 |
Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining... Never in the history of commercial air travel have we experienced anything quite like the events of last month, when the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano erupted, spewing a cloud of ash over the UK and completely shutting down the entire air traffic network over Europe for the best part of a week. And all right at the close of the Easter holiday break. This truly unprecedented occurrence has undoubtedly had a massive effect on the travel business, and Giles Travel - specialist business travel management company - were not alone in facing the task of looking after clients stranded all over the world.As soon as news of the volcanic ash cloud broke on Thursday 15th April, Giles Travel immediately brought into play their CMT (Crisis Management Team) to manage the situation and focus all their efforts on delivering the best possible service to their clients that the situation allowed. Using skills and techniques learnt from the 9/11 events of 2001, (which was a logistical walk in the park for them by comparison) Giles Travel set up Task Forces within their operation, each assigned to investigate different methods of transportation to get travellers back home. Additional reservations support was drafted in and an extended shift pattern implemented to assist in handling the huge volume of enquiries, with everyone from the Senior Management team to the accounts clerk manning the phones. Such a swift and proactive response meant that Giles Travel had a plan and could cope with such an unprecedentedly huge and dramatically instant affect on their business. Telephone call volume, alone, increased by 5,000% overnight! Giles Travel investigated and devised a whole range of methods to get their clients back home quickly and safely. Some of the more creative solutions included routing businessmen to Disneyland Paris in order to catch a seat on the resort- dedicated Eurostar and advising travellers to "buy a bike" so that French ferry ports who were turning away foot passengers would accept them. Even the Royal Navy assisted travellers' efforts as they were routed clients to the Spanish port of Santander in order to board HMS Albion. The unusual travel companions of holiday makers, business travellers and Armed Forces personnel returning from active duty in Afghanistan shared a welcome ride back to Portsmouth. "It has been an amazing experience and a huge challenge to repatriate our clients throughout the world" comments David Giles, Chairman of Giles Travel. David praised his team and also his customers for their understanding, "We have received numerous messages of thanks and support from our clients valuing our services in extreme circumstances, one client's wife even sent us a box of chocolates as a thank you for getting her husband home safely." Throughout the whole time, Giles Travel kept clients in the loop with constant communication on both the ash cloud developments, depending on which way the wind was blowing, and the latest government announcements and advice. Personal contact was backed up with almost hourly e-news alerts, including a real-time Ash Cloud map which plotted all major European airports, overlaid with an "as-it-happened" scan of the cloud's coverage and direction and what this meant for Giles Travel's clients. Sales Director, Richard Priestley, added "Our travel consultants have aged considerably during the past few days, which is hardly surprising considering the extra hours and stress they've had to deal with. I am pleased to say through combining our Traveller Tracking Technology with the dedication, determination and creativity of our staff meant our customers were in great hands, no matter where in the world they were." So how and what can TMCs learn from this? Despite the obvious factors and their success in managing the situation to the best of their ability, Giles Travel have launched an internal enquiry, never resting on their laurels but to discover how they can update their own emergency procedures in order to be a better, stronger and more valuable partner to their clients in the future. As a member of the Guild of Travel Management Companies, they shall be conversing with their colleagues across the industry to explore the benefits of shared resources in such extreme circumstances. They will also be lobbying Government to understand the criteria for their reaction to the crisis and how this may be amended in future. And as one of only two Business Plus Lufthansa City Center affiliates in the UK, Giles Travel are also pursing the possibility of leveraging their global affiliations and are involved in a special crisis management workshop to further develop their abilities. But the over-riding lesson to be learnt from all of us is how important and beneficial it is to work with a professional. As David Giles suggests, "This highlights the need for any business traveller to utilise the services of a Travel Management Company as the world becomes more volatile to economic, political and now natural disasters." News Date: 11-05-2010 |
