Changing travellers’ behaviour can cut travel over-spend up to 15%

Recent research by Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s (CWT) Solutions Group found that corporations could reduce travel over-spend by up to 15% by enforcing existing corporate travel policies.

The latest white paper launched on 8 December focuses on the challenges of travel policy compliance and how to influence the behaviour of travellers. Encouraging travellers to comply with a company’s travel policy can make a big difference.

The white paper ­– Behaviour Management: a new way to think about an old problem – focuses on increasing travel data visibility, and increasing traveller responsibility with the aim to have business travellers stay within the corporate travel policy.

Katie Raddatz, Head of the CWT’s Solutions Group Americas said: “Travel departments spend significant time and resources getting the best corporate deals to keep costs down. But often travellers think the policy might not apply to them or they just don’t know the policy. Effectively enforcing compliance is often one of the hardest parts of travel management, but also the area with significant missed savings.”

Solutions Group has developed a proven traveller engagement system, Traveller 360 (T360), which looks at the entire compass to find every possible way to reach and educate the traveller to increase policy compliance and recapture significant missed savings. This targeted approach provides the tools for non-travel professionals to actively manage traveller behaviour. The four stages of T360 include:

1. Analyse – Start with an analysis of the potential savings and the different traveller segments to uncover non-compliance issues.
2. Educate – Traveller scorecards are created to educate stakeholders by using terms and language they use with a format that can be immediately executed.
3. Engage – Traveller scorecards, containing individualised reports, are sent directly to the traveller. The clear information in the reports makes it easier for managers to speak to employees about their booking behaviour.
4. Compete – Creating a traveller gamification programme promotes positive traveller behaviour by introducing motivating, game-like elements that provides incentives to travellers to stay compliant.

“There’s pressure to reduce costs from every direction. Making sure people stick to the rules is an easy way to cut spend,” continued Raddatz. ”We want to make sure we’re increasing compliance as much as possible. When it’s done properly, you can see the percentage of missed savings fall almost immediately.”

For more detailed information on new ways to improve travel policy compliance and influence behaviours of travellers, please refer to the white paper: Behaviour Management: a new way to think about an old problem.