Meetings Matter Chatter
Industry trends and topics pertaining to the travel and meetings industry
Meetings Matter Chatter
Crafting Destination Magic. A Chat with Melissa Zorko, Hello! Destination Management
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On this episode, we focus on the purpose and value of a destination management company. Melissa Zorko, VP, National Account Executive from Hello! Destination Management talks about her view on customer service and the changes she has seen over the years. She also talks about the hottest trends in the marketplace and how a DMC can provide customers with an unparalleled experience by being the experts of both the destination and the customer experience.
Hi there. Thanks for joining. Welcome to Meetings Matter Chatter. My name is Jenna Baker, and I'm the Vice President of Account Management at BCD Meetings and Events, and I'm your new host. Today I'm joined by Melissa Zorko, who is the Vice President and National Account Executive at Hello Destination Management. Melissa, welcome. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Melissa, let's start by hearing a little bit about you. Tell me and the audience about yourself and how you got into this industry.
SPEAKER_00So I always sort of wanted to be in the hospitality industry. I don't know if any of the listeners will remember this television show, but The Love Boat was one of my favorite shows back a million years ago. And I always wanted to be a cruise director like Julie because I thought that was so fun. And so I always just knew I would be in some sort of travel business or some sort of hospitality-based business. Um, so when I went to college, that's what I studied. Um, after college, I had to do an internship with a DMO, and it was a regional um destination organization called Rocky Mountain International, and they basically focused on the international market for the mountain states of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Idaho. So that was sort of my first foray into the hospitality business. And then from there, I was that with them for a couple of years, and then I decided to move to Montana, and I was in the hotel business in Montana for a while. And I very quickly realized I didn't like the hotel business. I found it, it just wasn't fast-paced enough for me. And so somewhere along the lines, I ended up with the same hotel management company in Denver. And then from there, I had a friend who lived in Las Vegas, and she said, they're basically printing money in Las Vegas. There are jobs everywhere. You should come to Las Vegas. So I packed everything I had in a uh U-Haul trailer, and me and my Honda Civic came down to Las Vegas, and I met a gal who worked at a thing called a DMC. And I went in and I talked to them, and I had a job in, you know, that day basically. And so when I got to Las Vegas, I had no idea anything about the industry or what to do, but the DMC industry seemed so fun. And that's where I've been ever since, oddly enough.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So I counted at least three states. How many states have you lived in?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I've lived in, let's see, I went to college, was born and raised in Wyoming. I went to college in South Dakota, lived in Montana, lived in Colorado, Nevada, and then during my journey with Hello, California. So six West and South.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's really cool.
SPEAKER_00We love it out west.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So, all right. So you you work at a DMC Now destination management company. Can you tell our listeners what is a destination management company?
SPEAKER_00Sure. It's it's kind of a simple answer given that the the name of the company, destination management company, kind of explains what it is. But ultimately, what you are is you're a part of the convention and meeting industry that is specific to the destination where you reside. So you are like the local expert and meeting planners, some travel agents, some association planners, they they contact you to handle everything that they need logistically in that destination. So it's an easy answer in that we do everything locally, but not every DMC is local. So there is this regional concept as well. For example, we have an office in Southern California. Our office is located in San Diego, but we will work with clients everywhere from Santa Barbara all the way down to San Diego and over to Palm Springs. But the office happens to be located in San Diego. So you are local to that region or that destination, and you handle everything from tours and activities to tickets to transportation, all logistics. What I typically say is that the DMC handles everything that the hotel doesn't. So the hotel will put the heads in the beds, they'll do the food and beverage and the meeting space and things like that. We will do everything else. There's no request that is too off the wall for us.
SPEAKER_01Well, I understand why you said that you didn't like working in a hotel, especially considering how many states you've lived in. You obviously want to get out of those four walls and do all the cool things that the destination offers. So that makes perfect sense. Now, the company that you work for is called Hello. Can you tell me a little bit about where that name comes from?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it's it's a it's a not super funny story, but uh basically the original founder of Hello, his name is Fritz Lehman. And Fritz used to live in Chicago, and he was moving to Florida, and when he moved to Florida, he was saying goodbye to Chicago and hello to Florida. And so hello, Florida, was born because he was saying hello to a new life in Florida, and he started this thing called the Destination Management Company in Florida.
