GUEST BLOG: Four steps for managing business travel effectively

According to the Global Business Travel Association, spend on business travel is expected to grow 6%  in 2018, ending an ‘era of uncertainty’ for corporates with regards to budgets. This is hardly surprising when you consider that for every $1 spent on business travel, a company can realise $12.50 in incremental revenue. Firms are keen to use business travel to grow and expand.

However, with this increase, comes more pressure for those booking and managing trips. Research from Collinson Group, owner of Priority Pass, found that 65% of HR professionals at large companies anticipate the process of sending employees abroad will become more complicated from a Duty of Care perspective.

Employers have an obligation to provide a safe, secure and positive environment for staff to work in, both in and out of the office. Here are our key tips to manage business travel effectively:

Creating and communicating business travel guidelines 

While rough guidelines for business travel do exist, many companies have no standard approach when it comes to Duty of Care requirements. In fact, less than half of HR professionals (47% at large corporates / 40% at SMEs) issue staff with clear cut business travel guidelines. Unfortunately, even when these are issued to employees, they sometimes fall below the required mark. A third (36%) of business travellers described the information their company issued them with as “standardised” and not related to specific business travel needs. Firms should have a coherent risk management strategy in place and ensure these are relevant to the travel needs of individual members of staff.

Conducting effective risk assessments 

Risk assessments should be a fundamental part of Duty of Care, yet 53% of large corporates and 25% of SMEs only conduct risk assessments associated with employee travel if the employee is going to an area deemed “high risk”. Some of the reasons for this will relate to experience and/or budget considerations. But not having a proper risk assessment and contingency plan in place could mean that businesses are leaving staff – and themselves – exposed to unnecessary travel risks. Companies should consider using the services of third party risk partners, such as online portals providing real-time health and security information, to help support these processes.

Managing employees’ whereabouts 

When an employee requires assistance, you want to ensure a rapid response whilst also ensuring costs don’t spiral. There are different approaches to keep an eye on employees’ whereabouts when they’re travelling; companies need to find what works for them. For example, while travel tracking tools are often used by large corporates, they can be expensive and for many smaller companies, this will not be a sensible option. Instead, they should opt to micro-manage the tracking of their employees’ travel directly and on an individual basis. 

Providing a seamless travel experience

As well as keeping staff safe and fulfilling their Duty of Care responsibilities, employers need to ensure they focus on giving employees the best ‘customer experience’ possible – and not neglecting the importance of their social and emotional needs. Half (51%) of business travellers cite being away from home and family as the most challenging aspect of travelling abroad. Amongst other top concerns was access to consistent Wi-Fi (49%), being away from the office (38%) and the impact of travel on productivity (36%). What may feel like modest benefits to some, can make a real difference to staff effectiveness and their morale, while making them feel more valued and open to spending time away from home. For business travellers, the lounge in an airport or transportation hub is something of a sanctuary; a place for downtime and to relax, to stay connected with friends, colleagues and family members, as they prepare for travel.

Businesses need to ensure they are consolidating their approach to Duty of Care and ensure they are working with the right third party providers to achieve this. The reality is that if approached correctly, business travel can be highly rewarding, motivating for employees and drive extensive business gains.

This blog has been written by Jon White, Marketing Director, Travel Experiences, Collinson Group. The full findings from Collinson Group’s ‘Taking Care of Business Travel’ research can be found here.  If you want to find out more, please visit the Priority Pass team at the Business Travel Show, Stand B322.

GUEST BLOG: How sentiment analysis will revolutionise how companies measure the true cost of travel

 

Why is sentiment analysis important in understanding the total cost of business travel? 

If we look at our recently conducted Planes, Trains and Marginal Gains report, it is clear that business travellers have needs outside of a room for a night. So when we change a corporate policy that restricts the options available for our travellers, or restricts their travel abilities, there is often a correlating impact on morale. This impact on morale can manifest itself in many ways, such as tired or unprepared travellers, who arrive at meetings or events feeling frustrated. There is therefore a high likelihood that the reason for travel isn’t successful - that the sale isn’t closed, not all the meeting agenda was covered - meaning additional travel and meetings are needed, or poor business decisions are inadvertently made.

All of these have an impact on cost – whether it’s lost sales, or additional travel. But we need to marry these risks with the opportunity for savings. This is why it’s important to understand the impact of policy changes on travellers, or even try to pre-empt how a change would be felt within the business.

At Clarity, we are looking at how sentiment analysis can give us insight into how policy and business guidelines actually impacts the traveller. One of the key areas of focus for travel buyers for 2018 is how to spend less but retain quality, and so customer, and more importantly, traveller feedback is vital. But guess what? Not all travellers want to fill in a survey. And if they do, we don’t always get the truth. More often, we get as little information as is necessary to complete the survey. 

So, it’s important that any traveller surveys that we do provide clearly explain how it will inform the overall travel policy, with relevant questions, such as: opinions on days in lieu in return for extensive business travel; the benefit of utilising properties with access to gyms; monitoring the amount and quality of sleep that travellers get when away on business; and feedback on type and class of travel, location of accommodation etc. We can then link this information back to the properties, carriers, times and seasonality of stays and get a clearer picture of traveller experience and sentiment, and use this data to help strike a balance between corporate spend and traveller satisfaction.

