With growth comes change. This is true in personal life, work life and business in general. Many industries throughout American history have noticed both growth and change of all sorts. The goal is to make more positive changes than negative ones when providing services to customers in the service oriented industries of modern day commerce. Undoubtedly, technologies have made our lives easier in personal, work and in operating a business. The Moving Industry has definitely taken part in integrating some positive changes through the use of modern technologies to help make the job easier for both customers and moving service providers.
In this article we will cover just 5 of the most meaningful technologies that are modernizing the way moving services are executed. This is not a complete list of all those tech constituents and this article won’t cover the emergence of future ones (Maybe for the next blog 😊). We just want to highlight some of the ones that we use at JD Johnson Moving Company as well as share some technologies that we plan on adding on in the future.
Virtual Walkthrough for Moving Estimates
The Virtual Walkthrough has and is a game changer in the estimation of any moving job. With the past 2 years being laden with limitations due to Covid-19, companies had to rely on technology a lot more to help get the job done. Some companies, such as JD Johnson Moving Company, were already accustomed to touring customers’ homes through teleconferencing services. The use of teleconferencing technology is a foundational tool to help the moving quote estimators throughout the moving industry provide accurate estimates without the invasive aspect, while customers are determining which moving company they will use.
Some of the most popular teleconferencing services to use are ones such as, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype and Google Meet, to name a few. The customer just needs to click on a link sent by the company and “Voila”. The moving company estimator can assist the customer by navigating them through the virtual tour process. It really is something to experience on how accuracy can be maintained by a moving service estimator with the right experience. Companies that use virtual walkthrough/estimates usually make a much better impression than those moving companies that defer from using it. One of the major virtual tour software platforms today that is beginning to lead that space through it’s robustness of features is Klapty.
Data Collection on Locations
There are several technologies that make it easy to gather information about a place without moving from your couch. Some of these technologies are separate types of software that can be used together in order to get an informative snapshot about the objective and subjective nature of neighborhoods that you may be looking to move to. Some of these technologies are more useful to the customers looking to move than the moving companies, but they offer insight to both sides of the service if properly utilized. Some of these are your more obvious platforms, such as Google Maps that can give you a topological and structural layout of locations of interest to the costumers. Obviously, GPS services are utilized by the moving service providers to get a heads up on area addresses that are provided by the customers. This technology is taken for granted by my most modern customers and service providers but the amount of data provided by such platforms are extremely valuable as they offer real-time data on traffic flow, traffic obstructions along with optimal route selection for drivers of the moving trucks. Proper estimates on driving times can be determined immediately which saves time and money for the customers and the moving companies alike.
Other data collection activities can be done on locations that favor residential customers when they are looking for places to relocate. This can be in forms of demographics, crime rates, and social composition of any community that they are interested in. A person can gather crime statistics through online searches through Google, Bing or Yahoo as well as more specific crime rate data from online sites such as SpotCrime. Web apps such as this one can provide real-time alerts to your email about criminal activity that is happening in a location of interest.
Online Reviews
Online reviews have changed the marketing and sales landscape for many types of businesses in the market today. Moving companies are the type of business that are strongly impacted by the rise of online reviewing by customers. With more people than ever handling activities online it is imperative that a reputable moving company work to maintain a positive online presence. Reviews happen on various platforms. Not just the places that we would usually expect such as Yelp or Google, although those are important to pay attention to. Social media and sharing platforms also have tremendous impact on the way a company is represented online. The most notable are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube when it comes to moving companies. Additionally, the moving company’s website is a place where online reviews can happen. In some cases a separate community influence can happen directly on the moving company website if the digital strategy is implemented in a way that provides that capability.
Many of us don’t see online review sites as a technology, but when factoring in the collection of resources that work together to provide such services and keep them maintained it becomes clear that those platforms are a tool just like all the others mentioned in this blog. The digital rule is those with the most positive online reviews will usually win the most business in a community in the long run. Online reviews help both the customers and the moving companies across the board.
Accounting and Auditing Software
A growing moving company has a lot of “moving parts”, and it is easy to lose track of all the day-to-day activities. An efficient moving company has to manage third party partnerships, key activities, key resources and revenue streams in order to stay viable. When the tracking and auditing systems fall apart for a moving company, so does the business’s vitality. In order to remedy that chance of occurrence, accounting software is used to maintain the growth of modern-day moving companies. This type of accounting software can optimize bookkeeping activities as well as provide data analytics that assist the moving companies that use them to make the best decisions possible. Intuit Quickbooks is one of the most noticeable accounting software platforms that exists today and for good reason. With its track record, ease of use and most relevant features it is truly a technology that removes much of the guess work that archaic moving companies typically engage in.
Auditing is something else that is a key activity for any mid-size to large scale moving company. Without the right checks and balances in place, a moving company can find itself in hot water when it comes to remaining legally compliant. When there’s no compliance standards present, a moving company can’t safely operate, considering there are several regulations that apply to the moving industry. When concerning Department of Transportation and Interstate moving jobs, it is even more so. In order to stay ahead there are auditing software technologies that help moving companies stay on track which provides quality assurance to all of their customers. One of the most notable auditing software technologies for environmental, health and safety on the market is Intelex. Although many companies don’t currently see a use of auditing technologies that deal with the environment it will become more and more relevant as moving companies begin to get involved with the safe removal of hazard materials, which JD Johnson Moving Company has experience with.
GPS Trackers
We must admit, this is not a technology that we are using yet in our company, but one in which we plan to integrate in the future. GPS tracking technology has an abundance of use cases, but when it comes to the moving industry it is applied most often to tracking the location of trucks and in some cases specific items of high value. This GPS tracking capability provides more assurance to both the customer and the moving service provider. Imagine if you will, waiting out-of-state for a moving truck for days with no data on where the truck and your items are other than trying to phone them down in order to ease your concerns as your wait. With GPS tracking available to both the customers and moving companies this removes much of the anxiety of the progression of your move. This will give the customer information on the location of their belongings with a press of a button, which is bound to put many moving customer concerns at ease. An example of one of the top device makers of this technology is made by Rhino Fleet Tracking.
There is also an availability of Bluetooth Technology for more localized identification for finding the location of boxes or valuables onsite. When moving, the process can get a little all over the place and your boxes of valuables may get misplaced. Technologies like Tile can provide this type of functionality, that allow a user to locate any onsite item within a snap. This can make even the most hectic moving day that much easier and when it comes to moving every little bit counts.
Conclusion
As stated in the beginning of this article, these are just a few of the technologies that exist in the modern moving industry environment. There surely will be more to come and the moving companies of the future will adjust, adapt and integrate them in order to improve the way that moving jobs are completed. In the modern age, technologies come and go but the ones that stick around push the industries forward. Our goal should be to understand them better across the board, while simultaneously wielding them with the acumen that would lead to better experiences for all customers. Not only our customers, but also employees can have a much better experience in their ability to provide stellar services to their customers. With emerging technologies in the moving industry landscape, it seems that the customer/service provider relationship will improve in order to make more of us happy and satisfied movers for years to come.