John Valente believes in the power of incentive travel. As president of Byron Center-based Manufacturers Rep Group Inc., he represents three cabinetry companies to retail dealers in seven states. For one of the companies—Showplace Cabinetry out of Harrisburg, South Dakota—Valente facilitates an incentive trip for its dealer customers every other year. Attendees qualify to win a spot on the trip by meeting sales goals.
Of course, it’s not cheap to take a group of around 40, including dealers and their plus-ones, on a cruise or to some exotic destination. But Valente says it’s worth it. “It’s something we get a lot of loyalty out of,” he says. “It’s one of the best promotions we’ve ever done.”
Valente has organized many of these incentive experiences over the years, but for the last decade, he has had Grand Rapids-based Destination Consultants LLC plan them. Earlier on, the destinations were high-end resorts in places like Mexico’s Playa del Carmen and Cabo San Lucas, but it turned out that at these locales, participants tended to scatter in lieu of relationship-building opportunities. Valente has since turned to cruise ships, which he says keep people more connected. And with Destination Consultants tending to every possible detail, he’s free to do what he came for. “The minute I step on the ship,” Valente says, “I’m serving my clients and nothing else.”
White-Glove Treatment
The freedom to focus on their attendees is what you want a client to experience when it comes to incentive travel, says Destination Consultants President Amy Young. Most incentive events are designed to ultimately increase sales, but they’re also about relationship building, and to reward and recognize top employees to build loyalty and inspire continued excellent performance. Whatever the reason for hosting the trip, Young says, no elements should be left to chance. The client—and the attendees—must have a seamless, positive experience.
Destination Consultants handles all aspects of incentive trips, from registration to travel arrangements, associated events, gifts, and anything else needed. When planning a traditional conference or event, Destination Consultants Senior Meeting and Event Producer Jackie Stone says she focuses on things like the program, speakers, breakout sessions, and logistics. “I still have [to think about those things] on these incentive trips, but it’s just different,” she says. “There’s more gifting. There’s more travel to handle versus a conference where I’m not worried as much about the travel for people.”
An incentive trip Stone is planning on Mackinac Island this summer for 50 participants is a good example of what an incentive trip typically involves. “It’s usually more high-end,” she says. “[For example, these groups] have more money to spend to do a big dinner out on the front lawn of the Grand Hotel. There’s more gifting. We’re booking their flights. We’re sending down a welcome package beforehand. We’re meeting them at the airport. [There’s] the shuttle, and their luggage is tagged and put on the carriage—everything along the way.” Adds Young, “We don’t want these people to touch a suitcase or to tip anyone.”
Rock Events is part of the Detroit-based Rock family of companies. It has been handling incentive travel for fellow Rock company Rocket Mortgage, which uses trips to reward individuals and teams for achieving certain goals. Rocket Mortgage’s top incentive is called the Founders Club, which last year had 250 people travel to Ireland; this year is going to Costa Rica; and in the past has been held in places like Prague, Vienna, and various locations in Greece. Rock Events also plans smaller incentive trips for Rocket Mortgage annually as well, and, in fact, the company makes its incentive-planning services available to external clients now, too—just as it has been doing with event planning in recent years.
“We have definitely found that many folks are motivated by experiences,” says Nick Thoreson, Rocket Mortgage executive vice president of refinance. “You can dangle monetary things out there, and some people are very motivated by those, but collectively we have found that experiences resonate more.”
Like Young, Rock Events CEO Andrea Gengler says the less participants must handle on their own, the better. She says, “I have people every year tell me, ‘This is heaven—I don’t have to figure anything out. I just show up where you tell me to, and we magically go where we need to go.’”
Lori Visser, a travel agent with Cruise Planners, is based in Cedar Springs. She typically works with cruise lines to set up travel for companies sending employees on a trip. She’s not planning for groups, but for one or a few employees at a time. She says it’s common for companies to buy out entire ships for an incentive trip. A small riverboat might hold about 170 people, for example. “Cruises are popular because they include everything,” Visser says.
Details Matter
Perhaps one of the most complicated parts of managing an incentive trip is the travel from home to destination and back. Attendees might be coming from all over and arriving and departing at different times. “Imagine a rooming list and flight manifest for 200 people,” Young says. “Every single one of those people has to be tracked and met.”
Such efforts likely require extra boots on the ground, including planning-company staff or freelance trip directors who contract their services out. A skilled trip director is worth his or her weight in gold, Young says, adding, “Trip directors give you peace of mind.”
Young often turns to David Barrenger for such service. A trip director since 1989, Barrenger lives in the Grand Rapids area and has operated programs in over 75 countries. He handles everything from greeting folks on arrival to getting people to and from all the places they need to go. He also works with hotel staff to load luggage and get attendees ready to depart at the end of the trip. Need assistance with audiovisual? He is on it. If there’s a destination management company (DMC) involved at the destination, he’s the liaison between the DMC and the client.
Barrenger says some incentive trips might be cookie-cutter due to budget and the preferences of the client. Others have more resources and capitalize on creating experiences people couldn’t necessarily access on their own. “Maybe we go to the Sydney Opera House [in Australia] to do a concert and dinner,” he says. “Maybe we go to Westminster Abbey [in London] and have a program there. I was just up in Park City, Utah, where we were at [Utah Olympic Park,] with Olympians ski jumping into the pool, which was just awesome. We got to watch and meet them.”
Gengler says creating those one-of-a-kind experiences are a must for Rock Events’ trips. “We aren’t doing your average excursion,” she says. “We’re not doing your average transportation. We want it to be different.” In Ireland, when the group needed to be transported from one side of the country to the other, Rock chartered a historic train. In Paris, it staged a gala at a museum that houses vintage carnival rides from all over Europe. During a trip to Rome, Rock Events organized a gathering at a private hillside villa that the average traveler might never have found.
Hiring a DMC in a locale you aren’t familiar with can be key. Planners can’t possibly know everything about a destination, but area DMCs help fill in the blanks. “The area destination management company really makes or breaks your program,” Barrenger says. “I’ve had some bad ones where stuff slipped through the cracks and then you’re scrambling. If everything goes right, I’m happy. If stuff goes bad, that’s why I have a job.”
Gengler and her team partner with DMCs in far-away locations to get ideas for hotels, attractions, and venues. They also do site visits to scout locations. She says, “We ask them for suggestions, but we also obsessively and compulsively google and scour Instagram.”
Earica Brown-Raskey owns Scottville-based Viavoya. She has built a career around photographing incentive travel events. “I’ve been to California a lot,” she says. “We’ve done cruises to Alaska and to the Bahamas. We’ve been to Costa Rica, Greece—so many [places,] I can’t think of them all,” she says. “One really fun thing I remember from Greece was sort of a ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’-themed evening, where attendees sang and danced in the street and broke plates. My job is to photograph all of that.” Afterward, she posts galleries online, and trip planners send the link to those who participated. Attendees can then use facial recognition or “old school sorting through each image” to choose the ones they want to download.
Rocket Mortgage surveys its incentive attendees posttravel, because it’s important to measure whether trips are driving results for the company. Sometimes unsolicited feedback comes through, like this note Gengler shared from one of the Ireland travelers. “Every detail was thoughtful and unforgettable,” the attendee wrote. “I’m more focused than ever on earning this experience again.”
cruiseplanners.com
destinationconsultants.com
grandhotel.com
mackinacisland.org
rockevents.com
viavoya.com
