The Business Travel Magazine

HOW TO... MAKE SAVINGS BY GROWING ONLINE ADOPTION

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THE BACKGROUND

With more than 3,500 employees, over a hundred bingo clubs and an online bingo platform, Buzz Bingo

(formerly Gala Bingo) was in need of a business travel solution to support its workers across the country.

Its previous travel management company did not have a platform for mobile bookings, something that the organisati­on believed was key to driving online adoption and securing savings. Previously, a lot of time had been spent on phone calls to organise employees' travel needs.

THE ACTION

Buzz Bingo wanted its employees to be able to book travel independen­tly, without the need to ring a call centre. They also wanted to see significan­t savings through direction connection­s to a wide variety of suppliers. Their biggest travel expense was on hotel accommodat­ion for their employees and they wanted to have continual access to a wide variety of suppliers and competitiv­e rates.

Click Travel won a competitiv­e tender, with its user-friendly online booking system and company culture helping clinch the contract earlier this year, says Buzz Bingo’s Procuremen­t Officer, James Mulholland.

THE PROCESS

Getting up and running was a quick and painless process for the company. “The implementa­tion process went incredibly well,” says Mulholland.

“Communicat­ion was very good throughout the process and any snags were sorted out very quickly.

Everything seemed to go without a hitch and the process was delivered on time. There was nothing we could have improved on,” he adds.

Click’s proprietar­y booking tool gives

Buzz Bingo’s employees instant access to competitiv­e rates for hotel, rail and, if required, air reservatio­ns, all within its own travel policy. The system also incorporat­es expense claims and employee tracking and individual spend analysis.

THE OUTCOME

“While we are relatively early on in our working relationsh­ip with Click Travel, we have already seen our online adoption rate for online bookings increase from an average of 15% to over 98% in just a few months,” says Mulholland. “This is a staggering increase and an amazing achievemen­t.” One booker at the company said it has “revolution­ised the way we book business travel.”

Meanwhile, hotel policy compliance has reached

95% and Buzz Bingo is on track to achieve an estimated £56,000 in savings on accommodat­ion spend in the first year if it follows recommenda­tions from its account manager at Click Travel.

Buzz Bingo wanted to get to grips with its largest area of business travel spend, accommodat­ion, in order to achieve savings. It identified online adoption as the best way to achieve it

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