Moving Words – Challenge

Written by Timothy Brady.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

There aren’t many things more complicated than the challenge faced by every mover in the handling and transfer of someone’s belongings from one location to another. Makes no difference if it’s across the street or on the other side of the world, every move comes with its own long list of interesting, at times frustrating, and other times aggravating little projects a shipper needs or wants accomplished during the process of a move.

The list is endless with new and different challenges within each move. It can be one thing or a combination of activities: setting a particular schedule to meet the needs of all the different shipments on a van; packing a one-of-a-kind art piece, how to load a 2 ½ ton boulder in with the rest of the household goods (not to mention how to get it to and on the trailer from its location in the backyard. Yes, this was one of many challenges I faced in my moving career.)

So what are the tricks to not only meeting the challenges you face as a mover, but blowing through them in such a manner that it leaves the shipper with a “WOW!” response?

Make your shippers Priority Number One. This is accomplished from the first point of contact by your moving company. Learn from the shipper what’s important to them. Is it the move schedule? Or a bad experience from a previous move? Or the previous move was so stellar the bar on this move has been raised six rungs? Or a particular piece of furniture or item to be moved? What about a momentous or tragic event connected with the move? It could be any or all of the above, or something none of us has ever before considered. The more you and those dealing with the move know about the needs, wants, desires, and emotional state of the shipper, the better prepared everyone is for handling any challenges which coil and prepare to strike.

There’s going to be that situation where something so totally new is tossed on your plate that finding the solution will be the first challenge, followed by implementing said solution once the  answer’s found. Or, it’s just not possible under current capabilities and/or time constraints. In this case, honesty is always the best policy. Movers are an amazing lot; super heroes at times in the eyes of our shippers, but we’re all still human and there are times that mover’s magic wand just doesn’t work. When this happens, we do our best to find workable alternatives.

Here’s a great example from my own moving challenges list of things I couldn’t do for shippers that they really wanted done. They were moving from a 1830’s built, three-story townhouse just outside Washington, D.C. In the third floor attic bedroom was an antique wardrobe that was sold to the shippers by the people they’d purchased the townhouse from five years earlier. Now they discovered why they’d been sold a wardrobe that was supposed to disassemble into a bottom drawer, two side panels, a front panel, back panel and a top. The challenge: someone had nailed, screwed, and glued all the sundry parts into a single piece of furniture. There was no possible means to remove it from the room as a single unit.

In order to convince them of this unhappy fact, I had to have a local antique dealer come and explain to them that; one, having it nailed, glued, and screwed made it just an old piece of furniture – not a valuable antique. Further, attempting to take it apart would render it into a pile of firewood. Needless to say, the shippers weren’t at all happy about this. All I could do was my very best to make sure the rest of the move was uneventful, with stellar service.

“There’s always a new challenge to keep you motivated.” – Sean Connery

Part of the enjoyment of being a mover is meeting any challenge placed in your path. You can always modestly decline the super hero cape if the shippers try to present you with one.