Ask companies what’s vexing about travel management today, and most will give you a short but weighty list: a changing global workforce, travelers who think more like consumers, constantly changing technology.
Yet many travel managers say they can’t afford to divert their attention toward these challenges and away from traditional drivers like reducing costs and improving productivity. They want outside expertise to help address these demographic, behavioral and technological changes so they can focus on program essentials.
Advito has answered the call with a traveler engagement practice. Traveler engagement is a targeted communications strategy designed to shape and reinforce good traveler behavior. Effective traveler engagement and communications can drive significant savings, policy compliance and other business objectives.
“Communications is a specialized skill that isn’t a traditional capability for travel managers or the account managers who work with them day in and day out,” explained Shannon Garcia, vice president and principal overseeing the traveler engagement practice at Advito.
Advito’s traveler engagement consultants can teach companies how to set an effective communications strategy, launch campaigns and measure results. Or they’ll do the heavy lifting for them by serving as outsourced travel engagement managers dedicated to their travel programs. No matter the format, the objective is to create a communications strategy that meets a company’s travel program goals—essentially bringing marketing and communications skills to their travel management team.
“A traveler engagement campaign can look different for each company, depending on their goals,” explained Greg Morgan, one of Advito’s traveler engagement managers. “If a company’s goal is to improve security-process compliance for high-risk travel, the specific message to their travelers might be to complete the prescribed international travel process.” To achieve that end, a company might send an informative email message before a trip to a high-risk destination or incorporate the key points into an automated message that travelers hear when they call to book international trips.
“But traveler engagement isn’t just about messaging for travelers. It’s strategic,” Garcia said. “The engagement manager may advise making changes to the program, so Advito might walk the company’s travel team through how to put a new process in place and manage change around that.”
Traveler engagement starts with what a company wants to accomplish. Advito guides the company through a few key steps:
- Identify measurable traveler engagement goals aligned with corporate objectives
- Inventory the communication tools already in place, such as social media, customer relationship management and online booking tools
- Create traveler engagement campaigns with messaging firmly linked to company objectives
- Test different tactics, then measure them quarterly to see what works
- Hone the campaigns until they’re focused only on what delivers measurable results, such as savings or changes in traveler behavior
Advito traveler engagement manager Kourtney Barnes said the key is to provide travelers with timely information through whichever channel they prefer. “Communications resonate when they’re relevant to the recipient,” she said. “You have to make sure your message stands out from all the noise.”
Garcia said Advito’s new traveler engagement practice leads companies toward choosing the right options, i.e., ones that can create major long-term benefits. “Genuine savings and compliance-improvement opportunities abound when you create and execute the right traveler engagement strategy,” she said.
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Companies must engage employees to manage challenges an evolving global workforce, constantly changing technology and business travelers who think like consumers. Advito’s new traveler engagement practice helps companies create targeted communications that shape good traveler behavior—driving savings, policy compliance and other business goals.
