preparation to understand where
his travelers were already spending
their food dollars and his work to
match that back to the Dinova program to ensure effective coverage.
Meritor’s solid corporate card
program provided the linchpin,
said Reynaert. “I took on corpo-
rate card about three years ago, so I
knew we had great data. At Meri-
tor, the only way you can travel is
with a corporate card, so our com-
pliance really is 100 percent. And
it was easy to share that informa-
tion with Dinova to make sure we
were a match.”
Armed with the understand-
ing that a company can’t mandate
restaurant choice like it can card
use, however, he rolled out the din-
ing program with a soft launch.
He put the program in place and
advised some administrative staff
to steer business to the Dinova
network but otherwise let the pro-
gram travel by word of mouth.
“Without even pushing the
program, we can go back and say
we recovered dollars, and it really
helps our operations,” said Reyn-
aert, who proceeded to cook up a
communications campaign for the
dining program after launching a
SharePoint site for Meritor travel-
ers. “We’ve got a link on the site
that says, ‘Take a bite out of meal
expense.’ I love puns. So it kind
of grabs their attention, and the
program is easy to use. And if you
want to save the company some
dollars, jump on in.”
Meetings & More
Administrative staff and meeting
planners were key constituents in
Reynaert’s restaurant rebate strategy. The company was rolling out a
strategic meetings policy around the
same time, so extending the concept
to meetings was a no-brainer.
Meritor admins can access Dinova network caterers for in-office
and out-of-office meetings. For
larger-scale catering and events
that call for private dining rooms
and specialized venues, meeting
planners can use a new Dinova platform that pinpoints private dining
options and provides virtual tours
and other information pertinent
to group dining. Dinova has forged
relationships with high-profile restaurants in cities like Las Vegas
to help meeting planners organize
creative dine-arounds and garner
; Mandate The T&E Card
Drive all spend, including
restaurant spend here.
; Lock The Purchasing Card
Block merchant category
classification codes for restaurants
to force restaurant spend onto the
T&E card.
; Leverage The Global Card
If you have a global card, capture
that data and provide that to the
dining network, too.
; Prepare To Double Dip
Driving restaurant spend to the T&E
card will enhance the card rebate
and increase the rebate from Dinova.
; Use It For Meeting Meals
Meritor increases credit
limits on the T&E card to
accommodate procurement of
food and beverages for meetings;
alternately, travel managers could
mandate meetings cards and
aggregate that data to enhance
their managed dining programs.
“
”
JACK REYNAERT
substantial rebates in the process.
“It’s a really phenomenal program,”
said Reynaert, “A lot of times meeting planners want to break away
from a hotel. You don’t want to be
locked into a single facility.”
What’s In It For Me?
At the end of the day, though,
adoption could falter for a pro-
gram that can’t be mandated or
measurably enforced. Dinova’s
answer was to roll out a loyalty
program in which travelers reap
points while corporations retain
the rebates. “We are launching
that,” said Reynaert. “Our people
love points, and they don’t have
to do anything but use the corpo-
rate card. It’s easy for them, and
they know it helps us offset costs.
… This is just one more element
of the model that enforces how
effective the program is.”
Now that Meritor is actively
steering employees to the program
and the loyalty program is in place,
Reynaert said the positive response
could enable him to double his
“soft launch” rebates.
“Our travelers are always looking for guidance, so when someone
is traveling into a city they haven’t
been to before, we actually suggest
restaurants for them. That drives
up the volume, which we appreciate, and [the traveler] appreciates
the help.”
Replicate Meritor’s Managed Dining Success
