How Can Procurement Improve the Post-COVID Travel Experience?
Procurement departments strive to make sure business travelers have everything they need to stay safe, stay comfortable, and accomplish their goals while traveling. Most organizations have adopted new tools and technologies to keep business travelers updated while they are away and help them connect to resources when they need assistance. They also use powerful software to book rooms, schedule services, and provide business travelers with flexible options for transportation and dining.
Still, the COVID-19 pandemic made business travel much more stressful, and ongoing restrictions continue to make business travel a challenge. Now, procurement departments must find ways to improve the business travel experience in a post-COVID world.
Determining Which Travel is Essential
According to McKinsey & Company, about 15% of all corporate travel expenses in 2019 went to employees whose travel was deemed "essential" for conducting business. By contrast, about 60% of business travel expenditures in 2019 were fueled by employees who were traveling to cultivate client relationships.
If risks of infection continue, procurement organizations may decide that at least some of their companies’ "non-essential" travel could be replaced by flexible solutions, such as video conferencing and telecommuting.
Virtual meetings may not be ideal in some situations, as face-to-face meetings are often essential to building rapport with customers and new business partners. But even if business travel increases in the future, the past two years have revealed that these solutions can reduce costs and effectively replace some interactions.
Providing Flexible Options
Procurement departments must also look for ways to provide business travelers with more flexible options for completing their work. This might include offering different transportation, dining, and lodging choices that can be tailored to the specific needs of each traveler.
For example, if a procurement department knows that one of its business travelers is gluten-free, it could work with restaurants and hotels to ensure that they have options available that meet the traveler's dietary needs.
Additionally, procurement departments can help business travelers save time by arranging for them to pick up their rental cars at the airport or providing them with transportation options that can take them straight to their hotel or event venue.
They may need to institute flexible contingencies as well, such as by enabling travelers to book their transportation arrangements via a flexible spending account. By ensuring business travelers have the right tools, procurement departments can help them stay safe and comfortable while they are traveling.
Updating Support Systems
Even if procurement can't completely eliminate the stress of business travel, there are still steps that can be taken to improve the post-travel experience.
One way is to ensure that travelers have access to a support system they can rely on while away from home. This might include having an employee assistance program, a concierge service, or access to an app that makes it easier to find services in unfamiliar locations.
These types of interactive systems make it easy for travelers to access services at the touch of a button. It can also help them navigate which services are best-suited to their needs.
Maintain Business Traveler Safety
Finally, the procurement department's job is not done when the traveler returns home. Procurement organizations must continue to find ways to maintain business traveler safety up until the point of return.
This can be accomplished by providing booking and scheduling professionals with access to powerful travel procurement technology, data analytics tools, and real-time dashboards that can help them make better decisions about how to improve travel procurement performance in the future.
Procurement departments should also look for ways procurement team members can interact with vendors and other partners to learn more about how they are helping to serve business travelers and keep them safe.
The New Normal in Business Travel
Procurement departments must continue to find ways to make business travel less stressful and more productive. By providing travelers with support systems, introducing new procurement technology, and working to personalize the travel experience for each individual, procurement departments can improve the business travel experience in a post-COVID world.
Improving the travel experience is set to be a hot topic at the next ProcureCon Travel conference, happening from June 13th to 14th at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas, in Rancho Mirage, CA. Download the agenda today.