Balancing external loyalty programs with corporate travel policy and compliance: That's been a tough one for travel managers. Cindy Heston, director of travel and meetings for Anthem, has been working at the concept for years. This year, however, a request from her executive management caught her by surprise. They asked Heston to figure out a consistent method to maximize the return of preferred supplier loyalty programs—whether air, hotel or car rental—on behalf of the company's travelers.
"I never though [my leadership] would ask me to research how to maximize and gain for Anthem travelers, but ultimately that's what they are asking me," said Heston. "They wanted to know why I wasn't telling them, based on their individual [travel] patterns and behaviors, what affinity programs they should be with to maximize points and loyalty."
The project has center on analyzing travelers' primary departure cities and the air carriers associated with that city. Associated hotel programs, bonus points and other details started to fall in to place depending on the arrival city. "I thought I was going out into the Wild West on this project, but the [loyalty-benefits piece] is primarily driven by one factor," Heston said. "Some markets are split as far as airlines, but you can bias for one or the other."
Once Heston landed the primary airline piece, she found she could aggregate information about consumer-side loyalty partnerships and promotions and automate messages to recommend compliant combinations for travelers that also will return the best personal perks.
Based on the scope of Anthem's hotel program, "[travelers] can reliably stay in compliance if they switch from hotel A to hotel B, Heston said. "I can now go back to an executive and tell him that the brand hotel where he booked was great because he could earn double points, but because of his airline, if he could stay at anther hotel brand, he could consistently get triple points. I know he's going to switch."
Heston theorized that this kind of service will turn loyalty sentiments back to the managed program rather than directly to the suppliers. Even more, it may deliver better compliance, especially if there are competitive airlines on the route.
"That's where travel manager influence can really come into play," she said. "If the traveler is flying from Atlanta to Chicago, they've got four airlines they could potentially use. That's when you tell them, ‘Sure, you can fly any of these, but this what the company would like you to do, and I can get you status here, which will double your points there."
Heston is rolling out a marketing campaign around the concept, and will incorporate push messaging into Anthem's executive travel app so top-level travelers can see their best travel promotion opportunities based on policy, plus their own loyalty programs and home market. Heston insisted on push messaging to get the word out fast: "Because some of these promotions are available for 60 or 90 days and then they're gone," she said.
As surprised as was about the demand to deliver this type of service, Heston also looks at it as an important step in keeping travel programs relevant and on point for road warriors. "They are looking to us to deliver new kinds of value," she said. "[Anthem leadership] wants me to help decide what is best for them. Isn't that what all travel managers want?"