Miss your flight? Lost your ticket? Need to change hotels last minute? All these challenges might normally be cause for concern. That is, unless you have Reed & Mackay on your side. A trusted name in travel management for over 60 years, Reed & Mackay is one of the U.K.’s leading providers of corporate travel services. Originally serving clients in professional services sectors — such as insurance, law, and finance — they’ve built a reputation for delivering top-tier, personalized service to those with the highest expectations. Over the last decade, they’ve expanded their global reach, branching out to serve diverse sectors that include fashion, media, retail, technology, and the energy and marine industries.
In 2021, Reed & Mackay was acquired by Navan, a strategic move that aligned with the company’s ongoing investment in technology and global expansion. As they continue to grow, the collaboration between operations and tech teams, as well as the use of solutions like Front, has become essential for maintaining Reed & Mackay’s reputation for exceptional service.
“Front empowers Reed & Mackay’s teams with the tools they need to stay organized, streamline workflows, and improve collaboration across departments, ultimately supporting our mission to provide the highest level of service to our clients, wherever they are,” says Global Operations Director Tony Peckham.
Challenges
Managing multiple inboxes slows down personalized service
Reed & Mackay’s reputation was built on providing premium service, with each client assigned a unique contact point and backup consultant (should their primary contact be unavailable). “We offer a true partnership from day one. Our consultants provide a dedicated and customized service rather than dropping our clients into a generic pool of consultants,” says Tony.
However, before Front, the internal process was far from smooth. Each consultant had to log into multiple Outlook inboxes, tasked with managing their own client’s communications along with those of backup accounts. Managers, in turn, were forced to juggle all these inboxes, creating a cumbersome system that slowed everything down.
The one-size-fits-all approach clashed with the bespoke service model Reed & Mackay built their name on. The old process simply couldn’t support the tailored, high-touch interactions that were expected by their discerning clients, leaving a noticeable gap in their service delivery. “Outlook was one-dimensional, and this inefficiency drove us to rethink how we delivered service,” says Tony.
Fragile systems under pressure as travel volume rises
The reliance on Outlook wasn’t just inconvenient; it was risky. As the volume of communications increased, especially after the rapid travel rebound post-COVID, the system was stretched to its limits. Tony recalls a warning from their previous CIO: “The way we’re working, Outlook is bound to crash eventually,” they said. The operational fragility set the stage for an inevitable crisis, and they needed a more robust system that could handle peak loads without jeopardizing service quality.
Lack of transparency in service metrics stifles growth
In today’s market, clients expect more than just service — they expect measurable performance. “Clients demanded clear metrics: how fast responses were, key performance indicators, and other statistics on how their business was being managed,” says Tony.
As demand surged after COVID-19, this was especially apparent, and Reed & Mackay felt the pressure to perform at a more efficient pace. Their existing processes, already stretched thin, were further strained by rapid growth. With the stakes higher than ever, they needed to invest in a solution that could scale effortlessly with their global expansion.
Front enabled us to transition from a one-dimensional Outlook email setup to a more dynamic platform with internal and external functionalities that we previously lacked. As a result, it is now integral to our operations, helping us maintain our position as the trusted leader in the TMC space, serving clients across the globe.
Solutions
Threaded emails enable organized productivity
Post-COVID, Reed & Mackay faced one of their most challenging periods: Seemingly overnight, travel demand surged, overwhelming their limited staff and causing service levels to drop. With no way to effectively manage inboxes or prioritize issues, their existing tools fell short. “That’s when we decided to go with Front — and I’m really glad we did,” says Tony.
Before, when a customer request came in, the conversation used to balloon into a sea of disjointed messages. Now, all related emails — sometimes 20 or more for one booking — are neatly organized into a single thread. Instead of sifting through a 100-message inbox, team members see a concise, coherent conversation. “Email threading has massively increased our productivity,” says Operations Director Tanya Michaud. “Right from the start, this streamlined workflow was such a huge advantage.”
