Predicting your future
The advantage of having the highest quality clean data is that you have instant access to quick actionable elements of your program to better shape your travel spend.
At FCM, we are always thinking two steps ahead and that is why we use your business travel program data to make clever predictions and to ensure the safety and well-being of your employees when they travel.
For example, your duty of care extends to wherever a staff member is in the world when away on business travel – whether for their security or their comfort.
Our technology captures external and internal security information in real-time and uses this to alert you when travelers are in high-risk destinations. If an incident happens in a city or country they are in, our dashboard will automatically notify you so you can act fast if a crisis occurs.
Predictive capabilities can also reduce traveler friction by identifying how your travelers behave in the travel decisions they take. This can help to shape your travel program by identifying patterns that can help reduce traveler friction and increase compliance.
An example would be if an organization has a frequent traveler who spends half of the year on the road, it is essential to understand the stress they are under as a result of that travel. It could be cheaper to adapt the travel policy to suit their needs, within reason, than to replace them.
With the cost of business travel remaining under immense scrutiny, data can also be used to index, track and analyze prices to understand trends, track changes in pricing and build an optimum pricing strategy that will benefit the business. This may return bigger savings then simply arbitrarily downgrading hotels, cars and flights to keep costs under control in the short-term.
Personalization is also key. Does your traveler prefer unlimited Wi-Fi to a daily breakfast? Do they prefer flying on a legacy or a low-cost carrier? This is where Big Data helps Travel Managers to understand and deliver on their business traveler’s demands for a personalized experience.
Most companies now have four generations of staff in their employ, all of whom have different requirements and levels of technology adoption. This data can tailor a business travel program that meets their specific needs, ensuring the different savings made on personalizing their service add up.
This presents the traveler with an easier and more informed choice with predictive functionality presenting only those choices that are going to be most pleasing to the traveler, speeding up the process of planning and booking and introducing a further cost-saving.