Most enterprises use corporate travel as a strategy for market expansion and revenue growth. They make employees engage in domestic and international travel regularly to accomplish these growth objectives. Some employees travel frequently to various destinations, while others engage in business travel for the first time.
Frequent and first-time business travelers need up-to-date information and on-demand assistance to overcome common and potential travel challenges. Employers make it easier for them to overcome various business travel challenges by working with a corporate travel consultant.
In addition, they check how the consultant manages various travel challenges while evaluating the request for proposals (RFP) for travel management services. If you are yet to hire a corporate travel consultant, it is time to understand how these professionals navigate modern business travel challenges.
10 Ways a Corporate Travel Consultant Overcomes Major Business Travel Challenges
Ensuring Policy Compliance
Enterprises control costs by implementing clear travel and expense (T&E) policies. However, they find it challenging to mitigate T&E policy violations. A corporate travel consultant ensures policy compliance in several ways.
Firstly, he helps work travelers understand organizational policies by clearing doubts and answering questions. The clarity makes employees avoid out-of-policy travel expenses. Secondly, the consultant books and recommends only in-policy travel products to employees.
Securing Travel Documents
Employees can only engage in international business travel if they procure or update important travel documents like passports, visas, national IDs, and international driving licenses. Employees find it challenging to arrange essential travel documents without affecting their professional responsibility.
A business travel consultant helps employees secure the required travel documents without putting in extra time and effort. In addition, he makes it easier for employees to handle and protect travel documents by securing electronic passports, digital visas, and virtual ID cards.
Making Business Travel Arrangements
Employees travel to new destinations regularly for business purposes. They find it challenging to choose and book travel products that reduce stress and enhance safety. A corporate travel consultant helps employees choose flights, accommodations, car rentals, and other travel products.
Also, he recommends the best-suited travel products to each employee by considering his travel choices and analyzing his booking history. However, the consultant ensures employees do not violate T&E policies and escalate costs while booking business trips.
Managing Booking Changes
Work travelers these days cancel and reschedule bookings more frequently than leisure travelers. They find it challenging to manage booking changes at the last minute. Also, they explore ways to cancel bookings without paying hefty cancellation fees.
The travel management consultant helps employees cancel and reschedule bookings effortlessly. Also, he saves costs by booking fully flexible tickets and negotiating with suppliers for zero cancellation charges.
Dispersing Real-Time Information
Employees these days engage in business travel in a volatile environment. They find it challenging to accomplish business travel goals by mitigating travel risks. A corporate travel consultant helps them reduce risks without experiencing stress.
The consultant uses cutting-edge communication tools to instantly deliver the latest travel guidelines to each worker. Also, he helps employees manage minor travel risks by sharing flight status and traffic details by providing real-time mobile alerts.
Providing Travel Support
Employees need a variety of information and assistance while traveling for business purposes. The corporate travel consultant provides the required information and assistance to work travelers by becoming a central point of contact.
Also, he provides relevant information and support to work travelers by tracking their real-time locations. At the same time, he ensures that each work traveler gets emergency assistance in minutes by making companies partner with a global health and security risk management firm
Safeguarding Sensitive Data
While making business travel arrangements, employees share their personal information with travel suppliers. Likewise, they share bank account and credit card information while making online payments. Hence, they often find it challenging to prevent identity thefts and financial fraud executed by cybercriminals.
The corporate travel consultant safeguards sensitive employee data by checking if the booking or supplier websites use Secure Socket Layer Encryption. The encryption technology ensures that employees’ personal and financial data are sent in encrypted format. In addition, he gathers data from diverse sources to identify and flag malicious travel booking portals.
Saving Money on Business Travel Booking
Employers encourage and incentivize employees to reduce the average business trip costs. But employees still need help saving money on business travel booking. A corporate travel consultant helps them overcome this challenge by booking in-policy travel products at discounted rates.
He gets corporate rates and discounts by negotiating with various travel suppliers. In addition, he saves cancellation charges by making employees book fully flexible tickets. At the same time, the consultant reduces travel booking costs by leveraging the offers and deals provided by travel suppliers.
Accelerating Travel Expense Reimbursements
Employees often experience stress after business trips when there is a delay in travel expense reimbursements. However, they need help to reduce the time the finance team requires to process expense claims. A corporate travel consultant speeds up reimbursements by submitting consolidated expense reports.
The consolidated expense report helps the finance team save time by processing fewer expense claims. Also, the professional makes it easier for the finance team to track travel expenses incurred by employees in real time by facilitating expense management automation.
Facilitating Automation
Corporate travel consultants help companies overcome many business travel challenges by automating the travel and expense (T&E) management process. They recommend tech tools that help customers automate time-consuming tasks like business travel booking and travel expense management.
Also, they assist companies in automating the T&E process fully by implementing the right travel management software. Automation helps employees boost the experience and safety of work travelers while reducing business travel costs significantly.
Conclusion
Employees can only accomplish business travel goals by overcoming many business travel challenges. While reviewing and comparing the RFP for travel management services, you should focus on choosing a corporate travel consultant who has experience and expertise in navigating modern business travel challenges.
You should identify the everyday and potential business travel challenges your employees must overcome to make business trips successfully. Also, you should ask relevant questions to the corporate travel consultant to understand what strategies and best practices he uses to overcome the challenges faced by domestic and international business travelers.