The Salvation Army Case Study
The Salvation Army is a world-famous and uniquely structured Christian organization that targets the social betterment of the poor, with over 14,500 churches and 110,000 members across 128 countries. Founded in 1865, the organization delivers addiction rehabilitation, emergency and crisis response, community development and educational programs worldwide.
Client Obstacles
1. Requirement for insightful Management Information
The Senior Management Team at the Salvation Army International headquarters needed to develop their Management Information reporting to achieve a clear view of worldwide staff and worker travel statistics. This was necessary to improve risk analysis, identify travel trends and cost-saving opportunities and ultimately ensure that all travel requests could be executed seamlessly and efficiently.
2. Consistent support needed
The Salvation Army were also looking for a Travel Management Company (TMC) who could handle
bookings with the same care and detail as their inhouse agency, delivering 24/7 expert advice, support and travel alerts.
3. Lack of dedicated travel team
Due to the demanding scale of the organization’s operations, they required a personalized service and
dedicated travel management team that could bring to their attention the special rates and offers that
they were eligible for, saving money on their overall travel spend.
The Salvation Army also required a TMC that could empower them with informed, objective and practical recommendations for improvements across their travel booking processes.
Diversity Travel's solution
1. Management Information reporting system
Following an initial consultation, Diversity Travel presented a complete profile of The Salvation
Army’s traveler behavior and spend by consolidating existing data via our sophisticated,
real-time Management Information reporting system.
These results gave invaluable, tailored insight into the specific problem areas that the organization
wanted to prioritize, quickly identifying opportunities to save money and improve both travel policy
compliance and duty of care obligations. Following this initial capture and presentation of The
Salvation Army’s travel, Diversity Travel have been able to continuously provide a consolidated view
of travel behavior and spend by combining all of the organization’s travel data in one central location.
The Salvation Army International headquarters have successfully achieved full visibility of their travel
spend.
2. 24/7 support
A member of the Diversity Travel team is available 24/7 365 days a year, assuring peace of mind for
bookers and travelers alike. The Salvation Army International also have a global overview of their travelers with live-location data, direct messaging capabilities, travel data for every booking and instant travel alerts to advise workers of emergencies and potential dangers. In providing these services, all communications to and from Salvation Army travelers are logged and can be used to demonstrate compliance with duty of care obligations.
3. Assigned a dedicated team
For day-to-day travel requirements, we assign a committed team to each of our clients, each named after a different tree. These provide expert advice and a full travel management service tailored to each client’s specific needs. The Willow Team were assigned to the Salvation Army, delivering accurate and up-to-date quotes, and sourcing and presenting various travel options to cater for the organization’s complex and varied route requirements.
Since then, new processes and systems have been implemented in order to further improve efficiency
and maximize cost savings. The Salvation Army utilize our exclusive air fares, discounted hotel rates, expert visa services, travel consultancy and program analysis to achieve added value through their entire travel process
Diversity Travel arranged for 1,480 delegates from 76 different countries to travel to London to celebrate The Salvation Army’s 150th anniversary at their International Congress. Though fares are normally only available up to 11 months before travel, Diversity Travel negotiated a special deal with airlines, securing group rates more than a year in advance, before the flights went on general sale.
This instance alone resulted in 16.7% of savings amounting to £30,480.
Conclusion
Due to the wealth of improvements and services introduced and implemented by Diversity Travel, all
world office bookings are now made through The Salvation Army’s UK office. This has resulted in an
increase in travel and hotel booking effectiveness and in 2017, 54% of flights booked were on special
humanitarian or negotiated fares, leading to significant savings.
Diversity Travel’s ability to provide a personalized service and dedicated travel management team means that a member of the team is there to respond quickly at all times of the day, using their knowledge and expertise to resolve any issues or provide support to travelers.
The Salvation Army continue to have access to an extensive range of singular and group travel options and receive stress-free customer service with a genuine company-wide passion for their cause.