SPEAKER_01Makes sense. Makes sense. I wanted to ask you a little bit about service. For us at BCD Meetings and Events, and really anybody in the meeting planning industry or in the hospitality industry in general, we all are really passionate about service, and we understand that there's all these logistics and data and all these things that go into an event. Ultimately, the service is the most important part. I know that from your lens, you've seen service evolve quite a bit in your tenure. What have you seen? What are your observations?
SPEAKER_00I think the first thing to discuss is how customer service has evolved over the years. And that I think started with the advent of the internet. You know, back in the day, you would pick up the phone and talk to a customer. If you were putting a proposal together for them for a piece of business, you would fax it. I mean, I remember the days of the fax machine with the roll of paper that was really glossy. And then if you didn't immediately Xerox or copy that uh proposal, eventually the paper would fade. But you would send these massive proposals over a fax machine, and then you would follow up with a phone call. Well, when the when the internet sort of was born, it just sped up the pace of everything. So email, you know, I did I remember finding out what this thing called the internet was after I graduated from college. And I my first email address was in 1998. And fun fact, I still have that same email address, but um for a personal email address. But that's how you communicated, and so it took it the customer service was at a much slower pace, and everybody understood that. That's just how the industry was. But the age of the internet, it brought on this speed of communication. You could send someone an email, they would get it instantaneously, and then you would be able to communicate them with that. I believe that that then started the decline of people picking up the telephone and talking to people because you could just put all of your questions in an in an email and people would answer you. So customer service evolved that way first, and then it just continued to evolve with the pace. And what I mean by that is not only did we have to get back to people quicker, did we have to get back to people more thorough, but we also lost patience in the same way they lost patience because they weren't, they were expecting an answer immediately, and we had to deliver that for them. And so it evolved, but we sort of evolved with it. And it was, I really believe it all started with the age of the internet. And now we live in this world where if you don't get back to or hear from somebody, sometimes within the hour, you're blowing them up on a chat or you're texting them or you're calling them because it has become this thing where it is a requirement of the job. It's a requirement of making sure that your customer service is at its peak level, is being able to get back to people quickly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would absolutely agree. I know that over the years I've certainly been overwhelmed by the amount of share email and volume and and things like that that come at you. And you're right, the expectations for turnaround are quicker. And we do lose that special touch of picking up the phone. I mean, we always have the same conversation. If you've gone back and forth on email, you know, a few times, pick up the phone and call that person because clearly this isn't working. But you're right. I mean, everyone's trying to do it faster and more efficiently, and that definitely compromises relationships. And ultimately, one might argue that service is all about relationships and really understanding.
SPEAKER_00It certainly is. And I would add to that seems like somewhat of a negative answer in terms of how the speed has gone. But I would say that my personal philosophy on customer service is to always do what you say you're going to do when you're going to do it. Regardless of the pace, if you say to somebody, I am going to do this thing for you, and I promise I will get it to you by this date, be true to your word. In doing so, you're already going to be above average because many, many people tend to overpromise and underdeliver. And that is truly because downstream from them, they may not have the answer. There, you know, there's a litany of reasons why they might not be able to get back to somebody. But if you say you're going to do something, do it and do it in the time frame you promised, and you're already performing better customer service than many, many people. And that's what I tell people.
SPEAKER_01You're absolutely right. You're probably outperforming 90% of the interactions most people have. So that said, what can a client expect when working with hello? What would their journey be like?
SPEAKER_00Well, I've been with the company for 18 years. I've mentioned that once already. Let's see, the over-under on how many times I mentioned my longevity with the company. But I would tell you this first and foremost: you will get great people when you work with hello. That is one of the true keys to our success, in that we hire for chemistry and we hire quality people who are willing to do this crazy job that we have to do. And we work really hard at making sure that it's a fun place to work so that these great people want to be with us. So on your journey with Hello, if you are a meeting planner and you are working with us, one of the things you'll notice about us is that all of our offices are run very similarly. Meaning we have we have an enterprise software system where all of our proposals will look the same, contracts will look the same, our signature lines, you know, right down to the email signature line, the way our invoicing goes out, the way that our proposals go out. There's some continuity in that. And this software that we have has really helped us help each other, meaning that if I'm working with a group that's in Las Vegas, um, and then this group is then going to Chicago to another office, they have the ability to see everything that we have done with that client in the previous times that they've used us. And it only sets up the Chicago office for success, in addition to them having the ability to pick up the phone and talk to us and ask us any questions, the nuances of any program. You know, we look at our relationship with our customers as a we're a consultant for them. Because at the end of the day, destination management companies do not own anything. We don't have a widget that we're selling. We are ourselves and our expertise. And so we want to be a consultant to you. We live and work in these destinations. So you trust us to come back to you with the appropriate ideas and suggestions for what your group's goals and objectives are. And we take that really seriously. So you're going to get a consultative approach from us that I think is the best in the business. I've always said that. And obviously, you can tell I drink the Hello Kool-Aid.
