Why customize corporate travel?
History and DNA
A major reason why Munckhof has locations all over the country can be found in the company's history and DNA. Fifteen years ago, airline tickets still came in paper form. At that time, the ability to quickly provide a customer with physical travel documents was highly functional. This had the secondary effect of maintaining personal contact between Munckhof and the customer, in addition to communication over the phone and through email.
The modern age
The era of physical travel documents is ancient history now. Airline tickets are delivered to travellers in digital form. These days, a suitable mix of communication channels is used, depending on the customer's wishes. This starts with contact regarding operational matters, such as questions about departure times, availability and rates. Many customers opt to communicate with the office about these topics via email or telephone. A growing number of customers have also become accustomed to arranging these matters over the Internet and appreciate the option to use our online travel management portal. We have also noticed that customers often use a combination of communication channels, depending on the urgency or complexity of the trip to be booked. Now that's dynamic customization!
Personal contact
What all our clients have in common is that they want to be treated like truly valued customers and they expect to receive fast and professional assistance from a corporate travel agency that knows what matters to them personally. The only way to achieve this is through regular dialogue. At Munckhof, our account management endeavours to see the world through the customer's eyes and to determine which needs and questions must be addressed in regard to corporate travel. This information is used to decide which developments in the corporate travel market are relevant to each specific customer. Combined with a precise analysis of management information, there is plenty of material for periodic conversations about the effectiveness of corporate travel, the achievement of the goals that we have set together with the customer and the determination of potential areas for improvement. This varies and is unique to each customer.
A changing role
As mentioned above, our company's original focus was on quickly providing customers with tickets. Today, we are the go-to specialist for helping customers achieve consistently effective corporate travel. We do this through the use of smart technology, through sharing best practices, providing travel management training, consulting on and monitoring travel policy, and discerning opportunities and risks in the travel industry. And, oh yeah, we do still provide tickets as well.
The result of this modern approach is reduced costs and increased efficiency for the customer. When expressed in monetary value, these two components must be substantially higher than the price the customer pays for our services. In other words, there must be a positive ROI: return on investment. The best way by far to accomplish this is to truly understand how your customer's organisation functions.
Customization through smaller teams
The reason that Munckhof works with small, decentralized teams is that we really want to understand how a customer works. In addition to tailoring our services to each customer, we have also noticed that our clients appreciate dealing with someone who speaks with the local accent and intonation or even in the local dialect. In this way, Munckhof is not only professional nationwide but also reassuringly familiar and approachable on the local level. We greatly value this local network, which is why we will continue to invest in it. A good example is the opening of our new location in Delfzijl in October 2014. This office specializes in serving companies in the marine shipping industry and was opened by the mayor of Delfzijl in cooperation with a tugboat captain. A festive occasion, which we celebrated with our customers completely in the style of the local industry.
