Looking At Corporate Travel Through A Gaming Lens

There was a scenario in the book, “Total Engagement” by Byron Reeves and J. Leighton Reed about a mythical travel agent named Jennifer that at first blush seems far-fetched…but is it?

A Travel Industry White PaperBy Tom RuesinkRuesink Consulting Group, Inc.

Published courtesy of

Looking at Corporate Travel Through A Gaming Lens

After describing Jennifer’s current state of professional disengagement, the authors paint the following picture for a potential alternative:

Jennifer sits down and logs into the computer. The first thing she sees on screen is her avatar, an appealing, animated character she created to represent herself in a themed virtual world…She begins her workday by walking (virtually) to the place where her team is gathering. Her 20 person team is scattered in three different time zones and are all together now in a virtual world.

She checks her progress – how do they rank on call resolutions and who in the group has “leveled up” (achieved a new virtual status based on performance) and who needs encouragement? The familiar call-center metrics are now cast as points, ranks, and virtual currency within a large and engaging multi-player game. There are teams, and Jennifer’s success is determined in part by how her team performs. Data about her team is available for all to see (right-click a character and see their experience level, wealth in gold pieces, recent compliments, etc.). Calls are routed to her screen, but the interface is still a game. Information about incoming calls surrounds her avatar. Information updates on screen as points accumulate at each stage of the call (inputting data accurately, completing an upsell, etc.). There are visuals representing team status (ships sailing toward a paradise island) and a shopping mall where she can use points to decorate the team ship or her own avatar.

The above story is about the gamification of the world of the travel agent. Far-fetched or future-focused? We have already seen employees of Sun Microsystems and IBM use their avatars to participate in virtual campuses and environments. Could corporate travel be turned into a game? Maybe the appropriate question is more along the lines of “Could corporate travel be turned even more into a game to drive desired behaviors?”

Let’s explore this together by looking through the lens of a game designer. So put on your cutoffs and flip flops, grab a Mello Yello and some pretzels and crank up Mumford and Sons and get ready.

Could corporate travel be turned, even more, into a game to drive desired behaviors?

Published courtesy ofCornerstone Information Systems


The PlayerIn our business, it’s the traveler. Gaming projects and programs go to great lengths to understand the player’s likes and dislikes. They give them vehicles to express their likes and dislikes and allow the player to represent themselves in a positive way. In the above example, Jennifer has an avatar that represents her and by creating a virtual environment, she will now tell us more about what makes her tick than any line on any travel report. Creativity and freedom of expression are key here.

Positive Steps in Our Industry

Travel Profiles: The self booking tools and agencies have done a nice job of allowing the traveler to express their seat preference, meal preference, automatically entering in loyalty numbers, etc. Also, the tools themselves store information about past itineraries to make it less clicks to book a repeat trip.

Company Sponsored Social Networking Sites: The only thing more dangerous than enabling your travelers to speak their mind and provide feedback is not letting your travelers speak their mind and provide feedback. Companies such as Sapient, Deltek, and Genentech have been highlighted for their ability to embrace and harness the power of these sites to interact and communicate with their travelers. The rules of engagement have changed – it is no longer enough to have one-way communication and a dictatorial travel intranet site that “informs” travelers. Travelers want a voice in the travel experience.

Areas Where Gaming Could Benefit

Thank You’s (Recognition): It’s simple, but players want to be recognized and have a voice. How often do we send out a thank you to the road warriors who travel more than X times per year for the company or have a lunch in their honor? Why do we send out “exception letters” but not “thank you letters” for the times a traveler books compliantly?



Jennifer

Alyssa

Robert

I’ve talked previously about the OneScore® scoring system we implemented at Coca-Cola and other clients and is now being implemented within the Cornerstone Corporate C3 Suite. The nice thing about a scoring system is that it allows for the positive travelers to be highlighted and recognized. If you’re a 93 out of 100, you’re not so much worried about those 7 points (exceptions) – instead you’re recognized as someone who is doing what the company desires way more often than not.

Avatars: Far-fetched? Not so much. Jennifer created her avatar as a form of positive self expression. I do foresee the increased use of avatars in corporate travel because once a person has a representative avatar, the travel “compliance journey” can then be represented in so many creative ways that avatars can interact with it.

Mining The Data Differently: Game designers mine data to understand what to build next and how to keep the player engaged. While most companies have traveler surveys and feedback mechanisms, how often is that bumped up against what is actually happening? How often does a corporate travel manager query their profile databases to find out more about the traveler? How often are they looking at their expense data to understand the percent of times a hotel restaurant is used before they add that type of hotel in their program? These are but a few of the questions that you can ask of the data to help you get to know your “players” better.

