Celebrating 35 Years of Altair Global & 5 Years of Experience Management: Connections, Service Excellence & Innovation
From a deep-rooted culture embedded in connections to creating exceptional experiences, we reflect on how far our company has come since that first day back in 1989 with a dream and a card table.
When looking back on the past, one of the biggest reminders of a specific time or event lies in how it made you feel. Ask someone how they enjoyed their vacation, and they’ll likely tell you about the places they loved or the aspects they disliked. Experience—whether good or bad—shapes everything and is what people recall most when reflecting on significant moments.
It’s no secret that relocating is an experience all its own. Whether an individual is moving domestically a few hundred miles or internationally across time zones, their journey is filled with milestone moments from start to finish. With all its intricacies, it can be one of the most stressful events an employee may experience. And that’s where Altair Global comes in. For 35 years, Altair Global has focused on being the premier independent provider of mobility management services for corporations, ensuring that every relocation experience—no matter how complex—creates lasting, positive memories.
In 1989 on a card table in their garage, Bill and Gail Plummer started AmeriCorp Relocation Management, Inc. with a goal to simplify the relocation process for companies and their employees while delivering exemplary services. Bill built a reputation as an innovator in mobility and sought new solutions that catered to the evolving needs of clients and customers. Our guiding principles were “Aim high. Play it straight. Make it fun.”
As the company grew, so did our scope, and in 2005 we rebranded as Altair Global Relocation, a name inspired by the Altair star — the brightest within the Aquila constellation, symbolizing our guiding light in the world of global mobility. While our culture remains the same, with the branding came a new tagline, “We’ve Got it From Here,” which represented the reassurance to clients and customers alike that we would take the reins and handle the complexities of relocation. Today we also emphasize our more customized touch. Our new tagline, “Experience Personalized,” reflects our commitment to tailoring our services to the unique needs of those we serve.
Building Connections through Experience Management (XM)
At the heart of our success is our commitment to fostering connections, always doing the right thing, and never being satisfied with the status quo. That’s why in 2019 we transformed into an XM-focused organization. Partnering with the leading experience firm, Qualtrics, we integrated a new technology platform and built a proprietary model focused on our four core constituents: the client partner experience (CPX), customer experience (CX), supplier partner experience (SPX), and team member experience (TMX). Their relationship with us matters.
We adopted an outside-in mindset incorporating valuable feedback from these four stakeholder groups to help guide decisions, innovation, and investment, versus the traditional method of making decisions based on internal, siloed information. In 2023 alone, Altair completed 64 product enhancements spurred by XM feedback, all aimed at improved experiences. More than half of these pertained to two or more XM pillars.
Being an XM company means we collect both qualitative experience (X) and quantitative operational (O) data, which offers deeper insights never before seen in global mobility. Perfectly tailored to today’s experience-based economy, we are actively leveraging more than 1.3 million customer sentiments in an ever-evolving model, including customer sentiments on their relocation experience and other operational data, allowing us to understand and predict the key drivers for a successful customer experience.
This transformation has brought improvements to all XM pillars:
- CPX: XM data helps our client partners identify improvements and measure program success.
- CX: Through our X-checks (pulse surveys), Altair’s Customer Experience Consultants gain the ability to provide a more individualistic experience. They can improve and course-correct while the relocation is in process and it matters most versus concluded, when it is more challenging to make a difference in how the customer feels.
- SPX: A three-part Supplier Partner Experience Certification educates and aligns our supplier partners with our XM goals and objectives to ensure they deliver on our commitments to our clients and customers.
- TMX: An investment in training, fostering a positive workplace culture dedicated to DE&I and volunteerism, and utilizing Gallup Q12 and CliftonStrengths enables us to engage and support our team members, the cornerstone of delivering an outstanding client partner and customer experience.
The Future of Mobility: XM and Innovation
Soon after we first introduced XM, the world was hit the COVID-19 pandemic. In that time of crisis, XM was essential as the connections we made with our clients, supplier partners, and team members became lifelines. As we look to the future, being an XM-designed company is more necessary than ever. Backed with predictive analytics, Altair provides a focus on experience with the ability to adapt and scale quickly.
Coming out of the pandemic, customer expectations have shifted to a desire for greater choice and flexibility. Core/flex programs are on the rise, and we predict that 80% of corporations will run a choice-based model in the next five years. Customers require guidance and support at all levels, and our XM platform will support these evolving policies as duty of care remains a foundational element of the mobility industry. CX data will help our clients understand where to adjust within their new programs.
Additionally, founded in a time when computers were scarce and client data consisted of hard copies in filing cabinets, Altair is no stranger to the transformative power of technology and innovation. This year we embraced new technology and built Ali, our AI-powered virtual assistant for relocating customers. We’re dedicated to utilizing technology to further streamline our mobility strategy and continuously innovate our day-to-day responsibilities.
Looking Forward to the Next 35 Years
“As we celebrate 35 years of connections, innovation, and service excellence, we’re excited about what the future holds. Our journey has been marked by a constant evolution, and with XM, ESG, and cutting-edge technology leading the way, we’re well-positioned to continue delivering exceptional experiences in an ever-changing world. Here’s to the next 35 years—fueled by innovation, guided by experience, and driven by the relationships we’ve built with our clients, customers, supplier partners, and team members. Together, we’ll continue making the relocation process a positive experience for all.”
– Chad Sterling, CEO at Altair Global
