Michelle De Costa
Responding to a Procurement.travelarticle on the impact of social mediain travel management, Sapient global travel manager Michelle De Costa this month shared her experiences as one of the top contributors to her company's Yammer site, which is like Twitter but private and accessed only by company employees. "We have introduced social networking into our travel program through Yammer," De Costa said. "It has been a great way to push non-critical information out to our people without bombarding them with multiple emails. I also have the opportunity to answer questions that people pose, or tie subjects being discussed to travel." Yammer, which claims 70,000 corporate clients, offers a Web page, desktop software and mobile apps that help keep email inboxes clear for busy employees. The service enables corporate employees to send out short messages about really anything, and followers see all their followees' messages in a stream, or can also view the full company feed. De Costa has about 400 followers on Sapient's Yammer network, launched in March, and she said about 80 percent of those are frequent travelers. De Costa is using it to benefit program compliance through pre-trip advice and supplier selection using traveler input. Sapient spends about $36 million globally on travel. An excerpt of an interview with De Costa follows.
What made you think about using Yammer for corporate travel?
I was thinking about how I could get messages out about, for example, "Sapient is the company of the month at this hotel in Santa Monica" or, I sent a note out regarding our car rental company that had some special coupons. It's just such an email-heavy world. I can't send a global email to 7,000 people, but I thought this might be a way to push out those specials and things I get from preferred vendors. This is more engaging versus a "reply to all." We have a highly mobile workforce, and they're using the mobile app. Our communications team had already hatched the idea of using Yammer companywide, and then when I came to them, it filled a gap in our travel program with communication. It's been really interactive--in a fun way, not in a complaining way. People save that for me on the side.
What have the benefits been?
It's a great way for me to get feedback from people. I might say, "Hyatt has been added as a preferred. I would love to have your feedback." I was thinking about putting a hotel in place in New York and another one in India, and just put a note out there asking that the next person going there contact me if they were willing to try out a certain hotel. A C-level employee stayed there, gave it the thumbs up and we negotiated a rate and it's in the program. So far, the biggest benefit has been with hotels.
Is it helping with compliance?
Definitely. One of our newer employees was going to Miami. I went online and said, "W South Beach is a preferred hotel." So I influenced her to stay at a preferred property.
Does it just mean more work for you?
They're really quick messages. It's a couple minutes out of the day. And I only post if I have something, so it's about once or twice a week.
How do you add more followers?
People can opt in and read my feed and updates if they want to. To get the word out, at the bottom of my email I have "Follow me on yammer.com." And then when our global agency, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, announces policy items through its Policy Messenger service, employees also are urged to follow me there.