How to reduce traveller friction

The GBTA’s Frictionless Travel report has a subheading worth reading: “For companies around the world, enhancing the travel experience for employees instead of cutting corners on cost promotes workplace satisfaction, organisational loyalty and operational efficiencies.”

In other words, if you reduce travel stress you not only improve employee welfare, but you increase the corporate travel programme’s ROI. A no-brainer really. Accepting that this is a good idea is not the same as implementation. That requires identifying, measuring and analysing the problem and then coming up with a strategy for a solution.

What causes travellers stress?

1. Flights

All flights are not created equal. Direct flights will cause less stress than those involving change. Domestic trips are less stressful than international travel for reasons of length and simplicity (no need to remember foreign currency, passport, etc). And flying in an economy class cabin with its narrower seats, smaller seat pitch and higher cabin crew to passenger ratio on long-haul flights will be more stressful than in a premium class.

2 Transfers

Airport transfers have costs beyond the fare. In some frequently visited business cities – London, Stockholm, Amsterdam, to name a few – there are easily accessible, efficient and frequent rail services to link an airport with the centre of a business destination. But travellers who arrive late at night at a destination with an unfamiliar language and without that kind of service can find this aspect quite daunting. A pre-arranged airport transfer or taxi can reduce stress.

3. Hotels

The GBTA study found that hotels were the most significant factor affecting travellers’ experience. How well equipped and comfortable a hotel room is may be an obvious stress factor, but many forget that business travel accommodation which is located near the ultimate trip/meeting destination reduces not only total trip cost, but the time spent travelling and therefore stress for the traveller.

4 Individual travel profiles

As well as reviewing overall travel programme content choices, managers need to monitor the business travel profiles and special needs of their individual executives. The volume and profile of trips can vary hugely among travellers. It’s one-thing to be in an unpleasant hotel for one night; it’s quite another if that is the case for 90 nights a year. Stress levels are affected by the total number of trips or miles travelled and time away from home.

How to reduce traveller stress

1. Travel policy

The GBTA begins its report with almost a trite observation: “While travel programmes that rely on cost-saving tactics (like negotiated air, hotel, car and rail rates) can deliver significant ROI, the benefits of a traveller-centric programme that boosts employee wellbeing and job satisfaction can often outweigh the savings of a cost-centric programme.”

Once the sources of travel stress overall are identified, the travel manager can assess the financial cost of any adjustment in policy – for example, by reducing the threshold at which travellers are eligible to travel in a premium cabin from 10 hours to 8 – against the benefit.

If a corporate does not have access to an automatic reporting system such as FCM’s, its internal stakeholders should agree which factors to measure and a scoring system to assess the cost – to both the traveller and the company – against the possible benefit of any amendment.

In addition to class of travel, some examples to consider might be rail versus air (‘let the train take the strain’) and whether the method of choosing a hotel is preferred supplier or rate ceiling.

2 Travel department processes

Technology can be leveraged to improve the traveller experience. The pre-trip approval, booking and expense-reporting, reimbursement and traveller support processes can all affect traveller stress as much as the journeys themselves.

Is the booking tool user friendly? Does the traveller have to undertake full research every time to find suitable options or does the system automatically recognise travellers’ repeat journeys and then suggest a repeat flight/hotel/car rental?

A pre-trip approval process which can have a request to travel linger in an inbox for three days before the traveller receives an authorisation can create uncertainty, just as a manual expense claim system can take up valuable family time.

The importance – and communication – of support cannot be over-estimated. Whether it’s 24-hour help-line or an online tool that allows a traveller easily to rebook their own flights or support in case of disruption, travellers should know how to access help at any time. The GBTA survey also found that the ability for travellers to get the right information easily was highly valued.

Conclusion

In late 2018, Amadeus invited business travellers and travel managers from medium to large companies to complete a survey about traveller well-being. Nearly 900 travellers and 96 travel managers from around the globe responded. Most companies give medium to high attention to this topic. However, when asked whether their organisation takes active steps to improve it, only 39% of travel managers answered yes, while 22% were not sure. The survey “showed that when travel managers made suggestions to improve travellers’ wellbeing, these were generally accepted in 33% of the cases, sometimes in 40%.”

Travel managers can have a real impact. But a process for evaluating the number, length and extent of individual trips is essential if individual ‘at risk’ travellers are to be identified before any damage or stress sets in.