Staff Incentives

Mark:  Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. I'm here with my good friend, Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. Vancouver's best courier service. One of BC's fastest growing companies expanding right across the country. Today we're going to talk about staff incentives. What the heck does that? What are we talking about staff incentives for Mark? 

Mark H: Well, you know, just like you and I have a scheduled meeting, it's part of my week. That brings a little bit of like joy. You're like, Oh, I get to talk to a team member. I get a lot of feedback from everybody, especially like couriers when they're dropping packages off and with all the offices decentralizing, for instance, let's just use gaming artists because there's a lot in Vancouver, it's a huge industry. And they all used to come to work and they'd be working in a gigantic studio and it'd be the hustle and bustle and a great energy.

And everybody be like, we're working on the projects and have time to chit chat and be collaborative and get that exciting creative ball going. Well, you know, they're all safely at home for COVID and COVID is taking a long time and it's wearing people down. 

And we found some of our customers will go to the door and people be like, what is it? Like what have you got for me? And it can be anything, you know, it might be just like, Oh, here's a thing you need. But a lot of people are worried for their careers. And a lot of our customers, they must be noticing it because they have staff meetings and such. So they've been sending out like team incentives, things to bring them back together, things to rebuild the decentralized culture.

And people are basically, you could see them like, Oh, like they have a sigh of relief. You know when it's something good. So there's been all sorts of things. Like pre-packaged nice boxes full of like snacks and chips and coffee cups and just like little things that when they open them up, it's not work. You know, it's not a threat. It's just something that they're like, Oh, somebody cares about me. 

So these things are really good. And a lot of people are creating new, like swag material, like maybe a hoodie from the gaming company. That's like, you know, it's got their logo on it of course it's all branded up, but it's something that brings the team together and it may be on a project they're working on. We've seen a lot. 

One was a hoodie that was used as the packaging and inside was a pancake mix and syrup. So, you know, people are all having a, like the whole team on, you know, October 22nd, don't open until October 22nd. They all opened it up and they're like, okay, everybody. 20 minutes, come back with pancake breakfast. So everybody got shut down for a break. They all came back with their pancake breakfast and had a giant team, like team building, zoom meeting, where they just laughed about the pancakes because still people knew pancake shape so that people put fruit in it. And everybody had a great discussion. So it got like that human aspect back into businesses and the couriers all dropped it off.

And when they had that, don't open till October 22nd thing, there was mixed reviews. Like, I don't know what this is, but you know, there was a very bright, colorful, happy hoodie. So there wasn't a lot of threat involved with it, but it brought up that I think, what is it? It's Christmas. So, you know what it's like for a kid who can't open this present at Christmas, it brings excitement and wonderment, and I think that really good companies that we work for an hour doing that. 

And it's a huge opportunity to make your staff good or happy. And it's a good opportunity for us to keep continue working and be part of that mechanism. So if there's any companies out there looking to do staff incentives, we're down with it.

We've got an excellent system to get them delivered and follow up because a lot of people aren't. They might be home, but they're not home because of zoom. They've got headphones on, they don't see the doorbell. 

And then if there's any companies out there looking for a great opportunity right now, I would consider getting a snack box company built up with nice branding. Get on it. Because I think that's a market that's going to keep going on for a long time, because, you know, once they've been decentralized to bring them back, it's more of that effort.

They put all this effort into getting the ball, rolling the hard stuff. And I think that people are going to be working from home as it's in the news. And we're going to have to make sure everybody's happy. I have staff working at home today. First thing I do is I always touch base with them. And I think that that goes so far, but eventually you're going to have to take it in like, and your lunches arrived today, special surprise. And they'll be very happy. I think it's a good thing. 

You know, it's just a human thing and couriers play a big part of it. And I'm pretty impressed by our clients. That it's a lot. Like one company had almost 300 packages. Can you come pick up this load? Sure. What is it? 300, 300. Whoa know, like that's a big effort by some company to put extra expenses out there because they know the value of their employees. And I think that's awesome. 

Mark: So we were talking just as we got started about how you're in the downtown core of Vancouver, your main office. Yeah. That it's pretty dead there. There's a lot of business that's distributed their employees back home. So this is going to continue for a long time because COVID is not over.

Mark H: Nope. It's eerily quiet in the business district. Like, you know, you see traffic and foot traffic, but those people are outside the towers and there always have been, but the towers are empty. Restaurants are empty. Parking is very available. You can feel it like, it just looks like a sunny Sunday when you're downtown instead of a busy Wednesday, you know, it's like maybe a few people milling about.

More stores are closing to like ING Direct just closed on Howe Street. There's two Starbucks that just closed some Howe Street because the foot traffic is gone. So everybody loves a latte, right. And those people just aren't coming anymore. So they have to get that stuff delivered. You know, it's just like all those places we used to commune together, like hang out. Even if you were just briefly walking into a Starbucks, that's a break from work. 

And if you're at home all day, maybe your break is doing dishes, but it doesn't give you that good feeling. Yeah. The core is dead. So couriers are being used more than ever to get things out and about because the interoffice delivery is, is not as robust as it used to be.

Like our percentages now is like over 66% to residences. So, you know, instead of B2B now, we're really doing it's B2B, but it's actually B2B to C because you're doing the business to the, well, I always call them consumers, but residences has generally have  that metrics, but now we're going to people's houses and they live everywhere.

So people live as a pretty, it's crazy when you're going up to Mission for people that used to come downtown. So I see the benefit for them working from home, but imagine commuting from Mission. I mean, people will not want to do that anymore. If it's good for people to work at home and be supported by their companies with courier delivery and stuff like that, I think it's better for them because that's a huge commute. 

Mark: Absolutely. And it's the way of the future basically. So if you want to build your team using staff incentives, a company that's expert on getting your vast, hopefully distributed network of people all over, hey it could be even all over the world, getting that stuff delivered and tracked and on time, Phantom Couriers are the people to call. You can reach them at (604) 899-5447. Or if you're outside of Vancouver, +1 844-899-5447. They'll get it looked after. Thanks Mark. 

Mark H: Excellent. Thank you very much.