Member profile: Delivering an experience
By Brock Huffstutler
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Member profile: Delivering an experience

For the team at Dreamers Event Rentals, satisfying clients goes beyond just renting supplies like tents, tables, linens or chairs. The ability to dazzle with innovation and deliver an unforgettable experience is the chief goal.

“We always focus heavily on — and I preach it to our staff almost weekly — the experience process,” says Dennis Hennigan, owner of Dreamers Event Rentals, which is based in Reisterstown, Md., a suburb of Baltimore. The company, established in 2010 by Hennigan’s brother, Kevin, services primarily weddings but also caters to corporate and residential events.

Dennis Hennigan, owner, Dreamers Event Rentals 

Creating a client experience ties directly into the things that Hennigan loves most about the event rental business, which are “innovation and personal connections with the clients,” he says. “My favorite part about the business is the ability not only to do a great job with helping clients, but also the process of continuously focusing on how we can make the experience better for them, more personable, and improve and improve and just keep getting better.”

That drive for innovation and personal connections with clients has kicked into overdrive for Dreamers Event Rentals in the past few years.

On the innovation front, the company has experienced transformations in both leadership structure and location since 2020 — all undertaken during the height of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

“Kevin started the company when I was just about to graduate high school, so I worked here part time. I went to college a little bit and then decided to pursue this full time. A few years later, I became a partner with him, and we both ran the company. Then he left in 2020 due to COVID, which made me sole owner. Now I’m running it by myself, and I have turned it into something that I really love and have a passion for: growing and supplying our products and services to our clients,” Hennigan says.

As Kevin departed, a change in location became necessary. But rather than approaching it as a run-of-the-mill, ordinary move, Hennigan utilized some cutting-edge resources that typically are reserved for his rental clients to make it a high-tech build-out.

“We used to be in Hampstead, Md., in a smaller pole barn on my parents’ property. They sold their house, which put us in a position to have to move the business in a time frame of about two months. We found this place down in Reisterstown and prepped for the move using a 3D layout from scratch, custom built for the warehouse. Everything was fit to scale, so when we came down here to install the pallet racks and where we were placing all the equipment, it was really neat to see it in 3D, just like when we help our clients plan an event,” Hennigan says.

That 3D layout capability has become a unique event visualization tool that Dreamers Event Rentals offers its clients — another example of the innovation that Hennigan prizes.

“Aside from a few pre-made components in the 3D software we use, like warehousing or a library of public resources, everything else is pretty much custom made by us,” he says. “Everything is fit to scale, and we can create pretty much any variation of linen lengths, tables, tent sizes or tent styles. It’s really helpful. We get a lot of positive feedback, especially when clients can’t envision their event and we can simply throw up a quick template and send it over to them to show how we can make their event a reality.”

Forging personal connections plays a large part in Hennigan’s aim to deliver a memorable experience for his clients. That is where innovation and the human touch meet, and Hennigan insists it is a team effort from the top down.

“Nothing is more gratifying for me than to take on a client who is renting a tent for the first time and has absolutely no idea what to expect, then bring the knowledge and experience that we have to them and hearing their feedback,” he says. “We had a client last year who, in her review, said about us, ‘You are, by far, our favorite vendor to work with. We couldn’t have done it without you. We literally don’t even know what our event would have been if it wasn’t for you guys.’ We have many team meetings to get to that place. It starts with me as the owner all the way down to our warehouse staff that cleans to the installers in the middle of it and the sales reps who help with the planning process.”

To help instill to staff a culture of accountability toward making the client’s experience personal and, beyond that, simple and convenient, Hennigan conceived of six core values for the organization to live by that he calls “SCOREA”: Supportive, Committed, Optimistic, Respectful, Efficient and Accountable.

“I created SCOREA because I really wanted to put a lot of thought into what our company is all about, from our employees down to our clients. I preach to our team to implement SCOREA in their daily thoughts and habits because that trickles down to the service that we provide,” Hennigan says.

SCOREA, 3D event layouts, even quizzes and downloadable resources on the website to help potential customers get quick answers to frequently asked questions all are part of Dreamers Event Rentals’ quest to produce not just a rental, but an experience for clients.

“When our crew goes out there to install a tent, they’re not trained just to install a really good tent. If you’re renting a tent, obviously you want the tent. But we also ask, ‘How can we do something a little bit better and offer more — what’s the experience that we’re providing our client?’ That’s our main focus,” Hennigan says.

Brock Huffstutler

Brock HuffstutlerBrock Huffstutler

Brock Huffstutler is the regional news editor for Rental Management. He writes and edits articles for ARA’s In Your Region quarterly regional newsletters, Rental Management, Rental Pulse and other special projects. Outside of work, he enjoys biking and spending time at the few remaining vintage record stores in the region.

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