How to use behavioural nudges to save money on your business travel

Travel policy can be complicated – here’s how you can lower your business travel expenses

It goes without saying that we all want to save as much money as we can on business travel. For lots of companies implementing a travel policy is the easiest way to keep costs within your budget. The problem is that very rigid travel policies can cause more problems than they solve.

For example, whilst you might not want your employees to book anytime returns, the reality is they might need to if a last-minute, urgent meeting comes up. In that case your booker would either require some flexibility or need to book out of policy. But for every exceptional case, there are probably going to be lots of other (more common!) cases where staff book expensive anytime returns on rail travel unnecessarily.

So what can you do to contain your business travel expenses?

Use behavioural nudges to influence business travel booking behaviour

Changing business travel policy can be a lengthy process. It’s often the case that it’ll need to be agreed by lots of different stakeholders. As a result, it might end up being too limiting for your travellers. But there is another way…

Behavioural nudges.

Behavioural nudges are similar to push notifications. Simple reminders that pop-up on your travel booking platform while your travellers are in the process of booking. These nudges can be targeted at certain pages to remind your bookers of top tips to save money.

We’ve built behavioural nudges into Click Travel’s platform, so that you’ll no longer need to rely on internal communications within your business to gently remind bookers to make cost conscious decisions.

But where to start? Well, our award-winning Click Travel team are on hand to help you identify what sorts of nudges your business can benefit from. Here are a few examples of how we’ve used behavioural nudges with our clients to save them money on their business travel.

1 – A reminder to use the most cost-effective airline

Some airlines will offer particularly affordable tickets for your frequently used routes. For example, does your company have an office in Dublin and bookers regularly fly there from Heathrow? If you have common routes like this then you can remind your bookers of the most cost-effective airline. Your booker will have the freedom to choose their own airline, but this subtle nudge will help to remind them of your preferences.

Account Manager Ellie explains, “it can be really helpful to remind your booker of your preferred airline to help you save money over time. Whilst you might only save £20 on one booking, if all of your employees do the same then you’ve made a huge saving!”

2 – A reminder to book advance trains

Everyone knows that booking trains in advance is the most cost effective option. Reminding your staff to avoid booking anytime returns and book specific trains instead can help you save money.

Your nudge could look like this…

“Did you know you can save up to 30% by not choosing an anytime return? Instead, look to book a fixed advance outbound and a flexible return.”

It might not convince all your bookers, but every time an anytime booking changes to advance bookings, you’ll see cost savings! One of our clients, a public sector organisation, had a huge volume of sneaky bookers selecting anytime returns. After introducing behavioural nudges they saw a saving of 4% in the first three months. Not a bad result!

3 – A reminder to book particular hotels

It’s not all about saving money – although saving money is always good!

You can also use behavioural nudges to give your bookers handy reminders. It might be the case that your office in Edinburgh has a local hotel that you would rather your bookers stay in to save them needing to book a cab from a cheaper hotel much further away.

Ellie explains, “little reminders like this can be really helpful. You’re giving your bookers key information that they might have forgotten and can help make their trip that much smoother. We also use behavioural nudges to remind customers to book travel cards if visiting London or to add on hotels if flying abroad.”

Use behavioural nudges to save money on your business travel

Want to find out more about how Click Travel’s award-winning platform and account managers can help you save money with behavioural nudges? Contact us here!