The data is clear: If companies fail to develop a mobile
travel program, their travelers will do it without them. Travel buyers,
however, can tap travelers’ growing appetite for mobile to improve compliance,
data and traveler satisfaction.
Further proof that mobile is here to stay: A third of
business travelers are Millennials, Mobile Travel Technologies CEO Gerry
Samuels said at The BTN Group’s recent The Beat Live conference. By 2020,
though, “mobile-centric” Millennials will account for half. What’s more, mobile
is hot in developing markets, as evidenced by growing travel management
companies like China’s mobile-focused Qunar. “Mobile is just simply the way
that people access online,” Samuels said.
But mobile technology doesn’t have to be a hindrance.
Rather, a proactive one can contribute to travel program goals like compliance,
traveler service, influencing travel behavior and gathering data. Start by
determining and prioritizing what you want your mobile strategy to accomplish:
traveler satisfaction and/or compliance, ability to influence traveler
behavior, en route support, data gathering, security. And that’s just a starter
list.
All those benefits come in handy especially when trips don’t
go according to plan, said IAC manager of corporate services Rosemary Maloney.
“Good apps help in a time of [travel] disruption and aren’t just something
pretty to look at. You can influence where people stay.” A traveler who has to
stay an extra day might turn to an external app like Hotel Tonight, she
explained, but a managed travel program that includes an app to guide that
traveler will help that traveler not only stay in policy but also capture
data.”
She also likes VisFit, which helps travelers maintain
healthy lifestyles, and Dinova’s app, which shows travelers restaurant options,
as the benefit trickles back to IAC in the form of rebates if IAC travelers
dine at Dinova-preferred eateries. Improving the trip for the traveler, as
those apps do, is Roadmap CEO Jeroen van Velzen’s top metric. “How can I
inspire my travelers to go into places they might not have thought of? What
kind of modes of transport do we offer? What is the restaurant around the
corner from my office?”
It all comes down to how a piece of technology fits in with
a particular travel program’s priorities. Some managers may avoid on-demand car
service apps like Uber and Lyft, deeming their safety and security measures
insufficient for managed travel. Other managers might prize the data those apps
can provide compared with the notoriously difficult-to-track taxi segment.
Others might bow to the fact that business travelers love on-demand car
services; consider that such apps accounted for 34 percent of ground
transportation spending in the third quarter, compared with 22 percent for
taxis, according to Certify’s analysis of 8.5 million expense receipts in its
system.
To Recommend, Require, Ban Or Build?
The degree to which a travel manager regulates travelers’
mobile activity similarly comes down to a matter of style, from totalitarian
(mandates and bans) to laissez-faire (purposefully hands off).
One buyer trying to balance company security and traveler
preferences surveyed 5,000 of the company’s travelers about the apps they already
were using, then worked with IT to determine which ones should be banned.
However, with input for other buyers, she turned the research into
endorsements, as well, providing travelers with information about various apps.
A program that recommends too many apps, though, can
overwhelm travelers. Though a travel management company, Egencia took that
notion to heart when deciding how many apps to integrate into the comprehensive
one it offers its clients. The aim of an integrated app is “to make it more
purposeful and not [to] be going after integration for the sake of integration,”
said chief technology officer Sravana Karnati. An example of productive
integration, Karnati said, is the Egencia app’s feature that automatically
sends travelers to the Delta check-in page and pre-populates the information.
Letting travelers take the lead is a viable strategy, too.
“As [travelers] use mobile products and talk to travel managers, it becomes
more of a discussion within those companies,” he said.
And then there’s the option of building a proprietary,
comprehensive app, whether internally or with a technology partner. In years
past, even the largest corporations found it to be a prohibitively expensive
process, said Roadmap CEO Jeroen van Velzen. But a comprehensive mobile
platform has big power to influence traveler behavior and drive compliance.
That loyalty to preferred suppliers can stretch to the travel program itself,
as well, he said. “The good thing about mobile is: If you can build a truly
engaging experience [that’s] also from the brand that the end-user trusts, that
might as well be your corporate brand.”
When building or customizing a new app, though, remember to
heed the travel program’s needs. Developers are so focused on what works best
for the traveler, they sometimes neglect those who actually will be
administrating the app, Maloney said. “It has to be viewed as a partnership
between the person building an app and the companies using it.”
In fact, buyers should communicate not only current needs
but also goals to suppliers, said Jack Lever, global manager of travel and card
services for Booz Allen Hamilton, as buyers might have features or services in
mind that the supplier could create. “We talk a lot about technology roadmaps
with our suppliers,” Lever said. “What is your roadmap? How does that dovetail
into our strategic missions?”
For all the forms mobile strategy can take, neither
unmanaged programs nor one-size-fits-all solutions that use technology for the
sake of technology really work, according to van Velzen. He painted a picture
of frequent failures: “The big corporates choose one of the things that get
tossed at them from the traditional suppliers, either the online booking tools
or the global distribution systems, or they’re caught in the headlights and
say, ‘OK, I don’t know what to do with it. Just let the people sort it. I’m not
here to manage it.’”
This report originally appeared in the Oct. 26, 2015
edition of Business Travel News.