By now, you’ve probably realized that partnering with a travel management company (TMC) is a great way to elevate your business travel program and experience. But you might still be wondering how this translates into concrete value.
At The Travel Team, we like to break down the benefits of working with a TMC into savings, service, and safety. Our approach to these elements centers around our customers and has allowed us to distinguish ourselves in the crowded space of corporate travel.
Here’s how The Travel Team sets you up for success.
Savings
When transitioning from an unmanaged corporate travel program to working with a TMC, savings is usually a major deciding factor. But it can also be one of the biggest question marks in regard to how much you’re saving and where.
At The Travel Team, we take the ambiguity out of the equation by breaking down exactly where you’re currently saving and where we can help you save more.
- Unused Ticket Management
It’s estimated that unused tickets make up about 5 to 10% percent of corporate air travel spend. With our modern booking platform, we can track unused credits and refunds, making sure they get applied the next time a flight is booked. And if a ticket remains unused, we can take action to mitigate potential loss.
- Cost Avoidance
Being part of a rewards program and receiving discounts is great, but it’s only one part of a bigger picture. Cost avoidance is equally as important.
At The Travel Team, we don’t just hand over a report and leave it to you to figure out how to do better. Our experts analyze your spend and find you opportunities to avoid unnecessary expenses and identify information you can use to negotiate more favorable terms with vendors.
This could be discounts in the form of waived fees on late checkouts or a complimentary day on rental cars. And in those situations where you might not have enough spend to negotiate better rates, we can leverage our established vendor relationships to bridge the gap.
Service
The travel industry is complex; anyone who’s arranged booking for multiple parties knows that. At The Travel Team, we’re here to shoulder the burden for you—helping you navigate the industry with personalized service at every interaction.
- Personalization
Having small teams helps us foster a sense of familiarity, ensuring that our experts really get to know both your business and your travelers, which is just as important to us as our commitment to providing 24/7 service.
These two aspects of service go hand in hand to create a high-quality, high-touch travel experience. So when your travelers reach out to our team, they’re not being siphoned through a call center of fifty or more agents. They’re dealing with someone who knows your company’s policies, their personal preferences, and the context of their travels, putting them in the best position to help.
- Holistic Service
A holistic concept of service means we look beyond just vendor relationships when helping you and your travelers accomplish your goals.
Let’s say a flight has been rerouted or delayed. The Travel Team isn’t limited to re-booking through just one vendor. In situations where our customers need to make it to their destination on time, we look at the entirety of vendor options, choose the one that best complies with your travel policy, and get your travelers where they need to be at the best price and with the least inconvenience—something that just isn’t possible when booking through an airline or travel website.
Safety
Safety is a primary component of any managed travel program. You need to know that your travelers are making it to and from their destinations safely. Moreso, you need peace of mind that when things don’t go to plan, your travel partner is already working to resolve issues before they affect your travelers.
- Real-Time Data
At The Travel Team, we use real-time data to empower our clients. With the tools at our disposal, we can find out where travelers are and at what stage of their journey they’re in. We use this information to monitor for situations that could potentially impact our clients. For example, at the beginning of the pandemic, we actively monitored the global situation, which allowed us to negotiate tricky border situations and facilitate the return of countless travelers before they became stranded.
- Transparency
We also share this real-time data with you so that you can stay informed and make the best decisions in regard to your travelers. This can take the form of providing detailed itineraries of where your travelers are and where they’re going to be based on booking information and corporate card purchases. It can also mean sending out risk alerts to both travelers and management so your team isn’t caught by surprise.
A Culture Informed by Understanding
While the areas of savings, service, and safety all require slightly different approaches from our representatives, they are unified by our focus on insight and personalization. We understand that no two businesses are alike, and no two managed travel programs should be either. So on top of our expertise, what really sets us apart is the nuance we bring to each situation and the time we take to understand what really drives our customers.
