Let’s pick up from where we left off from the previous blog. This blog will throw light on a couple of typical challenges that business travel industry is confronting and ways to manage the same:
Enhancing digital expectation:
Today’s tech savvy business travelers live the digital life, and they expect their travel life to be an extension of digital experience. Infusion of innovative technological advancements has provided business travelers ways to mix leisure with business, or more popularly “bleisure”. A study shows that 42% of travelers use smartphones for trip planning; the adoption of AI has made light work of bookings, online customer support, or data processing without requiring manual processes. Thus, digital technology, in addition to becoming increasingly important, has raised the expectation bar for business travelers too.Corporate travelers here would want to enjoy the same level of digital interactions as in the case of leisure travel, and failure to offer such experience would only make it disjointed . For instance, employees when given a digital format of travel itinerary on a platter to their mobile phones will be able to scan everything at one go. And what if these are completely free of unnecessary third-party ads to offer corporate travelers with seamlessly interactive experience that exacts the convenience of modern leisure travel?
In addition, businesses should automate specific processes and improve their GDS systems such that routine matters such as visa checking can be completed in quick time digitally without any human intervention. This ensures business travel process runs smoothly like a well-oiled machine and also saves up on time and eliminates human discrepancies.
Personalization:
A study by Euromonitor reveals that the need for personalized experience will double or even triple in the business travel space. This means that leisure and business travelers alike will want companies to serve bespoke products that are behaviour -or profile based. Further the study indicated that 67% of people want their travel provider to give a personal touch to their communication.
This presents compelling reasons for business travel managers to ensure that travel programs are customizable, rather than something template-based. This can be achieved when businesses can tailor their GDS systems built in with PNR management in real-time to automatically maintain track of individual employee data including specific route details.
In addition to automating the entire process of developing a custom itinerary for travelers, it also helps locate the best deals and offers in real-time, saving valuable money and time. Travel managers must remember that there are no short cuts; there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Bit of personalization can go a long way in making travel process easier, thereby promoting policy compliance and improving upon employee satisfaction.