Customer-centricity and

Ciarán Kelly, Managing Director, UAE, and Middle East & Africa Regional Leader at FCM Travel, outlines how its customer-centric approach and strong culture has been a real differentiator for the company in terms of overcoming the challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kelly has enjoyed a decorated and distinguished career at FCM Travel and has spent 19 years at the travel management company.

In a candid interview for the latest edition of the HLB HAMT Insight supplement, Kelly explains in detail how their continued investment in emerging technologies in recent years helped them streamline operational efficiency, their strategic plans for 2021 - and how their personalised business model ultimately helped them survive the economic crisis of the pandemic.

Several reasons have contributed to FCM surviving the pandemic challenges thus far.

We prepared in advance as much as possible before city lockdowns happened. Our contingency plan of working from home was set up 3 weeks in advance for example before the UAE shut down.

This allowed us to equip staff with systems to continue servicing customers in the event that our office building was potentially shut down overnight if COVID-19 broke out in our office or elsewhere in the office/ hotel building.

Communication with staff was regular via various forums, daily alerts, weekly zoom calls, small department team communication messages to ensure staff knew what was expected from them internally

Managing Director, UAE, and Middle East & Africa Regional Leader at FCM Travel

and what their customers may expect from us as a service business.

Accurate information was essential to ensure staff could assist customers with information that was changing minute-by-minute from airlines and hotels partners and obviously from foreign governments on border closures was essential. Our global travel information news hub ensured we knew the correct information to be sharing with clients which was being updated daily by colleagues around the FCM world.

FCM has a diverse range of existing customers that also needed to continue travelling where possible during the pandemic and thus sectors such as Energy clients, Media, Consumer and Pharma and NGO’s amongst a few others has ensured sales continued.

In addition, while servicing and the retention of the existing customers has been crucial, we have been really fortunate to continue to win new clients in FCM during the pandemic that seen gaps in their existing travel agency partnerships and service offering thus shifted their business to FCM to take advantage of our full suite of products and global network.

One of those advantages many customers benefited from was our own in-house Air Charter division, AVMIN. We have been able to repatriate customers to and from

Sumesh Kunnath, Partner, HLB HAMT

various locations when airlines had cancelled their routes, were full by using our teams of resources, contacts and private jets to get people from A to Z.

Our investors believe in the FCM business and over the last 12 months we have secured over $1.2bn from existing and new investors. In addition, cash flow has been crucial for everyone during the pandemic.

By reacting quickly at the start of the pandemic and because of the close partnerships formed over the years, the vast majority of our customers appreciated our industry was being hit hard and paid outstanding invoices on time and in advance.

Finally, our culture at FCM is solid and strong! The people really do take customer care to a level of superiority within our industry.

Despite the uncertainty the industry and our business were facing each day, the commitment, ownership and responsibility has been a main factor in our resilience during the pandemic.

Personally, the level of customer focus at FCM is one of the numerous reasons why people such as myself have stayed in the company for so long, as I approach 19 years of service in 2021.

Our culture is built upon giving our people ownership, accountability and responsibility. We want them to feel part of the FCM business, not a cog and when you create such a model, they love to own that relationship with their customers.

Our aim is to make as much of the travel experience with FCM as simple as possible and as much of that travel journey centralised via a dedicated consultant. We have also signed a partnership with a medical supplier in the region to also offer PCR testing at home or in-clinic for our travellers that may require the certificate when booking the flight with FCM.

Coupled with this customercentricity approach we have also ensured our people and the customer is evolving together and weave technology into this partnership. FCM technology is tailored for the various stakeholders in the relationship to enhance the experience for the booker, traveller and manager.

We are constantly monitoring, through the help of technology, the level client satisfaction throughout the contract period to ensure we are exceeding expectations. In turn, this also helps to ensure the wellbeing of our people, that they are not being too stretched and have the necessary resources to service their clients and have a balanced lifestyle.

There are numerous other differentiators we enjoy from our rivals such as our global footprint, negotiating strength, can do attitude and our business philosophies but our personalised business model certainly does help us to enjoy a high retention rate of customers.

Simplifying information for operational staff and clients was crucial, as this was changing minute by minute and also by the hour during the crisis.

From airlines, hotels and car suppliers to country borders being open or closed, all this needed to be monitored to ensure we could help instantly and also assist clients forecast necessary changes and implement actions to safeguard their travellers.

Data for our customers was crucial. Clients wanted to know which countries their travellers had visited two to three weeks previously that were high risk markets for example, which employees they had travelling currently and those going within 24

hours and beyond.

Alongside this, the importance and value of the FCM Account Manager has surged, the ability to re-negotiate industry supplier contracts and consult on travel policies has been valued as a key role in cost saving strategies.

Communication with our own people during the pandemic has been vital. They have seen the industry crumble over the last several months and witness colleagues in travel agencies, their customers, airlines, hotels and others face redundancy.

Thus, the reassurance and appreciation of our people during this pandemic faced with the uncertainty of the future has been an ongoing contention.

Over the last five years FCM’s investment in technology has been consistent for not only people working within the business but also for our customers. By continuing to focus on streamlining the operational process and automating as much as possible we can enhance the FCM consultants service to the client.

A groundbreaking and innovative part of our global travel management company is the FCM Lab.

FCM Lab is powered by an extensive global team of in-house progressive tech developers, UX and UI specialists and travel experts who are given the time and space to identify the gaps where technology can make a tangible difference to our customers.

We’re excited about our AI journey at FCM and this year we enhanced our reporting capabilities. Designed to provide a more robust and customer-centric experience for travel managers, the FCM AI Reporting Tool offers a unique way to visualise data simply by posing a question using natural language.

With FCM’s new AI Reporting Tool, clients can easily search, sort and visualise their data to identify savings opportunities, establish informed sourcing strategies, or quickly find statistics needed to respond to a critical incident.

As a result of COVID-19, more and more companies are keen to review their travel policies, or introduce a policy and even benchmark what other customers best practises are to address duty of care and maximise their budgets.

In November 2020 we launched our Travel Policy Benchmarking tool and again 2021 will bring more enhancements to this fantastic intel that customers can benefit from.

FCM’s focus in 2021 will be one of a consultative approach with our existing customers. It will be essential to keep them informed on uptodate information that’s relevant to their travel program and at the same time enhance cost saving opportunities that may not have been a priority preCOVID-19.

We’ve also ended 2020 on securing over $1bn in contracts with new customers across various sectors. We will continue to position FCM as a solution focussed alternative travel management company and shake up the industry in 2021.

While all businesses are being impacted by the same pandemic, the fallout across different industry groups and geographic locations is varied. It is clear that uncertainty will remain for some time, however companies that can adapt more quickly to the new business models post COVID-19 will be well positioned to get back to business sooner.

Business models will be made up of a combination of the virtual world, more companies extending working from home policies, WFH, a reduction in spending on office space, coupled with the traditional face to face world we have all been accustomed to prepandemic.

Our industry however also has an important role to play itself to boost the confidence of our clients and their travellers. We need to be able to reassure them that face-to-face meetings are safe, equip them with the necessary support, information, technology and protocols which will instil trust and stability.