Companies and startups invest in business travel to boost customer acquisition, revenue generation, and market expansion. However, they find it challenging to increase the ROI as corporate travel management is different from core business activities.
Many enterprises streamline the complex process using corporate travel management companies. These companies improve employee productivity and experience by providing several travel management services and solutions.
At the same time, they create opportunities for employers to reduce the average business trip cost. You can gather information about leading travel management companies from many online sources. However, you choose and use the right travel management companies only by considering these important factors.
10 Factors You Must Consider to Choose the Right Travel Management Company
- Policy Formulation and Enforcement
A well-crafted travel and expense policy (T&E) is essential for each company investing in business travel. Employees can refer to the guidelines to mitigate travel risks and overcome travel challenges. Also, the policy will help them control costs by booking in-policy travel products and avoiding non-reimbursable expenses.
Travel management companies facilitate T&E policy formulation and implementation by deploying a team of experts. You need to ensure that the team customizes T&E guidelines according to your precise goals and needs. However, you must check how the company prevents policy violations and ensures policy compliance.
- Pre-Trip Assistance
You must improve employee productivity by providing pre-trip assistance. For instance, you must help employees make business travel itineraries and customer travel checklists by providing destination information and travel guidelines.
Likewise, you must assist employees in procuring and updating important travel documents like passports, visas, national IDs, and international driving licenses. Hence, you should use a corporate travel management company that helps employees travel for work.
- Extensive and Diverse Travel Choices
Work travelers experience stress when they lack the option to book their preferred flights, accommodations, car rentals, and other travel products. However, travel choices these days vary according to the demographic characteristics of employees.
For instance, each work traveler these days remains stress-free and reduces carbon footprints by preferring direct flights to connecting flights. However millennial and Gen-Z employees prefer alternative accommodations like homestays to hotels.
Hence, you must use a travel management company that provides extensive and diverse travel choices to employees. However, you need to ensure that the company shows and recommends only in-policy travel products to each employee.
- Travel Risk Management
You must help employees mitigate potential travel risks by providing relevant information and support. At the same time, your company must meet duty of care obligations by ensuring their safety and security. Hence, you should use a travel management company that provides 24/7 travel support to employees.
Also, each employee can contact a travel support executive using his preferred communication channel – telephone, email, and instant messaging. However, you should prioritize companies that provide emergency assistance to work travelers using global health and security risk management firms.
- Travel Expense Management
Most corporate travel management companies submit consolidated expense reports. The consolidated reports help your finance team speed up reimbursements by reducing the number of expense claims. However, real-time travel spend visibility is essential for your finance team to make informed financial decisions.
Hence, you should use a company that facilitates travel expense tracking, reviewing, and auditing using expense management software. The software will enable you to track travel expenses in real time using a dashboard. Also, you can analyze and review travel spending by generating custom reports using various metrics and parameters.
- Travel Data Management
The travel management company will book business trips using in-house experts. Employees have to share personal and confidential information with the experts. The sensitive information can be used by cybercriminals for executing financial fraud and identity thefts. Hence, you must check how the company protects employee data.
At the same time, you should prioritize companies that help your company unify and analyze T&E data. When they store T&E data in a centralized location, it becomes easier for you to analyze the data using data analytics solutions. The solution will create opportunities for your company to boost employee productivity and reduce costs using data-driven insights.
- Travel Cost Reduction
You can use corporate travel management companies to reduce the average business trip costs. It is always important to opt for companies that make travel products available at lower than market rates by negotiating and collaborating with many travel suppliers.
At the same time, you should check if the company controls business trip costs using strategies like early booking, fully flexible tickets, best deals, and policy compliance. It is always important to ask specific questions to understand the cost-saving tactics used by each travel management company.
- Tech Solutions
Like outsourcing, automation helps you increase the ROI of business travel consistently. Leading corporate travel management companies facilitate business process automation by providing useful tech solutions.
For instance, some companies automate important steps in the corporate management process by providing corporate booking tools, expense management solutions, and data management software. At the same time, you can automate the process end-to-end using a company that provides integrated travel and expense management software.
- Industry Expertise
Both emerging trends and cutting-edge technologies transform corporate travel management. You must adopt emerging business travel trends to boost employee productivity and experience. Likewise, you can optimize process automation by adopting cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and data analytics.
Your company can adopt new trends and leverage new-age technologies using a travel management company with adequate industry expertise. The industry expertise will make the company will help your company meet travel regulations and boost business travel experiences without escalating costs.
- Pricing Structure
Your company has to incur recurring expenses to avail of professional travel management services and solutions. Business travel management companies these days support multiple pricing structures. For instance, some companies allow customers to pay per transaction/trip, while others charge monthly or annual fees.
You must ask specific questions to ensure that there are no hidden charges. It is always important to opt for a company that supports a pay-as-you-use pricing model. However, you should keep in mind your travel budget while comparing the pricing models or fee structures.
Conclusion
The services and solutions provided by corporate travel management companies help you improve employee productivity and experience without escalating costs. But you should remember that automation, like outsourcing, is currently one of the hottest corporate travel management trends.
Hence you must use travel management tools and solutions as an important parameter while comparing leading travel management companies. At the same time, you should prioritize a travel management company that boosts the process through efficient data management and analysis.