We all know the power of positive reinforcement, and understandably the incentive trip seems to be one of the biggest staff motivators in recent years. The Incentive Federation estimates that almost 40% of US businesses now use incentive travel to reward and recognize their top performers - and this is undoubtedly set to rise in 2017. Due to this rise in the importance of incentive trips, organisers bear a heavy responsibility to ensure that staff remain engaged and therefore help the company to achieve higher results in the following year. We've compiled some simple and helpful tactics which will enable you to create more successful and unforgettable incentive trips.  

5 Tips for a Better Incentive Trip

Tip 1: Everything should be at your fingertips (and theirs)

Make sure your staff have all important information at their fingertips such as excursion information, agenda, etc. You no longer need to print the excel agenda, but instead publish a fully functioning electronic guide* for the trip. This enables you to edit the information anytime without needing to reprint materials even if the schedule changes. *Note that NO specific IT skills are needed. With a mobile app platform like Guidebook, it's all a drag-and-drop process.  

Tip 2: Separate the channels and create curiosity

Imagine that you are invited to the incentive trip, you probably do not want to get the excursion information mixed up between your other business emails. Separating the communication channels is critical as this reinforces your staff that this is an incentive reward, and not a normal business trip. Creating a mobile app for this communication allows you to have a central point of information, where you can also include details of the experiences that have been scheduled, and lists of other attendees.  

Tip 3: Top staff recognition

Focus on your hard working staff. They’ve spent the last quarter/year dedicated to your company goals and finally they’ve won the highest accolades and rewards. This is a great time to recognise the best of the best within your staff and maximize their exposure in order to make this a goal for the rest of the team. While employee of the month boards might seem outdated now, it looks smart and awesome to show who won Top Sales of the Year, Rookie of the Year or CSA of the Year on a list or rolling banner in the incentive trip app.    

Tip 4: Strengthen the bond between staff

When arranging a group incentive trip, make sure to gather a mix of employees so that they can get to know each other and learn more about other departments in the company. This definitely helps create harmony later on back in the workplace.  

Tip 5: Keep invited partners entertained

If your top staff are inviting their partners on the trip, remember to get them involved as well. Creating a digital community enables them to chat and share photos which creates a memorable trip. This can be influential in retaining your staff. Last but not least, always bear in mind that an incentive trip is not just FOR FUN, and make sure your employees have meaningful take-aways from the trip! Now look at your options for your incentive trip mobile app, a tool which will be essential to organization, and that will allow information to be easily accessible. However, who is going to be responsible for this incentive trip mobile app? Are you going to partner with a 3rd party digital company who takes years to make simple edits to your app?? NO WAY.  

The Power of a Mobile App Platform for Incentive Trip Apps

Even without a dedicated IT team, you can build an app for your incentive trips by yourself to (1) save resources (costs, manpower and man hour) and (2) make edits instantly, given that the average time spent on building an app from scratch with Guidebook is just 8 hours! See what our client Amway said about our platform's ease of use and attendees’ feedback:  

“We have been using Guidebook in more than 100 events all over the world. We hold incentive trips frequently and Guidebook helps us manage these trips better than ever. We can easily notify our trip members of any changes, share useful information and even chat with each other via the app. The Guidebook platform allows us to do this easily, requiring no technical skills and enabling us to scale across the region in order to maintain momentum.” -by Amway Korea  LY Kim (Content Strategist, Digital Integrated Marketing)

 

“As a participant on the incentive trip, I found the mobile app very useful as schedules are listed clearly with detailed excursion information and maps. There is also a shared photo album and a platform for us to chat regarding the trip. Everything is well organised and innovative. Good job!” -by Amway Korea incentive trip participant

Want to know how and more? Request a demo today! We look forward to sharing details on how a mobile app can be beneficial for your next incentive trip!