If you are running a successful moving company, insurance claims are probably one of the first things you’d like to get rid of. However, that’s highly unlikely to happen as even the best efforts may not provide enough protection from unexpected events. But there are still ways for reducing moving insurance claims. In this article, we cover those tactics and offer our professional input on the subject. After all, the happier the customers you relocate are the more leads for movers you are likely to attract.
Moving insurance: types and usual costs
Moving insurance is put in place to protect your customers in case their belongings get damaged, lost, or stolen during transport. In return, providing good and reliable moving insurance will positively influence your company’s reputation and help you attract more customers.
As a moving company, you are responsible for transporting your customers’ belongings safely under federal law. There are certain rules and regulations you absolutely need to follow. This is especially important when it comes to moving insurance. You can take care of this part by offering your customers the following two types of coverage:
- Full value protection puts you on the hook for the total replacement cost of any items your movers might have broken or lost. In case this happens, you can either repair or replace the item. Alternatively, you can offer them money to cover it. This is the best option for your customers, however, it’s also the most expensive one.
- Released value protection is a good option for your customers with limited budgets. It’s basically your company’s default coverage so the moving cost calculator on your website should automatically add it to your customers’ estimate. With this type of insurance, you’re responsible for no more than $0.60 per pound per item.
Your clients can also choose third-party moving insurance. Given that full value protection usually doesn’t cover natural disasters, mechanical and electrical accidents, mold and mildew, and moths and insects, many people decide to invest in third-party insurance. This is especially the case if they have very expensive and valuable items to transfer.
Ways for reducing moving insurance claims
Insurance claims aren’t good for anyone. Not you, not your customers, and especially not for the insurance company. That’s why it’s very important to direct your efforts to find ways to prevent damage and potential insurance claims.
- Let’s take an example. Imagine that the moving insurance policy dictates that mattresses should always be packed in a carton. The customer who did their homework as well as paid for full value protection is familiar with this. So are your movers but they somehow forgot to bring it and they decide to let it slide. The mattress gets damaged during transport and the customer files a claim. Or let’s say your movers need to move a large piece of office equipment. As per your insurance policy, items as such should be unassembled and moved per the manufacturer’s recommendations. Even though your movers read the document they still decided to do it on their own. However, once they arrived at the destination, they found the item damaged. Naturally, this is another insurance claim you’re going to face.
So what is the point of these examples? It’s simple – in both of these scenarios, your customers are put in an awkward situation. After all, they reached out to you expecting your experienced moving team will do the right team. As they made a mistake doing things their way, your customers will lose trust and probably not contact you again. Even with extra efforts, regaining trust from customers is very difficult.
Therefore, it’s important to find ways to prevent situations like these from happening. Reducing insurance claims means improving customer experience and no one can advertise your business better than your happy customers. Further in this article, you’ll find tips that will help you achieve this.
Make your team understand the importance of reducing moving insurance claims
Keep in mind that your customers are probably not going to be upset if their belongings are damaged due to an unforeseen event. However, if the damage is done due to a mistake made by your team, you are most likely going to lose this customer. You might even lose more than one in case they decide to share their negative experience on social media.
Therefore, the first thing to do in order to reduce the number of claims is to talk to your employees. They need to understand that any claim that went wrong can eventually mean less business for your company. For them, this will mean less work and less opportunity for pay raises or promotions.
To help them understand, you can even use the examples we’ve mentioned earlier. If they can put themselves in customers’ shoes, it might make them want to be as responsible as possible. Of course, if you notice a pattern even after you spoke with your employee(s), make sure to put an end to it before you get buried in moving insurance claims.
Invest in quality training for your movers
Familiarizing your team with the importance of reducing moving insurance claims is not enough to help you reduce them. The most important thing you should do is invest in thorough and quality training for your staff.
Your movers should know how to safely handle each item and how to load it into a moving van in a way it ensures the safest transport. In case you’re offering packing services, too make sure to include proper packing techniques in your training. As a part of your company culture, you should also promote sensible driving. On top of being safer, it will help you save money on gas.
Lastly, make sure to do regular quality checks even if you aren’t facing any insurance claims at the moment. Perhaps a careless member of your staff got lucky so far and it’s better to catch them not doing their job properly before any damage happens.
The bottom line
As you can see, the key to reducing moving insurance claims is to properly train your employees. You also need to ensure they’re using what they’ve learned and taking every measure of precaution in order for your customers’ belongings to arrive safely at their destination.
We hope you found our tips and advice useful. And in case you want to learn more about moving software, ways to improve your marketing, or simply ready movers news, make sure to check out other articles in our blog. We’re sure you’ll find everything you need!
