Agents will be able to use travel insurance portals on the Internet to find the best deal for their clients, according to a financial expert.
Rob Proudman, director of financial services consultancy R3, said: “E-commerce does not have to be about the demise of agents if they use it to their advantage. They will be able to surf through sites once their customer has bought their holiday to find and take out a suitable policy.”
Proudman said hardly any travel insurance is sold over the Internet because few companies have thought about what customers want and the booking process is too complicated, with too many pages and questions to answer.
“It is not good enough to translate to the Internet what you do in a sales brochure or over the phone,” he said.
He told insurance companies planning to sell travel policies on the Internet to use the move to the Web as an opportunity to simplify their product and make it fun to buy, as companies have done with sites selling train tickets.
“Travel insurance has become a product development madhouse as companies try to put in cover for everything instead of making it simple. But who benefits?
“An all-inclusive policy leaves a bad taste as consumers end up buying something they do not want, such as ski cover on an annual policy.”
Proudman suggested that intermediaries could develop products on the Internet that can be tailored to suit each consumer’s needs. “Let customers have the choice and that way we can all start to sell a superior product,” he added.