Why More Travel Managers Still Aren’t Offering Text Messaging — in 2019
Photo Credit: A business traveler uses her smartphone. American Express Global Business Travel announced a partnership with Apple Business Chat in November. It's one of the first major travel management companies to incorporate text messaging into its core offerings. Flickr / sinkdd
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When it comes to tech, most travel management companies have focused on improving the user interface or putting in more automated features. Instant messaging hasn’t been high on the list, but thankfully that’s starting to change.
Instant messaging is now a huge part of people’s everyday lives, but corporate travel has been slow to catch up.
American Express Global Business Travel became one of the first major travel management companies to incorporate text messaging into its core offerings after announcing its partnership with Apple Business Chat in November. Starting now, American Express GBT customers will be able to text in real-time with actual travel counselors. The service more closely mimics the way travelers communicate with peers, and even sometimes colleagues, making it an easy sell to clients.
“While it'd be great to have our own business chat, we have a large percentage of our corporate travelers who are using iOS devices,” said Mark McSpadden, vice president of global product strategy for American Express Global Business Travel. “So we saw an opportunity to more quickly bring this functionality to them,”
Smartphones are ubiquitous, especially among the business crowd, and it onl
