Q&A: Chris Rolland, All Clear

It has been more than 12 months since Mapfre left the travel insurance space. How did All Clear react to that?

We saw this exit as a golden opportunity. Having acquired Insure and Go from Mapfre, our mission was to make the brand synonymous with excellent customer service, offering quality and excellent value. And it worked. We’ve seen Insure and Go’s Trustpilot ratings improve from 3.8 to 4.7 out of five in less than seven months, which is an affirmation of the hard work we’re doing to take the business to a new level.

As the travel market has opened up after the Covid-19 lockdown era, we have reinvigorated our product range, and we continue to cover for the categories: all ages, all medical conditions and all destinations.

The Covid-19 pandemic was a tough time for the travel industry. What did All Clear do during this time?

We were heartbroken to see the travel and hospitality industries – along with many other industries – go through the toughest times in living memory.

It was a demanding time, keeping spirits high for both our staff and our customers. We went on the front foot, prioritising the protection of our brand and regular interaction with our membership community, even at times when they were not travelling, or even buying travel Insurance.

A substantial proportion of our customer base are older and more vulnerable, so it was vital to us to continue engaging and providing support during those challenging times.

In those periods between the lockdowns, we championed the importance of safety for people that could – or had to – travel. After the first few lockdowns, there was a risk that people’s confidence in travel would be low, so we launched a campaign that is focused on ‘making travel safe again’, which is exactly what we do as a business.

By arming consumers, not just with cover, but with the data, information and the travel tips they needed, we helped them to plan holidays with confidence. The issues of confidence and safety have shaped the future of travel in the post-lockdown era. We were proud to do our bit to make a lasting and meaningful difference.

By arming consumers, not just with cover, but with the data, information and the travel tips they needed, we helped them to plan holidays with confidence. The issues of confidence and safety have shaped the future of travel in the post-lockdown era. We were proud to do our bit to make a lasting and meaningful difference."

Chris Rolland

We also used the lockdown era to enhance areas of our business internally to make us a better company for our customers in the future. We overhauled the content of our website, we launched innovative technology and focused on our personalised engagement programme with customers.

We were extremely touched that some long-standing customers wrote to us saying how sorry they were that they couldn’t buy a policy from us as they weren’t going on holiday. During such challenging times, it was these little things that really were effective, and we emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic as a stronger business, and one that was closer to our customers.

How do you feel, overall, travel insurance companies treated their customers over the Covid-19 pandemic? Has that had an effect as we return to some level of normality?

We can’t talk about other brands, but we invested a lot of time and resources during the lockdowns to regularly survey our customer base to understand how they were feeling, and where travel and insurance fitted into their lives for the future. Supported by conversations directly with customers, our insight helped us shape the business we wanted to be after these lockdowns.

The lockdown era may be over, but its legacy endures, and at both All Clear and Insure and Go, we’re well-placed to deliver on the holidaymaker’s mandate for insurance they can rely on and holidays abroad without the doubts.

In September, All Clear won four national awards within a week. These awards, which are recognition for our customer service and the quality and clarity of our cover, are affirmation of the progress we made during the Covid-19 pandemic to better know our customers, and to align our services more closely with the ‘new normal’ of travel in the post-lockdown era.

Have customer levels returned to pre-pandemic levels yet?

We’ve been extremely fortunate. During the pandemic, we bought another travel business, we opened a new office in Wales and we’ve further improved our great service. As a result, we’ve comfortably surpassed the levels of business we achieved in 2019.

All Clear won the BIA award for Customer Care last year. How have you kicked on and improved since then?

Acquiring the largest brand in the travel insurance industry pivoted us onto the mainstream, and it gives us the chance to really show what we can do."

Chris Rolland

We’ve changed our customer care strategy based on what we learnt during the Covid-19 pandemic – staying ahead of issues, providing clear, succinct information and developing improved online self-serve functionality. We never sit still, we set ourselves ambitious standards and our hunger to improve is continuous.

What we learnt from Covid has helped us to embrace change and to be more agile. Let’s not forget that unexpected changes continued after the Covid lockdowns, for example, with the airport chaos last summer, the extreme weather, and so on.

From this pandemic, we embraced the need to be flexible. As customers react to change, so do we, and this is core to our ethos of delivering world-class customer service.

We’ve been laser-focused on the quality of cover, such as analysing the claims experience and improving clarity, and quote experience, such as streamlining the medical warranty framework, reducing the time to complete midterm adjustments and constantly revising our scripting.

It has been just over 12 months since you acquired Insure and Go. How has your foray into mainstream travel insurance been, and how does that fit within the business?

Behind the scenes, we always had the right capabilities and have supported the wider travel market for many years. Acquiring the largest brand in the travel insurance industry pivoted us onto the mainstream, and it gives us the chance to really show what we can do.

We’ve been incredibly pleased with the significant improvement in our Trustpilot ratings already, with an inspiring team of colleagues in our Insure and Go offices in Southend, Essex demonstrating the passion, commitment and expertise to succeed in the mainstream marketplace. It has been a match made in heaven, and the integration of the brands has been an immense success.

Where are you as a business right now in terms of market share and gross written premium? Are you back to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels?

We’re trading well, and hoping it will continue after adapting to the pandemic era and its challenges. Our scale now is substantially larger than it was pre-Covid.

What ambitions do you have with the new acquisition? Could there be more?

We’re always looking to acquire more market share to broaden our horizons. We achieve organic growth on the strength of our business, and we will acquire when the right opportunity arises.

Where do you see the travel insurance market going in the future? And are insurers and other travel brokers ready for that?

Without a prominent level of AI, travel insurance is an increasingly difficult market to break into. That’s likely to be the reason why so many insurers have dropped away from the UK market."

Chris Rolland

The market is growing, as consumers now see the value of superior quality insurance products. Unfortunately, the travel insurance market is being hit by substantial claims inflation, just like other insurance areas.

On top of that, we’ve seen the impact of currency depreciation with the pound versus the dollar. This means premiums must account for inflation both here and overseas, with a currency that is worth substantially less.

We are well-placed here because we have a specialism and a 20-year track record. We never rest on this platform though; we always look to build on it. Many insurers have come and gone, but for the next few years it will be quality that will out – both in terms of the cover offered and the brands that service it.

Technology and data also matter immensely. Without a prominent level of artificial intelligence these days, travel insurance is an increasingly difficult market to break into. That’s likely to be the reason why so many insurers have dropped away from the UK market.

A firm really will need to be innovative, flexible and adaptable if it’s to succeed in the future – and these are the very values we invested heavily in during the lockdown era. We’ve re-emerged as a better business, and we’re excited about the future.