SPEAKER_01Well, and I think that that's why BCD loves working with Hello so much because of that consistent product. Because our meeting planners are working on a zillion things at once, multiple meetings, different destinations, and they really need to be able to rely on the expert and someone who is going to guide them and have that consistent look and feel so that they're not sifting through papers and trying to figure out where this thing is that they found on another proposal. So we really appreciate that approach that you take. Tell me, in your recent experience, is there anything you can think of where your team has really exemplified service excellence?
SPEAKER_00There's lots of examples of service excellence across all of our offices. Talk about a specific example that I'm particularly proud of from an organizational standpoint. This was an opportunity that we had in Orlando, and this particular customer had used us in 2018, and we underperformed, truth be told. We were not great. And it was a large event of 6,500 people back in 2018, and there were multiple times that we underperformed. It was a big transportation and logistics situation in Orlando. Imagine having to get 6,500 people all over the place. And there were multiple times where we underperformed. So when we had the opportunity to bid on this piece of business again, what we started by keying on the fact that we understand that we underperformed. We appreciate any opportunity that you would give us. And here is what we have done to fix the things that happened the last time. I don't think you should ever run from your mistakes. You should hit them head on and always acknowledge that you weren't great because there is strength and humility of knowing that you weren't fantastic, but that you are have worked very hard to sort of fix those things. So fast forward, this group grew from 6,500 people to 10,000 people. And they were moving from tons of different hotels. I think it was nine hotels, and then there were six of those hotels were full hotel buyouts. And every day they had to go back and forth to the convention center, the Orange County Convention Center, and then to various off-property dinners and whatnot. So logistically, there was a lot that they had to do, a lot of moving parts. What we decided to do, one of the things we decided to do on this program was that we threw a lot more personnel at it in terms of we had a fair amount of personnel in 2018, but this time we even doubled that. And when I say personnel, I mean operational logistics people that were assigned to specific portions of the program, and that was their sole responsibility. So they weren't trying to wear multiple hats throughout. Because as happens with you guys and happens with lots of third parties, when you have a massive event like that, you're bringing travel staff, you know, upwards of 100 people on site. And yet in many DMCs are putting one or two operations people, and there's hundreds of travel staff coming at them. So we we put some additional personnel so that it worked out that everybody had their sole responsibility. In terms of customer service, sorry, I'm making a very long story long, but customer service, the departure curve was the thing that we were the most proud of. They had a general session on their final morning. And at that general session, it broke at, let's say, noon. And they had part of the group that was going directly to the airport. They had part of the group that was going back to the hotel to get their luggage and then go to the airport. And then they had part of the group that was just going back to the hotel that was possibly doing a post-extension or whatever. Now you throw luggage into that mix. We had to have the logistics ready for all the luggage to be brought to the convention center for those that were then going to the airport, or back at the hotels, we had to have logistics for the luggage to be back there for those going back to the hotels, then to the airport. So you add all of that sort of in, and we managed to do it, and we managed to not lose one piece of luggage throughout this entire departure of 10,000 people. And our our team worked really, really hard. They were really, really tired at the end of this week. But when the customer left that particular three days later, whenever that was, the customer specifically said, I don't remember 2018 anymore. And that was the goal all along was that we were going to hopefully give them the opportunity to forget our past failures and only to look forward. And so I think that will help us as we're moving forward with not only with this customer, but knowing how never to repeat that kind of mistake again.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was a great program.
SPEAKER_01It's interesting. I heard a statistic the other day that even the smallest meeting, at least at our organization, has about 95 logistical steps. And I'm sure in your scenario that you were just describing, you had about 3,000 of them. But logistics is incredibly complicated and it takes a lot of hard work to make sure that every detail is accounted for.
SPEAKER_00So there is a reason that they say the third most stressful job besides being a soldier or a first responder is an event planner.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And especially you're on the ground, everything is gotta be ready at that moment, or else or else it fails. Exactly. So one of the coolest things, in my opinion, about the experience with working with a DMC is really that design aspect that you take us through as customers. So can you talk to us a little bit about what goes into the design process?
