A message from BCD Travel’s John Snyder, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mike Janssen, Global Chief Operating Officer and Chief Commercial Officer
Like the rest of the business travel ecosystem, BCD Travel is experiencing challenges. Our service to clients has suffered, and we deeply regret the inconveniences to business travelers. We’re investing in people and processes to help regain trust and deliver the high level of service that clients and travelers expect and that we demand of ourselves.
Getting back on track with the right talent and technology
Through June, we added more than 1,700 consultants, trainers, technologists, recruiters and other direct and indirect customer-supporting professionals to our workforce. We’re not just filling seats. We’re hiring thoughtfully and with a look to the future. We’re casting a wide net, recruiting global candidates diverse in culture, background, professional experience, skill sets and ways of thinking.
We’re devoting equal energy to the valued team members who work diligently to help us solve present issues. Our incentives include greater workplace flexibility options and improvements to salary and benefit packages. We’ve advised our entire workforce that restoring customer service is our No. 1 priority.
Throughout the pandemic, we focused on improving traveler experiences through TripSource® enhancements and the roll out of our chat channel. We also simplified the agent workflow through the introduction of a new point of sale CRM application. Here are other digital solutions and technologies focused on mitigating disruptions:
- Real-time flight notifications via TripSource are a critical asset as airlines continue to shift schedules. These notifications are pushed directly to the home screen of our travelers’ mobile devices so they’re aware of changes as they happen and can modify behaviors accordingly.
- Integrated profiles at point of service identify callers so our agents can anticipate needs and readily access service history during repeat engagements.
- Our soon to be released ticket tracking technology identifies the status for all tickets and facilitates usage and refunds for online and offline tickets.
- We recently wrapped up a project to migrate a nonrefundable ticket API which helped address the overwhelming number of nonrefundable tickets that came along with the pandemic.
- Where possible, we’re continuing to roll out our Agent Chat self-service feature allowing travelers to communicate with BCD agents online. Chat is helping alleviate call volumes and emails all while providing travelers some reassurances from human connection.
- We support new client onboarding with automations that reduce rework so that we’re ready for ticketing when our clients are.
How you can help
Here’s a list of actions travel teams can take to help alleviate some of the challenges we face.
- Guide travelers to online booking tools and mobile solutions, including our award-winning TripSource® mobile app, which offers up-to-the-minute alerts and notifications. For your travelers, online bookings are typically the swiftest way to plan and book travel. When travelers adopt or re-adopt online booking tools, particularly for domestic bookings, our staff can focus on more complex bookings.
- Work closely with us to forecast your organization’s travel demand. Accurate forecasts are critical to staff and recruitment planning.
- Re-evaluate any COVID-driven, manual approval processes. Can they be streamlined or removed to facilitate a faster booking process?
- Collaborate with us on creating messages for travelers that encourage specific behaviors such as using the online booking tools, updating profiles or pointing travelers to our dynamic duty-of-care platform, the COVID-19 Information Hub.
Partnership is at the core of who we are. BCD will keep working together with clients through worldwide demand and staffing challenges. We have to do a better job, and we will.
