Services, Solutions, and Support…OH MY!

In recent years, the role of corporate travel managers has shifted from that of gatekeepers of corporate travel policy to enablers of a positive and productive experience for business travelers.  Fox’s entire business philosophy focuses on advocating for the traveler journey. We recognize that your business travelers are the frontline of your travel program and help your business stay in action.  Fox World Travel offers services and solutions that will allow the travel manager to stay focused on the traveler journey with the confidence that the tasks of gatekeeping policies and negotiating contracts are being professionally handled by your TMC and the programs they have developed for you.

Three ways Fox has supported clients in this ever-changing travel environment:

Problem: Audits, analysis, and administrative tasks take the backburner to traveler needs.

Solution:  With the current supply chain issues, travelers are inconvenienced by car shortages and forced to rent vehicles from non-preferred suppliers.  One Fox client was seeing rising claims due to the fact that the non-preferred suppliers did not include insurance in their price and their travelers were accustomed to declining insurance as it was included by the preferred supplier.  The resulting increase in costs was diminished by Fox’s customized software solutions:

• We tweaked software settings to allow the client to block non-preferred car suppliers in Concur unless all three of their preferred suppliers are sold out.
• Fox customized the software that if a traveler chooses a non-preferred supplier in Concur, a pop up will appear stating “You’ve selected a non-preferred car supplier.  These rates will not include insurance, so please accept the insurance at pick-up”.
• We also added custom programming to the top of the e-invoices template, warning the user of the insurance status.

Problem:  Airline contracts can be very complex to negotiate and manage. After several years of extending corporate agreements and not measuring goals, airlines are finally offering renewal proposals and new agreements for corporate travel.

Solution:  It’s time to get reacquainted with terms like Prism, share gap, fair market share, and effective discount rate.  Fox’s Client Solution Managers are ready and able to assist you with renewals or new program offers.  The process is led by Mike Heck, VP Supplier Solutions.  Mike has an extensive background in airline corporate agreement negotiations and management.  Prior to coming to Fox, Mike spent many years as a Global Corporate Sales Manager for two major global carriers.  Recently, Fox proactively performed an audit for a client and determined a supplier had fallen short of meeting their contractual obligations.  This allowed Fox to negotiate better programs for the client with this supplier.

Problem:   Constantly changing travel landscape requires more effective communication to travelers.

Solution:  Sometimes, the role of a travel manager can end up feeling more like a travel communications coordinator. Between onboarding, policy changes, travel restrictions, duty of care and technology updates, there are many components of a travel program to communicate to your travelers.  Fox is here to help our clients with communication as exhibited with the examples below.

• When the covid testing requirement was lifted recently, we pulled a report to identify which travelers were scheduled to depart soon after the mandate was lifted.  After determining which clients were impacted, dedicated Fox agents notified the travelers that they did not need a test. Additional communication was sent out to all clients and travel managers to make sure they were aware of the recent changes and ensure them we would continue to monitor the situation.
• In an effort to communicate more effectively and efficiently, especially with top Executive Admins that book high-level travel as well as top travelers/road warriors, Fox collaborated with another client’s travel manager to create an MS Teams Channel named “Travel Forum.”  In this Forum, we provide the latest up-to-date industry information such as mask requirements or information about all of the cancellations that happened over Memorial Day weekend.  We do not inundate the channel but are using it to be more efficient in pushing information out quickly.  This has NOT replaced the travel section on their company intranet but is simply a way to notify those heavily engaged in travel.  The forum is also utilized for traveler questions answered via the partnership of the travel manager and Fox World Travel.

In today’s volatile travel landscape, travel managers can feel confident that throughout these times of change, you will have a solid partner in Fox World Travel to support the continuity of business for your organization.  Reach out to Fox today to see how our services and solutions can benefit you!