A recent article in The Company Dime details how Kellogg Company’s travel leader Cecile Mutch reinvented her program and elevated its status. At the heart of her innovation: transforming BCD Travel agents into end-to-end Sherpas who guide travelers through the whole trip cycle.
The change led to improved traveler satisfaction and significant savings. Agents, who are experts on both booking trips and submitting expenses using Concur tools, “prevent someone from doing the wrong thing up front,” Mutch told The Company Dime. “Agents are smart. They know the loopholes. We’re closer to our travelers now, as well. They seem to take change better now.”
BCD Travel’s Tracy Maier said Mutch’s reinvention of agent roles demonstrates how travel managers’ big ideas can solve problems beyond travel. “The specific operational model adopted by Kellogg fits that company’s unique culture, needs and circumstance. However, their overarching approach of expanding the skill sets of agents is one that other companies could certainly adopt in partnership with a travel management company flexible enough to explore the possibilities,” Maier told the business travel news outlet.
Mutch said her plan for transforming travel at Kellogg not only evolved agents’ roles, but also her own. She advised other travel managers to embrace change and see its advantages. “Don’t try to stay comfortable,” she said.
Watch a recent Panrotas video interview in which Cecile Mutch describes the benefits of Kellogg’s travel program transformation (in English with Portuguese subtitles). Check out an infographic that details the savings.
