ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SERVICES
Oversight
Our experienced account management team will help ensure your travel program is the best it can be. We focus on your travel, so you can focus on your business.
We take the time to learn about your company and to understand the goals of your travel program. We also get to know the people in your company who are charged with travel program management. Working proactively with you, we help facilitate your goals and ease the burden on your staff.
Analysis
At Vanguard, we know how to get the most for your travel program budget. Our comprehensive analysis provides you with feedback, guidance and recommendations. We’ll devise strategies to help you capture the savings opportunities we identify.
We’ll analyze your company’s purchasing to understand overall and individual travel patterns. In addition, using our sophisticated benchmarking tool, we’ll compare your company’s travel program to companies around the country based on similar travel spend, geographical region or industry sector. This invaluable comparison identifies spending areas that are out of line with database averages and warrant closer review.
Our analysis will help you find opportunities to institute practices that enhance productivity and eliminate waste.
Vendor Negotiation
When you partner with Vanguard, your company will benefit from pre-negotiated discounts on airfares, hotels and car rentals. In addition, based on your company’s travel purchasing, we will work with you to obtain speciallynegotiated rates with airlines, hotels, car rental companies and other vendors. Consolidating travel purchasing with Vanguard will help your company meet thresholds required for the best discounts.
We’ve invested in special tools and resources so we know the average hotel rates that other companies pay in specific markets, with specific chains, and at individual hotel properties. Similarly, we know what companies pay on average by car rental company and rental city. This information, compared with your company’s purchasing data, enables us to more effectively negotiate special rates for your company.
Information Management
With Vanguard’s sophisticated reporting tool, your travel information is available to you whenever you want it. There’s no waiting for reports, or wondering how your spending compares to budget. And our expert programmers ensure that your travel reports include the data you need, in the format you want. There is no need for your staff to re-key information, and the potential for errors is avoided.
In addition to the regular reports we’ve designed for you, we can quickly create customized reports for special requests. We can help you respond immediately to senior management, financial analysts and others.
Your travel information can be provided on a pre-ticketing or post-ticketing basis.
Travel Policy Assistance
An effective travel policy can be the foundation of a successful travel program. At Vanguard, we understand that travel policies are unique: your travel policy needs to support your company’s goals. We can help you create a new travel policy, or just refine the one you have.
Your travel policy is enforced whether you choose Cliqbook, our self-booking solution, or called-in reservation assistance. And you can customize special travel parameters for VIP or other classes of travelers.
Since airline and other vendor policies change frequently, we will advise you of any new issues that may need to be addressed or updated in your company’s travel policy.
Communication
We understand that there are many demands on your staff’s time and that it is difficult for travelers and travel managers to stay on top of important developments that will have an impact on them. That’s why we regularly communicate with your company’s key contact about important industry changes and developments. We summarize the most critical news and vendor policy updates and communicate it via periodic E-mail updates in a timely manner. We also provide a news section on this website that travelers and travel managers can refer to at any time.
Customer Service
We are always ready, willing and able to be of service to our customers: the executives, managers, staff and travelers. We care about your travel program as much as you do. In addition to the many services and tools listed above, we will help you with issues such as:
- Resolving vendor service or billing issues
- Helping you evaluate and select expense reporting and corporate billing systems
- Helping to educate travelers about low fares offered on your company’s frequently flown routes, and their purchase requirements
- Making sure that travelers and the company take advantage of express service and loyalty programs that are available
- Establishing proactive procedures for travel management
- Advising you of potential efficiency enhancements
