Why your DSP is the key player in your relocations

Using a good Destination Services Provider isn’t just a matter of doling out a relocation benefit to an employee: if you choose carefully, you're buying an insurance policy against significant economic losses across relocations. At Destiny Services, we go far beyond the norm in the industry to work to save clients money across multiple relocations and in many ways, such as carefully guarding the home search process against conflicts of interest, making sure the best deals are on offer, and relentlessly pursuing cases where client resources are threatened.

The DSP side is just one component of a corporate relocation, but it truly is the most important part, because--let's face it--temporary housing providers and household goods movers are not personally accounting for your employees’ lives, their children’s lives, their financial decisions, your expenditures on housing, their banking needs, and their emotions, among other things, all in one point of human contact. The destination consultant on the ground with the transferee is the transferee’s ultimate advisor and the DSP is the party that can protect your bottom line.

Unfortunately, conflict of interest is rampant in the mobility industry and one of the primary hits to that bottom line is the endemic corruption of the realty industry. Steering, whereby agents direct consumers to properties that benefit them rather than you, is common across the globe in property transactions, irrespective of the mobility industry. In some countries, agent steering is both illegal and commonplace.

Some DSPs accommodate realtors. Destiny Service has no need to make concessions there because we understand property markets and are capable of overseeing home searches without relying on realtors with agendas. We partner with realtors based on their results for transferees, not their results for themselves. We do not actively recruit realtors as consultants, we do not tolerate steering, we monitor for conflicts, and there are severe penalties for consultants who engage in such behavior. Our consultants are contractually bound against such conflicts of interest, and we require their disclosure during recruitment. In this industry, it’s an uphill battle, but those of us who perform at the pinnacle have no need to engage in such behavior and benefit from being the exception. As do our clients.

On the bright side, a DSP is in a position to save you a lot of money. DSPs normally don’t go the extra mile in the ways we do, but Destiny Services was built to meet the needs of very demanding clients, and we apply the same rigorous protocols to all our relocations. For example, an ordinary DSP will not fight deposit disputes to the point of legal action, devote serious time to negotiating rental contracts and their terminations, or pursue every significant opportunity to save money. We effectively act as an insurance policy against economic loss for our clients through these kinds of safeguards.

Without our kind of advocacy, when landlords see our clients’ names, they see dollar signs. In fact, we repeatedly encounter situations in which high value clients have been exploited by predatory landlords. In those cases, our service can put a complete halt to predatory rip-offs that are hard for clients, let alone transferees, to detect and combat. In some cases, landlords, banks, lenders, and auto dealers (among others), have no idea that what they’re asking for is unreasonable or illegal. In other cases, better results are simply a product of our expert negotiation. Either way, our protection pays for itself many times over in the cases where it's needed, and money can be saved across all relocations, all while delivering the best results for transferees.

Lease agreements, whether being newly signed or soon to be terminated, are complex instruments. An empowered negotiation of these contracts requires knowledge of state and local laws as well as local rental markets. Landlords themselves are frequently unaware of the laws that govern their business and they generally do not disclose the rights of tenants even when they are aware of them.

Destiny Services takes lease review, contract review, and negotiation seriously. We partner with reputable local law firms who advise us internally and provide options for escalation of complex cases. Most transferees won’t need us to intervene to help them stave off thousands in unfair charges for damages to their rental property or deal with a poorly negotiated lease termination involving potential overcharges, but all transferees and clients benefit from the many ways in which we can ensure they get the most for their money and spend the least amount of time on stressors that distract from life and work while we keep an eye on their best interests and bottom line.

Ultimately, your DSP is the key to a successful relocation. Doing the job well on our side brings great rewards for clients and transferees. Destiny Services takes pride in being on the cutting edge, bringing savings and success as your protector in the relocation process.

The State of Relocation

We believe it’s time to change relocation.

The mobility industry is in a state of change as mobility volume fluctuates in a post-covid world and companies negotiate with labor forces about office presence. One thing is certain: many of us are tired of the old way of doing things in an industry rife with cronyism and bad service; no one more so than those of us who depend on high standards and who pride ourselves on exceptional results. Decades in the mobility industry have seen little technological innovation and bottom of the barrel standards despite the globalization of technology and expansion of professional labor markets, but there are several players interested in doing things well and bringing change. Destiny Services is proud to be among them.

The future of relocation is not just a story of technology for its own sake. What’s called for amongst services like ours is a standardization of quality with technological development applied to service delivery and program oversight. On the DSP side, we don’t always need another app that provides city guides. We first need innovative communications platforms and systems that ensure key program elements occur so that transferees receive the guidance they really need as part of a greater process. We can do all this and still provide the same human service, so long as the framework makes sense and is implemented thoughtfully.

Without that kind of system, we can still do amazing things, but our clients may never even know those things are happening across relocations. With it, we can go beyond reporting and ease of access to improve consistency and reach of service. Reach of service means predicting when a transferee is having trouble with a purchase and is going to overspend or heading off a future landlord dispute that is going to cost them the deposit. Anything that expands reach of service will save clients on the bottom line.

Those who operate the old way—without significant reporting and without any internal system when it comes to program management—simply ensure they’ll fail to be consistent and fail to improve their services. Destiny Services’ primary focus is on program design and evolutionary management of programs because we are at the coalface with transferees where we can produce actual bottom line results and save clients money, but we also value outward-facing technology and the role it can play in that equation to make everyone's life easier.

Ultimately, watching one transferee get great results and great service and her co-worker see terrible service from the same provider is unacceptable. Service businesses need to be consistent and need to evolve to provide value over time to clients. At Destiny Services, we hope to contribute to that process as much as possible and we believe the mobility industry needs to be more forward looking. This is not just in our bailiwick because we are at the high end of the market and work with demanding clients with high expectations. These improvements are the future of of the mobility industry.

Ukrainian Refugee Program

At Destiny Services, we witness the benefits of cultural exchange on a daily basis and we support the rights of civilians and refugees.

The world is arguably closer to major global conflict than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. We believe that bringing people together across cultures helps prevent the outbreak of war and the development of circumstances such as those the world is now witnessing.

We are proud to announce that we will now be providing free destination services and support to Ukrainian refugees.

We now have a relocation program available to all conflict refugees and asylum seekers. If you are a refugee in the United States who needs help finding housing, obtaining documents, or if you are struggling with other relocation needs, please click here for more information about how we can assist you with your search to find housing and to get settled. For our Services page, click here.