Business travel can be stressful enough without communication issues, making it even harder. Business travelers have to deal with navigating crowded airports, flight problems, last-minute scheduling changes, and being disconnected from the office.
Smooth and real-time communication is essential to make corporate travel easier and help employees stay productive on the road.
Luckily, tools like Planiversity provide the real-time messaging travelers need. Our unified platform centralizes communication so employees stay connected, informed, and productive anywhere.
Here are five key ways real-time messaging apps benefit and empower business travelers through better communication:
Quick Coordination with Colleagues
Business travelers will inevitably need to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate with colleagues back at the office throughout a work trip.
Whether it's checking in regarding arrival times, providing updates from client meetings, or confirming conference calls, messaging apps enable quick check-ins that keep everyone aligned.
Through direct messages or group channels, employees can post questions, share files, and get fast answers no matter where they are. Meetings can easily be arranged or rescheduled on the fly as plans change. This is much faster than playing email tag or leaving voicemails.
Messaging allows real-time discussion so travelers stay connected and workflows continue uninterrupted.
Get Help Booking Last-Minute Changes
Despite the most carefully laid travel plans, unexpected schedule changes, flight delays, and cancellations, or emergencies can still arise while employees are on the road.
When this happens, travelers need to be able to make quick adjustments and communicate their needs immediately.
With messaging apps, travelers can instantly reach out for help from assistants, admins, or the travel booking team back home. If flights get canceled at the last minute, the traveler can message colleagues to rebook tickets, hotel stays, transportation, or other arrangements.
If a meeting location changes while already onsite, the employee can get help with quick navigational assistance.
Instant messaging takes the panic out of emergency rebooking, rerouting, and rescheduling. Travelers aren't left stranded and stressed. The ability to get real-time help minimizes any disruption.
Stay Updated on Events Back Home
One downside of business travel is that it can make employees feel disconnected or "out of the loop" from happenings at the home office. Missing meetings, conversations, and daily interactions can leave travelers feeling isolated and disadvantaged.
Messaging apps bridge this communication gap to keep employees in the know, even when they're on the road. Coworkers can provide quick updates on major projects, organizational announcements, personnel changes, and more through direct messages or a relevant group chat.
This ensures travelers don't return utterly unaware of critical events that happened while they were away. Ongoing messaging helps them feel connected and part of the team.
Immediate Communication with Clients/Contacts
Responsiveness is key when traveling for client meetings, conferences, or other external engagements. Delayed communication looks unprofessional and loses business.
Messaging apps allow real-time outreach so travelers can promptly respond to clients, customers, and contacts while in transit or across time zones.
Messaging also opens new sales opportunities through quick follow-up after meetings. Travelers can continue conversations started in person by easily sharing documents, pricing, or additional details via messaging right away while things are still fresh.
The ability to message and exchange information quickly nurtures relationships and deals whether travelers are dispatched locally or globally.
Ongoing real-time communication leaves the right impression on clients.
Alerts if Things Go Wrong
Unanticipated travel emergencies like flight delays, baggage issues, local transportation problems, or health crises can still pop up despite the best precautions. In serious situations like these, quick communication is critical.
Messaging apps allow real-time alerts to get the fast assistance needed in any scenario. Travelers can message HR if they end up hospitalized in a foreign country to trigger emergency contacts and medical aid back home.
Alerts can summon local help for lost passport replacement, etc.
Likewise, critical travel updates can be urgently pushed through messaging if needed. For example, if flights get suddenly grounded overseas, employees can be quickly notified and given contingency plans.
Dangerous conditions, weather delays, and last-minute cancellations can be communicated in real-time.
The ability to message urgently in emergencies provides a lifeline for employee safety, quick resolution, and damage control when things go wrong remotely.
The Planiversity Solution
Planiversity streamlines communication through integrated messaging so business travelers stay seamlessly connected, informed, and productive on the road.
Our unified platform alleviates the communication pain points of business travel. Stop wrestling with delayed responses and disjointed collaboration.
Sign up now to transform the way your remote teams communicate.
Once you try Planiversity's real-time messaging for yourself, you'll wonder how your business survived this long without it.