The phone rings. The phone rings again. The inbox bing,
bing, bings, demanding immediate attention. Someone has found a cheaper fare on
a nonpreferred airline. The executive status match did not go through on time.
The administrative assistant has never paid a fee for booking online before. An
involuntary sigh escapes as the new travel manager replays her director's
words: "What's so difficult about implementing a travel program? Our
employees book travel now. So they'll use a new website. No big deal."
Sound familiar?
Senior management understands the value of implementing a
travel program—after all, they allotted the time and resources required to get
the program this far. Unfortunately, all too often the final strategic
preparation and training needed for a successful rollout is overlooked in favor
of speed. Fortunately, this dangerous pitfall can be avoided by gaining
executive endorsement of a few key actions.
Know Your Travel
Strategy, Ensure Others Do Too
Consider the number of decisions an employee traveling on
business makes on behalf of his or her company during a single reservation.
Employees select their flight times, airlines, number of connections, ticket
types and more. Then, they pick a hotel, room type and location, whether it be
near the airport to avoid getting a rental car or near the site for easy access
for morning meetings. Finally, they select a rental car—the size, insurance (if
any), GPS, prepaid gas, etc. There are at least a dozen decision points for any
simple roundtrip.
Now, multiply that by the number of travelers and the number
of trips taken within the entire organization, and you have a large variable on
your hands. Addressing every potential traveler decision would be impossible,
but there is a way to limit ambiguity and increase traveler confidence.
Creating and communicating a concrete travel strategy are the first key actions
for implementation success. A comprehensive and well-understood strategy will
minimize traveler frustration and maximize program adoption.
An effective travel strategy should answer the question: "What
is the most important direction we can provide to our traveling employees?"
After identifying the key aspects of the strategy, avoid the urge to blast a
list of top 10 travel rules across the organization. Stories offer the
strongest support for strategies. Letting travelers know that the CEO always
flies coach and never books cars larger than midsize will be more effective
than explaining that Rule #6 is choosing "low-cost alternatives."
Bring the strategy to life with real and concrete examples.
Additionally, executive endorsement of a unified travel
strategy will give travelers, the executive team and your travel management
partner confidence that travel decisions are supporting your company's culture
and goals.
Training Is A Must
No matter how experienced the traveler, no matter how
established the program, training is a must. When implementing a new program
there will be subtle differences in the process, and travelers will make sure
you hear about them. Depending on the maturity of the program, a simple
30-minute run-through of expectations and program usage might be enough. A
do-it-yourself online training option is a good supplement, but providing an
open forum for questions and concerns is better.
In addition to training travelers, additional guidance
should be provided for any individuals who book travel for others, review
travel reports or handle group bookings. With multiple traveler touchpoints,
these representatives often are natural program champions. Their understanding
and endorsement of the program are keys to its success.
Establish executive expectations that there will be static
with any program introduction, but reinforce that training and education will
greatly limit any pushback. The importance of support for this second key
action cannot be undervalued.
Sell The Benefits
Time is precious, and executive support of an extended
timeline can be difficult to maneuver. It is your responsibility to prove that
the payoff of a few weeks of implementation preparation is worth the
investment. Illustrate the dangers of trading strategy development and traveler
training for a speedy rollout. Demonstrate that increased traveler
understanding of program goals will ease static, increase adoption and maximize
return on investment. Greater program usage will translate into savings through
use of existing program discounts and supporting improvement for future
contracts. Doing the work correctly up front translates into time and savings
multiples on the back end.
This report
originally was published in the May 14, 2012, issue of Business Travel News.