Our professional movers with MikeJ Ops Director at a morning briefing preparing
to service our customers!
This is a short rant or insiders perspective as to how we as a professional moving company and professional movers in general can put systems in place to better prepare ourselves to serve our customers on move day! For those looking to move soon…HIRE 404Movers, or if you choose another professional mover, make sure your mover is conscientious and asks some of the questions below and is clear on what you need done!
Most of the negative reviews we see about movers can be solved/averted before they happen, simply by professional movers having a standard premove plan applied consistently to each customer. We see the same pain points day in, day out and year in year out from customers that come to us from other movers or relating previous experiences to us. The preparation part of a move is what separates professional movers from regular “movers”. Merriam Webster defines the word PROFESSIONAL as relating to a job that requires special education, training, or skill and it defines the word PREPARATION as the activity or process of making something ready or of becoming ready for something. The
Some of the areas we see sorely lacking (and easily solvable)are as follows
1) Checklists: Nothing fancy or particularly sexy here…just a good old fashioned pen and paper to create a CHECKLIST. Checklists have been used for thousands of years to avoid drama of all kinds, from planes falling out of the sky due to a nut not being tightened to movers forgetting that the customer has a large piano that need specialised handling. As experienced most professional movers may feel they are, it is easy to over look details and the DEVIL is in the details!
Jeffery Jelks (Move Consultant at 404Movers) going over a checklist with a customer pre-move to ensure a smooth move
2) Booking form: A self service booking form is in 2016 is MANDATORY. Many professioanl movers have manual booking systems that lead to data input errors and are infefficient. Bookings forms are an easy way to for professioanl moving companies to get some prelimiary information about the scope of a customers move eg. Size of move, distance to and from fron door and moving van, stairs, elevators, pianos, delicate pieces, antiques etc. All these questions upfront can ensure that your move is properly equipped and staffed.
3) Clarification: Clarifying with the customers via a simple 5 minute phone call pays huge dividends and void confusion. We learn a lot on this call and avoid disasters that can cost our customers hundreds in extra moving cost i.e understaffed moves that lead to not so happy customers.
4) Communication: As the Titanic taugh us even with the best made plans things can go wrong. Movers often have to fit in more than one move into a day and this is part art part and part science science. Sometimes things go wrong for many reasons and it is when this happens that we emphasize communication, communication and even more communication! Tnis is no tome for the “silent treatment.
It is apparent that a large percentage of professional moving companies do nothing to prepare to move you. Not a day goes by when a customer relates to us their previous experiences with moving and how a few more questions asked would have avoided a lot of stress.
Very simple concepts, but very much overlooked! As one of Atlantas top movers, 404movers has a mutilayered approach to ensuring that your move goes off smoothly and without a hitch.
We are human, so we do make mistakes which is not the best corporate robot answer but in the interests of balance let me say that our goal is to make sure that the problems we face are far fewer and a lot less glaring, relative to other professional movers. Preparing to move you is a process that begins the moment you book your move and not the day of the move!