The team is making the trip in a 32-foot RV with a driver, shotgun seat, three other seats and one bed. However, mercifully, no one is spending 24 hours at a stretch in the vehicle.
“Every night we are staying at a hotel. We’re not camping out,” says Brad Smith, the company’s EVP of customer experience. But the top executives, include North American CEO Pascal Houillon are making the trip because “customer service is everybody’s job,” Smith continues. Houillon is doing the short leg from suburban Los Angeles to Irvine, Calif.
The voyage starts in Charlotte, N.C., on July 10 with a long , first leg to Boston, Mass., where the real transcontinental journey begins on July 15. The tour hits 15 cities before ending up at Sage’s North America headquarters in Irvine, on August 28. Along the way, the travelers spend July 20 through July 26 in the Washington D.C. area for the annual Sage summit conference.
There are reseller events scheduled in Livingston, N.J., at the offices of SWK Technologies, but also involving Net@Work; in St. Louis, Mo., with Axis Integrated Solutions; and at Blytheco’s headquarters in Laguna Hills, Calif. There will also be a workshop for members of the Sage Accountants Network in Las Vegas, Nev., on Saturday, August 18.
The executives will be blogging from the RV and uploading video. Visits with 49 customers are scheduled, but the company has created an iPad app that can locate local businesses. Smith says the plan is to patronize Sage customers for services such as hotel stays and fuel stops when possible.