In-Person Meetings Still Critical For Sales And Customer-Facing Teams, Travel Managers Say
Zoom won’t keep sales teams off the road, according to new research from Emburse, a global leader in expense and AP automation solutions.
“The pandemic shutdown gave companies the opportunity to think more intentionally about how and why they travel”
Emburse today released the first installment of The Remaking of Business Travel, new research that explores the nature of business trips post-pandemic.
According to a survey of travel managers in the U.S. and Canada, more than half of all respondents (fifty-three percent) anticipate the level of travel for sales and customer-facing teams to be the same as it was pre-pandemic within 2021. A further eight percent expect it to actually exceed pre-pandemic levels. Sixty-five percent expect travel for executive and board meetings to hit pre-pandemic levels.
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However, trips unrelated to revenue generation are likely to diminish post-Covid. More than six in ten respondents anticipate that travel for both internal meetings (for training and team-building) and conferences/trade shows will decline below previous levels.
The study explored not only why we’ll travel, but also who will be making those trips. Sixty-five percent of travel managers plan to implement tighter policies by role and thirty-eight percent will limit travel to senior employees. Eighty-six percent say having a distributed workforce won’t increase the number of employees on the road, despite around five percent of the country having moved because of the pandemic, especially from coastal business hubs like Manhattan and San Francisco.
Those who travel can look forward to higher quality experiences, with an emphasis on safety. Almost unanimously, respondents ranked “duty of care” among the most important issues for business travel programs, even above cost control. Another seventy-five percent listed “employee satisfaction” as a top priority. How will travel managers ensure that satisfaction? One in two pledge to provide more positive travel experiences, and one in three aim to keep trips shorter.
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“The pandemic shutdown gave companies the opportunity to think more intentionally about how and why they travel,” said Eric Friedrichsen, CEO of Emburse. “Many organizations are re-imagining business travel as an extension of their brand: they want to create safe, seamless experiences for their employees to show they support their well-being, while underlining their commitment to customers with face-to-face time. Video meetings will still take place, but this research shows that, for high-value interactions, there’s no substitute for in-person. With a looming talent shortage, it’s likely that companies will look for ways to strengthen employee relationships and internal meetings will start to be seen as equally high-value too.”
