“少出行，慧出行”是我从2012年开始一直在公司内部宣传的口号。“少出行”并非指不出差，而是减少不必要的出差，或者用虚拟的方式（例如通过电话或网络会议）替代传统商务或会议差旅需求，从而降低差旅成本。“慧出行”则要求员工成为“差旅达人”，提高预订效率、获得最好的价格以及最高的满意度。在这个简单的口号背后，蕴藏着我们差旅管理人员的最大目标，即“让员工满意，为公司省钱”。
“让员工满意”的第一步是了解差旅人员的需求。在这方面由于我多年任职多个商务旅行管理公司的丰富经验，使我对不同供应商的流程和服务能力以及每一位差旅人员在日常使用差旅服务过程中可能提出的需求了如指掌。在差旅经理的岗位上，这样的经验能够帮助我快速判断供应商的服务是否已经做到最好，或者还有哪些可以改进的空间。对市场的了解也使我在面对差旅人员的问题和抱怨时，能够进行专业的分析和公正的处理，获得差旅人员的信赖和认可。
对于没有相关工作经验的差旅经理来说，最好的方法是主动出击，而不是等问题发生了再去补漏。为了了解内部用户们在想什么，需要什么? 每年我都会设计一个内部问卷调查，发给经常出差的员工和所有的预订人员，了解他们对供应商以及差旅服务的满意度，并收集意见和建议。同时我也非常注重差旅政策的宣传工作。很多时候员工没有遵守差旅政策并非出于故意，而是由于不了解情况。举例来说，我们的许多员工都不清楚协议价格其实和全价退改规则差不多，但前者能够节省更多费用。为了达到更好的宣传效果，也让同事觉得浅显易懂、容易接受，我们设计了一个差旅大使“飞飞”的形象并且用动漫和动画的形式来做差旅政策培训和宣传。此外为了能够覆盖到最多的员工，我们还会采用多渠道、同时沟通的方式，比如同时使用邮件、培训系统、海报、易拉宝、短信、微信等。另一个提高员工满意度有效的方法是做好供应商管理(Supplier Relations Management)，理清所有的操作流程，降低服务中的出错率。
“为公司省钱”的方法也有许多。首先在内部流程上，我会对公司的差旅数据进行分析，每个季度与相关人员对公司差旅表现进行评估，并适时提出节省费用或改进流程的建议。如通过优化提前预订天数来获得更好的票价、加强最低票价的执行力度、合理安排行程以降低换改签率和退票率。改进差旅政策固然能够获得一定的成本节省，但比改进价格更直接有效的方式是需求管理。需求管理说起来简单，做起来却非常困难。它要求差旅经理不但要了解企业的业务运作，还要对同行业、同类型职位的情况有所知悉。这样才能给出合理的出差频率的建议。
其次在针对外部供应商方面，我会尽可能集中和整合企业的差旅量以增强谈判能力。通过与供应商一起寻找双赢的方式来降低供应商的成本，同时也保证企业最大受益。比如我们去年和企业的商务旅行管理公司合作，将机票的结算和账单工作外包给了第三方。此举在帮助供应商缓解现金流压力的同时，也使企业内部审核TMC报价的流程更优化，费用支出更加透明。
商务旅行管理涵盖的范围非常广泛，小到火车票、签证、租车，大到机票、酒店、会议与活动等，此处篇幅有限，不便一一涉猎，谨以此文与同行共勉。
下期刊物连载：“中航嘉信商旅视点”第五期 差旅小知识—遭遇航班超售时的随机应变之术，敬请期待！
Travel manager's voice - Smart travel
"Travel Less, Travel Smart" is a slogan that I have been selling internally since 2012. "Travel less" does not mean no travel at all, but to reduce unnecessary travel or replace traditional business travel or meetings with virtual meetings such as conference calls over the telephone or other online solutions in order to achieve cost saving. "Travel smart" asks employees to become an expert on business travel. Always books efficiently, gets the best price and highest satisfaction. Under this seemingly very simple slogan, it was our biggest target as travel managers to "improve employee satisfaction, and save cost for the company".
The first step to improve employee satisfaction is to know your travelers' requirements. My years of experience working for multiple TMCs has given me an unique advantage of knowing very well the process and service of different TMC suppliers, as well as daily requirements from every travelers while working with a travel agent. These experience has helped me as a travel manager to be able to assess quickly whether or not a supplier is offering their best services, and where improvements can be further achieved. Being familiar with the industry has also helped me to analyze complaints and problems raised by travelers in a very professional and just manner, which in return earned me tremendous trust and recognition.
For travel managers without the same experience as I have, my suggestion is to act proactively. Do not wait for problems to occur then try to fix them. In order to understand what my travelers are thinking, what they actually need? I will design and conduct an annual internal questionnaire to all frequent travelers and travel bookers. By doing so, I can understand if they're satisfied with our TMC suppliers or their services, and receive advices and suggestions. In the meantime, I also take promoting travel policy very seriously. I found that most travelers fail to comply with travel policy unintentionally, they're simply unaware of the details. For instance, most employees do not know that corporate rate are very close to full refund policy, but the former saves more money. In order to achieve better result and making things easier for employees to understand and accept, we designed a cartoon character named "Feifei" as our spokesperson for business travel. In travel policy promotion and training sessions, we will use cartoon and animation for better effects. In order to reach more employees, we also use multiple communication channels such as email, training program, poster, pull-out banner, text message, WeChat message and so on. Another very good method to increase employee satisfaction is a well-managed SRM (Supplier Relations Management) where every process is clear and chances of making mistakes are low.
There are many ways to save cost for the company. First, internally I will analyze company's travel data and review travel performance with my stakeholders each quarter, then make suggestions on cost saving and process improvement. For example, we could optimize the days of advance booking to get a better price; we could enforce lowest rate adoption; we could lower change/refund rates by manage travel smartly. Although improving travel policy can achieve certain cost savings, but demand management is a more direct and effective way than simply asking for a better price. Though the job is easier said than done, it requires travel managers to not only know how the company operates, but also what the same position in the same industry is like so we can give better suggestions on travel frequency.
Secondly, when working with external suppliers, I will consolidate travel volume as much as I can to increase my negotiation power. The target is to find a win-win solution together with the suppliers to lower their cost while secure maximum benefits for the company. For example last year, we co-operated with our TMC to outsource settlements and billings of air tickets to a third party. By doing so, we have successfully helped our TMC to reduce their pressure on cash flows, while optimizing our company's internal auditing process of TMC quotations as well as achieving more transparency on costs and expenditures.
Business travel management covers a wide range of things as small as train tickets, visas, car rentals, as large as air tickets, hotels or meetings and events. It's difficult to summarize everything into a few words but I do hope my sharing can give you some insight into your own program.
关注中航嘉信微信公众平台，
完美旅程由此开始！
