Travel insurance certainly is a product all travel agents and agencies should consider adding to their services. With average commissions in the neighborhood of 20 to 35 percent in the U.S. and Canada, the impact on the bottom line is significant.
One of the many things we learned from living with a pandemic for the past two years is that travel insurance is a vital element in a client’s itinerary. As a travel advisor, it is your role to educate your clients on protecting their investment.
If you are less than confident in your knowledge of—and experience with—offering travel insurance, now is the perfect time to fill in the gaps. The recently updated and enhanced NEW CTA 10th edition program—the industry’s standard in education and certification—dedicates one entire module to the ins and outs of travel insurance, what you can and cannot do, how to overcome objections, how to introduce the topic, and how to protect yourself from clients returning to you, if they declined insurance.
Here is a quick peek into the revised CTA’s Travel Insurance module:
Who Needs Travel Insurance?
Even the best-laid plans can go awry when the unexpected happens. Travel insurance can help your clients protect their valuable trip investment and provide many important benefits. While some insurance programs (through suppliers and credit cards) may include trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage, it’s important to review the options with your clients.
Many travel insurance policies may provide additional coverage for emergency medical transportation and medical expenses that often are not covered by other plans. As an added value, some U.S. travel insurance plans also offer primary coverage—which means your clients are not responsible for copayments or deductibles.
This coverage does not apply to Canadian clients. Canadian insurers are always the secondary payers but will support the policyholder in navigating the payment of the third parties, such as credit card companies and group benefits.
As a professional travel agent, you provide a valuable service when you offer travel insurance on every trip you book. If your clients have problems on a tour, cruise, or trip, they will remember that YOU were the one who recommended the coverage that helped them out when they needed it most. And that means your clients will be less likely to hold you accountable if something happens that causes them to cancel or interrupt their trip.
Once you and your client have established the need for insurance, you will be able to present recommendations for your client’s individual needs.
Why Do Travelers Need Protection?
The list of possible events and occurrences that could cause your client to need travel insurance is daunting. And many travel agents are reluctant to bring up the possibilities of injury, accident, or death while discussing a client’s dream vacation. Most agents have a story of when travel insurance paid off for their clients, and some even have horror stories of when their clients wished they had purchased it. In most instances, your clients will be grateful you reminded them of the size of their investment in that dream vacation and will want to at least consider purchasing travel insurance. In this way, you add value to the relationship and build trust in your client. You also send them on their trips with peace of mind.
Questions to Ask Your Clients
When counseling your clients about investing in travel insurance, consider asking them some or all of the following questions. A “no” answer should indicate that your client would be wise to invest in travel insurance.
- Can you afford to miss your trip and lose your vacation investment if something goes wrong due to illness, weather, or other unforeseen circumstances?
- Can you afford to cover the cost of returning home if you are forced to end your trip abruptly?
- Does your medical insurance cover you whenever and wherever you travel?
- Would you know what to do in an emergency situation overseas?
- Even if your medical insurance provides coverage while you are on your trip, can you afford to pay high deductibles or copayments imposed when you are outside the standard service area?
- If your bags are lost or if you must spend an extra night because of weather-related problems, can you afford to buy replacement necessities and pay for extra lodging?
When you ask your clients pointed questions about their liability to risk, you help them understand the need for protection. By doing this, you also are providing added value and building stronger agent/client relationships.
These tips are a small portion of the knowledge contained in the NEW CTA 10th edition. The state of the world is changing more rapidly than we’ve seen in decades…or perhaps ever. Therefore, it is critical that you fortify your knowledge base by enrolling in the CTA today.
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