Building reassurance in travel with protection

Our VP of Customer, Luiza Gusmão, recently wrote a piece for the International Travel & Health Insurance Journal discussing how embedded technology and automation in the claims process helps to optimize efficiency and improve customer experience. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed protection at the forefront of every travelers’ mind. Upon examining post-COVID attach rates across our network of partners including Booking.com, Icelandair, Skyscanner, Hopper, we found that travelers are opting to add protection at a rate 6x higher than at the start of the pandemic. 

This shows that travel insurance is no longer an after-thought and be fit-for-purpose for all the considerations modern travelers are faced with. Luiza highlights a timely example of travelers being denied reimbursement due to coverage for COVID-related events being unclear, even to claims professionals. While digitization of travel insurance has been established, there are many trends emerging that can improve claims processes including “embedded technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP),” and according to Luiza, the automation in the claims process allows brands to streamline the flow of claim information resulting in improved customer journeys, faster settlement and reduced handling expenses. 

Unfortunately, increased insurance fraud is a reality in these economic times, with digitally purchased products manipulated with the belief that automation won’t catch false or inflated claims. AI and NLP technologies can be integrated into systems for fraud minimization by assessing online evidence provided, says Luiza. This helps to eliminate the time and manual effort required when investigating suspect claims. 

Traditionally, insurance claims can take 30 to 90 days to settle. Most consumers who take the extra step to purchase insurance expect that they will be protected if their travel is interrupted and therefore the claims experience is often the most important part of the customer’s insurance journey. Developing technologies to greatly improve the claims process and provide transparency to customers is how Cover Genius is able to deliver an industry-leading post-claims NPS and reduce claims resolution time by up to 20 days.