Last Updated on: March 7, 2023 at 9:23 am
With the worst of the pandemic behind us, companies are changing their corporate travel approach from an emergency mindset to one aimed at selecting a business travel solution that provides the best long-term results.
However, the last two years have left their mark, and some notable changes seem to have taken hold. For example, a recent survey highlighted how 20% of travel managers currently make bookings with a travel agent compared to only 9% before the pandemic.
The same survey pointed out that the decreased use of online booking tools (OBT) could be reversed if these solutions provided additional features, including better integration with other travel management data and tasks. That’s why many companies are now resorting to travel management companies (TMCs). These providers deliver numerous benefits, such as effective travel policy implementation, smooth approvals, and quick report generation.
Yet not all TMCs offer a business travel solution that caters to your organization’s specific needs and meets the expectations of business travellers, travel managers, and senior managers alike. Here are the most telling signs that it’s time to look for a new provider.
In this article, we'll take a look at:
For a business travel solution to be useful and effective, it’s not enough for all desired features to be present. You also want them to be organized in a way that speeds up learning and makes using the platform as intuitive as possible.
Some travel management solutions feel too stuffed and make it difficult to tell different sets of data from each other. Other providers may give users a hard time trying to understand which sequence of steps they need to take to perform crucial tasks. Then there are those platforms that appear too rigid in their design, with little room for customization. After using confusing and poorly organized travel management solutions for a while, you may even start regretting the time when you handled each aspect of your company’s business trips separately.
An integrated travel management platform should use technology to make your job easier and not harder. And that’s the principle behind the design of TruTrip’s interface. You will get a clear and full overview of each set of data, intuitively locate each feature, book all travel-related necessities in one continuous flow, tailor your business travel program to your specific needs and always be up to date with safety issues on your destinations of interest. All this while tracking any travel transaction and giving you instant access to insightful spending reports.
While many TMCs promise impeccable booking tools, they don’t always fully deliver on their promises. One problem could be the limited number of booking options compared to the total supply of flights, hotels, trains, car rentals, and workspaces available for the trip’s destination. This also limits the ability of the platform to highlight the most competitive rates and convenient solutions. In some other cases, the booking process is too complex, and the risk of booking errors is high.
In addition to providing a very intuitive and clear booking system, TruTrip works with several global and local suppliers to give you plenty of choices when it comes to fares and rates. Its flexibility adapts to most budgets and needs. And in the rare event that you don’t find what you were looking for, TruTrip’s concierge team is always ready to take it from there, look for alternative options, and book on your behalf.
Reducing business travel costs through access to lower rates, integrated tools, and increased efficiency is the primary reason why companies resort to a business travel solution. Unfortunately, not all platforms seem to be able to provide the level of savings that they advertise and their clients expect. This isn’t only due to insufficient availability of fares but also to higher fees and inefficient spending tracking tools.
Thanks to a seamless synergy between travel and expense management tools, TruTrip’s clients achieve up to 30% in savings. Using our smart policy builder, you can create travel policies that provide flexibility to your business travellers, tight control to your travel managers, and superior financial insight generation. Through the smooth combination of these elements, your company is guaranteed to get the best value for its money.
Building the right travel policy is only the first step to cutting costs and improving overall efficiency. For everything to work as planned, you need to ensure a high level of policy compliance. Your current platform may present various shortcomings, like inefficient budget setting tools, little flexibility when developing policies for workers with different needs, and the lack of filters for the options that travellers are allowed to book.
TruTrip overcomes these issues with business trip management features that allow your company to create different policies for different teams, limit bookings to airlines or accommodation providers you already negotiated rates with, set budget ranges, and block high-risk destinations.
Obviously, travel management platforms need to take into consideration the needs of top management too. How does the platform contribute to the company’s bottom line? Does it help lower turnover by increasing the satisfaction of your travelling workforce? Does it easily integrate with your organization’s finance system? Not all platforms can answer these questions positively, hence senior managers’ reluctance to approve their continuous use.
TruTrip goes above and beyond to meet the expectations of all involved stakeholders. We don’t just deliver and integrate individual features with high efficiency. We also help companies improve their overall travel management programme and integrate their business travel tasks with their existing finance system. During the onboarding phase, we assist clients in creating and improving their policies and give them the flexibility to decide the length of their contract and when to end it.
For a platform to be useful, its client service and support system must be swift and effective in addressing customer issues and concerns. Not all available TMCs can guarantee that, and clients are left with unsolved issues for days, which can negatively impact their finances and control over business trips. This can end up cancelling the benefits provided by the platform’s tools.
TruTrip’s value isn’t only in its next-level self-service options but also in the customer service excellence delivered by its highly responsive in-house global team. We are ready to step in at any time if you face obstacles to getting things done on the platform. Our customer service is available 24/7, our response time averages 3 minutes, and you can easily contact us through multiple channels, from site messaging to email to Whatsapp and Facebook.
An effective travel management platform isn’t just a sum of features. It’s a comprehensive solution that looks at the whole picture of your business travel needs and offers quick, reliable, and helpful ways to plan and supervise trips while cutting costs and contributing to your company’s bottom line.
This is exactly what TruTrip provides. Do you want to evaluate its potential cost-free? Request a demo today and get a better understanding of how we can help you elevate your travel management’s success.
TruTrip streamlines booking, management, and reporting for hassle-free business trips.