The answer: You have to know who your end user is–for writers it’s the reader and for planners it’s your traveler, not the CEO who requests the trip.
Although this is easier said than done in some cases, it is a critical step to successful incentive planning. Although many planners just cover this by offering choices, there may be a time when you can’t do that for any number of reasons. Here are some ways to get to know your travelers.
The best way to understand those for whom you will be planning this trip is just to ask. Today it seems people don’t like to do this. The world in general gets more like a jungle every day, where survival of the fittest sometimes means just looking like you’re the fittest. Is it any wonder people are not willing to ask questions when not knowing is sometimes viewed as a sign of weakness?
However, screwing up an incentive program because you didn’t ask questions is a lot worse, and chances are you can’t make guesses good enough to fit the bill here–that would require true psychic ability, and the existence of that is still in serious doubt. If you need to be subtle, you can always ask these questions of your client:
• Are there any special considerations for the travelers?
• Do the travelers have any food allergies or reactions?
• Do the travelers have any medical conditions, suffer from motion sickness, or have any phobias?
• Do the travelers have any strict religious considerations?
• Etc.
You can easily develop a set of questions that will give you the answers you need to do the job without looking like you don’t know what you’re doing.
Other things you may need to consider are where they have been in the past. If your travelers have already gone to Paris, they would likely be more thrilled with another destination, maybe more exotic. Have they been to a city and hated it? Don’t send them there. How active do they like to be? Work activities around that. Are they concerned with environmental issues? Try an eco-friendly tour.
All this amounts to sensitivity. If you’ve got it, you’ve got it. If you don’t, you will need to get it to be a successful incentive planner.
