Contracting for Travel Services allows the government to solicit for a company under contract with an agency to arrange travel services for Federal employees on official travel, including tickets and transportation, and reservation of accommodations. Until recently what has been the challenge with most agencies contracting for services is getting the same standard of service at all facilities.
Most of the Central Travel Office (CTO)’s have provided good customer service, the challenge has been getting the same standard for all CTO’s. Some of the anomalies that existed were the variances across a broad spectrum. Problem area of customer service included: the number of times the phone would ring before it was answered; how long a caller would be on hold; how long after a agent said they would call back until the traveler actually received the call back, and how many agents per number of travelers, or volume of business that had to be attached to each CTO.
The General Services Administration 599-2, Travel Agent Services/Travel Management Center Services Statement of Work does not specifically address customer service issues. Consequently, the service member who experiences poor customer service is the one that suffers.
This year the Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO) has selected eight vendors for World Wide CTO contracts, and seven task orders have been issued to date. The task orders do address customer service concerns.
By: G. W. McCurtis