Southern Cross Travel Insurance wins global award

Southern Cross Travel Insurance (SCTI), which has been operating in Australia for over a decade and in New Zealand since 1982, was named the International Travel and Health Insurance Company of the Year.

Held in Athens, Greece, the ceremony recognised SCTI for its focus on quality products and policies, a commitment to diversity and inclusion, and an impressive response to customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wayne Carter-Stuart, head of operations and PMO from the Southern Cross team, accepted the award.

SCTI's entry focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Southern Cross started to feel the pandemic's impact in late January 2020 when contact from customers in transit accelerated as nervousness and uncertainty related to the pandemic grew – compelling the insurer's contact centre to extend its hours to accommodate the influx of calls. By April 2020, the volume of customers contacting the business was more than thrice that experienced at the same time in previous years.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our team at Southern Cross Travel Insurance for being recognised amongst some very prestigious global brands. I feel so privileged to work with a team of the best in the business who have customers at the heart of every decision they make,” said SCTI CEO Jo McCauley.

SCTI, which paid out more than $600,000 in travel insurance claims due to the impact of the COVID-19 omicron variant, ensured its customers received the level of support they needed during the pandemic by rolling out a few initiatives:

• Between April and July 2020, SCTI proactively contacted all TravelCare single-trip customers, offering a refund, making it the first travel insurer to implement such an initiative;
• It proactively offered extensions to customers who had recently purchased annual travel insurance policies;
• It waived its usual cancellation fees ($35 per policy) due to the exceptional nature of the lockdown and travel restrictions;
• It launched a new website in July 2020, offering greater self-service capability (log-in and claims enhancements) and a researched, new-look design to better enable customers to find the information they needed;
• In December 2020, the insurer launched a domestic travel insurance policy to support the rise in domestic tourism, itself an award-winning Plain English policy document; and
• In May 2021, the insurer offered COVID-19 coverage on its domestic and international policies.

“What the business confirmed during this experience is that responding to the immediate needs of our customers and acting with integrity and transparency at all times is critical to maintaining customer loyalty. Despite the longer than usual waiting times our customers experienced during the height of the pandemic, they were largely accepting of these challenges and appreciative of the business' support,” McCauley said.

With Australians and New Zealanders travelling again, SCTI is responding to travellers' enthusiasm to get out and see the world despite certain challenges.

“Like many other organisations in the travel industry, we're continuing to experience pressure on our team, who are doing their level best to respond to the customer demand in a timely way. Nevertheless, we are sparing no effort to be there for our customers, as we always do,” McCauley said. “I'm sure this award will help all the people in our amazing team feel confident about the way they have managed through some tough times. They should be proud. I certainly am.”