A moving business doesn’t exist without its customers. The customers are the ones that keep it going and help it grow. And that’s what you as the owner want for your business, isn’t it? There are many different types of brand development strategies, but they all have one thing in common: they try to create a loyal base of return customers while also cultivating leads and turning them into new customers. The key to doing both is getting people to trust you enough to let you handle some of their most valuable possessions – their home or business. They will only hire you if they believe they can rely on you. The way to convince them is to find ways in which movers can protect customers and then implement those steps. This shows that you care about your customers and proves that you are trustworthy.
How can movers can protect customers and their privacy?
Moving companies are in a position where they, by nature of their work, have access to a lot of private data about their customers. After all, movers have to know their clients’ full names, contact information, addresses, moving dates, even vehicle registration sometimes. When this information ends up in the wrong hands, consequences can be disastrous. But moving companies need to know these things in order to provide an even market their services. So how do you strike a balance?
The solution, of course, cannot be to simply not use personal information. When you’re just starting a moving company, you need to let people know about it and get customers somehow. Often, this is done through direct marketing by contacting people you think might be moving soon. And when they do hire you’ll need to know even more about them to provide them with the services they need. So the way to protect your customers’ privacy is to obtain, store, and use their data in a secure way:
- use public data sources and ethical lead providers to obtain information about potential customers
- make sure all transfer and storage of data is secure
- do not provide potential clients’ private data to others without their consent
- respect data owners’ wishes if they ask for their data to be deleted
Why bother with this?
At the moment, there are no federal laws on the use of private data by businesses. However, a law to this effect was recently passed in California and may serve as a precedent for other states too. It’s only a matter of time before this area of business is better regulated. When that happens, you could incur thousands of dollars in fines. Not to mention – it’s just common decency and ethical business practice.
Ways in which movers can protect customers from scams and financial losses
Fraudulent moving companies are one of the things that people are most afraid of when moving. This is perfectly understandable as moving scams can cost people thousands of dollars. What does this have to do with you? If you’re running a legitimate business, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. But you need to convince potential customers of this as well. You can convince people of your superiority to other companies and thus make it easy for them to choose a legitimate business by being honest and transparent about your practices:
- keep the information on your website and social media accurate and up to date
- when you provide an online moving estimate, be as accurate and honest as possible; remember to clarify if, how, and when the price might change
- keep your license and registration information easily accessible online to show that you have nothing to hide
- answer your customers’ questions in an accurate and timely manner
Why bother with this?
Most people don’t sue fraudulent movers simply because it’s a lot of work that often doesn’t lead anywhere. But why risk it? There are so many other ways unsatisfied customers can harm you – reports to the FMCSA, complaints on BBB, poor reviews… A scam can only go so far. Eventually, you’ll be caught and you’ll have to pay the price. And it won’t be worth the couple of hundred dollars you managed to defraud from people. So just run a clean business and market it well – it’s a far more sustainable model than scams.
How movers can protect customers from damages and material losses
Things might get misplaced or lost, damaged, or broken during relocation. Customers, understandably, don’t like this because it can be difficult and expensive to replace monetarily or emotionally valuable belongings. To a large extent, it is your job to make sure it doesn’t come to this. Of course, even the best possible movers are not immune to accidents. But there are steps you can take to minimize the risks:
- make sure you consistently provide high-quality services – you can’t have one team of movers who can do it all and one team who knows nothing about relocation
- hire people with a lot of relevant experience and good recommendations
- regularly provide quality training and retraining for your employees
- use modern and secure storage facilities
- get high-quality equipment and tools for your movers and upgrade them when necessary
Why bother with this?
In order to succeed in any business, you need to be good at what you do. If you’re constantly losing and breaking your customers’ belongings, no amount of good digital marketing for movers is going to save you from the impact of negative reviews and official complaints. Satisfied customers are what you want – they’ll create return business and their recommendations are the best marketing you can have. So make sure you give your customers a good, damage-free experience.
The importance of protecting your customers
Learning and implementing the different ways in which movers can protect customers is important for your business, your customers, and the industry at large. By protecting your customers from harm you ensure they have a good experience with your business. This means more positive feedback and recommendations, fewer complaints, and lawsuits. It also improves your customers’ attitudes towards the moving industry in general. Finally, it sets the standard for behavior in your industry. Not only does this improve the industry itself, it set you up as one of its leaders. So, either way you spin it, protecting your customers is in everyone’s best interest.
