Travelcare 2019: The next level

SOS International is Nordic market leader within medical and travel assistance and the Travelcare division had an annual revenue of DKK 1,737 million. In 2019, more than 180,000 cases were handled within this division, including pre-departure services, acute cases from Nordic travellers handled by the alarm centre as well as claims handling.

Various trends as well as the general increased awareness of flight traffic’s effect on the climate and ”flight shame” movements are gaining ground in many Nordic countries. It is closely followed how this might affect Scandinavian travel patterns and, in this context, how SOS International can support a sustainable agenda. 

Next level operations

2019 has been a year of development and progress within the medical and travel business area.

Firstly, the major investment in building a new case management system was launched and a dedicated team of specialists has worked intensively on this during the past year. As a result, several substantial milestones in the project were reached during 2019. The project continues the coming year according to the plan.

Secondly, creating holistic end-user experiences has been a key focus area in medical operations throughout the year. Streamlining of entries and contact points across operations was the point of direction in the ambition to create the most seamless and efficient end-user journeys.

The result stands clear in the high level of end-user satisfaction as well as the improved operational efficiency obtained again this year.

Claims costs savings and medical inflation

The previous years’ comprehensive focus on claims cost optimisation has radically improved the level of claims costs within the medical and travel assistance area.

The efforts continue and there are still many ongoing initiatives that will positively affect the level of claims costs without compromising the high quality.

The high level of savings remains, but the absolute costs are, however, influenced by medical inflation. Global medical inflation is significantly higher than general inflation and SOS International’s top destinations are on average some of the destinations mostly affected by medical inflation globally. Treatments are becoming more expensive which affects the absolute costs and thereby the overall level of claims cost savings.

The global network structure has been further revised during 2019, which has also had a positive effect on the overall level of claims costs.

Next level leadership

The annual employee engagement survey also revealed significant progress and a performance above the 2019 strategic target.

The level of job satisfaction, working conditions and leadership all increased. All leaders in Travelcare Division have completed a customised leadership development education during 2019.

In general, competence development throughout the group of staff is an important parameter in the endeavour to future proof the business by ensuring a broad range of profiles and competences to accommodate future demands.

Ambitious future

The ambition for the coming period is to continue the positive development in terms of rethinking and optimising the end-user journey by using new technology in combination with insights into the needs and expectations of the end-users.

Expectations for the use of digital channels and self-service will continue to rise and SOS International’s focus will be on digitising where it makes sense. Digital value creation is a question of balancing personal and digital assistance. It is not a matter of full digital service flows or no digital services at all. Parts of a process can be digital and the purpose is to be at the forefront of development and thus secure a more agile development and a proactive approach to the end-user experiences offered.

Technological infrastructure, data and increased integrations with customers will be part of the active approach to further strengthen our services.