If you are planning a business trip for your employees, then it is crucial to seek the services of a corporate travel agency. These are professionals who book and manage travel for businesses. They will handle all aspects of the trip, including booking flights, searching for the best hotels near the conference venue, organizing pick-and-drop vehicles at the airport, and so much more.
Working with business travel consultants can save you money because their extensive network and resources allow them to get better deals that you may not have access to if you handle the trip yourself. In addition, they will save you time, and you will enjoy certain perks. While many corporate travel agencies are on the market today, finding a reliable and professional one can be rather hard. You need to do your due diligence before choosing an agency you can partner with. Here are the top things you need to look for in a corporate travel agency.
1. Seamless booking experience
One of the most important things you need to look for in a corporate travel agency is a smooth booking experience. In the past, travel agencies relied heavily on phones and emails to interact with their clients and make bookings. But this is no longer the case; clients no longer want to spend their precious time going back and forth on calls and emails. That’s why, nowadays, there is a travel software that allows businesses to book corporate trips themselves. On top of that, these agencies also have travel agents that handle all booking-related correspondence. The agent also acts as a point of contact and assists you in getting answers to all your queries. Finally, the system should allow the booking process to be done collaboratively. You should be able to make cancellations or re-bookings when necessary.
2. Advanced technology for both travelers and admins
Nowadays, thanks to the technical development in the travel industry, many corporate travel agencies have integrated travel and expense software. If the agency lacks the software, employees’ safety and policy compliance will suffer a great deal. When looking for a corporate travel agency, make sure that it uses the necessary software so that you can easily get comprehensive data visibility into your company’s travel spending, as well as higher policy compliance with in-built policy features. In addition, check if they have a user-friendly mobile app that can be used to book travel on the go or send regular travel notifications and alerts.
3.Security of data
Corporate travel undoubtedly involves managing and storing sensitive data, such as employee credit card details and IDs. If this data gets compromised, it can be a threat to not only the employee’s security but also the security of the employee and your company too.
Therefore, you must choose a corporate travel agency that prioritizes the safety of employees’ data. How can you determine that? Well, you need to find out how the agency keeps all the data submitted to them securely and what measures they have in place to ensure that data is not compromised in any way.
4.Innovation and scalability
Of course, you want to see your business thrive and grow. As your business grows, the number of corporate trips will also increase. This means that you will need a solution that can store the data of the added employees and handle the increased number of travel requests with a lot of ease.
It is therefore important to look for a corporate travel agency that integrates a cloud-based software solution. Generally, cloud-based solutions usually offer higher scalability, making you not worry even as your business grows and you hire new employees because you can manage their data without incurring any extra costs.
5. Responsive support
Finally, another essential thing you must look for in a corporate travel agency when choosing one is effective and responsive customer support. Your employees may encounter some issues while on their business trip. This means they will require assistance right away. And if the agency cannot be reached, then it may lead to a disaster. So you must ensure that the corporate travel agency has 24/7 customer support.
