San Churro is a hit local food chain in Australia that offers a taste of authentic Spanish cuisine.
With over 50 stores country wide, San Churro makes sure that their recipes stay true to traditional dishes while adding their own spin and variations.
Given the distance from each store, the company needs efficient corporate travel to succeed in its operations.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, their usual processes faced various issues — primarily in safety and logistics.
They needed to adapt to the new safety guidelines and travel barriers with a new business model — something accessible online, easy to use, and cost-effective.
That’s when they saw Locomote as the perfect solution that suited their needs.
Why Is Corporate Travel Important for San Churro
A corporate travel management system is essential for any business, especially ones that have multiple locations all over the country. San Churro, in particular, needed to change from their previous provider to a more technology advanced agency.
It was easier to use for travellers and had an all-in-one system that streamlined their processes. So why is corporate travel important for the restaurant chain?
Ingredient Sourcing
San Churro takes pride in using the highest-quality ingredients sourced from local farms and producers. It’s not just ingredients that are used for their churros.
They also have other selections on their menu that require items like fruits, jelly pearls, and dairy.
Sourcing these ingredients means connecting with new suppliers and maintaining partnerships with current ones.
Traveling to their locations and making meaningful interactions is part of their relationship-building process.
Franchising
Australia is vast, and many people from far-flung places want their own taste of authentic Spanish sweets.
That’s why San Churro is always looking for new ways and places to expand. There are many business and property owners who want to open and manage their own branch of the restaurant.
To reach them and start the process, San Churro needs to send staff who can start negotiations, streamline plans, and provide support.
An efficient travel system is needed for this process.
Regular Site Visits
Existing San Churro franchises need an occasional visit from the corporate staff for regular assessments and check-ins.
San Churro maintains a certain branding and atmosphere that attracts customers, and their branches need to have the same enthusiasm and festive mood envisioned during the company’s establishment.
By visiting sites, the company can ensure that this culture is maintained.
However, there are more than 50 branches today, so efficient travel is needed to cover all of them.
Challenges Met
Corporate travel changed for San Churros and the rest of the world when the pandemic hit, so old systems weren’t as reliable as before.
They encountered many issues such as the following:
Poor Customer Service
As new guidelines and protocols were established, many travellers were left with little information and many questions.
Their staff had faced challenges along the way, increasing their dependence on customer service for answers and assistance.
Decentralised Process
San Churro’s old travel management system had staff looking for information everywhere.
There wasn’t a single system or resource where they could get details such as booking schedules or flight details.
Because of this, there were many chances for errors and process inefficiencies. This also increased dependence on a few people who managed booking data for everyone.
San Churro needed a tool where everything is in one place, so that our team wouldn’t need to research details or contact other people for their itineraries.
Hard-to-track Expenses
Corporate travel can be costly, so it’s important for a company like San Churro to track expenses and see where the funding is going.
However, the decentralized structure of their pre-pandemic system made expenses disorganized and hard to track.
Thus, reports were inefficient, and their finance staff had to make a lot of adjustments to create accurate reports. Travel has become an increasingly challenging process for everybody.
Limited Safety Measures
Even before the pandemic, most travel management tools didn’t have even the most basic safety features to ensure that every traveler is secure.
This issue was put into the spotlight during the pandemic since safety protocols are now in place. San Churro wanted a new system that provides information about the most recent health updates and guidelines of cities and destinations.
With the information, their staff can make security and health adjustments beforehand.
Expensive Process
When a corporate travel system is inefficient, it can lead to increased expenses on San Churro’s end. Re-bookings and other travel issues add up to the costs and result in wasted resources.
That’s why San Churro wants a tool where they can easily track every spending so that they can be sure that funding is going to the right places.
How Locomote Changed the Game
Locomote is tailored for a digital, post-pandemic world. We’ve designed our system to make the challenges faced by San Churro and other businesses a thing of the past.
See how we’ve helped their company below:
Better Customer Service
The hospitality and travel industry is still in a volatile state after the effects of the pandemic.
That’s why canceled bookings and unavailable rooms or seats are still common.
Thankfully, Locomote can help when travellers face these situations.
When they notify us through chat for a hotel that’s not available, we’ll find a room that they can use.
We are also available 24/7 to provide support and information for inquiries regarding their travel and itinerary.
All-in-one System
“Travel had been reduced to nil due to Covid, but [I’m] anticipating it to come back. I didn't want something that required lots of manual workarounds,” says Jacquie.
Thankfully, she found the ideal solution with Locomote.
Thanks to its all-in-one system, everything is done on the program.
There’s no need for manual workarounds and other unnecessary adjustments since the app will do the changes for San Churro.
Streamlined Reporting
Another benefit of Locomote’s travel platform is streamlined reporting.
Since everything is logged into the program, San Churro was able to simply take the details from it and create a comprehensive report for corporate travel expenses.
With our platform, their finance team can easily reach everything at their fingertips.
Updated Safety Measures
Our platform doesn’t just manage corporate travel plans but also provides additional information related to safety during the pandemic.
San Churro’s travellers depend on our platform for COVID-19 announcements, local guidelines, transmission levels, and travel restrictions.
This way, they can make adjustments beforehand and enhance safety measures for everyone’s protection. It’s one of the most practical and relevant innovations on our platform.
Feedback for Locomote
Making a change in the pandemic has not been an easy process for San Churro, especially for their corporate travel operations.
The new protocols and safety procedures have made travel more complex while severely hampering hands-on management by concerned departments.
Thankfully, Locomote swooped in to lend a hand. With our platform's speedy and intuitive features, easy-to-learn processes, and centralized system, San Churro was able to make their corporate travel plans an easy and cost-efficient process.
Take Advantage of Our System
Like San Churro, your company can get immense benefits from our travel management system. To learn more about the application and how it can help your company, get in touch with our team today.
