Your company or startup can increase the number of domestic and international business trips by increasing business travel spending. But you cannot increase the ROI of business travel without making it easier for your employees to make business travel itineraries and business travel arrangements.

A corporate travel consultant will plan and book business trips for your employees. Also, he will help you reduce the average business trip costs by saving money on business travel booking. You can centralize and streamline business travel booking by working with an in-house or an independent consultant.

The in-house travel consultant will work as a regular employee and earn a monthly salary. But he will not provide services and assistance to your employees 24 hours a day. On the other hand, you can work with an external travel consultant to avail of 24/7/365 services while paying only for the services provided by him.

But your organization can increase the ROI of business travel only by choosing the right corporate travel consultant and forming a long-term working relationship with him. Here are some best practices that you should adopt to work seamlessly with a corporate travel consultant in the longer run.

8 Best Practices to Work Seamlessly with a Corporate Travel Consultant

1. Define Role and Responsibilities

Some organizations work with corporate travel consultants to help employees save the time required to plan and arrange business trips. The consultant has to primarily focus on making business travel itineraries and making business travel arrangements for individual employees.

But many businesses leverage the experience and expertise of the corporate travel consultant to boot business travel management. They rely on consultants to manage business travel programs and negotiate with travel suppliers.

Hence, the role and responsibilities of a corporate travel consultant vary across organizations. You can work efficiently with the consultant by defining his role and responsibilities clearly and early. The clarity will help him accomplish the expected goals.

2. Communicate T&E Policy Clearly

Ensuring travel and expense (T&E) policy compliance is one of the core responsibilities of the corporate travel consultant. He will ensure policy compliance to control the average business trip cost by saving money on business travel booking.

The consultant cannot ensure policy compliance when you do not communicate your organizational T&E policies to him clearly. In addition to sharing the policy documentation with him, you must allow the professional to clear doubts and ask additional questions.

Hence, you must set a T&E policy before looking for a travel consultant. Also, you need to ensure that he understands the policies clearly before starting business travel planning and booking.

3. Provide Access to Employee Data

The corporate travel consultant will need your employees’ personal data to book business travel products. Likewise, he will book your employees’ preferred travel products by understanding their travel choices and analyzing their travel booking history.

You can make the consultant work more efficiently by providing him with access to the required data. But you need to ensure that the professional accesses the sensitive data securely and does not make them accessible to cybercriminals.

4. Allow Him to Choose

Your organization might have negotiated with many suppliers to get corporate flight discounts or corporate hotel rates before working with a travel management consultant. But travel consultants these days get better rates by partnering and networking with many suppliers.

Hence, you must not compel the professional to choose from your approved list of travel suppliers. Likewise, you should allow him to book flexible tickets to avoid paying cancellation fees or penalties when business trips are canceled.

5. Describe Expense Reporting Format and Frequency

The travel management consultant will help you streamline travel expense management by providing consolidated expense reports. But your finance team can track, review, and audit travel expenses effortlessly when the consultant submits the expense reports in the right format without any delay.

Hence, you should convey the expense report format and frequency to the consultant at the beginning. It is also advisable to share the expense report template with him or allow him to generate reports using the expense management solution used by your business.

6. Share Employee Feedback Regularly

You must assess the efficiency of the business travel consultant based on the feedback shared by employees after the business trip. Employee feedback will help you understand if the consultant books the right travel products, meet your employees’ expectations, and ensure traveler safety.

However, it is also important to share employee feedback with the consultant regularly. The constructive feedback will make the consultant provide superior services by understanding your expectations and identifying areas of improvement.

7. Measure and Monitor Performance

Your organization must focus on fostering a long-term professional relationship with the corporate travel consultant. But you must not forget to track the performance of the consultant regularly. It is always important to measure his performance using relevant metrics like travel policy compliance, business traveler satisfaction, travel cost reduction, and travel booking process efficiency. The performance evaluation will help you persuade the consultant to accomplish predefined organizational goals.

8. Maintain Regular Contact

Most enterprises these days work with external corporate travel consultants to save money. But no organization can eliminate the chances of issues or conflicts while working with an independent professional.

Most organizations keep in place conflict management strategies to work with external consultants seamlessly. Your strategy must focus on resolving all issues or conflicts with the corporate travel consultant through discussions.

It becomes easier for your teams to resolve issues and eliminate conflicts when they maintain regular contact with the consultant. Regular communication is essential to discuss changes and solve issues through amicable discussions.

Conclusion

You can streamline one of the crucial steps in business travel management by working with a corporate travel consultant. The consultant will help you make business trips successfully by enhancing employees’ business travel experience and safety. Also, he will help you reduce travel booking costs in several ways.

But you can increase the ROI of business travel only by working with the external corporate travel consultant effectively. It is always important to adopt best practices that help your entire team build a long-term professional relationship with the travel consultant.