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“There’s a real science about this. It needs to be done by the right people to get the right outcome”


Microsoft’s Julia Fidler stresses the im- portance of data analysis. Her team has accumulated a healthy bed of data “so we can see what categories are frequent pain points. It’s the start of a ‘voice of the customer’ programme – we want to bring in other things like journey planning, persona-based outcomes and journey- based outcomes.” American Express GBT regional director Philip Haxne believes that the process of communicating begins with a basic assess- ment to find out what’s most important for that company and then suggest appropri- ate key performance indicators. Capita’s Elswood contends that the travel management company (TMC) or manager must then build a picture of an organisa- tion to have some data insight. He believes that if you understand why people do what they do, then you can communicate in a relevant fashion.


THE BIG PICTURE How do you choose the tactics that deliver the outcomes? To Elswood this


means both considering the whole picture and using language that resonates with today’s travellers. He says: “The company may have introduced a travel ban but this could result in people just using their own cars rather than stepping on a plane or train, but does this fall in line with the organisation’s duty-of-care agenda?” Or, he explains, you could want people to start booking budget travel alternatives but that could result in high absenteeism. Elswood thinks communications could be adapted to make benefits more obvious to travellers. Examples include pointing out an alternative hotel check-in facility so that corporate travellers don’t have to stand in a queue of 20 people in the lobby, or advising them that they are entitled to free lounge access when flying out of certain airports. Taxi-sharing is another example. Travellers could be told that there are three other colleagues present at the same location with whom they could share the taxi. Elswood says: “There’s a real science


about this. It needs to be done by the right people to get the right outcome.” He points


Pharma – a global campaign Caroline Strachan


CAROLINE STRACHAN, MANAGING PARTNER OF FESTIVE ROAD, explaining how a communications policy was conceived and implemented at a global pharmaceuticals company, says the overarching philosophy was that “the business should run the business and travel should be as easy as possible”. In practice that meant identifying a way to provide


information in a format and at times suitable for travellers. A team was created to devise and implement a communications plan along the theme of a ‘Campaign for Better Business Travel’. It set out to discover what travellers liked – and disliked – in the business travel programme and what the employees actually wanted from the travel team.


56 BBT September/October 2016


The plan acknowledged that different travellers consumed messages in different ways so initially positioned communications in all the places where travellers might interact with the travel team: cafés, plasma screens, social media, intranet, newsletters, emails and so on. Data from a survey of more than 2,000 travellers from different regions was extensively analysed.


The focus was on engagement rather than communication.


An internal social media network was created to facilitate traveller conversations that became the site’s content. Travellers would provide information which, for others, became answers to oft- asked questions. The time saved by not having to answer individual queries meant the travel team was able to prioritise other tasks and, when something did go wrong, they had the time to deal with that traveller. There was also a real shift in traveller behaviour: use of lowest logical fare rose from just over 70 per cent to above 90 per cent, and advance purchase went from the mid-60s to a mid-80s percentile. TMC staff were trained to communicate with travellers – if they were doing a last-minute booking, for example, they might point out that 65 per cent could be saved off that fare if the next trip were booked in advance.


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