By Wrisney Tan
FOLLOWING the acquisition and complete integration of Rosenbluth into its operations, customers of American Express Business Travel (AXP) can look forward to more standardisation in its client servicing and more resources being invested in its sales and account management team in the Asia-Pacific.
The marketing campaign to promote the new entity, whose former name before the integration was American Express Corporate Services (see BTN Asia-Pacific September/ October 2004), will also be launched by the second quarter of this year.
Details about the campaign are still being finalised but AXP will be spending its money on tactical opportunities and trade advertising to increase awareness about the brand.
The company plans to leverage on its experience in the more forward markets where it operates and combine best practices in service delivery to come up with a set of standards that will be introduced throughout its network.
This could mean more of the "cookie cutter" approach it is often accused of taking by its competitors - of being mechanical and the same in every market, and not providing personalised service.
But AXP vice-president operations, Japan, Asia-Pacific and Australia, Mr Andy Aitkenhead, argues that standardisation is not a bad thing.
"Because of the number of customer programmes that we have, standardisation is good as the cost savings from having it are far greater than not having it. There is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach for individual customers but standardisation, especially for simple processes, is necessary for those who want the best possible price. When increased customisation is required, we can provide it. But for customers who want total customisation, they have to understand it does not come cheap."
"I don't see it as a negative thing. Standardisation means that we are taking the best practice in one market and applying it in others that do not have it. It gives us the ability to monitor the quality of our service across the Asia-Pacific region but what is important is we are able to adapt to cultural differences, recognise local nuances and have the flexibility to meet customer needs."
"At the end of the day it is up to the customer to find the balance between how much customisation and standardisation they want. Customers who use the online booking tool heavily have minimal human contact but they like it that way because it comes very cheap. There is a need for us to provide the same level of service everywhere because our global customers want to receive the same standard in every market where we serve," Mr Aitkenhead said.
AXP will also be launching a new online booking tool, which has already been introduced to the Australian market, in Singapore this year. The company has taken the best of what Rosenbluth had to offer and combined it with its own offerings to come up with its existing suite of products.
AXP's volume in ticketed sales in Japan, Asia-Pacific and Australia is above US$1 billion on an annualised basis and "growing in double digits".
Mr Aitkenhead said: "2004 was a very good year for us across the region in all the markets. There was relatively strong growth especially in China and India. We see a growing maturity in the understanding of managing T&E expenses across the region."
