The Strategic Importance of the Trade Show I&D Service Provider

For many exhibitors in the trade show industry, the company providing their I&D labor services is just ”a labor company”. Their value is to merely assemble and build the exhibit structure; then return and dismantle it when the show is over.

For custom houses and exhibit dealers who have clients that participate in trade shows many times per year – and all over the world – hiring I&D labor companies is an important part of their value proposition to customers. They know how critical a great I&D partner is. The strategic value of a professional and structured I&D Service Partner can help exhibit houses strengthen client relationships, improve organizational efficiencies, and drive profitability.

Here are five things that amplify the importance of partnering with the right I&D Service Provider:

1. Customer Retention

The I&D experience is the single greatest influencer as to whether an exhibit house keeps or loses its customers. It’s been said that sales reps “make the sale”. The experience delivered on the show floor “makes the CUSTOMER” (keeps the client coming back to you) .

2. Market Credibility / Local Efficiencies

For display companies and ad agencies, the ability to extend their brand to foreign venue cities while enjoying the advantages of local resources and relationships improves their customers’ experience in that city. These advantages include:

• Established City Managers that know “the process” in that city

• Proven local resources (emergency graphics, area furniture stores, local custom shops)

• Market-specific knowledge (unions, vendors, city restaurants, etc.)

• The benefits of strong, personal relationships (freight, electrical, rigging, other).

3. Information Sharing That Improves Your Profitability

A forward thinking I&D Provider has data capture and reporting systems (beyond an invoice and Bill of Lading copies). For both display houses and exhibitors, I&D companies can :

• Offer actual cost analysis.

• Identify additional billing information (for YOU, to your customer) that would have been missed.

• Provide digital progression photos at critical moments in the install, dismantle & repack process.

• Improve communication (“Blue Notes”…half-time reports, real-time pics, post-show summaries).

4. Process Improvements

With the right I&D Service Partner in place, an exhibit house can:

• Extend their own brand of customer service to other cities.

• Capture important data about their own internal processes (warts and all)

• Learn valuable information about how their best customers view their own company and personnel.

• Uncover new sales and service opportunities (within their existing client base).

• Expect a higher level of problem / resolution behavior (“own” the problem; be accountable for solving the problem).

5. A Partner That “Gets It”

It’s not “I&D”…it’s Exhibit Services.

• It’s a different mindset. An I&D is not an “assembly” job. It’s an experience.

• Providing I&D “PLUS” service demands a larger financial investment (by the I&D Provider).

• It requires being headquartered out of a facility (not your home), and inventorying high-frequency request items so you can respond to emergency AV needs, customization needs and even basic graphic needs.

• Being a professional Service Provider requires a more robust staff and demands an investment in training (customer service, AV troubleshooting, and your own proprietary processes).

There will always be labor options in every event city. But to deliver consistent knock-your-socks-off customer service experiences to your clients — at every show and in every location — means not just looking for “the cheapest labor option”, but finding an I&D Service Partner that takes a white-collar business approach to the blue-collar hustle and muscle world of trade show and event labor.