When it comes to doing business, we’re in a new and exciting age: an age of disruption, an age of transformation, an age of acceleration and evolution. A new landscape is emerging from the shadows of the old, and the companies that will be best prepared to lead in the new world are the companies that have positioned themselves to adapt to this change.

In order to lead through change in the new climate, business owners will want to focus on three things:

Data: Data provides businesses with the information needed to stay nimble and respond to situations at pace, as well as to create personal and relevant experiences that customers have increasingly come to expect.

Resilience: Leaders should focus on building resilience, both in people and in technology.

Agility: Positioning a company to be agile and forward thinking is one of a leaders’ most important roles. Our research suggests that leaders are 14x more likely to embrace new ways of working. 

Using data to build an agile and resilient business is something that Key Travel knows well. Not only has the mission-driven organisation used digital platforms to get its clients to places of need around the world, it’s also used them to bring them home again, when the rest of the world was shutting down.

Managing crisis through care

Although industries around the globe have been challenged by recent events, perhaps none have been as drastically disrupted as the transportation, travel and hospitality industry. When crisis hit and flights were grounded, borders closed, trains cancelled and cruises stranded at sea, travel companies scrambled to cut through the chaos and stabilise their business: all while suddenly facing the extraordinary challenges of remote working. 

For Key Travel, a travel management company that simplifies travel complexity for the humanitarian, faith and education sectors, the biggest concern wasn’t managing future bookings and liquidity concerns; it was getting its customers home safely.

In the blink of an eye, Key Travel’s customers – doctors, medics, NGO leaders and teachers – found themselves stranded around the globe just when their communities needed them most. With the clock ticking, businesses across the world locking their doors, hospitals working overtime, and transportation options quickly dwindling towards nil, Key Travel turned to a solution it knew it could count on: Salesforce.

With the Salesforce platform, Key Travel could stay agile, pivot and solve complex, time-sensitive issues with efficiency and urgency. It was able to use its digital platforms to get a single view of its customers, helping to repatriate them under immense pressure.

According to Key Travel’s Group Chief Technology Officer, David Burns, the time saved was critical. “If we didn’t have the agility and information in Salesforce”, Burns says, “We couldn’t have made those decisions quickly enough. As a consequence, customers could have missed what was potentially the last plane out of that country”. 

Key Travel not only used Salesforce to bring its customers home; it used Salesforce to enable their employees to work remotely. In doing so, Key Travel found that the speed of transition to a home-based workforce was exceptional, as was recovering the workforce’s level of productivity.

Key Travel’s employees were able to turn their focus to customers in need – and there were many. In fact, Key Travel’s employees often found themselves functioning less like travel consultants and more like trusted personal advisors helping to address their customers’ concerns and issues. In this trying and critical time, and with a decentralised workforce spread across bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms, Key Travel was able to compassionately connect with its customers, ease their concerns and build lasting relationships.

What’s powering Key Travel?

When it comes to handling cases, Key Travel counts on Salesforce's Service Cloud to put its workers where they need to be, when they need to be there. Not only has Service Cloud improved the speed of Key Travel’s interactions, it has also improved the quality, as the organisation has been able to engage with customers in remote areas, in life-changing ways.

In the current moment, in the ‘New Normal’, in the ‘Next Normal’ and beyond, Salesforce will continue to make a difference for Key Travel, and the company will continue to make a difference in the lives of its customers.

To hear how Key Travel is simplifying travel complexities for their customers, view this Leading Through Change webinar. 

Or find out how workplace solutions can help propel transportation, travel and hospitality businesses towards a bright and better future at Work.com.