Why personalization is key to a successful trip

When determining the best methods to carry out a successful trip, your TMC should understand personalization is key to the overall satisfaction of the traveler. In an interview with Business Travel News, GoldSpring Consulting partner, Will Tate, explained, “Studies consistently note that more of today's business travelers prioritize life experiences over money.” While saving money will always play a factor, it’s important to make note of what pleases the employees that are being affected by the decisions.

When comparing leisure to business travel, it appears the latter of the two oftentimes sacrifices personalized service when that doesn’t need to be the case. In fact, the personalization of travel services can improve the efficiency of the process in several ways.

Employee Satisfaction
Recently, it was found that travel plays a key role in the ultimate decision of job candidates. In a Forbes article, it was stated, “job candidates these days are asking recruiters about their companies’ travel policies, and current workers are making it clear that they’ll jump to the competition or some other industry entirely if doing so means that a more employee-friendly travel policy will easier their work/life balance issues.” For that reason, we’ve seen business travel become increasingly more “traveler-centric.” TMC’s are listening, not only to an organization’s travel policy but also to individual travelers to meet their unique needs.

Value to Tickets
TMCs, like EWA Travel, have come to understand the necessity of value being added to each itinerary. When stating added value, this isn’t just referring to upgrades or elevated VIP services. It means listening to each traveler’s unique preference, for agents to be mindful of what is valuable to each traveler. One service that may be of value to one client may not hold the same value for another. To determine what is valuable to each traveler, EWA asks for each person to complete a traveler profile. These profiles include information on hotel, flight and car preferences, preferred vendors, and any other information that is pertinent to the reservation process. With this information, agents can integrate it into a reservation system to anticipate and meet needs for future reservations.

Find Creative Solutions
TMCs make it a mission to identify any problems with your travel policy and from there offer creative solutions to better the booking process. Other times, TMCs can help bring light to issues that organizations may not be aware of. For example, if a traveler frequently utilizes a vendor, an agent would see that as an opportunity to secure negotiated rates to not only save the company money but to keep the traveler happy with their preferred traveler supplier.