Buyers Beef Up Emergency Services
Many corporate travel buyers are moving to fortify their in-house travel emergency programs against the likelihood of future crises.
To better track travelers, and to reassure employees who are on the road, travel managers have strengthened their emergency protocols. Among the actions they have taken are performing daily personnel accounting, creating in-house Web and call centers and increasing use of agencies' emergency services.
Many buyers queried by Business Travel News said that travel management companies were effective in helping them to locate stranded travelers and bring them back home during last month's crisis. However, even travel managers with full agency support reported trouble accounting for all of their travelers.
Anne Colfer, vice president of corporate travel at San Francisco-based Union Bank of California, has taken the initiative to bolster her department's emergency plan. Although Union Bank of California generally is pleased with Carlson Wagonlit Travel's services, Colfer saw fit to work on her ability to track travelers.
"We did have some problems with the agency reports during the crisis," Union Bank of California's Colfer said. "We weren't able to immediately pull reports on the 30-plus people we had traveling on the East Coast and abroad."
Colfer has attacked the problem of tracking travelers by having her travel managers make lists of where the company's travelers are at the close of every business day. The lists are compiled into a single file that details the location of every Union Bank of California traveler. However, Colfer said this system is not a permanent solution. "We'll be keeping track of travelers with these manually compiled lists until we can develop a more efficient way to take care of it," she said.
In addition to the in-house tracking system, Colfer is creating a crisis plan that will detail what staffers should do in case of an emergency, such as a natural disaster or an act of war.
Cindy Shumate, senior director of global travel at the Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Corp., is working on a worldwide crisis plan comprised of a special Web site and a 24-hour call center. The site, called Safe Smart Travel, will be housed on the company intranet and will be created and administered by Gartner employees. Shumate intends to post specific information on hazards related to current events or particular destinations, as well as general tips for smart travel.
The call center, according to Shumate, may be operated in partnership with Gartner's travel agency, American Express. "We want to be proactive and educate our travelers on how to keep themselves safe," she said. "Not only is the goal to keep travelers apprised of the current airline crisis but also to keep them informed in regard to things like executive kidnappings, getting lost or getting sick on the road."
Shumate said the Web site will be up and running this week. The call center is still in the works. "We want to hear from our travelers, and we want to help them in whatever way they need," she said. "That's an important message for our company to send."
The site is operated under the auspices of Gartner's training department, Gartner University, and top executives at the company have supported the program since its inception, Shumate said.
Jeff Crull, global travel services manager for Cincinnati-based Proctor and Gamble, is working on an in-house emergency travel services program for his company. In addition to the call center operated by his agency, American Express, Crull developed an internal 24-hour call center, which is operated by Proctor and Gamble's travel service workers around the world.
During the events of Sept. 11, Crull said his agency "did a good job," although it was bombarded with calls, and anecdotal evidence from Proctor and Gamble travelers indicated that waits on the telephone were "a very long time." But, in addition to American Express' call center, Crull's auxiliary call center also fielded inquiries from travelers.
Crull said his in-house call center particularly was helpful to employees stranded overseas. To staff the auxiliary call center, Crull had workers from expense report management take travelers' calls. "We leveraged some workers in San Jose, Costa Rica, into a call center," he said. "We had enough employees to cover the call center and manage the routine tasks of the department."
Crull said Proctor and Gamble is redefining the roles and responsibilities of certain managers, and its travel agency. "We learned in the crisis there is a lot we need to tell travelers besides information the agency provides, such as our current company policies, what the airlines are doing and providing an ear to help travelers feel more comfortable. It's an area of continual improvement."
Other travel managers are preparing for upcoming emergencies by increasing compliance to their agencies. Harriet Washburn, vice president of global travel at Chicago-based Aon Service Corp., said her department recently started mandating use of its agency, Carlson Wagonlit, for air travel.
"It was difficult to track travelers who didn't use our agency," Washburn said. By mandating compliance, travel managers can respond to emergencies more efficiently.
Travel management company representatives said that demand for 24-hour service is up. Jarvis Slade, vice president and general manager of corporate travel at American Express, said interest in his company's premium emergency service, ETS Gold, has increased since Sept. 11. He said American Express has nine call centers and 700 staffers to provide support for travelers during emergencies.