Martin Cowen is a contributing editor to the Amadeus Blog. He is a freelance writer, editor and moderator with a global perspective on B2B travel technology and B2C trends.
Collaborations and partnerships are pillars for the renewal of the travel industry. TMCs, like their leisure peers, are finding that their changed relationship with corporates and travelers is forcing them to revisit existing collaborations and create new ones.
At the same time, agents of all descriptions are having to learn new skillsets as they reach out to these different partners.
As the pandemic’s first peak waned, the consensus was that leisure travel would return before business. But despite the many and various collaborations taking place, leisure agents in Europe are seeing a fragmented and stuttering return to travel. This prevailing uncertainty is also hitting business travelers and their agents too.
Business travel is yet to return to previous levels, which gives TMCs the chance to spend more time talking with corporates and suppliers, working out the best way to get business travelers back on the road.
Rethinking the modes of transport is one conversation that is taking place between TMCs, corporates and travelers. It opens up other conversations. And at the heart of every conversation lies the potential for collaboration. That’s the theory, at least: putting collaboration into practice is the real challenge.
Collaborating with the corporates
Whenever an external shock hits business travel – 9/11, Lehman Bros, Eyjafjallajökull – the death knell is sounded for face-to-face meetings and networking. This time around there is a more menacing tone to the rings. Zoom, and the other consumer and enterprise digital platforms,proved their worth as business tools during lockdown and will continue to be a viable alternative, taking some business travel out of the market.
TMCs will be asked once again to justify their service fees. They should approach these discussions as a chance to reassert their value rather than defend an entrenched position. Chances are that the legacy KPIs and SLAs that have formed the basis of the commercial relationship will change to accommodate the reality of the new travel experience. TMCs should be prepared for this and should be proactive and pre-emptive in coming up with some benchmarking ideas of their own.
Human resources and legal teams will be closer to the TMC this time around. The duty of care manual needs to be rewritten because COVID-19 is an obvious and present danger to address, with specific requirements and guidelines. TMCs should be part of that conversation too and can help allay any concerns by making sure all suppliers are COVID-safe, that the TMC has access not only to real-time information about national and local condition but the ability to cope with any disruption.
Amadeus and its competitive set have a responsibility to add the specifics around COVID-19 to their existing duty of care and risk management tools. Corporates and travelers alike will take reassurance from partners who are knowledgeable and pro-active.
Collaboration with technology partners
Many of the pieces written around the renewal of travel talk about a portal of truth – a one-stop digital repository where all the world’s travel advisories are hosted and updated in real-time and which agents can access.
For business travelers booking online, this portal also needs to be integrated directly into self-booking tools, alerting travelers to any live issues at the time of booking. But digital and physical agents must be able to access information available post booking, pre-departure and in-destination. And once the traveler has been informed, the agent then has to manage any potential disruption to the travel experience.
Most TMCs have a ‘lite’ version of this. But agents need to be on top of every piece of every government’s advice issued and current risk alerts systems have been designed around one-off incidents rather than constantly changing global guidelines. TMCs need to talk to their technology partner and see what their current tool can do, whether the existing tool can be upgraded, or whether there’s an alternative on the market.
Automation is another area where TMCs need to collaborate more closely with their tech partners. Case studies are being written about how effective automation was in handling disruption. At the same time, many allegedly fit-for-purpose automation processes fell over under the weight of demand, increasing pressure on staff forced to deal manually with the fall-out.
TMCs need to make sure that the automation processes it can offer to the corporate can be delivered, at scale. Automation needs many moving parts to be in synch and one glitch in one area can bring the whole process down. TMCs which promise to automate everything and fail when the pressure is on are in a worse position than a TMC which delivers on its promise to automate 80% with human agents on hand for the balance.
Collaborating with suppliers
The priority for TMCs when talking to suppliers is COVID-19. Other factors which dominated before the pandemic – cost, guaranteed room night/seat volumes, non-compete clauses – will still be relevant. However, unless a hotel can convince a TMC that it is COVID-safe, the hotel will not make it onto the bookable properties list. Same goes for car rental companies, rail providers and, of course, airlines.
Each company will have its own scale of COVID-19-readiness, and TMCs need to make sure there is a flow of information from the provider to the TMCs which in turn passes this on to the traveler or the corporate. Automation will help – but not all providers will have the internal capacity to create this seamless connection, especially smaller players.
Collaborating with suppliers is another plus point for TMCs. Legal and HR teams will be legitimately concerned about the health of travelers while on the road, and a collaborative relationship between the TMC and the provider could be a great persuader.
The other side of the coin is that providers know the more COVID-prepared they are, the more corporate business they will pick up. Preferred supplier status – the holy grail for any provider working with a TMC – will be decided by how safe the journey can be for travelers.
Collaborating with travelers
The needs of the traveler are starting to come to the fore again and business travelers have a new list of requirements as they take their first post-lockdown trips.
TMCs need to get even closer to the traveler than before – many big agencies which sang the praises of their personalization efforts will need to look again and assess whether the data they have on the traveler is relevant in for the renewal phase of travel. Health and safety insights will become more relevant than preferred seat.
Individual collaborations with travelers are possible only for niche, boutique TMCs. Everyone else will need to take a hybrid approach to getting closer. One way that agencies can do this is by formalizing feedback, making more of an effort to contact individuals on their return – or even in trip. Even if the outreach is digital it can be empathetic and human, encouraging travelers to share their experience for future colleagues of theirs who are embarking on their next journey.
An area of specific interest where this closer relationship can also benefit the greater good is policy. During the renewal phase, there will be greater emphasis on travelers to book the preferred suppliers. Booking out of policy is even more at odds with duty of care obligations during a pandemic recovery phase. What exactly is the situation if a traveler comes into contact with COVID-19 when staying at an out-of-policy hotel?
TMCs, in getting closer to the traveler and building a closer collaborative relationship, should also be emphasizing the importance of booking in-policy for the individual traveler’s own well-being, as well as the corporate’s budget and business continuity.
Conclusion
The role of business travel agencies in the renewal of corporate travel will be to reassure travelers and the corporation that they can be trusted to take control of any situation – booking, pre-trip, in-destination and upon return.
Once that trust has been established, bookings will start to flow through. Collaborations with new and existing partners should be highlighted by the TMC, reinforcing the message that the agency community is aware of its own need to change and innovate during the renewal phase.
Collaboration is the way ahead and will remain in the future if we are to build a better industry and traveler experience for all.
This is part of the series Insights for the New World of Travel. Thethird report , Travel Consultants, looks at how agents can help reassure travelers and get the world traveling again.
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