Want to know a secret?
Any travel management company worth its weight in salt can save you time and money. But, that’s not the secret.
The secret is that your company can enhance those savings even more through the utilization of online booking tools. If your online booking adoption rate is less than 80 percent, then you are missing out on those savings. Online adoption rate is the number of transactions completed on line compared to total transactions (online + agent assisted).
To be clear, there is and will continue to be a need for agent-assisted transactions. But the fact remains, much of what is done while talking with an agent can be conducted online or from your smartphone. That not only saves you time, but because online transaction fees are lower, you save money as well. And to top it off, because of the 24/7 access, online booking tools don’t restrict when you use them
It’s not that we don’t want to talk to you, but by taking advantage of this resource, it frees up our corporate travel consultants to deal with more complex issues. And with travel returning in a big way, allowing our consultants the opportunity to free up their time creates a win-win for all involved.
If you are one of those companies that does not have a high adoption rate, all is not lost. TMCs are good about providing training and support resources, as are the vendors who produce the tools. Acendas Travel has an excellent Online Support team and its team can help implement communications to aid in increasing adoption.
For more on the subject, we dedicated a recent episode of Viewpoints with Acendas Travel examining the subject in greater detail. Senior Vice President Joe Curtis and Director of Program Management Corey Ringh are featured. Click here to watch.