The JourneyIf I can convey one mindset change where game designers got it right, and where we are in danger of getting it wrong, is that game designers see their game as a journey, and we all-too-often think in a transaction mentality.

Why is a journey mindset so important? Well, setting aside all the” Steve Perry is awesome” references, a journey assumes collaboration, time, progress, and bumps in the road. In contrast, transactions and exceptions to policy are impersonal, and they serve as a reminder that the travel department sees me as just a number.

Designers view games in terms of a ‘journey’ in contrast to the travel industry that operates with a transaction mentality.



A player’s journey is very scientific in the gaming industry. There is lifecycle and progression. In a typical gaming progression, the player moves from Visitor to Novice to Regular to Leader to Master.

Game designers are successful because they embrace the journey by:Courting the visitorEngaging the novice earlyMaking it comfortable for the regular to hang out thereRecognizing status and empowering the leadersAppreciating the master for their longevity


Emergency Centers and Traveler Security Notifications: Overall, corporate travel teams seem to gravitate toward the communication to the “Regular.” Their aim is to make it comfortable to do business through corporate travel, and they pro-actively send them travel alerts, provide assurances that there’s one number to call in an emergency, and provide a relatively easy-to-digest booking experience.


Courting and engaging the visitor/novice: In the old world of Monopoly, Life, and Risk, you were provided with rules, game pieces, and a game board, and told to go at it. In 2011, courting and engaging the visitor and novice is crucial to a game’s success. Early wins, quick wins, making friends, etc. are all critical to the stickiness and success of a game.

New Employees: What communication do they get? How involved is travel in new employee orientation? How clear are the expectations? More importantly, how often are they thanked? How often are they asked anything?

1.2.3.4.5.



Player Levels

Master

Leader

Regular

Novice

Visitor

Department Stakeholders: Are travel initiatives and policy changes cascaded or socialized? While everybody usually recognizes the importance of executive sponsorship, the other side of the coin is also critically important. Have I courted or engaged the department manager so that they now feel involved in the travel policy and program? So many dollars are spent in endless meetings around the writing and modifying of the policy, and then somehow one communication and a few exception reports are expected to get the job done? Sounds like a Congressional subcommittee. A game designer would tip that on its side and invest more money in rolling out the policy and program.

Recognizing and Empowering the Leader/Masters: We talked, already a few times, about the importance of recognizing the status of the road warriors (frequent players). The challenge of the gamer is to keep these people interested in your game and to “Don’t Stop Believing” that they are special (‘I had to do it.’). In gamers circles, it is often done by either “special” unlocks for the veterans (what do I get that is unique) or moving them from a role of expert player to “leader.” These are your potential people for a Travel Advisory Board. These are your people to lean on, get testimonials from, highlight, and interview! These are the people to reward. They have often taken time away from their families and friends to advance the company agenda. A little more than a pat on the back and a $25 gift card to TGI Friday’s is required.

The Removal of the Overnight Mentality: Is compliance to the corporate travel policy a journey or an expectation? Sure, there are rules in any game that are expected to be followed, but understanding a traveler’s lifecycle with your company as a game designer allows for varied communications and interactions depending on the audience. A journey puts things into context both from a travel program perspective and from a traveler perspective. Besides, if you have read anything about the millennial generation, “rules” aren’t on their list of top ten favorite things.


Is compliance to the corporate travel policy a journey or an expectation?


Game DynamicsThe Pacing, Reward Schedules, Appointments, Progressive Unlocks

When I was 18, Cliff Huxtable was handing out prescriptions, Madonna was like a virgin, Marty McFly went back to the future, and a slot machine was simply a quarter dropped in the machine, a lever pull, and options of cherry, bar, and 7. Now, Bill, Michael and Ms. Ciccone are nowhere to be found and the 2011 slot machines are courting us, singing to us, taking us to new bonus journeys on the top half of the slot machines, and keeping us just interested enough to play for another 15 minutes…and another 15 minutes…and another 15 minutes.

Positive Steps In Our Industry

Vendor Point Programs: In May, 1981, American Airlines was the first of the major carriers to introduce a frequent flyer program. Other carriers soon followed suit, and we had a points system that allowed a traveler to accumulate meaningful rewards.

