In the business world, every business trip is crucial, and peace of mind is priceless. Organizing business trips often feels like a complex logistical operation, rife with hidden costs. So how can you take full control of this process and feel secure? To find the answer, we'll go behind the scenes at WorkTrips and talk to Anna Redzińska. As Head of Onboarding & Customer Success, she ensures our partners feel fully supported during the onboarding phase and throughout their collaboration.

 

Paulina: In your experience, business travel in companies is often a complex and quite expensive process. Where do hidden costs and operational problems most often arise in organizations that manage this area traditionally?

Anna: I've been involved in the business travel industry for years and have worked with numerous companies from various sectors. Through numerous observations and conversations, I've recognized the common challenges companies face when it comes to managing business travel.

The first noticeable problem is the chaos in business travel documentation caused by the manual organization of business trips. If several people regularly travel within a company, we're faced with a whole avalanche of invoices for hotels, tickets, in-destination transportation, and additional services. When an organization lacks a centralized process, employees often struggle to gather accurate expense documentation, turning business trip settlement into a time-consuming and frustrating process.

The second major issue concerns expense control. Even if a company has a written travel policy, enforcing it can be problematic. Employees often book transportation and hotels independently, frequently overpaying or opting for unconventional solutions. Therefore, it's crucial to organize this process effectively.

 

Paulina: As you mentioned, many companies still try to manage business travel internally, often outsourcing this task to assistants, administrators, HR staff, or office managers. From your expert perspective, what problems does this approach cause?

Anna: Indeed, in most companies, business travel is often organized by executive assistants or office managers, for whom it's just one of many daily tasks. Communication with traveling employees involves numerous arrangements to reconcile their preferences with available transportation options or overnight stays. Ultimately, time that could be devoted to other, more critical tasks is wasted. Furthermore, the manual planning process prevents the collection of reliable data, which often results in management receiving incomplete reports. This makes it more difficult to make necessary decisions regarding business travel and budget planning.

 

Paulina: What is the most common mistake that companies make when organizing business trips, and which one do we help solve from the first day of cooperation?

Anna: That's a difficult question, as there are many challenges, but if I had to point to one, it's the continued fear of new systems. That's why we've emphasized from the outset that we offer a hybrid package: a combination of technology and highly qualified human support. This ensures no one feels left alone with the technology. Another, equally common problem is the lack of a formal travel policy. Many organizations, especially smaller ones, don't have written policies regarding business trips. We help companies organize this process and create clear rules. When we combine this framework with the configurability of our system and the ongoing support of travel agents, the entire process of organizing business trips becomes very efficient.

 

Paulina: Let's move on to the practical side. We have a company considering entrusting us with their business travel. Please tell us how we can implement this organization. What does the entire process look like from the first contact with us? Both during the decision to collaborate and later, as we finalize all the details.

Anna: The most important thing for us is to understand the company's business travel processes. Before we make any recommendations, we conduct a detailed audit to identify key areas and those requiring improvement – from requesting a business trip, through booking, to final settlement of the travel expenses. This knowledge allows us to configure the worktrips.com platform to reflect best and even optimize existing processes. Our goal is for the platform's introduction as a business travel management tool to bring real benefits to the entire company and its employees. 

In the next step, the company receives a test version of the platform from us. This is a safe environment where employees can freely, without any financial consequences, test all functionalities and verify that the settings and options we propose are appropriate. At this stage, we also implement all policies, such as the company travel policy and budget limits. We also configure the user structure from traveling employees to administrators. The worktrips.com system allows for flexible permissions, ensuring that each person in the company has access to only the functions they need.

Of course, our collaboration doesn't end with implementation. We provide our clients with ongoing support on two key levels. First, a dedicated Implementation Department remains available to support clients through strategic changes, such as when a company modifies its travel policy over time, its business travel needs change, or new business challenges arise.

Secondly, our Customer Service Department is available 24/7/365 to assist with day-to-day operational matters. Regardless of time zone or holiday season, traveling employees can count on immediate support via live chat, available via the worktrips.com platform, email, and phone. We understand that not everything can be resolved with a one-size-fits-all approach. Therefore, where technology isn't enough, our travel agent is always available, ready to help with any situation, even the most unusual ones.

 

Paulina: How does our onboarding differ from the standard login data submission process? What does the training and platform launch process look like for a new client in practice?

Anna: Together with the client, we analyze the previously prepared ktrips.com work system configuration. We want to ensure that it fully reflects their processes and meets all expectations. Once everything is ready, we move on to training. Our approach segments the knowledge provided based on the employee's role within the company. Training for those who will only be booking business trips differs from that for management staff. We conduct separate, dedicated educational sessions for:

• traveling employees - providing knowledge in an accessible way on how to efficiently navigate the system and make reservations,
• about people accepting business trips - showing what the expenditure approval and control path looks like.
• main administrators - providing full knowledge on how to manage all settings of the worktrips.com platform.

I also want to emphasize that we give the client full autonomy in managing the system on an ongoing basis, but at the same time, we provide ongoing technical support. On the agreed date, we transition the system to production and send invitations to all users. This step is typically supported by internal communication within the client's company, where we provide personalized implementation materials, such as guides divided into sections for the administrator and for the traveling employee. We also prepare other dedicated materials, such as one-pagers, landing pages, and FAQs. We approach this process individually, tailoring everything to the specific needs of each company.

 

Paulina: Onboarding is behind us, and the employee is about to fly on his first business trip. The promise of 24/7/365 support sounds good in any offer. Tell us about a real-life scenario: a flight canceled in the middle of the night, lost luggage. How do we react then?

Anna: Our top priority is the safety of our employees on business trips. Unforeseen situations, such as A canceled flight, lost luggage, or a problem with a hotel reservation, are stressful. They also distract employees from the purpose of the business trip. Therefore, our task is to minimize this stress and resolve issues as quickly as possible. Travelers are connected to a fully operational travel agent who has full access to all booking data. This gives employees an immediate sense of being fully taken care of, allowing them to return to their tasks, confident that their problem is now in the hands of experts.

 

Paulina: During our recent conversation, you mentioned that clients often say that our system has freed up their time and given them inner peace. What, in your opinion, accounts for this feeling? Is it due to the worktrips.com platform itself, the support of travel agents, or perhaps our comprehensive approach, which adds a human touch to technology?

Anna: Our greatest strength is the synergy of cutting-edge technology with the irreplaceable human factor. We combine employee autonomy with full control over the organization of a business trip. Traveling employees can independently select an interesting offer, and the system constantly informs them whether it complies with travel policy. If the proposal exceeds established limits, it is automatically sent for approval to the supervisor, who can approve, reject, or send it back to the employee for changes. This solution significantly shortens the traditional process, which required multiple rounds of consultation. 

 

Paulina: Is there anything you would like to add at the end of our conversation?

Anna: Yes, I'd like to emphasize one thing that's incredibly important to us. Every company we work with is different and brings with it unique challenges and expectations. It's thanks to the companies we work with that we can continually develop. Our customers are our best partners in product development. Only through this close collaboration can we design new, truly useful features and continually improve our platform at workrips.com. We are incredibly grateful to them for this partnership and their trust.

 

Paulina: Great summary! Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me. It was a very interesting and inspiring conversation. I wish you all the best!

Anna: Thank you for inviting me!

  Request a demo