Travel programme cost savings and operational efficiencies

by Michelle Dula, HRG Business Manager

Our client is a global financial services company. In 2010, the client’s objective was to save on travel program costs year on year.

Our challenge was to seek ways to reduce their travel programme costs and increase operational efficiencies without compromising the superior service for their travellers.

Through careful collaboration between HRG operations and the client’s Travel Manager, a savings plan of action was created and put into place.

By reducing their staffing ratio and cross training all agents to take both domestic and international calls there was a significant cost benefit immediately. We utilised supervisors and customer service agents to answer calls and limited the walk away/break times for agents and organised a more supervised structure to the working day. This included performing a review of peak call times and adjusting lunches and shifts accordingly.

There was additional training given in all areas of automation including automated itineraries and enhancements, with focus on increasing the touchless ratio.

HRG worked together with the client and by examining staff procedure and call answering processes we found that we could reduce effective call times significantly, whilst maintaining our client’s high customer service levels.

This initiative has been all about communication and collaboration between HRG and the client’s travel team and has had a very positive result. By identifying and exploring every way to help save money, HRG in collaboration with the client have successfully implemented a cost effective strategy with ongoing monitoring and constant communication at the heart of its success.