How to make your business travel manager work for you

For many businesses, taking on a business travel manager is something new.

This type of relationship can seem a little uneasy at first, and you may not know exactly what you should be looking for – especially as you often have to ensure that your travel manager is aware of any travel policies you have and can accommodate your needs.

Transitioning from managing travel on your own to using a travel manager can be hard. But it shouldn’t be a barrier to getting good results – so it’s a good idea to sit down with a business travel provider and get details on every single part of your travel process.

This may involve asking some hard questions, but you’re better off asking them now, rather than waiting months and finding out their service isn’t good enough in an emergency.

Establish your after-hours contacts immediately

Most responsible business travel managers will have a dedicated, after-hours support team for you. You ought to ask who that is as soon as you start a relationship with one, so you know who to contact in an emergency.

You should have those details available at any time and disseminate them within your company, so anyone can contact the point person should the need arise. This isn’t just for delayed flights, by the way – emergencies can break down travel plans for even weeks. It pays to know exactly who to call when that happens.

Get some advice

A good way to approach a business travel manager relationship is by briefing your potential partner on any policy or existing processes you have. They should be able to come back with some advice about how to maximise your efforts and save money straight away.

Set parameters around cost

For many businesses using a business travel manager, travellers get to choose their own accommodation and flights. This is a great way to enable productivity, but it also raises the question: how can you actually make sure travellers are sticking to a budget?

This is why you need to work together to set cost controls, and have them understand any other restrictions you want. Any travel manager should have a point-person for your business, and they should get to know your specific needs over time.

Be sure to outline your goals overall not just for travel budgets but for the business overall. Emphasising a drastic requirement to reduce costs can help your BTM understand the full context of your decision making and business needs.

Ask about the booking process

One of the most important aspects of working with a business travel manager is the booking process, specifically because it’ll be much faster and efficient than working on your own. The first thing you ought to do is learn from your provider:

• How travellers book flights, accommodation and more
• How long it should take them
• Any important information they should include

Establish all this quickly, then you’ll be able to tell your travellers across the business and inform any policy that you create, or already exists.

Create a list of steps in an emergency

Your business travel manager should already provide you with an emergency contact, and hopefully that contact is located within the same country. Ideally, they should go further and even give you a list of steps that you should take when an emergency occurs.

That way, both those on the road and in the office will know immediately what to do when an emergency occurs. Again, you should collect this information and distribute it to everyone as part of a travel policy, so they know well in advance of anything happening.

Check that staff are satisfied

One of the motivating factors for choosing a business travel manager in the first place might very well be staff satisfaction. You’ll want to keep that from becoming a problem, so speak with your travel manager about how to make sure travellers know the accommodation or flight choices they make are suitable for the trip.

This might include putting restrictions on certain travel options, or letting them know about features within the booking system that highlight distance to important areas on a trip. Either way, speak with your business travel manager immediately about what they can do to help.

Is your business travel manager able to help you with any of this?

It’s crucial that a quality travel manager is able to help your business with any possible need. If they don’t have answers to any of these questions...it might be time to make the switch.

Speak to Corporate Traveller today about all the ways we can help make your business travel a breeze – our team is standing by.