Another example of a reward is the incentive to downgrade from a policy-allowed business class ticket to a less expensive coach ticket on long-haul flights. Energizer was one of the first to implement the offering to share in the savings. Though there is a tax implication and paper-trail that needs to accompany this program (as this is considered an employee benefit) savings are usually interesting enough to both the employee and corporation to make this a viable option.

Over the last twelve years, I’ve seen two primary objections from corporations and their travel departments concerning rewards:

Compliance should be expected, not rewarded. After all, they are stewards of the corporation’s money. Isn’t a paycheck and benefits already reward enough? Absolutely,

if you want the remarkably average employee. If you want the superstar you are going to have to pay the player. If you don’t someone else will.



Two primary objections from corporations and their travel departments concerning rewards.

1.

Savings often isn’t interesting enough to justify the work. I have a hard time even writing that one but let’s look at it objectively. Corporation X is at 60% self booking. They are

trying to get to 80%. Why reward the 60% just to get another 20%? As long as your reward isn’t greater than your savings, why not? This is about creating a culture of accountability and responsibility and rewarding that behavior. I missed the memo that said frugality became a negative characteristic. I think it was authored by Enron.

Reminders and Notifications: The communication by the vendor to the traveler has increased impressively. There are check-in reminders, flight delay communications, points statements and reminders of how close we are to that next level, etc. ‘I didn’t know my flight was delayed’ is the travelers equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework.’


Traveler Scoring System: How can we make it easy-to-digest how well a traveler is doing on their journey toward compliance? Point systems, in general, are used because they provide context, immediate feedback, and highlight opportunity. You got a 750 credit score? I’ll lend you some money. Have a batting average of .340? You are on the way to the all star game. It will be enjoyable to see the penetration of the Cornerstone OneScore® methodology and deliverables into this market.

Making It Fun and Interesting To Visit Travel Site: The game designers want you to come back to their site daily (see Facebook’s Farmville – tending to the daily crops). How do we, as an industry or corporate travel department tap into that? How about, “Read the corporate travel policy highlights = 10 points or status level change?” How about, “Update and review your profile = 15 points or status level change?” When you get those free tickets or certificates from vendors, how about using it as the prize to a contest? These are just a few things that may help in viewing the travel website through a gamer lens.


2.


‘I didn’t know my flight was delayed’ is the travelers equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework.’

Game MechanicsThe systems and features that make progress possible. Leaderboards, levels, badges, accomplished missions and virtual goods are all examples of game mechanics. What games have done well is provide instant feedback and clarity around what is to be accomplished.

In Jennifer’s case, the familiar call-center metrics are now ranks and virtual currency within her multi-player game.


Levels/Statuses: The vendors do a good job of providing immediate feedback via:

Different color credit cards to preferred membersShorter check-in or security linesBigger seats that everyone has to walk past on the plane

Let’s be honest about it. Who doesn’t enjoy walking by the masses, keeping your belt on and being spoken to politely at the security line? On the rare occasions that I sit in the front of the plane, I admit I get a kick from looking out of the corner of my eye and watching people board the plane wondering “Why is that guy special?” and “Who is he?”

Where a Gaming Lens Could Benefit

Better Leaderboards: We haven’t done a great job of highlighting who is doing well. Usually we focus on who isn’t doing well. A scoring system does help to remedy that. Once we get that down, we need to take a page from the game designer’s book and create a leaderboard that is more compelling to the user. Psychology studies will tell you that I don’t care much if I’m 53rd out of 297…but if you show me two people I know and like that are better than me and two people that I’m better than – that is extremely interesting to me.

Badges: What started with Girl Scouts and the military has exploded in the gaming world. Badges are an inexpensive way of recognizing achievements. Again, a virtual environment makes badges more visually interesting, and these badges provide you ways to group travelers and recognize their achievements. For instance, Jacob

•••



Wheeler took more than 10 trips last year, had a 90+% compliance rating, read the travel policy online, and went through self-booking tool online training. He now qualifies for the Travel Guru badge. Beth Kyle traveled more than 25 times last year with an 85% compliance score threshold, read the travel policy, went through training, and updated her profile regularly. She qualifies for “The Ultimate Road Warrior” badge.

Sound silly? Perhaps. But suddenly you have groupings of travelers that you can assign certain benefits to and an excuse to communicate with them positively.

Game Aesthetics and Social InteractionSimply put, the game aesthetics is the environment. It is designed, with care, to promote an emotional response and connection. A good game carefully builds in factors that promote curiosity, trust, pride, envy, satisfaction, connection, etc.