SPEAKER_00Uh as an organization, we have uh taken the create we what we call the creative event discipline, and we've made it its own department within our organization. What that means is that we have a team of talented designers where we have designers in every office that we have, that their specific and sole responsibility is the creative event discipline. So not only are they designing events for customers, but they are also constantly looking at the marketplace, what is available in the marketplace, and what new things might be out there in terms of design effort. Their sole responsibility is the creative event discipline. They're not doing buses, they're not doing tours, they're not doing any of the other things. Their sole responsibility is that. So, that being said, when you reach out to us and you have the opportunity for a creative event that we can participate with you in, that is when we will engage that department and those group of designers. And the first thing we would like to do is always have a conversation. We want to have a discussion about why you're doing what you're doing, what are the goals and objectives, what you are envisioning for your event, and then how you see our role in that. And it can be as simple as we need some centerpieces and some, you know, potted plants for a breakfast and a lunch. But sometimes it's this is the theme of our meeting throughout the entire duration of the week. And we want you to creatively message that for us. And then that leads into a much deeper conversation where we engage more members of our Creative Services team where we have the opportunity to really partner and consult with you guys in terms of what you want that design to be and look like. And then our designers will set about finding things and stuff, for lack of a better word, in the marketplace that will fulfill that for you.
SPEAKER_01So, what would you say are some of the kind of hotter trends or things that customers are really asking for these days?
SPEAKER_00So it kind of depends on the event, but our our event designers have kind of pivoted, and maybe they wouldn't say it's a pivot, but I've noticed that they pay a lot more attention to interior design trends than they ever have in the past. For example, we've come up with we came up with a book, and we actually debuted this book at our IMEX booth, which was a couple of weeks ago, where we talked about specifically about design trends. And for example, one of the trends that we put in this book was Gothic Western. It features like dark textures, weathered materials, reclaimed wood. Think like Arizona, Nashville, and Texas all into one, but with a dark sort of motif. And you're seeing that in a lot of design trends. So we created themes around that. You know, other things that we've come up with is color splash. There's lots of event trends lately, and you'll see this in home design, you'll see this in retail design where it's color splash. Basically, you're taking one color and all of its palettes, and you're designing the event around that one color. And so there are some different trends that they're seeing throughout that they, which I love so much about our creative event discipline, is that they take those trends and they design an event that we can then showcase to a customer in the sales process. Because let's be honest, I'm not designing a ballroom for anybody, or nobody would want me to do that. Let's put it that way. But our designers are doing that, and it gives us additional arrows in our quiver that can help us win business and help our customers bring to fruition a vision that they might have. So the the list of trends is is long. The other and the last one I would like to talk about is. Is what we're calling crafted wellness. In the past couple of years, the resilience spaces and the neurodiversity topic have become a big part of event design. We want to make sure that we are appealing to every type of brain out there. And so the crafted wellness space is just that. It think spa meets uh neurodiversity. So you have the opportunity where there is a calming space, but it also provides whether you need branding opportunities or you need an activation or you need whatever that looks like, there will be something for everyone in what we call a crafted wellness space.
SPEAKER_01That's really awesome. And I know that people really appreciate that because you're right, especially with these big conferences, you really just need a break because they can be quite intense. So to have that area where they can just unwind for a little bit is really awesome. And it sounds like for the trends, they can kind of fit any budget because if you're just going with a color splash, and I think that's a really cool idea, you know, maybe the client's brand is blue and you can do every shade of blue, that's relatively inexpensive, but creates a really impactful look.
SPEAKER_00You're spot on with that. One of the first questions we tend to ask a customer is when you're looking to do some type of a creative experience, what is it specifically you're trying to accomplish? And then how much have you allocated budget-wise? And it's not because we're seeing dollar signs, it's because we want to know how deep into whatever that might be, we need to go. So if you're on a limited budget, what I always say to a customer is, I'm going to spend every dollar that you allocate to us, but I'm going to do it with the very most bang for the buck that I can to get you the most stuff and the best experience relative to your budget. And I think that really matters to people. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01So why do you stay at hello? What is the reason that you've been at the company for 18 years?
