Northwestern Travel Management Sharpens Difference with Rival, 67th On-Site Location

MINNEAPOLIS -- In yet another step toward a growing divergence between two visions of travel agencies, Northwestern Travel Management recentlyd its 67th corporate on-site location, as cross-town mega-rival Carlson Wagonlit -- the nation's second largest travel agency -- announced plans to phase out of its on-sites.

"On-sites represent a profound difference," says Andrea Ritchie, president of Northwestern Travel Management. "In terms of customer service, you can move the 'server' farther from the customer or closer; you can tend toward low priced commodity service or fairly priced world-class service. On-sites move the human server as close to the customer as possible and raise service expectations to the highest possible level."

Over the years, going back to its first on-site experience, with Control Data, in 1976, Northwestern Travel Management has learned how to support and operate profitably the unique and complex operational issues for on-sites for companies with annual travel volumes between $400,000 and $15,000,000.

On-sites involve one or more agents working from the office(s) of a corporate client. Northwestern Travel Management's newest on-site location at Hormel Foods Corporation headquarters, Austin, MN, has two agents. Its largest on-site location, at Best Buy headquarters, Eden Prairie, MN, has ten agents. Some corporate clients have multiple on-site locations. For example, National Computer Systems, Inc. (NCS) has three; ADC Telecommunications has six. Northwestern Travel Management's 136 on-site agents work for 58 corporate clients, in 67 uniquely different locations around the country.

Support is the critical operation issue. "Support allows Northwestern Travel Management's on-site agents to provide the kind of consistent, quality service that all of our customers deserve," says Ritchie. Twenty-nine dedicated employees support the 136 on-site agents. Underscoring Northwestern Travel Management's commitment to its on-site strategy, the 165 on-site employees form their own division with its own building on the company's corporate campus.

Support roles:

• Floater -- Assists at any on-site location when there is vacation, sick, or training leave. Floaters are trained for locations with one or two agents. Based at Northwestern Travel Management's on-site headquarters.
• Back-up Team -- Takes rollover calls from on-site clients when agents are away from their desks for short breaks. Based at on-site headquarters.
• Group Coordinator -- Negotiates group travel airline contracts. Puts together group flight manifests and contract reports. Based at on-site headquarters.
• Technical Team -- Answers on-sites' technical and procedural questions. Trouble shoots on-site computer reservation system and phone system. Creates and updates systems to streamline client-agent workload. Based at Northwestern Travel Management corporate headquarters.
• Ticket Coordinator -- Processes all agent and auditor coupons, MCOs and exchanges. Based at on-site headquarters.
• Administrative Assistant -- Provides data processing work and office supplies from ticket stock to pencils. Based at on-site headquarters.
• Management -- Supports the on-site team with ten supervisors, one manager and one vice-president all of whom have previously worked as an on-site agent.

Features of on-sites include:

• Integration - Totally immersed into the client's corporate culture, an on-site agent becomes one of the gang, reads the client's employee newsletters, receives e-mail on the client's network, attends client's employee functions.
• Same person, same voice, better communication - Unlike reservation centers, on-sites allow travelers and travel arrangers to talk to the same agent each time.
• Control - Travel managers get to know their on-site agents at work and refine on-site's relationship with travelers, instantaneously for more effective policy compliance.
• Local people, local knowledge - On-site agents are often from the town where they work, whether it's in a headquarters or branch office, and possess local knowledge of the town's travel related issues, such as airport traffic and parking.
• Acquisition compliance, local presence - On-site agents located in a newly acquired company help travel managers effectively enforce travel policy on rogue employees.
• Client's customer service - On-site agents frequently arrange travel for client's with frequently visiting customers and associates.

In addition to its on-sites, Northwestern Travel Management operates five full service reservation centers in Minnesota and Wisconsin.