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5 ways to improve travel program adoption

Posted on: November 8, 2023

Change management is difficult, especially when you are introducing a program accompanied with new technology. Implementation and education are just the beginning, afterwards, when everyone is left their own devices, will they adhere to the new rules?

What about when new travelers come on board, will they be ready to book and manage their own travel when the time comes?

You have invested a lot of time and money into making a change for the better, but to make a program great you need traveler buy-in. Here are some tips to help make your program a success and drive user adoption.

1. Make it easy to understand and accessible

Travelers are much more inclined to adhere to policy if they know exactly what it is they can and cannot do. Often, employees are given a handbook at the beginning of their employment and the travel policy is hidden somewhere in there, but where? Often by the time they begin traveling they usually can’t find it or don’t look for it.

Consider a dedicated link on your company portal or app. If you have an online booking tool, many have customizable links to policy where you can add yours along with incorporating it directly into the online booking tool.

2. Effective communication

As aforementioned, employees may have been informed about travel procedures and policy at the beginning of their employment, but by the time they need to travel they have completely forgotten.

Keep travelers engaged with the program by sharing information that’s fun and upbeat! Some ideas to of monthly mailers to keep travelers interested:

• Online booking tools are always adding updates, sharing what’s new with staff to keep them up to speed.
• There are many helpful tools & apps travelers may not know about like Tripcase or Flightview. What’s your go-to travel app? Sharing these with the team is a great way to bring up your travel program.
• Share a list of travel accessories! Recently we shared a list of must-have accessories in our newsletter. It’s a great way to engage travelers with relevant info to bring up your program or policy. You could even offer an item as an incentive.
• Bring travelers in, let them know why the policy is the way it is and how much the company is saving by booking in advance or utilizing your preferred vendors.

Give updates via company newsletters, monthly communications, or on company calls.

3. Incentives & Rewards

Traveling can be a lot. The irregular schedules, being away from family, and the inevitable stress that comes along with dealing with airports. Let your employees know that you appreciate what they do and show them their sacrifice is appreciated with a reward or incentive.

We at Campbell Travel have an in-house leisure division and it’s a great option to utilize for travel gift cards. You could also look at bliesure incentives, allowing travelers to enjoy their time in new cities. Just be careful with the gray areas in policy when it comes to these types of incentives.

Alternatively, you could put travelers with good behavior in a points raffle. Prime Numbers, a partner of Campbell Travel, has a great scorecard feature to rank your travelers and award points based on advance bookings, lowest fare acceptance, least number of voids & exchanges and more. Awarding travelers’ points would help keep them engaged and understand how policy drives real savings.

4. Ease of booking

This is a big one. If travelers don’t like your booking tools, they probably aren’t going to use them. It’s more important than ever to give travelers tools that are up-to-date and user friendly.

If you want to drive adoption, find a booking tool that’s right for your travelers. If you are looking for something that is brand new that will excite your travelers you may want to consider something like Cytric Easy, a brand new booking experience integrated directly into Microsoft Teams. Travelers can easily book, share and manage their trips all in a dashboard on MS Teams.

If your travelers are phone heavy users, Deem has a great phone app with a 4.7 rating in the app store. It’s intuitive to use and has a great UI giving travelers a one stop shop for air, hotel, car and even rideshare.

5. Preferred suppliers

Establish and promote relationships with your preferred suppliers. Review your current relationships and interview your travelers to understand what value they find in your current preferred suppliers, maybe it’s time to switch it up or inform them of perks they didn’t know they had!

Survey your team and ask them where they see added value. Is it the service, the discounts, are there added perks like breakfast or drink tickets? Find suppliers that align with your travelers perceived value.

TMC’s can also help you manage these relationships and make sure you are getting all the perks your company deserves. They can help you renegotiate agreements, add to your program, and enhance your program by flagging preferred vendors in your OBT and adding program numbers on the back end to make sure you are accruing points.

And don’t forget about a traveler’s OWN points. If you are going to switch up your preferred vendors, make sure your travelers’ personal program won’t suffer. Look into status matching programs like United or Hilton Honors or reach out to the hotel or airline directly to see if you can offer travelers anything up front for making a switch.

Ultimately, adoption of your program depends on your travelers. Get to know them and what they like and dislike about your program. Send out regular surveys and adapt based on what you’ve learned.