SPEAKER_00I would say that's an evolving answer. If you were to ask me that, you know, when I was recruited, I was really attracted to the core values of hello. And at the time, our core values have evolved and grown since then. But back in the day, it was integrity, enthusiasm, and an intense desire to succeed, which basically means we like winning and we hate losing. So I've always been attracted to integrity because I believe in doing the right thing when nobody's watching. That's just one of my morals. I think I was raised that way. And second of all, I enthusiasm. Yeah, I think you can sort of tell that when I when I start to talk about hello, I get really excited because I wouldn't have been with this organization for as long as I've been with them if I if I wasn't excited about what they do and how they do it. And then I love winning. I love uh the opportunity to get in front of a customer, make a friend, because as you alluded to earlier in the podcast, it really is a relationship-driven business. And I'm still selling the same Hoover Dam tour or whatever that might be, that somebody else might be doing it, but I might be doing it better and I might be doing it different. And that really comes down to the relationship and the trust that my clients have in me. So when I started with Hello, those were the things that attracted me. I would say now at my journey at Hello, it's about loyalty. The company has shown great loyalty throughout all of these years to not only me, but you know, every other employee that works in the organization. And you can see it and you can feel it. And it's one of those things that you can't quantify. But when you feel like you have worked for bad organizations that you weren't able to help with the culture and you weren't able to fix it, and then you find your home, and in my case, my home, ah, hello, the idea of going anywhere else kind of makes me shudder because you just don't know. You don't know what you're gonna, you know, come around to. So it's one of those situations where I just want to feel the loyalty from them that they that I want to give them. And in it's a symbiotic relationship. And that's why, that's why I continue to stay.
SPEAKER_01I think if you can find a company where your values and their values are the same, and sometimes that can be pretty difficult, but I really relate to what you're saying because I'm in the exact same boat. It's just easier, right? You're not going against your values and feeling challenged every day. It just makes work that much easier and more pleasurable. So I completely relate to what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00And hello is exactly who they portray themselves to be. Who they are on the outside when we are working with customers is exactly who they are on the inside. And there's no sort of facade there that you can see it and you can feel it. And you can see it when we're all together too. We all love being together as you know, co-workers. So we love it.
SPEAKER_01You probably got to spend a lot of time together at IMAX recently. Was that exhausting for you? It gets more exhausting the older I get.
SPEAKER_00It's exhausting and exhilarating because when you're in it and you're not only talking to customers, but you're hanging out with your friends from other towns and other offices, it's so much fun and it's so easy and it's so great. And then you get home and you're like a dead person because you're just mentally exhausted, but it it's all worth it in the end.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would I would agree with that.
SPEAKER_00You get to do the fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you definitely do have fun. Yeah. So we know that the values are keeping you at hello, the relationships, the loyalty, the people. What about the DMC world in general? What keeps you going and constantly being creative and and motivated in that world?
SPEAKER_00I think it's twofold. One, it's partly because I get to work for these guys. I love the company, which we covered. But when I first arrived into Las Vegas in 2000, you know, as this 20-something, it was so exciting to me. And it was exciting to me because no day was the same. Every day was different. It was an opportunity for me to flex creative juices I didn't know I had, but also to exhibit customer service that I didn't know I wanted to do. So it was one of those situations where it was like, oh my gosh, I really do love it here. And I love this industry. And so for me, the DMC business, it is evolving, but it's also not evolving. It's still fun. No event, no two events are ever the same. And it never ceases to amaze me that I still get surprised by an RFP or a request from a client. And I think I live for those moments because I've done some pretty, pretty cool stuff during my time in this business. And so you kind of, it's like that high you're always searching for. And I feel like if you stay in the DMC industry, you'll always find it.
SPEAKER_01Very cool. Last question for you What would your customers say about hello and their experience working with you?
SPEAKER_00I think that they would say that we are a company of fun individuals who uh work really hard and that really love what we do and that they can feel it sort of come across in how we do it. But I think they would also say that we work in the realm of working hard, that we know how to do it. So there's a, I've always used the adage of don't pretend you're working so hard just by moving paper around a desk. Actually move towards the goal. Did you win today? And some days you win today because you got a lot accomplished, and some days you didn't win the day because you just moved a bunch of paper around all day. I would say the customers actually see us moving forward every day and performing on their behalf for them. And so I would like to think that our customers say they see a company with integrity and they see hardworking people who really enjoy what they're doing and who put the customer first.
SPEAKER_01I would say that's probably exactly what they say. I know that my colleagues that work with you would certainly say that. Well, Melissa, thank you so much for your time today. I really learned a lot. This was a great conversation. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. And we will certainly look forward to hearing from you again. I hope so. That's all the time we have today. If you've liked what you heard, please subscribe to our podcast or leave a review. Next time, we'll talk about creating a comprehensive stakeholder experience through program strategy, event design, and production. I'm Jenna Baker, and you've been listening to Meetings Matter Chatter.