Signs You Need a Corporate Travel Manager
Travel Management by Executive Travel Consultants
Corporate travel is one of the biggest expenditures a business can have. Yet many companies still don’t take corporate travel all that seriously. The truth is that if you rely on staff to visit a different part of the country, or even a different country altogether, to carry out business, it is important to get corporate travel management right. It’s not just a case of saving money, either. If your staff travels frequently, you need to have systems in place so that you know where they are and how to contact them at all times. If an emergency occurs, their safety should be your number one priority. Yet many companies have no way of getting in touch with staff whilst traveling on their behalf.
Plenty of companies start out by handling travel management in house. This can be a sensible solution if you are a small company with staff that rarely travels. Even the most overworked personal assistant will be able to book a couple of flights twice a year. But as companies grow and travel becomes more important and more frequent, many companies struggle to handle everything by themselves.
When business travel becomes more frequent, savvy companies turn to experienced corporate travel managers, which will in most cases offer your business an immediate upgrade in the travel management technologies that are available. An ETC travel manager goes beyond the common goal of reducing business travel expenses, and focuses on ways to “travel better, for less.” By employing a corporate travel manager like Executive Travel Consultants, companies can outsource their entire corporate travel program to experts who have the experience, relationships, and skill to better organize business travel and cut costs while improving the experience for each of your business travelers.
But how do you know when it’s time to talk to the corporate travel management experts? We recommend getting in touch if you experience any of the following problems.
Lack of staff and time
Who is organizing your corporate travel? Is it you? Your assistant? Do you know? If it’s you and it’s not your sole responsibility, the chances are that you are wasting valuable company time on a task that you weren’t hired for and aren’t suited to. If it’s not you, are you able to hire someone else in-house to do the job for you? If you have trouble justifying the added expense of hiring an in-house travel manager, then you will probably want to consider outsourcing the job. After all, it’s no good adding to your already overflowing plate or piling the problems on top of someone else’s when you can quickly and easily outsource the job of travel management to a company like Executive Travel Consultants who specializes in providing the very best in travel management solutions.
You don’t know or understand the industry
How well do you know the travel industry? And before you ask, no, booking a vacation twice a year doesn’t make you well versed in this multi-billion-dollar industry. For instance, do you know all of the policies of every airline? Do you know when the best time to book flights is? Can you navigate the minefield that is travel insurance? If you can’t answer yes to any of these questions, perhaps you should hand over corporate travel management to someone who can. At Executive Travel Consultants, we have decades of experience booking corporate travel for hundreds of companies and their respective business travelers. We know which airlines are the safest to book with, how to get you the best deal and what insurance to purchase. Just like you are experts at your business, ETC travel managers are experts in corporate travel planning.
You don’t have emergency plans in place
What happens if an emergency occurs, either in the country your employee is visiting or here in the states? Do you know how to contact them instantly? Do you have a procedure that outlines what should happen in case of an emergency? Hopefully, this will never be something you have to deal with, but the truth is that disasters, whether natural or man-made, do occur. If they do, protecting your employees needs to be your number one priority. But you can only do so if you have a series of emergency plans in place. Travel management companies are well versed in forming bespoke emergency plans with companies so that they can reach employees quickly and get them out of danger. When needing travel support, a travel management company like ETC will be ready.
Your employees book everything themselves
Do you have a uniform travel policy which every employee must abide by? Or do you let your employees sort everything out by themselves? If it is the latter, you should be worried. Without a formal travel policy in place, you have little control over what your employees do. If they book travel themselves, not only do they risk overpaying for hotels and flights, they also leave themselves—and the company—open to risk when it comes to insurance. It’s not just price you should be concerned about, either. Employees that book their own travel waste a huge amount of time that could otherwise be spent on their day job. With a travel management company like ETC, however, you can rest assured that anyone who travels follows the same rules, flies with the same airline and stays at the same kind of hotels.
You don’t have relationships with hotels or airlines
If your employees travel a lot, are you building relationships with airlines and hotels? If you are a frequent flyer, are you making sure you get rewards for your loyalty? If you’re not, it’s high time you start. And one of the best ways is to start working with a travel management company. Companies like ETC have decades of experience working closely with airlines and hotel chains. Often, they get preferential pricing that can amount to significant savings. In turn, these savings can be passed on to you. So not only do you get to use trustworthy operators that your travel manager has used for years, but you also get exclusive pricing that you couldn’t get otherwise. It’s a win-win.
Is it time for you to start working with a corporate travel manager? If you want to simplify the way that your company travels, whilst saving time and money in the process, speak to us today for a consultation on how we can help improve your corporate travel management.
Better Corporate Travel Management by ETCtravel.com
