Rising Number Of Home-Based Agents Servicing Corporate Clients
The number of home-based agents servicing managed corporate travel programs in the United States has grown to significant portions of some travel management companies' agent populations. Investments in new telecommunications platforms, standardization of agent reservation processes and service gains during inclement weather and natural disasters have several travel management company executives embracing virtual agents, as the numbers have reached critical mass in the corporate travel industry.
Forty percent of HRG's travel counselors in North America are home-based. BCD Travel has hundreds of home-based agents attached to the company's 27 U.S. business travel centers, according to Louise Miller, executive vice president of global business solutions, sales and marketing. In total, 22 percent of BCD's agents work virtually.
In the long run, the consolidation of real estate and in-house technology generates savings for agencies and in turn keeps costs to buyers down, but there is an initial costly investment for setting up a virtual office. BCD's Miller said, "Right now, there is some upfront cost to set up a work at home agent and those costs are declining all the time, making it more and more attractive for us to do work at home."
Carlson Wagonlit Travel has about one-quarter or 800 of 3,300 travel agents working virtually. They can help provide service 24/7 as calls are routed to them through CWT's 40 call centers in North America, according to CWT vice president of traveler and transaction services for North America Janet Wheatley.
CWT's hub-and-spoke call center model, which is a similar configuration to other mega agencies, has shrunk its call center locations 10 percent to 20 percent from five years ago, according to Wheatley, partly from the rise in online booking and also from the ability to place agents at home. "In the old days, you would have to call them in. Now, we have some in the office and the huge number that work at home allows us to flex our staff at a moment's notice," she said.
Super-regional and regional travel management companies also are increasing their numbers of virtual agents as they spend millions on new telephony, consolidate real estate and offer an incentive to attract experienced agents who prefer to work virtually.
Houston-based Frosch Travel has 30 percent of its corporate agents working virtually, according to Frosch president Bryan Leibman. While the program has obvious appeal to agents because of the gas and time savings, it "gives new challenges to ensuring service levels," as more intensive training, performance tracking and communication is involved.
Directravel has undergone a telephone and back-end systems upgrade over the past two years, merging 300 servers into 10. All agents are routed through the servers whether in one of the TMC's five call centers or through virtual terminals, including the 15 percent home-based agent population, according to Directravel president Pat Fragale. The new telecommunications systems enable agents to "plug and play" with access to the company's reservations and booking systems and have them handle call overflow or heavy call volumes during inclement weather or natural disasters.
Ovation Travel Group has seen its home-based agent numbers steadily increase to 9 percent, according to Ovation executive vice president Michael Steiner.
Travel and Transport's completion of a $2 million investment in a new Avaya telecommunications platform also has enabled the company to increase the use of home-based agents, according to president and CEO Bill Tech.
Corporations also have noticed the flexibility and productivity gains in home agents. Deloitte this year worked with its travel management company in the United States to implement an "on-call" initiative so agents have access to reservation systems virtually to ensure consistent call answering service levels during inclement weather.
Though it may not be transparent to a traveler where an agent is servicing them from, with the proliferation of home-based corporate travel agents, a critical component of an agency request for proposals becomes ensuring that there are standard processes, adequate communications and training being delivered to the virtual employees, according to Carol Ann Salcito, president of travel management consultancy Management Alternatives. "What a travel buyer wants these days is a seamless reservation process," she said. "If that person has all the technology and is located at home versus Phoenix or wherever, then it's okay as long as they are reachable and have the technology to assist."