In November 2015, Paris was targeted by a series of terrorist attacks that initiated a state of emergency and created substantial impact in France, across Europe, and the globe. And as a Travel Management Company (TMC), our customers—and their travelers—always come first.  Part of our mission is to provide exceptional traveler care and we instinctively knew we had to make sure our customer’s travelers were safe.

Crisis management is a critical component to our front line servicing. An event as impactful as the Paris attacks means we have to be more than prepared to help our customers.

We have emergency processes in place to instantly respond to a crisis. Our Global Service Delivery organization increases staffing levels in all regions to handle the large volume of inquiries. All trained customer service team members that can help, do, including working extra hours to handle all of the inquiries. Additionally, we send our customers crisis messages that detail the level of impact it has on travel plans and employee safety.

On November 14, our customer servicing teams put in long hours to provide services to travelers impacted by the attacks. When customers called, our teams located travelers and provided guidance on their welfare and safety. Our travel counselors, as well as our Joint Ventures and Travel Partner Network helped accommodate travelers around the clock.

Our crisis management didn’t end after that weekend. We made sure customers who had travelers with future plans in Paris were adequately prepared. Since there was a travel ban in Paris, we worked with travelers and adjusted their itineraries to alternate airports or other means of transportation. We had to work with numerous cancellations, but in the end, we still made sure travelers got to where they needed to be – even faster than planned.