Low-cost carrier, or full-fare care?

My colleague Carl’s just written a post about the “unhealthy addiction” of Asian travellers: bargain-hunting. From Carl’s observation, it’s common practice for business travellers to call, and call, and call again just to drive the price of their trips down a little – a practice he believes could eventually bite these travellers in the foot by permanently narrowing their options. Carl saw this first-hand in his previous roles and he makes a good point that travel management companies, or TMCs, would do well to shift the customer conversation from price to experience – especially online – if they want to stay competitive in Asia.

From what I’ve seen, however, a lot of Asian businesses already demand that high-touch service when installing new corporate travel solutions like SAP Concur’s, or even working out specific plans for their travellers. If individual travellers tend towards a “low-cost carrier” mindset when booking corporate travel, their employers still only feel comfortable dealing with the full-service experience where someone guides them through every step. Neither is particularly sustainable for TMCs where staff costs already take up most of their expenses and pricing.

Is there a happy medium for TMCs? It most likely lies in translating the high-touch aspects of travel into an online, automated experience that scales at little cost. One thing that Carl mentions in his post is “offering previously-exclusive services to corporate travellers of all stripes” – things like automatic flight rebooking that used to cost a lot because of the need for dedicated personnel to manage them. If we can make self-service travel management faster and more intuitive than the previous model of calling your TMC on the phone or writing them an email – everyone wins.

What Carl’s thoughts made me realise was that automation could help strike that balance between low-cost carrier and full-fare care at every stage of the corporate travel journey, from adopting a new solution to handling last-minute traveller requests – and yes, even finding them the best deal. What aspects of your own corporate travel experience do you feel could be improved by automation?