Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Using Gamification to Influence Business Travelers' Behavior



Gamification is proving to be successful when applied to many different subjects. In the classroom children are scoring higher. In the workplace employees are becoming more engaged at work and generating more revenue for their employers. Now it is being applied to business travel.

Business travel has changed a lot in recent years. A recent Forbes article highlighted the changes in corporate travel in recent years.  Employees are increasingly personalizing their travel experiences by updating seat assignments, customizing in-flight meals and booking their own hotel rooms without the involvement of a corporate travel planner. But with all of this flexibility, business travelers are pushing the limits of their company’s travel rules and budgets. Companies have turned to gamification to solve this issue. Here are two examples of tactics companies are using to change employee behavior.

Travel management company Ovation rewards travelers for obeying the company’s policies. They earn points and can redeem them for merchandise from digital stores.

Rocketrip, a gamified travel service for companies, rewards clients' employees who adhere corporate policies with cash. The closer they follow or beat the budget that is set, the higher the reward.

In an age where personalization is central to consumer's experiences, convincing people to sacrifice a bit of that experience for the good of the company is a tough task. Entrepreneurs have risen to the challenge and used gamification as a means to fix this trending problem. And it’s working.

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