ADVERTORIAL FEATURE
Self-service - is your TMC giving you what you really want, or need?
Britain is the second biggest e-commerce market in the world by percentage of retail sales. Given the choice between calling a contact centre to get a task done, or doing it yourself online, the vast majority of us now opt for the self-service option.
That change means that the business travel management industry is on the verge of being disrupted in the same way that major platforms such as Salesforce, and Amazon have disrupted sectors such as CRM and retail – and now, Click Travel is doing the same.
Many travel management companies provide tools that allow businesses to make bookings online without having to involve an agent. However, Simon McLean, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Click Travel, says that’s not enough for customers.
He says: “It’s 2018. Online should mean online, not online, and then a call if you want to change something. But that’s exactly what happens in our industry. Depending on who your supplier is, if you want to do something like add
baggage to a flight, or change the checkout date of your hotel, you’ll need to phone someone. That’s not really good enough, which is why we want to bring tools to market that deliver a fully online experience, because that’s what consumers want”
As part of that, Click Travel has developed
travel.cloud, an online business travel management platform. Businesses can sign up online and configure all elements themselves, without requiring agent involvement or calls to contact centres. It also allows businesses of any size to manage all the elements traditionally handled by an agent online themselves, fee-free.
The result is a customer can have complete control over their business travel in a matter of minutes - rather than months waiting for a traditional TMC to complete its implementation process.
McLean says: “If you’re one of the many businesses that don’t have managed travel because you think it’ll be complicated or
expensive, think again. Our platform is a radical rethink of how to book and manage business travel.”
There are no fees to pay, because the system is self-serve online, and there are no salespeople recommending particular options just because they get commission for them.
The system’s completely transparent and it means you get the travel options that are right for you, rather than what’s right for the TMC’s bottom line.
Simon McLean
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Recent developments in the travel sector have demonstrated that distribution channels are fragmenting at a phenomenal pace. American Airlines got the ball rolling in 2012 with the concept of direct connect, but Luſthansa really gave it momentum in 2015 with its introduction of a distribution charge on GDS bookings alongside their new direct connect solution.
British Airways soon followed suit, and with Air France / KLM joining the pack in early 2018, the
97% of all
Click Travel bookings are processed online
shiſt to direct connect is becoming unstoppable – which means success depends on embracing it.
McLean explains that
travel.cloud was designed precisely with this trend in mind, to make it a futureproof self-service system.
The customer is the real winner here - they get more choice, lower costs, and it’s much easier for them to manage their bookings themselves.
“Click Travel has invested heavily in aggregation technology, because we’re seeing an increasing number of travel suppliers recognising that direct connect cuts out the expense of distribution systems,” he says. “We genuinely expect that in the near future,
travel.cloud is going to be aggregating thousands of content providers, so we’ve
Click Travel offers
both fee-free self-serve travel management and options for a fully managed service
designed it to collate that data in a rich and vibrant way as intended by the suppliers, with no additional distribution charges. The customer is the real winner here – they get more choice, lower costs, and it’s much easier for them to manage their bookings themselves.”
Click Travel, with its
travel.cloud platform that allows it to process billions of bookings at a fraction of the cost of a traditional TMC, is making it easy for businesses to cut the cost and complexity of booking their travel.
www.clicktravel.com hello@clicktravel.com
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