Andy Hegley, General Manager, Corporate Traveller UK.
Industry sectors in which Corporate Traveller notably gained new clients were retail, finance, legal and agriculture, not only at its London offices, but also particularly in Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Corporate Traveller has continued to experience record levels of growth in the UK over the last year after winning an average of 55 new clients per month. The TMC, which specialises in clients with an SME business travel spend of £50K to £2M per annum, has also seen a surge in demand for technology solutions from its customers over the last 12 months, since launching its YOUR.CT technology platform and chatbot mobile app Sam.
Industry sectors in which Corporate Traveller notably gained new clients were retail, finance, legal and agriculture, not only at its London offices, but also particularly in Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
New clients include JD Sports Fashion Plc, a leading international multichannel retailer of sports, fashion and outdoor brands, headquartered in Bury, which is being handled by Corporate Traveller’s Manchester office; and Bennett Aviation, specialists in providing quality assurance production inspection services at the world’s major aircraft manufacturing facilities, which is being managed by a dedicated consultant at Corporate Traveller’s office in Birmingham. Other new clients are Eden Scott in Edinburgh and Talentmark in London, both of which are specialist agencies in the recruitment sector, and Thomson & Scott, original creators of skinny Prosecco, based in London.
Use of Corporate Traveller’s YOUR.CT platform, which was launched in January 2018, has grown significantly and the technology has been implemented for over 2000 clients. YOUR.CT gives bookers, travellers and managers a single access point, via their customised dashboard, to functionality and information that is relevant to their business travel needs. This includes pre-trip approval, booking options, profile management, traveller tracking, travel alerts, reports, invoice data and travel policy. Additionally, adoption of Corporate Traveller’s online booking tool within YOUR.CT has leapt to 40 per cent compared with only five per cent two years ago.
Demand from customers for Corporate Traveller’s chatbot-based mobile app Sam since its launch at the beginning of this year has been extremely positive. Almost 3,000 of clients’ business travellers have already downloaded Sam to support them with itinerary management and bookings on the move and Corporate Traveller is continuing to implement an average of 500 additional users per month.
Andy Hegley, UK General Manager, Corporate Traveller commented: “We began to focus on our technology offering 18 months ago with solutions that were designed specifically for SMEs to streamline business travel and make it as easy as possible for them to book and manage their travel efficiently. As a result, we have seen a huge uptake in implementation of YOUR.CT – in fact all of our clients are using it for profile management. Plus clients that previously showed no interest in an online booking tool, are now adding one to their travel programme to drive efficiencies.
“We expect this demand for technology to continue – there are lot of digital disrupters in the market meaning SME businesses are more aware of what is available; customers are also used to booking and shopping online for personal leisure purposes, and their expectations are that technology should be integrated similarly for managing their business travel.”
Other trends that Corporate Traveller has witnessed over the last 12 months include an increased focus on traveller wellbeing and duty of care. However, cost savings still remain one of the top priorities for Corporate Traveller clients, who are also seeking more data and analysis of their spend.
“Travel spend for SMEs can rise very quickly as their headcount increases, so our clients are looking to us as their travel provider to recommend ways of controlling those costs and give them value for money. Over the last 12 months, we have realised a total £32M in savings on air spend for our clients,” explains Andy Hegley. “We are also seeing greater emphasis on clients wanting to know where their travellers are and relying on us to provide traveller tracking. This duty of care aspect is another reason for the increase in demand for our YOUR.CT technology platform and Sam mobile app.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
