While many companies are still analyzing when to come back into the office, more and more are now looking for how they can connect or meet their foreign business partners. As many countries have relaxed access together with travel conditions, small and medium businesses (SMBs) are keen to start going back to visit their customers and suppliers abroad.
Why?
Their businesses are not performing that well when they cannot connect with their prospects for signing new business or delivering on projects that were already signed. In their field competition is even tougher. And if they don’t grow, they will face some difficulties going forward. Now it’s their time to show that agility in making decisions does pay off in the long run.
How can SMBs make sure their business travel is carefree and that this important activity delivers on all the goals that are set for it?
In this blog post, we’re looking to show small and medium businesses 3 important aspects they need to consider before restarting business travel.
- Make sure you have the right business travel agency by your side.
From what we have noticed, the share allocated by small businesses from their budgets to travel is much bigger than in the case of corporations. So, this means that the impact and return that this investment should have in the overall business must be at a higher level too. Managing the travel budget is a key activity that becomes essential in affording as many business trips as possible within a given time. This gives a higher control over travel expenses but at the same time, a better overview of the travel services split that we can then optimize.
The primary role of the travel management company is to support the traveler in spending as efficiently as possible, money and timewise. We believe there is a difference between being busy and being productive. That is why we help our customers get rid of wasting their time on booking themselves and focus on keeping them productive in their job, especially when being outside of the office traveling.
Making travel arrangements by themselves takes a lot of time from the employees.
And it adds to the overload & stress of not knowing the details about their destination. This causes them reluctance and push back if they do not feel confident about the booked services for their business trips. Our approach delivers the assistance business travelers count on to book the right services so they can focus more on their job. The reality is that booking business travel can consume a considerable amount of time when it is managed by non-experts.
As a company, you can save up to 80% of the time spent by employees dealing with things that they are not necessarily experts at.
Finding the best small business travel management company to handle all your travel needs might seem easy, but we believe finding the right partner can be tough. To adapt to your needs and challenges, our business travel agency has adopted a fairer and more transparent working model. This is a monthly subscription billed for all the services a traveler uses during a month. By implementing this scalable compensation model, we are choosing to support our customers 100% in the growth of their activity.
With Oombla Travel, you can say goodbye to hidden transaction fees, ticket issuance fees, and unjustifiable commissions.
- Reshape the travel policy for better business trips.
A start-up or a mid-market enterprise needs to have a clear and updated travel policy. It does not need to be a complicated document or written in specific legal terms, but just a clear set of guidelines that the team can follow when booking business travel and when they are on the road. This can be connected to the personal expenses procedure or per diem allowance rules the organization has in place or even the company code of conduct.
The initial phase of updating your travel policy is to have a clear list of travel destination countries you need to reach and the cities your travelers are most frequently visiting. Once we know this, we identify the best options in terms of pricing and itinerary options aligned with your goals and budget.
As a business, you can save up to 25% on the travel spend when you consolidate
all bookings going through the same acquisition channel or source
Oombla Travel has spent a lot of time connecting and establishing the right partnerships with global suppliers so that our customers can benefit of negotiated rates and personalized offers just like a large corporation would have due to its high traveling volumes.
The following step is to ensure that the suppliers you select for your travelers fit their needs. Nowadays business travelers do care where they stay. They want to be able to choose their hotel or accommodation type. Your travel program needs to allow employees to make their own selection and to be able to decide the flight schedule, opt for an apartment rather than a hotel room and opt for a rideshare service instead of a cab. When you have set optimum limits for your policy validated by the needs of your team – you have better control over the travel spend and keep your employees happy
- Make duty of care a priority for safe business travel
Duty of care and caring for the well-being of your employees are not optional these days. As an employer, you have the legal and the moral responsibility to ensure employee health, safety, and well-being by taking the necessary actions before, during, and after the business trip. From a business continuity point of view, for a small or medium-sized business, the duty of care is a must as limited human resources are something essential to consider for the sake of your business.
Taking good care of your employees is a key element for people engagement and retention.
Small businesses need to navigate their way to recovery and position themselves to be ready for the next big thing in their story. That’s where our consultative approach comes in. We’re constantly reviewing government official policies and websites, airlines updates on new procedures and trends happening in different destinations, safety measures best practices so that your people can make real-time decisions, have the support your employees need, and adapt your travel program fast.
Making everything necessary to prevent productivity impacting accidents is a vital activity that Oombla as a business travel agency can perform and ensure is done properly on behalf of the employer.
To make the right call for your travelers you need correct, trustworthy, and actual information.
You need the facts and the actions taken right away. Oombla Travel is committed to giving its business customers the right information whether a business trip can be made safely or the details you need to consider for making it safe. Whether we are talking about health risks, political situations, cultural issues, natural disasters, or even accidents, Oombla delivers the services and has the tools together with the needed expertise in addressing them and apply the prevention or remedy plans.
How should a small or medium business manage travel?
The answer comes from its priorities. If primary goals are focused on increasing cost-savings, traveler productivity, and spend visibility then the solution to each of these challenges lies in having the right travel management agency supporting the organization in navigating further the travel options at their disposal.
Are you responsible for business travel in your organization? Do you need to book business travel regularly? Are you looking for a better experience for your employees when they book travel? Oombla Travel can help you with that! Oombla is a travel management agency with high expertise in providing the optimum travel solutions for small and medium businesses. With Oombla Travel, your organization can have the right travel program for securing team engagement and retention. Let us show you how you can redefine business travel for your team. Contact us.