Protecting customers for every eventuality
Kelly Sahner, Chief Commercial Officer at Trip Mate, tells us about her progression in the business, new tech, and vital partnerships
You have been with Trip Mate for over 10 years. Can you tell us about the company and about your role?
Trip Mate was started 35 years ago by our now-retired Co-Founder [Brad Finkle]. He was in the insurance business and got a call from a client asking if he could help him purchase an insurance plan for a personal trip he was taking. At that point, Brad realised there was a need for travel insurance and thus he created Trip Mate, a travel insurance administrator.
Trip Mate made a name for itself as a provider of custom travel insurance plans for the tour operator space. We were the first to the market with self-funded plans, pre-existing condition waiver plans, and allowing client partners to offer vouchers (future travel credits) if a claim was denied. We have maintained our foothold on the tour space but have also expanded into the cruise, student, adventure, and team sports/esports channels.
I joined 10 years ago, after spending over a decade in the industry working at another organisation. When I came onboard, I was a Vice President of Sales, then after signing some of our largest clients, I was promoted to Senior Vice President of Sales. When Generali Global Assistance acquired Trip Mate in early 2019, I was asked to stay on and become the Chief Commercial Officer for Trip Mate. Today, I still sign client partners, but my main focus is setting the strategy for the Trip Mate brand and ensuring that we are providing client partners and our shared clients, the insureds, with creative, cutting-edge travel protection solutions and a first-class customer experience.
Though travel has made the world smaller, which means people want to explore and go further, it also means that we need to be mindful that our plans meet travellers’ needs
As of January 1, 2024, Trip Mate, Inc. merged with Customized Services Administrators, Inc. d/b/a Generali Global Assistance & Insurance Services, but remains an active brand in the industry.
What are the major changes you have seen in the industry since you started?
As with all industries, there is more of a reliance on digital and artificial intelligence (AI), diversity, equality and inclusion, and sustainability. When I first started in the industry, we were printing and mailing plan documents, claim forms and marketing documents. Today, everything is online – plan documents, claim forms, marketing materials, etc. Referring clients and insureds to our online materials not only helps reduce our footprint, but it also improves the time it takes to make policy changes and process claims.
Additionally, though travel has made the world smaller, which means people want to explore and go further, it also means that we need to be mindful that our plans meet travellers’ needs. By that I mean, does the plan have the right coverage limits for an evacuation from a destination far away, or does the plan need to have additional travel delay benefits because the client partner only flies to a location that is serviced by one flight a day, etc. Travel is not as simple and boring as it was 35 years ago; it is more adventurous, and people are not afraid to try something new or see a new place that requires a 20-hour flight.
Talk to us about FootprintID – what it is, why customers should use the service, and why you offer it.
Intentionally we design travel insurance products that will provide coverage and services to insureds in the event something does go sideways with a traveller’s trip. When I was first introduced to FootprintID years ago, I loved the idea of including their services in travel insurance plans because of the additional ‘peace of mind’ that FootprintID brings to travellers who have a history of medical ailments and conditions.
Essentially, FootprintID is a service that allows insureds to upload their medical information to their secure website, which is designed to ingest confidential medical information. In the unlikely event that an insured encounters a medical emergency or simply forgets their prescription at home while they are travelling, they can quickly access their medical information and share it with treating doctors, EMTs [emergency medical technicians], pharmacists, or family and friends. When a medical situation occurs on a trip, the last thing we want is for the insured or their travelling companions to worry about ensuring that they remember to share all the medical information about their sick or injured loved one with the treating medical team. Knowing the medical condition of an insured should allow for the medical professionals treating them to render assistance quicker and more effectively.
Can you tell us about the partners you work with, and why they are so vital when it comes to emergency assistance?
Assuming you are referring to emergency service partners, Europ Assistance (EA) is our parent company (and is a fully owned subsidiary of Generali Group) and is known to have started the emergency assistance industry for European travellers in 1963. EA started out by providing roadside assistance to travellers in Europe. However, as Europeans began to travel further distances and in particular leave Europe, they realised that they needed assistance when they were out of the country. From there, the concept took off and for the past 60 years, EA has been leading the travel industry by providing best-in-class assistance to travellers. Globally, our 10,000-plus colleagues service 300 million travellers annually, 24/7/365.
Our corporate structure ensures that Trip Mate colleagues are assisting our clients in the same manner that we do, with care, respect, and urgency. The convenience of in-house medical and emergency-trained professionals is invaluable. All of the facilities that we use for care have been vetted by one of our nurses or doctors. All of the local in-country networks that we utilise have also been vetted by our team. We have one of the largest medical networks in the world, and they are readily available to assist our shared clients.
Reporting claims online and the convenience this brings customers is becoming increasingly important. What is Trip Mate doing in this area?
We were one of the first companies to allow insureds to report their claims online. Today, we continue to improve upon that process. Soon, clients will be able to utilise our e-claims tool for faster claims initiation, review, and processing. We are also exploring the idea of using AI to perform the initial claim evaluation, as well as launching a new claims portal that will allow clients to select various payment options.
Knowing the medical condition of an insured should allow the medical professionals treating them to render assistance quicker and more effectively
Trip Mate was one of the first companies to make available provisions to waive the policy exclusion for pre-existing conditions. Why was this an important aspect to offer customers?
We recognise that the travelling public has pre-existing medical conditions, and as challenging as that may be for that person, that condition may not prevent them from wanting to travel, nor should it prevent them from helping protect their travel investment. Allowing someone to purchase travel protection because they have a known medical condition is not that big of a concept. When someone books a trip, they tend to want to go; not many people are booking trips and saying ‘I am going to cancel this in a week’. People book trips, and purchase travel protection because they intend to travel. If something should go awry with their pre-existing condition, we understand and therefore will try and cover it. Insurance is intended to cover the unexpected, and pre-existing conditions are generally managed and controlled, but every once in a while, they ‘act up’ and may prevent the insured from travelling.
You also offer terrorism coverage without geographic or political restrictions on many of your policies. How difficult is this to offer with current global conflicts?
Terrorism coverage is available in most of our plans; however, there are some caveats. The plan must be purchased within a defined time of when the traveller made their booking, the terrorism act cannot have occurred before the plan was purchased, and where the act occurred has to be at a location on their itinerary. Additionally, coverage cannot be provided either if the trip is to a restricted destination (the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC)*. The coverage is designed to help protect insureds from the unknown, therefore the previously mentioned caveats are included to help protect the underwriter from someone who may be trying to buck the system. When explaining the terrorism coverage in the plan, I like to use a car insurance analogy – if you do not have insurance, and then get into a car accident, you cannot go out and purchase an insurance plan for the car that is already damaged and try and claim that damage. Travel insurance is designed to cover the unexpected and unknown.
How has Trip Mate used new technology to assist customers, and what innovations do you think might emerge in the future?
Trip Mate and our entire Generali family have committed to improving the digital journey of our client partners and insureds. This effort includes chatbots to answer general policy questions and claim status, leveraging new technologies, new claim payments, etc. We have a Chief Transformation Officer who is committed to ensuring that we are reviewing and using new technology to improve our customer care and client partner experiences.