Traveler engagement may be as important as ever, given travel risks, evolving supplier strategies and employee demographics, and new lenses through which companies view travel.

To share insights into how this is playing out in corporate travel, a pair of veteran travel management pros, Tyson Foods senior manager of global travel and meetings Craig Banikowski and head of flight operations and global travel services Yukari Tortorich at Warner Bros. Discovery, joined the latest Business Travel Executive own Hall conducted in December via LinkedIn Audio. They described how their companies recently communicated internally about new travel management companies and online booking tools. A merger in one case and mass employee relocations in the other added challenges.

To help with employee engagement, both are exploring the potential of artificial intelligence-powered travel bots. Tyson Foods hopes to launch its internally built robot helper in February. The company in March 2023 switched TMCs and introduced the SAP Concur Travel booking tool, “huge opportunities for communication,” Banikowski said.

“How can we provide easier answers than asking, ‘Did you read the policy?’” he said. “You think of all the questions that your team and your agents answer every day, and can you make that quicker, easier?” Those may be about getting a corporate card, booking travel and picking preferred suppliers.

Because AI bots build their knowledge bases with use over time, “as we get additional questions, we’ll hone those and add them to the database,” Banikowski said. “Hopefully, that will help get some greater satisfaction. Nobody wants to sit and read a policy anymore.”

Tyson’s travel team is awaiting approval from IT, which previously rolled out a bot to help the procurement team manage purchase orders.

Warner Bros. Discovery also is interested in a chatbot to improve employee engagement. Tortorich said the governance team was looking into using AI to answer frequently asked questions, including those created when the company implemented its new TMC, “but it’s a long way off.” A workflow platform already in place serves as a precursor, answering specific employee questions, like how to create a travel profile, but “it’s not AI,” she said.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s new TMC, now providing service across 42 countries, offers some chat functionality, but Tortorich wants more.

The TMC rollout, which included a move to the TMC’s proprietary online booking tool, required “a lot of communication and training through the year,” Tortorich said. It followed the 2022 merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia. According to its annual report, the company had 37,500 employees at the end of last year, about 44 percent of whom were located in 53 countries outside the United States.

Previously, Tortorich had to figure out traveler communications independently, “but this year, I had a lot of help. Our TMC provided us with a customer experience manager who worked with our change management office. We received a lot of communication support.”

The Warner Bros. Discovery head of human resources began e-mailing weekly updates to employees during the pandemic. Those continue to this day at a bi-weekly cadence. They gave the travel department “another avenue and a resource” for communicating travel program initiatives, TMC/OBT implementation timelines, training schedules and more.

After Banikowski joined Tyson Foods in mid-2022, he created a quarterly travel newsletter using the Axios workplace communications platform. It conveys crucial updates to travelers, including tips from the company’s safety and security personnel.

It also provides Banikowski insights into whether and how recipients consume the information: “How many eyes do I have on it? Which articles are they clicking on? How long do they spend on the document? It gives me compelling information on what my people are interested in. Of course, personal travel discounts are No. 1.”

A “cornerstone” of Banikowski’s engagement effort is travel fairs, juiced up with free travel giveaways. Tyson conducted one when launching Concur. It also held relocation fairs following a late 2022 decision to close several locations and direct employees interested in staying with the company to settle near headquarters in Springdale, AR.

Tyson managed more than a thousand relocations of employees, families and pets. “We were encouraging people to come by so we could engage with them one-on-one,” he said.

According to its latest annual report, Tyson, as of a year ago, had 142,000 employees, with 18,000 outside the United States. “We’re dealing with a very wide demographic of people,” Banikowski said, referring to plant workers without e-mail access and truckers always on the move. Because they may or may not know how to use the booking tool or connect with the TMC, “we’ve had to segment our communication and our department marketing.”

One popular technique that Banikowski does not use is traveler surveys. He said they often take too long to complete, and respondents are prone to draw blanks or comment with unhelpful generalities. Instead, he’s a fan of green-yellow-red indicators to depict how a traveler felt about a trip or a particular supplier, “to at least get a touchpoint.” He also finds value in a TMC tool that tracks flight delays experienced by travelers, whom he can then contact.

Tortorich, too, is reluctant to conduct traveler surveys. She cited low response rates and the tendency to comment more about the bad and rarely about the good. “I don’t know if that’s fair,” she said.

More Best Engagement Practices

• Timing of messaging is important. “Make sure you’re not competing with any other communication priorities that the company has,” Tortorich said. Her company determined that Tuesdays and Wednesdays were best for capturing the largest audience. On those days, it sends out weekly tips on using the online booking tool.
• Customize communications plans for each business group. Warner Bros. Discovery has a news organization, extensive sports broadcasting, movies, streaming services and more, and each area may have “nuances in communication,” Tortorich said. “Some groups wanted us just to manage it all, and some groups said to draft it and let our communications group send it out.”
• Engage executive assistants. In some companies, admins do a lot of the travel booking. “They are critical to our success because a lot of their travelers are VIPs,” Banikowski said. “They’re coordinating multiple things – private aviation, commercial aviation, etc.” Tyson’s travel team recently held a luncheon for that group “to meet and greet, and get to know their issues and how to help them.” During its US TMC implementation, Warner Bros. Discovery held weekly meetings with senior executive assistants. It was so successful, according to Tortorich, that they asked for it to continue every month after the TMC project was complete. The company also runs focus groups for assistants in Europe and hosts an online executive assistant forum in Asia/Pacific.
• Prevent unsolicited marketing from suppliers. Tortorich said she understands that suppliers communicate to travelers in the context of loyalty programs, “but that’s different than the supplier reaching out directly to an employee and saying, ‘Hey, we have a corporate deal’ outside my knowledge. I don’t like that, and I’m sure most travel managers feel the same way.” Instead, she said, suppliers should come to her to see about conveying their message because “I want to manage that communication.” Banikowski agreed. “When you muddy the water by having bifurcated messaging, all you’re doing is confusing travelers,” he said. “Sometimes it’s innocent and sometimes it’s a bit more malevolent. At least if they channel it through me, [travelers] know it’s a valid proposition for the organization.”

Visit businesstravelexecutive.com to listen to this complete LinkedIn Audio session and find details about the next BTE Town Hall.