Refining business travel management strategies

Without a doubt, it’s a challenging time to work in corporate travel management. COVID-19 has drastically changed the business travel landscape, bringing in a slew of new obstacles and unknowns while the usual demands of the job remain ever-present. Your to-do list has always included decreasing expenses, carrying out duty-of-care tasks, and developing smart policies, but trying to meet your goals in uncertain times can feel like a shot in the dark.

We suggest taking a good, hard look at your program — especially while business travel is in a slump — to revamp your approach and zero in on new opportunities to refine your business travel management strategies.
With that in mind, we’ve created a guide for addressing some of the main issues affecting corporate travel management — not just now but in the years to come.

Considering new technologies

 

Corporate travel management technology is constantly advancing, and investing in some of these advancements is wise to make your job easier. If you haven’t examined how your travel program uses the latest tools, now is a great time to do so. Weighing your options for a tech-savvy TMC is a significant first step.
As you reach out and research your choices, remember that you’ll need to work with a company that can tailor corporate travel solutions to your precise needs and promises a high level of flexibility and customization. 

This is especially important if you want third-party software that provides more insightful data, automates specific processes, and allows for huge savings.
Look for a TMC that easily incorporates these valuable third-party services designed to give you an edge in achieving your business travel management goals. A good TMC will allow you the power to plug and play with the solutions that make the most sense for your operations.

Keeping track of canceled flights, refunds, and unused tickets

 

When did you last find yourself in such a flurry of canceled flights, refunds, and unused tickets? Probably not in recent memory, if ever. With business travel ground to a halt in the wake of COVID-19 and a return to previous levels not expected for several years, you’ll need a solid strategy ASAP for dealing with this problem.

Did you know a single canceled trip costs a company $889 on average, mainly because refunds and vouchers are never claimed or used for future travel? This opens the door for vast amounts of lost money — an alarming prospect for a company of any size.

Corporate travel management professionals have a choice: manually cross-check spreadsheets and try to make sense of raw data, or enlist the help of a refund policy tracking tool to get real-time reports that track every unflown ticket, helping to make a solid plan for recovering that money.

Managing travel spend

 

No matter what’s happening in the business travel world, reining expenses and wise use of resources is an ongoing challenge for corporate travel management professionals.
The right corporate travel booking tool makes compliance easy for your travelers, helps you secure special rates with hoteliers, and gives you data and transparency to make sound decisions. As mentioned, plug-and-play software solutions can take your TMC to the next level, providing even more tools and data for fine-tuning your operations.

Airfares make up a huge chunk of travel spend, so focusing on reducing these costs and getting the best fares possible makes sense. That’s not necessarily easy to do in these unprecedented times – especially if your corporate travel management program doesn’t use an airfare re-shopping platform.

Your corporate air spend has always been subject to external factors such as fluctuating oil prices, competition, and changes in supply and demand on the part of the airlines. But now, with fewer routes, border closings, and ever-changing government legislation — not to mention the economic hot water the airlines are in — airfares have become hugely unpredictable.
Our research shows an airfare price volatility trend that will likely stay for the foreseeable future. That’s because the usual airline price management strategies have been turned on their heads, with no end to the chaos in sight.

This haphazard situation makes it hard to ensure your travelers get the lowest prices. Without the right corporate travel solutions to stay on top of this, you’ll almost certainly end up paying too much for airfare sooner or later.

Airfare price tracking offers reliable solutions for monitoring changes in fares and capturing the best rates, even if that means rebooking. Given the extreme highs and lows in pricing, there’s never been a better time to use this valuable tool and secure the vast savings that come with sudden dips in price.

Securing the best payment options

 

When examining your corporate travel management program, it’s worth considering whether the payment options you’re currently using offer the kind of fraud protection, flexibility, and transparency you need to make your operations more efficient.
Perhaps your corporate travel booking is facilitated by a business credit card by default — you’d undoubtedly be in good company if that’s the case. But in the last few years, tech-enabled options — such as virtual payment cards — have taken the business travel world by storm, offering an attractive alternative for several reasons.

This central billing option removes many risks and inconveniences of the typical business credit card. You can configure a virtual payment card for specific uses, vendors, locations, and time frames, reducing the chance of fraudulent activity. Reconciliation is more straightforward, too, when these controls are in place.
Most importantly, enabling corporate travel booking with a virtual payment card eliminates the problem of credit limits due to the card’s centralized nature and independence from any individual card or account. And that’s a huge boon when considering airfare price tracking that can automatically look for cheaper flights and rebook them. Without the constraint of credit limits that might typically create a barrier for this process, your software can rebook the flight, and the savings are locked in.

 ConvenientInstant ReconciliationReduced Cash Flow IssuesLow Risk of Fraud
Personal Credit Card✅❌❌❌
Business Credit Card✅❌❌❌
Virtual Payment✅✅✅✅

Making full use of your data

 
As business travel begins to bounce back, dozens or hundreds of employees may plan, book, and travel on business trips at any given time. With so much happening simultaneously, getting an accurate snapshot of your program and the various factors in making it all work smoothly can be challenging.

When your corporate travel management tools give you the power to run reports, look at analytics, and dig deeper into specific trends, you have a better chance of rectifying any issues and capitalizing on any opportunities. Ensure your TMC and any third-party software empower you to take your data into your own hands to fortify your decision-making.

Prioritizing traveler wellness

 
There is no more central element to your corporate travel management operations than your travelers. Even as you pursue saving money and making your program more efficient, the investment in employee wellness is always well spent.

No matter what you’re trying to accomplish through corporate travel management, prioritize policies and practices that consider the weekend warrior’s lived experience. Why? Because burnout, loss of productivity, and time away from family negatively affect your traveling employees and your company.

On the other hand, when your employees know their well-being is a concern, they’re happier, more productive, and more likely to stick with the company even through hard times.
Consider factors like flight delays, cancellations, long layovers, weekends away, middle seats, and more to provide a rich picture of an individual traveler’s wellness at a given point. Improving travelers’ experiences is essential for avoiding employee dissatisfaction and burnout.

Developing a post-COVID corporate travel policy

 

The COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting effect on the travel industry and how people connect worldwide. The things corporate travel management professionals once took for granted — the ability to network, hold meetings and conferences, and travel at will — have been greatly affected. The policies that worked in years past are now obsolete. Despite this, recovery will happen, though it may be slow and incremental.

As your business slowly reintroduces travel, you must ensure your corporate travel management strategies consider our new reality. For starters, you should revisit how to balance providing a duty of care with keeping within tightened budgets. It’s also essential to stay up-to-date on developments around travel restrictions and automate as much of your policy as possible to reflect the ever-changing situation. And, of course, the changes in airfare prices – whether due to volatility or increased flexibility — are always wise to track.

No matter what changes need to be made to your business travel management approach, make sure your employees have reviewed and understand any new policies. Urge them to update their contact details, book within your program, and keep you informed of any burdens or inconveniences the new guidelines might cause. Having buy-in from your employees can make all the difference in meeting your corporate travel management goals.

Checking...