The results of the study published on Thursday by the VIP - Concierge department of American Express Business Travel lead to an initial observation: access to concierge services is still limited, but has recently been increasing. In fact, eight out of ten companies using such benefits have been doing so for 5 years or less, and even less than a year for half of them (47%). The trend is therefore recent, and also appears to be 'elitist', with nine out of ten companies indicating that fewer than 10 people in their workforce have access to the service: a figure which even falls to five people or less in 59% of cases.
The other finding of the study published by American Express concerns the use of the service: occasional use - 2 to 5 times for 81% of respondents - and focused on defined objectives. Access to made-to-measure services accounts for the majority of expectations (76% of cases), ahead of availability and responsiveness (68%), confidentiality (45%), reliability (44%) and speed of execution (34%). Once again, the safety of business travellers and anticipation of crisis situations appear to be crucial issues in the business travel sector: "almost a third of companies call on our department to address the issue of safety, which represents a crucial challenge for them" explains Catherine Hillenweck, Director of the VIP department at American Express Business Travel. "Faced with repeated natural and industrial disasters, companies are now operating in a particularly unstable political and economic context, exposing their employees to ever-greater risks," adds Catherine Hillenweck.
