Personal Touch Drives Biz Travel Growth
by Cheryl Rosen /Atlas Travel has embarked on a voyage to expand its corporate travel business in new directions, and it’s beginning to see the results.
Last year, the $250 million Massachusetts-based travel management company determined to stretch its wings beyond its New England roots, so it hired two new senior directors, one to focus on the mid-Atlantic and one on the Midwest.
In Washington, D.C., Christy Conrow, Atlas’ new director for business development and program management, was charged with overseeing growth in the mid-Atlantic.
It’s a people business
So how exactly does a travel agency grow its corporate business?
To Conrow, the answer lies in the personal nature of the travel industry itself.
Step one is to “get the brand out there” by joining industry associations and getting to know the people, the players and the markets on a personal level, said Conrow, who previously worked with FCm Travel and Garber Travel.
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To that end, Conrow immediately joined ACTE and local GBTA chapters.
Consultative role
Step two is taking a consultative approach when meeting with prospective customers. This involves doing an in-depth evaluation of a prospect’s existing travel program as well as a gap analysis that shows where they can improve.
“A gap analysis is a great way to get to know a customer,” said Conrow, whose responsibilities encompass both developing new corporate customers in the mid-Atlantic region and helping those customers to build and develop their corporate travel and meeting programs.
“The travel business is by nature very complex, and there are so many areas that can find improvements.”
Still so much leakage
One of the most obvious, and rewarding, areas for improvement is meetings management.
Despite years of talking about how much money travel managers can save client companies by consolidating negotiations for transient and group travel, in most businesses there is still “just so much leakage and not a lot of cohesiveness between the travel side and the meetings side,” Conrow said.
Even when companies have an internal manager who develops meetings policy and negotiates with suppliers, they often do so in a separate silo from the overall travel program, she said.
Key issues
On both the transient and group travel sides of the house, Conrow works with her customers on vendor analysis as well as policy adjustments and enhancements, with the goal of keeping rules in line with the client’s unique corporate culture.
Right now, two of the biggest concerns for Conrow’s corporate customers are open booking, including how to capture data when travelers book outside policy and approved channels, and how to capture the details of all those ancillary fees.
Staffing up
Since joining Atlas Travel, Conrow also has been building her own team.
For business development and program managers, she looked for people who were organized, professional and detail-oriented. Beyond those fundamental requirements, she wanted individuals with that personal touch, that overall passion for people that makes the hospitality and travel industry so, well, hospitable.
“You need the skills, but you also need really good people,” she said.
“I really believe that the steady, consistent rise in our business here at Atlas has largely been due to the personal passion, the commitment to service, that everyone brings to the table,” she said.
“It really is that simple. So many customers just feel like they aren’t being heard, aren’t being paid attention to.”
Passion on both sides
As for the other side of the table, the client side, Conrow described “a great customer” as someone who is equally passionate about his or her role managing a travel program – someone who is willing to really look at the details of their travel spend and policy and make improvements.
At the end of the day, there are “no real surprises” in her approach to winning new corporate customers, Conrow said.
“It’s really just putting in that added level of service that really makes a difference.”
