The survey focused on travel policy awareness and compliance, what is important to clients when booking travel, their service experience, preferred booking methods and future travel booking volumes.

The survey received a record number of responses with over 1200 clients choosing to share their views with us. Below is a summary of the 2009 Annual Customer Survey results, along with some comparisons to the results obtained in 2008.

79% of clients surveyed in 2009 said they knew their organisations travel policy compared to 72% in 2008, closing the gap of those that didn’t know their travel policy by 7%.

A staggering 97% of respondents who knew their travel policy answered that they understood its contents and how it applied to them, up 10% from the 87% in 2009.

The number of respondents who knew their travel policy and reported to ‘always’ follow their travel policy has also increased by 10% from 79% in 2008 to 89% in 2009.

Key Travel believes these shifts have been achieved through a combination of factors, namely, the financial climate which has led to a trend in organisations more closely enforcing buying policies and Key Travel’s own drive to communicate to our clients the importance of travel policy development and mandation, in the pursuit of reducing travel expenditure.

When asked to rank the most important service factors when making a booking/enquiry, ‘the range and value of quotes and options offered’ ranked top compared with 2008, when ‘speed with which your enquiry is handled’ came out on top. Another indicator of the shift in priorities as a reaction to the economic climate.

Over 90% of clients said that service levels have either ‘improved’ or ‘stayed the same’ during 2009, a great result when considered alongside the operational, process and structural developments Key Travel facilitated during the same year.

We are pleased to state that on average 90% of clients surveyed classified us as ‘friendly’, ‘efficient’, ‘helpful’, ‘professional’, and ‘knowledgeable’ either all or most of the time.

When asked about their booking preferences, 48% of clients stated that they preferred to book travel directly with a travel consultant over the phone, with 42% preferring to make enquiries via email and 10% favouring online. This reflects the complex nature of many of our clients’ requirements that often cannot be effectively fulfilled online.

Encouragingly 27% of clients surveyed said that they expected the amount of travel they booked over the next 12 months to increase, with another 66% expecting it to stay the same, and only 7% expecting it to decrease.

In a new addition to the survey we asked our clients to inform us of the one key thing they would like us to focus on over the next 12 months, and they said price. In light of the current economic climate it is not surprising that our clients are looking to achieve greater savings, so we will continue to work closely with our suppliers to negotiate even better deals which translate into even better value options.