Our FCM heroes building connections to strengthen Construction and Engineering travel management
In an industry where change is constant, how do we maintain customer relationships that last for over a decade? Meet Meagan Mitchell, Assistant Team Leader in Account Management, who has been a trusted industry expert since 1999. With an impressive 11-year tenure at FCM Travel, Meagan brings a wealth of experience in managing diverse portfolios, catering to multinational and local Australian clients spanning construction, education, retail, and law sectors. Discover Meagan’s insights into nurturing long-term client partnerships, as she shares her journey in overseeing the travel program for a major construction client who has been a loyal FCM Travel customer for over a decade. Join us as we delve into the strategies and factors that keep clients like these coming back year after year.
Building and retaining strong stakeholder relationships
“Our client, a large multinational construction company, has built many well-known facilities and infrastructure around the world. They came onboard over 10 years ago to help manage their thousands of travellers, and the great thing is that many of our FCM Travel Managers have been there from the beginning of this company’s onboarding, building on and strengthening that relationship.
“I believe keeping a customer with us comes down to building and retaining a strong relationship with our clients, ensuring that they can trust FCM to advise on projects. When companies come onboard, forming and nourishing multi-relationships with key stakeholders is essential for travel management success.
“We have always had an open and transparent relationship with our clients, and they have to trust us. I think that’s particularly important.”
Achieving customer goals
“This client has a range of projects happening throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, from construction to new bridge works, mining, and roads, and one of the client’s goals has been to streamline all their travel into one global program, without losing that local touch. Late last year, FCM brought on the New Zealand side of the company, which has been exciting because the company has grown substantially, and it was a really successful transition.
“Our team also wanted to help this client go online with their travel bookings. Due to the regional location of their projects, they were predominantly offline, but during COVID we really wanted to improve processes and efficiencies for them, so we helped them move the majority of their business online, which has been a huge shift. A lot of the bookings have now moved online, which means an easier and faster booking process.
“Most of my customers are looking at process efficiency, and I’m very system orientated so I love that. Budget goals are also an important factor when looking to streamline travel programs, however people are also still trying to learn what travel is like post COVID.
“Most companies want people to get back out there and reengage. They want to try to give people that empowerment to travel and make the right choices with the policy. A lot of my customers are steering away from hard approvals and giving that ownership back to travellers.”
Listening to customers and providing advice
“With construction there is a lot of movement of staff, and with this company and during COVID, we had a lot of new staff using the travel program we implemented, which meant we had to re-teach everything. Education or re-education of clients through weekly or even daily calls has led them to feel confident in what the company travel program goals are and what we are trying to achieve.
“We have also created a strong relationship where we can advise our construction client on projects and forecast what travel may look like for those projects. Whether they are going to win a project bid or not, we can make recommendations on bulk bookings or secure hotels, and on what the best practice is. An example for this client would be a Western Australian project they won - we recommended they use bulk bookings for travel to save 50 percent per person, and locking those flights in so they aren’t missing out on those best prices.”
“Also, projects usually go for years, so if there’s projects in small, regional locations with only a certain number of accommodations, if our team have that foresight before our client wins the project, we can show them the travel challenges they might face.”
Future innovative solutions
“At FCM, we are always looking at ways to improve our client’s program and make it a better user experience and save them money.
“In the future, our client is looking to self-book. We are workshopping how we can move company contractors to self-booking and creating a travel policy along with this. Essentially, our client would like to allow onsite contractors who want to change their flights to come home, to have the freedom to do so. We also want to encourage them to use our FCM Platform mobile app, because having that tech with them onsite while they are in the middle of nowhere can make a huge difference.
“The team managing this client account is amazing. They know the account inside and out. We love looking after this account, because we have a great relationship with them, and we’ve made it our major focus to create multilevel relationships in the company.”