Almost half of holidaymakers think travel agents are too pushy when selling travel insurance, a Primary Insurance Group survey has revealed.
Only 10% of consumers believed that travel insurance could only be bought from an agent but 45% said that the agent exerted too much pressure to make customers buy insurance. And 28% of those surveyed thought that travel insurance was not valuable, since some travel agents offered it free.
However, 97% of people thought that travel agents were honest when selling insurance and a further 30% believed they offered an informed opinion on buying travel insurance. Almost half of the people surveyed believed that insurance packages sold by travel agents were tailored to the holiday they were buying and 14% thought it was better cover than they could get anywhere else.
Primary sales head Antony Martin said it was important for agents to have a good balance of information and sales technique.
“The agent has to be careful not to force insurance on the customer but a lack of information or free or heavily discounted insurance deals can also be detrimental and can undervalue the product if the time isn't taken to explain elements of the policy at point-of-sale,” he said.