This is why avatars are becoming more and more successful. The game designer creates interesting ways to display data (around the avatar). They create ways to encourage team members via a right click and a message. People’s statuses are readily apparent, and there’s envy. All of these things very carefully foster engagement.

Positive Steps In Our Industry

Mobile add-ons: The industry has done a decent job of rolling out many disparate applications that help a traveler better interact with their environment and respond to their questions. In short, they service the traveler well. Agencies like CWT recognize these tools and even make the downloading of helpful applications easy via a centralized travel marketplace. It is hard to argue that the 2011 traveler isn’t taken care of or empowered.



It is hard to argue that the 2011 traveler isn’t taken care of or empowered.

Where a Gaming Lens Could Benefit

A Travel Compliance Virtual Game: Why not? Personally, I believe we will see more movements in the overall avatar and virtual movement, and travel seems like a logical module. By starting one independently and then getting voluntary adoption and buy-in would surely be a significant effort.

Display of Data: With Jennifer, the data was presented to her by surrounding her avatar. It’s interesting. One cool thing about joining forces with Cornerstone was their commitment to not look at data in the same old row/column/tab format. We designed a visually compelling, ultra cool graphical “Spending Tree” that has to be seen to be appreciated. Yes, it looks like a tree (a very cool one) and gets at the heart of “is my spend up or down” in a graphical way that is sure to draw the attention of any department manager that is trying to dissect their data.

Trees, pirate ships, avatars – we’re only scratching the surface and we’re limited by our imagination as to how we can bring data to our customers in the future.

Social Interaction: As stated earlier in the paper, there are some shining star companies who have embraced the open and easy feedback and interaction with their travelers via active social networking sites. The social component of any game isn’t to be taken lightly. We need to keep getting creative – not as much in ways that we can reach out to travelers but in ways that our travelers can reach out to us and how we can respond. We have all seen the video that demonstrates that if Facebook were a country it would be the third largest in the world and we have seen the ads claiming that one out of three marriages are from couples who met online. If we don’t embrace online social interaction we will become Dunder Mifflin and be doomed to a life of multiple cats, Lean Cuisines and Murder She Wrote reruns. (How is that for dramatic hyperbole?)



ConclusionIn conclusion, will we see a true, robust Travel Compliance Game that solves all our compliance challenges and moves everyone toward the nirvana of a fully-optimized program? Probably not in the near future. However, no one can argue that the gaming movement and game thinking isn’t growing rapidly. If you dispute me and have a minute just go to www.nikeplus.com and watch their one-minute video. It is equally true that corporations have latched onto gaming and gamification as a low-cost way to increase engagement and attachment.

To me, the important takeaway is not to start designing the ultimate travel game. Instead, I believe it is more relevant to start looking at travel compliance and the corporate travel initiatives through a game designer lens. There are very sound change-management techniques and advances that can be made for not a lot of outlay.

Player: There are many ways we can improve our ability to know, recognize, and understand our travelers.

Journey: The courting of someone early in their corporate travel experience with XYZ Corporation needs to be drastically different from the regular traveler. The recognition and communication to the frequent road warrior also needs to differ from that of the regular.

Game Dynamics: How are travelers scored? Is it clear and concise? Are we clear on what we’re asking the travelers to do?

Game Mechanics: Create relevant comparisons. Think of better ways to group and recognize your travelers, not just traditional department rollups.

Game Aesthetics & Social Interaction: How are we using our social networking tools to provide logical feedback and create more engagement and emotional attachment? If we’re moving on a compliance journey, then we need to keep our focus on driving those emotions that create buy-in.


Tom RuesinkPresidentRuesink Consulting Group, Inc.

About The Author Minneapolis based Tom Ruesink was a director in the consulting

division for a large Travel Management Company before venturing off

to start Ruesink Consulting Group in 2006. He helps Fortune 1000

companies drive T&E savings and compliance, helps travel vendors with

their reporting strategies, and is a gamer-at-heart. He published his

first gaming article in a 1983 All-Star

Replay magazine (Avalon Hill)

while in high school and in the

mid 2000’s was the #2 ranked

electric football player (yes,

that ol’ game) in the United

States behind a guy named

Raiderman.

Tom can be reached at [email protected].

Cornerstone Information Systems is a professional services company helping travel management companies, corporate travel departments, airline and global distribution systems work more efficiently and more profitably. Founded in 1992, Cornerstone Information Systems is a privately held company based in Bloomington, Indiana with personnel in eight locations worldwide. Further information about the company is available at www.ciswired.com.

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Looking At Corporate Travel Through A Gaming Lens

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