Duty of Care: turning responsibility into competitive advantage

tramada®’s seamless integrations with best-of-breed tracking, communication and assistance solutions not only protect travelers – they empower travel agencies.

Every day, dozens of incidents occur that can potentially place your clients at risk.

From the vagaries of climate change and natural disasters such as earthquakes and storms, to accidents and injuries, illness, and man-made dangers like terrorism, civil unrest and crime, dangerous events such as these can happen anywhere, anytime – making today’s focus on traveler safety greater than ever.

Much like corporates who have a legal obligation, every agency has a “Duty of Care”, a moral and/or legal obligation that takes effect as soon as a client/agency relationship is formed and ends only when the traveler’s trip is concluded.

Much more than simply good practice, Duty of Care requires agencies to do everything reasonable to provide for the health, safety and security of travelers, like recommending inoculations or highlighting safety concerns before travel to certain areas. On the other hand, agencies that know about a problematic situation but fail to take necessary steps to meet their traveler safety and security responsibilities can face legal risks and untold reputational damage.

When bad things happen, GDSs can provide basic location information about where a passenger is and how they are traveling, but more often than not, that’s not sufficient, particularly for non-GDS segments, say in a hire car or on a train, or when the day of travel is not captured in the GDS.

However, an agency’s promise to lend a helping hand at any stage of the journey – even for non-GDS segments – can be a significant selling point and competitive advantage.

And turning responsibility and risk into a powerful marketing differentiator is a feature of the tramada travel management system. The platform’s integrations with best-of-breed travel security organizations ensure that tramada-enabled agents can offer clients true peace of mind and invaluable assistance if faced with emergencies such as extreme weather, epidemics or security incidents.

ISOS for medical and security assistance

International SOS (ISOS) makes it easy for businesses to keep track of travelers throughout their journeys and give them support when needed.

With this integration, registered corporates’ travelers’ itineraries and updates that include all tramada-captured booking data (GDS, non-GDS, NDC, direct and OBT bookings) are sent to ISOS from tramada every 10 minutes, ensuring information on travelers’ locations and destinations is accurate and up-to-date. It also removes the need for consultants to create passive segments in the GDS, thereby greatly increasing productivity, efficiency and accuracy.

The ISOS organization’s tracking service identifies and locates travelers who are at particular risk following any significant incidents or threats, and sends alerts to these travelers so they are kept up to date. Agencies are also informed by ISOS email of any emerging medical or security risks that might affect their travelers.

If an emergency occurs, the ISOS organization can then swing into action with its team of 11,000 employees across more than 1,000 locations in 90 countries. This 24/7 access to medical and security services connects travelers with doctors, logistics coordinators and security teams when they’re needed most.

Communicate in real time with Concur Risk Messaging

Sending emergency broadcasts to travelers affected by delayed or canceled flights – or simply keeping them informed of flight and gate information 4 hours before flight time – is made easy with tramada’s integration with Concur Risk Messaging.

Using keyword queries such as “hotel” together with traveler details quickly allows Concur Risk Messaging to pinpoint travelers’ locations around the world on a dynamic, multi-source, data-driven map – which also includes country-specific risk levels. Itinerary and location data is captured as it changes to get timely information about their whereabouts and travel plans. That data can then be shared with travel assistance partners, while agents can automatically communicate two-way with their clients via their mobile devices.

Even before traveling, the best-in-class Concur Risk Messaging solution provides great Duty of Care features such as the ability to send pre-trip advisory emails to travelers with risk information and travel guidelines for each of their destinations.

Customer care at its core

Caring for travelers is in the DNA of the tramada platform. Further evidence of this is the Passenger Locator Report, a standard report available to every user at no charge. With a few keystrokes, the whereabouts of passengers can be found by searching on a wide range of filters including name, flight number, travel dates and emergency contact details, making identifying and contacting travelers easy.

Yet another free feature of tramada, the QBE Insurance integration, gives agents the ability to download an insurance policy from the large insurance company directly into a travelers’ booking profile. The creation of an insurance costing segment removes the need to manually enter the segment manually, eliminating human error and freeing consultants to spend more time on providing customer service.

With risks come rewards

Every laudable travel agent is expected to be knowledgeable about their clients’ destination and any conditions that could impact their plans, as well as to inform travelers of critical travel information such as visas, vaccinations, documentation and insurance requirements, etc.

In the corporate travel environment, Duty of Care is also well-understood to extend to knowing where clients are – no matter if travel is international or domestic or if segments are GDS or non-GDS – and having the means to communicate, and if necessary, to assist them.

While it’s true that Duty of Care involves risk for traditional agencies, it also brings substantial advantages in the ability to attract, service and retain clients large and small.

That’s because the role of the successful travel agent has always been that of a trusted advisor and problem solver – a role that is becoming increasingly important, if not critical, in today’s world.

For more information about tramada’s integrations with ISOS, Concur Risk Messaging or QBE Insurance, or our Passenger Locator Report, contact your Tramada account manager or email us at sales@tramada.com.