We are also looking into how we can also use sentiment analysis from a much wider base of users to help provide recommendations that, when taken in conjunction with that amount of traveller feedback, give a strong wide coverage of sentiment around a product or experience for example - by tapping into the power of social media.

But this isn’t as simple as it sounds. For example, I need to be able to filter out noise such as unrelated sentiment. However the results are worth it. If I can help a customer determine the best fit travel policy that takes into account the needs of the traveller as well as the company, give the company the ability to see the impact and sentiment of the travellers behind that policy throughout the lifespan of the contract, and more importantly monitor what impact any policy changes have, then the net result can be a happy customer and a happy traveller.

The bottom line is sentiment analysis is an essential component in measuring the total cost of travel in 2018. By embracing this, companies will be able to determine a best fit travel policy - one that takes into account the needs of the traveller as well as the company - which in turn can reduce costs, maintain quality and, by combining spend with return on investment, enable customers to measure the true cost of travel.

This blog was written by Darren Williams, Head of Management Information and Data, at Clarity. He will be on stand B520 at the Business Travel Show demonstrating the new approaches Clarity is taking to measure the true cost of travel. To secure a one-on-one meeting at the show call 0800 731 1627.

GUEST BLOG: 2018…the year of assistance?

 

Google has just announced a new term “the age of assistance.” So what does this mean?

According to Google this term refers to the customer service of today; the new multi-faceted and multi-layered way brands communicate with customers, rather than traditional customer service offerings.

Over the years we have witnessed significant changes in the way that brands communicate, interact and service customers. In a service driven industry such as business travel the importance of these changes is more prevalent than ever.

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business and crucial for customer retention. You frequently see organisations spending large marketing budgets on customer acquisition; the best product, price and promotion but falling down at customer service and then losing the business.

The complex nature of business travel lends itself to “the age of assistance” where you are communicating with numerous contacts in the supply chain as well as recognising the specific needs and requirements of the end traveller. This is where using big data in a meaningful and personal way can be a key differentiator. It’s not just about the preferences of the individual traveller - wherever, whenever and however they need it - but also delivering real-time data and analytics to travel managers so they can drive better travel policy compliance and in turn, create long-term cost savings.

Technological advancements have opened up new communication channels for brands to embrace. The use of AI and chatbots is beginning to become widespread, whilst mobile, text, social media all now play an active part in brand communication plans.

In today’s hyper-connected, digital world, there is an opportunity to build brand loyalty through providing seamless customer satisfaction across multiple channels. To test the market, Traveldoo is currently undertaking a survey aimed at travel buyers. The survey focuses on the importance of customer service in the business travel industry and the buyers experience of customer service.

The results will be announced at the Business Travel Show.

If you are at Business Travel Show, the Traveldoo team would love to see you on stand B619 from 21-22 February 2018. Register for a free pass at www.businesstravelshow.com/register 

GUEST BLOG: What if this was one of your employees?

What if an employee had been wounded in a far-flung corner of the world? What if he needed urgent medical care, but the local hospital was at bursting point and refusing to admit patients?  What if it was difficult to reach the nearest city or airport because the roads were fraught with danger?  Could he bank on his employer to come up with a solution that could just save his life?

The risks

Let’s say this employee was stranded in the middle of a civil war and his injuries were serious. The government had been overthrown, law and order had broken down and there were guns on the streets. Public services were in tatters and it was going to be hard to find him in the chaos.  His case would call for simultaneous security and medical help.

His employer’s security and medical assistance providers may be lined up, but they may not have worked with each other before. Nor may they have contingency plans in place for a combined security and medical evacuation. Without a joined-up response, the injured man could be deprived of protection at the most crucial part of his journey. Medical escorts may not be ready to receive him from their security counterparts. And his evacuation could be delayed. His health could suffer and costs could rise as a result.

Could these fragmented providers work together, first to find the man and then to get him to a good hospital, in the small window of opportunity available?

The “golden hour”

We call the hour after an emergency like this “the golden hour’. Leave a crisis much longer and it may be too late to rectify. But in this case, there would be a lot to do. The real-time security situation on the ground would need to be assessed, medical escorts briefed and secure transport organised to get the man into the best hospital to meet his needs.  A successful outcome would hang on clear communication and a rapid response.

An ideal world

In an ideal world, this employee’s travel risk management programme would include pre-travel training -  so he’d know how to respond to the emergency. He’d know how to minimise exposure to further risk, and how to access combined security and medical assistance via his mobile device. Meanwhile, his travel tracking app would tell his assistance provider exactly where to find him.

The integrated security and medical assistance team would be monitoring the situation in real-time, simultaneously identifying border crossing points, flight options and landing zones and preparing secure transport, medical facilities and emergency medical escorts -  all to slot into place seamlessly.

It wouldn’t be long before the man was in an armoured car, with armed escorts at his side, heading for the emergency medics - ready and waiting to take him to a trusted hospital, probably by air and possibly in a neighbouring country. He would have a bed booked, a surgeon on standby and a full medical handover.  Communication between all parties would have been constant. And the patient would soon be on the road to recovery.

But it could have been a very different story if the medical and security assistance chain had been fragmented.

This post was written by Chris Knight, head of corporate services at global assistance providers CEGA.

CEGA and security experts Solace Global are exhibiting their one-source medical and security assistance service, INtrinsic, at the Business Travel Show, stand B254. Register for your free ticket now at http://bit.ly/2qYu9GF.