Educating bookers to reduce rail costs.
Legal & General Group plc, are a British multinational financial services and asset management company based in London. They also have operations across the UK and USA along with investment management businesses in the Gulf, Europe and Asia. Their products and services include investment management, lifetime mortgages, pensions, annuities, and life assurance.
They have over 10,000 employees and are a leading financial services group and major global investor. Legal & General appointed Agiito to manage their business travel, meetings and event management business over 19 years ago. We’ve worked together to keep their travellers safe and happy whilst continually looking for new and ongoing process efficiencies and savings opportunities.
Objectives.
After reviewing a number of opportunities with Agiito’s Account Manager, Legal & General’s Supplier Relationship Manager and the LGIM Travel Consultant decided to run a series of targeted campaigns aligned to agreed customer objectives.
The first campaign was focused on rail booking behaviour, with the goal of increasing booking lead-time to more than 8 days in advance of departure. As we started planning the campaign, 45% of rail tickets were booked within 8 days of travel. The aspirational target was 52% or less booked within 8 days of travel – a 7% shift would make a significant difference.
By supporting this campaign and booking early, bookers and travellers benefit from greater access to lower fares, in turn bringing cost savings for Legal & General.
Solution.
Prior to launching the campaign, Agiito’s Account Manager put together a communication strategy to engage with Legal & General’s booker and traveller community. Comms included the campaign being signposted on the Agiito Connect booking portal, with supporting information within the help and support pages and by clicking on the Campaign tile. The Campaign information was also posted on the travel pages within Legal & General’s intranet - with results being updated regularly through the campaign by LGIM’s Travel Consultant. Agiito’s Account Manager also hosted a virtual booker forum for the EAs and PAs.
With the comms strategy in place, the campaign was launched on 1st April and set to run for 9 months with a target of a 7% shift by 1st Jan 2024. Pre-launch 45% of sectors were booked +8 days in advance of travel whilst best in class for customers with a similar profile and spend was 48%.
As an extra reminder an Interactive Campaign Manager (ICM) e-mail was triggered and sent to reiterate the booker and traveller community of the benefits of booking more than 8 days in advance of travel. The ICM was set to trigger at 8 days in advance of booking and excluded any commuter routes where fares were consistent regardless of Advance purchase fares. One of the benefits being, by booking a ticket from Cardiff to London 8 – 10 days in advance of travel, as opposed to within 2 days of travel, savings of up to 28% could be achieved!
The landscape of travel underwent a profound transformation in the wake of COVID, and as we returned to normality it was imperative to instil the importance of advance booking to secure optimum rates.
Agiito thoroughly analysed our requirements, proposing a tailored approach for the rail campaign. Their active participation in collaborative planning sessions fostered a dynamic synergy between the teams. Their innovative suggestions producing creative targeted marketing material and engaging workshops, not only met our expectations but exceeded them. This strategic approach not only enhanced the overall travel experience for our travellers and bookers but also contributed significantly to the observed shift in behaviour and subsequent cost savings.
We are overwhelmed with the results, and we are looking forward to working with Agiito to explore other campaigns that have been proposed to us.
The success story of this collaboration and initiative has been widely shared within our teams, serving as a benchmark for effective client-supplier partnerships.
Supplier Relationship Manager - Legal & General
Results.
The first target of the campaign was to reach best in class (48%) - and that was smashed within 4½ months!
Within 4 months of launching the campaign the results showed a 6.1% shift in bookings being made +8 days in advance of travel – increasing from 45% to 51% in just 4½ months, a saving of £5,796.
8 months post launch, the results showed a 7.8% shift in bookings being made +8 days in advance of travel - going from 45% to 53% in just 8 months, a saving of £7,534.80.
At the end of the campaign, the results showed a 7.9% shift in bookings being made +8 days in advance of travel with savings of £7,631.40.