interface (API), enables advisors to quote insurance as trips are being planned and provides customers with all the necessary details to facilitate decision-making.
In many instances, this level of process automation, and the technology that drives it, have been a life-changer and huge time-saver for travelers and advisors. Embedded APIs are a crucial component of the gradual shift from a fragmented booking system to a connected digital commerce ecosystem. Travel advisors are leading the way.
Travel insurance as part of the travel experience
Travel protection didn’t become a necessary component of travel overnight. It evolved beyond “add-on” status over time for several reasons. Travel became more expensive, especially for multi-destination experiences, luxury cruises, adventure expeditions and bucket-list trips. Additionally, International costs for hospitalization and medical evacuation increased significantly, and travel became more complex with the potential for multiple failure points.
Also, other industry events like the global pandemic raised the awareness and demand for insurance. As Kat Morga, owner of Nashville-based Adventure Smarter Travel Agency, puts it, people with responsibilities like children (herself included) now think more about “things outside of my control” that could force cancellation.
In addition, travel advisors have played an important role in both educating and reinforcing the importance of trip protection. The trusted relationships travelers have with advisors and advisors’ ability to articulate the value of insurance are driving more insurance purchases today. “My clients come to me for advice on a trip. Part of that advice is about how to help protect their investment of time and money,” Morga says.
Linnea Jaconette, owner and lead travel designer at Getaways by Linnea in Battle Creek, Michigan, brings up trip protection on the first call with clients. “We talk about the trip, what they want, how I work and what’s going to happen from here. Then, we discuss travel insurance, why they need it and what it includes,” she explains.
How technology streamlines the purchase process
In the past, travel advisors faced significant headwinds in the travel insurance market. Many travelers were reluctant to purchase trip protection because they believed it was either too costly, too complicated to understand or too cumbersome to buy. Plus, working up a quote, Morga explains, required selecting a travel insurance provider, visiting their website, entering customer and trip information, generating a quote and emailing it to the customer — a process that could take 20 to 30 minutes.
Now, technology helps advisors address customer friction points to quickly and easily manage trip protection purchases. Morga is among the advisors using an API from her travel insurance provider that integrates with her primary business software for booking, managing and delivering travel. “My CRM is like my bible. I have my client profiles in there, and now I can pull insurance quotes right from there. It’s all linked,” she explains.
With the integration, Morga avoids duplicate data entry and sends insurance quotes directly to customers via her booking platform. The offerings are presented to customers in a grid format, displaying multiple tiers of protection and allowing travelers to choose their desired level of coverage or to decline coverage, Morga says.
Jaconette also employs a booking platform with an embedded insurance offering. It streamlines the back-office workflow, too. The insurance uploads the policy documents into the centralized platform (providing access to the advisor and customer), generates an invoice, manages the customer’s payment and calculates the advisor’s commission. “It’s a huge time saver with a lot fewer steps for [advisors] so we have more time to book more trips,” she explains.
Overall, the travel industry has a history of sometimes struggling with technological challenges of aging infrastructure, legacy standards and fragmented technology stacks. However, there often can be an easy solution to these nagging problems and API integrations can and should be utilized to bring about better results.
Feature-rich platforms, such as the booking platform Tern, integrated with specialized solutions, such as Arch RoamRight’s travel insurance API, provide travel advisors with a centralized digital workflow that combines capabilities from both sources. For example, the Tern platform allows Morga and Jaconette to distribute insurance quotes, list policy options, accept customer payments and perform other tasks available in Tern’s technology, including via mobile devices.
Benefits of booking path purchases
While travelers can purchase travel insurance at almost any time before travel commences, with some exceptions (pre-existing condition waivers often require purchase within a narrow time window), doing so within the booking path offers several benefits to advisors:
• Booking paths often result in higher conversion because they’re tied to the buying decision, i.e., the credit card is already out.
• Purchasing insurance in the planning phase provides advisors with comfort, since they ultimately want their customers to be safe. “When people cancel a bucket-list trip, it’s probably for a reason they didn’t anticipate — someone got hurt, sick or was diagnosed with something serious. I want them to know they’re protected. [Insurance] provides some peace of mind for them, but also for me,” Morga says.
• Travel advisors can help make purchasing trip protection part of the travel planning checklist, alongside flights, hotels, tours and other essentials.
• Booking path discussions give advisors the opportunity to explain coverage and correct common misconceptions, such as “my credit card covers everything,” healthy people don’t need travel insurance,” or “acts of war and certain global events are covered.”
• The booking path can be the first of multiple discussions (one at the first deposit window for waivers, another mid-booking to reinforce the necessity of insurance and a pre-departure reminder) with clients about purchasing insurance. Morga even sends an email three weeks from departure advising clients who haven’t purchased trip cancellation insurance that they can still get in-destination coverage for travelers who “get sick or fall and twist an ankle and need to see a doctor. It’s a different level of coverage, which is much less expensive,” she explains.
• Technology makes it easier for travelers to say yes or at least requires them to say no. A record of declined coverage helps protect advisors and suppliers when requests for reimbursement are submitted for uninsured trips.
• Offering trip protection in the booking path demonstrates professionalism. It’s a sign that advisors have thought of everything, including their customers' well-being.
• Handling insurance in the booking path with a unified digital workflow helps advisors be more efficient and reduce data entry errors.
Booking path insurance purchases also provide advantages to travelers:
• Insurance purchases at the time of booking take one more item off travelers' checklists and promote what Jaconette calls a “set it and forget it” mindset.
• Purchasing travel insurance at the time of booking removes friction for the traveler. An integrated workflow means travelers need not complete extra forms, go to third-party websites, or enter additional data to obtain a quote.
• Booking path purchases unlock time-sensitive waivers that may not be available later. “You want to include pre-existing health condition waivers within 14 to 21 days of your first deposit,” Jaconette says.
• Insurance purchased early in the travel planning process isn’t set in stone. It can be modified later as trip details change.
The travel industry is evolving the booking process from a hodgepodge of manual processes and technologies to a unified workflow in which all tasks along the booking path (itineraries, ticketing, travel insurance and payments) can be performed within a single technology platform. API integrations are among the simplest and most effective solutions available to make this vision a reality. They help travel advisors transform the planning process and have more time to design the experiences their customers love.