Moving Words – Education

Written by Timothy Brady.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin

An informed consumer is our strongest ally in stopping the scam movers who have given our entire industry a black eye. Educating our shippers and the public concerning what is involved in moving their household goods is the first step towards ensuring an event-free move.

In moving, the action that’s synonymous with customer service and consumer education is communication. The more informed your customers are kept with what’s happening regarding their move, the happier your customers will be. The worst scenario is a customer left in the dark until the last minute, leaving him/her much less time to respond to the situation. Or the customer is not told anything, and left to discover the incident, whether breakage, forgotten or lost items, property damage, or unexpected charges, on his own. This creates a situation wherein the customer is more likely to feel cheated. If the customer’s not getting what he needs, then the customer’s not happy, and if the customer’s not happy, then nobody’s happy.  Even under the worst possible situation, a van fire or accident, keeping the communication avenues open and flowing will lessen the blow to everyone involved, especially the shipper. And since this is true for a total catastrophe, just think how it will help in the smallest of mistakes.

Time is one of our most precious commodities in the moving business, yet more of it is wasted because someone failed to communicate honestly with a customer about the reality of a situation. The fact is, moving requires human involvement. Whenever a human is associated with an activity there will be mistakes, delays, or the unexpected. Murphy’s Law states, “If anything can go wrong, it will.” The Moving Murphy’s Law would be, “If there’s a salesperson, move coordinator, dispatcher, Van Operator, shipper, or mechanical device involved, something is likely to go wrong.” The reason the possibility exists is the human element. The most important human element, in regards to success or failure, is communication. Think of it in terms of passing a message around a table of six people. The content of the message and hence the meaning is completely different to the sixth person hearing it than what was said and meant by the first person who started the message on its path. In reality, it doesn’t make any difference if those six people are sitting around a table playing a game, or if the shipper tells the salesperson, who tells the move coordinator, who explains it to the dispatcher, who then passes it on to the Van Operator. The misunderstandings in communication can be the same; it’s the effect on your customer service that becomes costly.

The solution to these misunderstandings which lead to a growing list of mistakes and ultimately, an unhappy customer, is simple. Create a system that allows all parties in the communication chain to converse with one another. The salesperson needs to communicate directly with the driver as to what the shippers’ needs are on the load. But at the same time, the move coordinators and dispatchers need to be included in the loop.

In today’s fast-paced, highly-regulated moving environment, you need to include in your communication system technology that will help you track and record the communications required to keep all the participants in a move educated to the details needed to make the move uneventful. You need software programs that fully comprehend what’s required so nothing is left to chance.

This software needs to include:

• Significant, measurable improvements in process efficiency through streamlined workflows
• Improved data accuracy and consistency, reduction in errors and multiple data instances
•  Accountability improvement through record ownership and event logging
  It needs to be accessible by all departments and individuals involved in the move from sales, dispatch, claims, Accounts Payable, move coordinators to the van operator and pack team leaders for each move.

The program needs to:

• Calculate consistent and accurate estimates and manage sales information
• Create and book orders for household goods, special commodities, international, intrastate and interstate, and military/government moves
• Implement full crew and equipment scheduling
• Generate work tickets, Bills of Lading, and invoices
• Process move-related AR, AP, and cash receipts
• Monitor tasks associated with orders
• Manage payments and claims
• Handle driver advances for local and long-distance moves

The success rate in educating your customer while moving will be measured by how informed your customer is ‘as-it-happens’ to the unexpected events that occur in the transport of his/her shipment; and how quickly the Van Operator communicates the situation back to the agency, providing time for a solution to the newly-developed situation. Keep all concerned parties completely in the loop on circumstances as they develop, and then be sure everyone is in concert for the solution; especially the shipper. Any solution which fails to include the shipper and Van Operator’s input in the decision-making process will constantly be placing your relationship with your customer at risk. This is because any decision must be acceptable to the shipper and it must be feasible for the Van Operator.

The more your customers trust you, and realize regardless of the circumstances, good or bad, they’re first in knowing the state of their shipments, the better your bottom line. They’re also trusting that your agency, your Van Operator, dispatch, move coordinator, sales, claims and safety managers are taking responsibility to get their belongings where they need to be, on time, and in the same condition in which they were loaded. Moreover, when it seems like it’s all falling apart, you are leading the charge to keep it all rolling. They’ll regard you as the moving expert who gets the job done, no matter what. And this means they value you, which translates to one more person who is a raving fan of your moving company. And what’s better than an ebullient consumer boasting about – er, educating – other consumers concerning his/her positive moving experience?

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” –  Aristotle