More than a decade ago I managed what was probably one of the most sophisticated corporate travel agencies in the world with very good people, hundreds of software tools supporting point-of-sale services and managing touchless processes.
One time I listened in on a call from a traveller needing travel from Copenhagen to Belfast. It was an amazing experience; the employee worked her toolbox while asking details into what the customer needed. She came up with three offerings: cheap, middle priced and expensive and the client chose the middle. All this was done within an average three minutes and the customer was very happy; it made me proud of the agent and our systems.
At the time 'online' was the magic word and I asked the management team two questions:
- How do we support and educate our staff from being experts on GDS mainframe language to becoming great point-of-sale people in a multi-source environment?
- How do we change the operational structure so we end up with fewer levels of management and less need of system, ticket and GDS experts?
I am sorry to tell you that nothing happened, aside letting good people go because online bookings replaced the offline service.
Going back, it is easy to see how the travel industry attracted a lot of people who loved to travel and who were from all sectors from public to service companies. Many were not particularly well-educated and very few had a university degree; they were taught how to serve customers and the 50 mainframe inputs you needed to make a GDS reservation.
The GDSes gave up redesigning their old structure as the people creating it left or retired. They targeted the online environment and direct traveller approach. This means that one point of entry has ended up being multiple points of entry, resulting in many clever people leaving, feeling left out and/or mismanaged.
Fast forward to 2018
With the arrival of artificial intelligence, video and phone conferences, augmented reality and blockchain, the industry is taking another leap forward on the technology side. But it still leaves people behind, puts its head in the sand and hopes it will solve itself or go away.
Let me be frank: this time it will not solve itself or go away.
Airlines, accommodation, intermediaries and technology companies need to look at the future profile of employees, who will be working in a totally different environment and with a different skillset compared to today.
A couple of sectors seem to have acted and focused on creating the right environment. Looking at leisure, charter, MICE and meetings it is clear they have changed. Yes, they have accepted that part of their market has moved to online and, especially charter, has successfully created an environment where online and offline work hand in hand. Other parts of the leisure industry has successfully traded upwards and targeted the grey-headed and adventure travellers with unique intercontinental adventures. Even if not particularly technology savvy, they have a firm hand on that sector. Meetings management has seen a strong technology development and rethinking of the value chain.
When you meet people in these sectors they may not be technology wizards, but they usually are good sales people experienced about the destinations they sell. Many work successfully in niches.
Common for all the successful businesses is their low reliance on booking the flights and accommodation the usual way via the GDS. They either work with allotments, whole or resellers of air tickets which means they have focused on using relevant products helping them to sell their product. However, there is still a lack of organised and structured learning and updating processes. Most of the education is factual and hands-on and only a few sectors and countries have structured education, like airlines and hotels.
We already know that most trips in corporate travel can be done online and that only around 10% need offline service due to complexity. Changes or support is still valuable and needs to be hands-on. The people here rely very much on the GDSes and have seen the need to book offline diminish substantially during the past decades.
Travel employees of today are mostly people with a basic education learning on their job. They have learned selling and serving customers, input to GDS and destination knowledge; many are extrovert, clever and used to working in a dynamic, complex and fast-moving environment. But limited and old-fashioned technology combined with new products means there are a lot of people working to make this structure work on a daily basis, which means a lot of mid-management and subject matter experts with narrow focus areas.
What does business travel need in the future?
In the coming years technology like AI, products like Alexa and Google Assistant and online payment systems will deliver much of the services being handled by people today. However, most of these systems will have limitations, break down or miss a detail as the producers will focus on getting 80% right. Travellers will still need to know details not available in chatrooms or be willing to pay for face-to-face talk. Most will handle their trip online or via mobile and will not contact offline.
But when the bad weather or accidents happen there will be a strong need for knowledgeable people. Travellers will continue demanding all kinds of different special requirements from food to support and detailed knowledge. This means there will be a need for people serving these customers.
The world of trips will include multi-sourced channels, communication and payment structures, security issues and customer knowledge. This will need to be included when TMCs look for employees of the future to service travellers.
What would a profile look like?
- Able to understand and communicate with the customer in any situations. With fewer contact, each must be a perfect experience to the traveller
- Real sales understanding in order to upsell in a plane, at a hotel or point of sale
- Able to work in a complex technology world or have easy access to experts
- Understand and able to work on different platforms
- Understand the need for work flexible hours and seasonal work
Looking at the characteristics of the existing employees in the industry I find that a lot of the future requirements are there. However, the time has come where the employer must begin to structure a transfer from the old to the new world. Employees need:
- New technology platforms and feel comfortable using them
- A toolbox making it easy to identify errors and how to handle them
- Teams (physical or virtual) with different complementing competences
- Power to make decisions in a dynamic world
- To understand that learning from other industries is valuable
- Investment in education and learning
Finally, look for the right remuneration and retaining structure. These "new" kind of people will be valuable in any industry and looked for by other travel companies.