Business travel compliance is essential for a number of reasons, including cost savings and risk management. But what are the best ways for companies to encourage Travelers to follow policies and use booking platforms?

Business travel compliance has always been important, but it’s receiving even greater attention in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies need Travelers to use their booking platforms and follow travel program policies so that they can better manage risk, save money and enjoy a wealth of similar benefits.

Full policy compliance is challenging, though, in any organization. If you need Travelers to happily buy-in to your travel policy, start by using these 5 tactics for improving business travel compliance.

1. Trip Disruption Assistance

Just in the past quarter, more than 230,000 global flights have been canceled. In these moments when trips get disrupted, your Travelers find themselves off their schedules and without a clear path to either achieve the objective of the trip or to get home quickly and safely. 

That’s why finding a travel management company that provides trip disruption assistance is essential for companies that ask team members to travel. When your Travelers have trip disruption assistance, they have access to a travel expert who can help them navigate in-trip challenges as efficiently as possible:

• Getting them back on schedule.
• Helping them achieve the objectives of the trip.
• Ensuring they arrive back home safely.

Unfortunately, Travelers who book outside your platform, or who otherwise fail to comply with travel policies, may find that they don’t have access to trip disruption assistance. As you work on compliance across your company, make sure Travelers understand that trip disruption assistance may not be available if they fail to book within your travel policy.

2. Travel Risk Management

Travel risk management is more essential now than ever before. Risk management is how companies live up to their duty-of-care responsibility to team members, and compliant booking is the best way Travelers can help their companies follow through on that responsibility.

Travel risk management is all about anticipating issues before trips, preparing to handle in-trip challenges, preventing harm to employees as they travel, and solving problems as they arise during trips. Using the company’s booking tool and otherwise following travel policies allow companies to do all 4 things: anticipate, prepare, prevent and solve.

For example, many online booking tools are integrated with services that help Travelers understand risk factors at a given destination. Integrated services can also help Travelers know what visa and vaccination requirements are in place before they travel. And, finally, using a booking platform lets companies know where Travelers are located when something goes wrong. Compliant booking also helps companies get Travelers home as quickly and safely as possible when there’s a threat to health or safety.

3. Price Monitoring

Timing is everything when it comes to getting the best prices on business travel. When your team members use your corporate booking platform, they gain access to price monitoring tools that ensure they are getting the best value for the trip, from start to finish.

A few dollars here and there may not mean much to an individual. But, when a company is booking hundreds or thousands of trips each year, those dollars start to add up. Many companies use incentives to ensure their employees are using the booking platform of choice. Incentives allow employees to share in the savings created through price monitoring.

4. Advanced Cost Avoidance

Unmanaged travel expenses can quickly grow out of control. Air, hotel and rental cars represent about 55% of all travel costs, and they are relatively easily controlled via a booking platform. But other costs — like fees, meals and ride-share expenses — aren’t so easily managed and controlled. 

If you can keep Travelers using your booking platform, and if you can find a travel management company that helps you effectively manage and control more of your travel-related costs, you’ll find that savings skyrocket.

5. Analytics for Business Intelligence

Without proper analytics set up to track and analyze your business travel program, it’s hard to know how well your travel program is performing. When you choose the right travel management company, you have access to analytics and business intelligence tools that can improve performance — but only if your Travelers are booking through your platform.

When Travelers book within your platform, all of the cost- and trip-related data is captured for analysis alongside all of the other bookings. Each month, each quarter, and each year, you’ll have access to rich data sets that can help you improve your business travel ROI.

What Does This Mean for Executives?

Finding an effective travel management company (TMC) is the best way Executives can streamline the implementation of ideas listed above. You can invest a lot of time, effort and energy into travel policy compliance using in-house resources above, or you can find a TMC to boost compliance at a fraction of the cost.

TMCs are effective at trip disruption assistance, risk management solutions, price monitoring, advanced cost avoidance, analytics for business intelligence, plus a host of other services that can help you maximize the ROI you enjoy from business travel.

Experience Zero Friction and Boost Travel Compliance with JTB Business Travel

Corporations choose us as their TMC because our products and services allow them to Experience Zero friction or limitations. We can help with booking and overall travel compliance, which unlocks a series of benefits:

• Travelers get better assistance during their trips.
• Companies are able to manage risk more effectively.
• Trip-by-trip savings and ROI increase over time.

At JTB Business Travel, we focus on providing 3D expertise to our clients. We’re able to look at our clients’ travel programs from different perspectives, which allows us to quickly identify the sources of non-compliance. Sometimes these sources are operational in nature. Sometimes they are technology-related. With JTB Business Travel as your TMC, the tasks of identifying and resolving non-compliance are more streamlined, efficient and effective.

Contact us today to learn more about what we can do as your travel management company.