Back on the technology side, Click
promotes use of tolerance levels for clients spending lots of money on rail tickets. The policy means you don’t force travellers to book the cheapest ticket – you simply put a cap on what they can spend. That may or may not include first class fares. But giving the traveller more leeway encourages them to act sensibly. “Whitbread just decided they’d turn policy on its head. They allowed people to do what they wanted [within the tolerance level] and then removed first class trains from the booking display. There was no negative feedback the company saved £140,000 in one year,” he recounts. Another Click customer, the British
Heart Foundation, is an interesting case from the charitable sector. Such organ- isations are not in existence to make profits, though every penny must be looked after. The travel manager wanted to make savings by getting people to book further in advance, but did not want to come across as too strict. Vince takes up the story: “It boils down to a
CASE STUDY S A major online retailer, assisted by CWT Solutions Group
CHALLENGE: A major online retailer with a mature travel programme (worth £67 million) wanted to make more savings and improve its travellers’ purchasing behaviour. While the company’s top travellers were generally supportive of corporate travel policy, there were too many missed opportunities to reduce travel costs through increased online adoption, advance booking and preferred supplier attachment. Wanting to promote more compliant travel decisions – without imposing heavy mandates or soliciting intervention from the company’s travel team – the firm implemented
66 BBT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
a strategy to incentivise employees to align with policy objectives.
SOLUTION: A travel gamification platform was proposed with the intention of tapping into a corporate culture of light- hearted peer competition. The initiative uses motivating game-like elements to recognise and positively reinforce policy-focused travel behaviour. After aligning the tool’s performance criteria to the company’s programme objectives of increased policy compliance and preferred supplier spend, 100 frequent travellers were asked to participate in a three-month
pilot programme. A virtual scoreboard displaying the names of the most compliant travellers was introduced to promote competition among participants. The platform was integrated with the company’s incumbent recognition programme and provided detailed reporting on the travellers’ habits.
RESULTS: Within three months of starting the trial, the client saw more effective programme spending by employees and enjoyed incremental savings (up 3 per cent year-on- year). Participating travellers demonstrated increased policy compliance and better
buying behaviours across several targeted programme categories, including:
OBT adoption (up 6.5 per cent year on year), advance trip booking (14 or more days prior to departure), preferred airline booking and preferred hotel booking. All of this equated to annual savings of £170 per traveller, which multiplied by the 100 pilot-scheme participants amounted to £17,000 programme savings. The more travellers involved in gamification, the more a company can potentially save. The company is now considering an international roll out of the platform.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
“It boils down to a communications strategy – they thank people in advance for their frugality”
communications strategy. They thank people in advance for their frugality, whereas in the private sector people don’t tend to communicate as much about thanking people for making the right choices. It’s a slightly softer approach.”
EMBRACING TRAVEL 2.0
Salesforce.com has been at the cutting edge of creative travel management for a number of years. With partners BDC Travel and Concur, the software company has attempted to embrace a travel 2.0 strategy, though its travel
manager, Robbie Hughes, admits the programme still has some way to go before it truly embraces open booking. But Hughes envisages big changes in travel procurement and management, and believes the recent Lufthansa an- nouncement is just the tip of the iceberg. He says: “The scenario plays into our ethos [of open booking]. The airline is encouraging people to book direct, and I think these sorts of relationships will increasingly exist between corporates and suppliers.” If that’s the case, it makes it very difficult to plan ahead. As BBT goes to press, the Lufthansa
surcharge was scheduled for implemen- tation on September 1. All indications are that the airline will perform no U-turns in the short term, meaning that the final quarter of 2015 could be a watershed moment in the history of travel management. As the future slowly unravels over the coming months, travel buyers and managers should concentrate on finding the practical, short-term, quick wins to enhance their policies and programmes.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132