Analytics drive transparency and improve performance
With Front analytics, Reed & Mackay have unlocked a whole new world of metrics that allow them to optimize performance, improve the user experience, and retain customers. “Front analytics have been game-changing,” says Tony. “We would have lost so many clients if we had not gone down this route.”
In one case, a smaller client complained about response times. Reed & Mackay serve both large and small clients, and Tony suspected the delay was due to the larger client’s urgent demands overshadowing the smaller one’s needs. By using Front’s analytics, Tony uncovered an important insight: The small client’s team wasn’t active during regular business hours and then batch sent all their requests at the end of the work day. In Outlook, such trends went unnoticed, but Front provided clear data showing that these complex, last-minute inquiries were resulting in slower response times. With this insight, the team was able to address the issue directly and help the client adjust their booking practices for better service.
“Analytics not only help us meet client SLAs, they also empower our managers and team leaders to drill down into team performance,” says Tanya. “They can identify peak times for specific clients, see which consultants respond more quickly, and analyze the types of emails being handled. This level of insight was impossible with Outlook.”
Small improvements make a big difference
Before switching systems, the team dealt with a long list of daily inefficiencies that slowed them down. “Front was definitely transformative, especially on the tech side,” says Bernard Attoh, IT Infrastructure and Technical Services Engineer.
Something as basic as updating email signatures used to involve sending out a company-wide policy asking every employee to manually make changes. “With Front, we simply alter one signature template that automatically pulls in users’ names, job titles, and other details,” Bernard explained. That alone saves time and ensures consistency.
Managing mailbox access was another pain point. “In the old Outlook days, adding a new mailbox was a tedious, 15-minute ordeal,” says Bernard. Now, we can grant or remove access in seconds, allowing teams to hit the ground running. “It makes such a difference,” adds Tony. These quick changes empower managers with more control and keep consultants in the loop without the admin headaches.
We’re excited about the future as we collaborate to further enhance Front’s capabilities, which will continue to drive our commitment to service.
Results
Driving business by surpassing internal and industry benchmarks
Thanks to the collaboration and workflow efficiencies unlocked by Front, the Reed & Mackay team has witnessed average productivity increase by a whopping 43% since they first implemented the platform. “We’ve introduced many efficiencies across our operational teams,” shares Tanya, “and the transition to Front has played a significant role in our productivity improvement.”
In fact, despite the rigorous expectations of their clients, the team’s average email response times are well within the SLAs for their clients, explains Tanya. “We normally exceed our client SLA’s by an average of 50%.” The impact is obvious: Reed & Mackay achieved a phenomenal 97% customer satisfaction score (CSAT) in 2024, well above the 89% benchmark for the travel industry. "Being able to report on these figures is wonderful and really showcases our commitment to providing a high-end service to both new and existing clients," says Tanya.
Before Front, we struggled to demonstrate our impressive metrics to our clients. Now that we can provide this information, it truly helps us win and retain business.
Finding a collaborative partner in success
From a technical perspective, the shift away from Outlook made a noticeable impact on Reed & Mackay’s support demands. The team used to rely heavily on tech support just to keep things running smoothly. With Front in place, that need has dropped significantly.
Beyond its core functionalities, Front stands out for its collaborative spirit. Teams can resolve conversations together, aggregate and route messages seamlessly, and even use tags for efficient triaging, which is especially useful for the out-of-hours team.
Collaborative features like comments and shared drafts don’t only benefit the customers with faster replies, they’re also valuable tools for employee growth. “Our managers and team leaders are able to monitor and provide real-time feedback to our consultants on team and individual performance,” shares Tanya. “This allows us to develop and coach our consultants to be the best they can be.”
Partnership extends outside of the platform too. “I also love how Front is open to our ideas,” says Tanya. “It’s so refreshing to work with a company that’s willing to work with us on solutions. Because we work so closely with the team at Front, we’re able to work together and leverage new innovation quickly to further enhance our service offering.” Whether it’s integrating with third-party apps or refining processes based on real feedback, Front continuously adapts to the needs of Reed & Mackay’s teams.
