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We can't lead a horse to water, but we can make him drink.

The MovesOnline.com Team — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:24:18 GMT

MovesOnline.com is not a lead generator. It is an online survey tool that is so easy to use customers will actually take the time complete it. It will not in itself bring customers to your website. (Although you will gain more hits since MovesOnline users are featured on the CLICKandMOVE.com desktop and android apps).

What MovesOnline.com will do is ENGAGE YOUR CUSTOMERS once they are there. It will hold them on your site as they complete their inventory and keep them from surfing through all your competitor's cookie cutter websites which offer the same old, same old content, with no meaningful interaction with your company.

Most importantly, customers who LOVE your website already respect your company, even before you talk to them. Connect with them now using MovesOnline.com.

Do customers THANK YOU for the convenience of your website? They will, if you offer them a web service that sets you apart from the herd.

Yes, PEOPLE WILL THANK YOU for offering them the convenience of a practical and easy to use web inventory.

Wouldn't it be nice to have your customers say this about your site?

MovesOnline.com is a consumer award winning web service that can be part of your website simply by directing your "get a quote " link to a MovesOnline inventory page that is colored and logo'ed to match your website.Things are heating up for your salespeople right now. You can help them quote more leads and sell more moves by making your site consumer friendly.

Mayflower partners with MovesOnline.com to offer customers the convenience of online inventories.

The MovesOnline.com Team — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:09:39 GMT

Mayflower Canada is now offering their internet customers the convenience of creating their own furniture inventory online. “With more and more dual income families, consumers are quickly moving towards self service in all their purchases” said Anne Martin, President of Mayflower Canada. “For the relocating consumer, online inventories are a great time saver in the busy days before a household move. Rather than meeting multiple salespeople in their home, they are able to complete an online inventory in about 15 minutes. This furniture list instantly appears on a moving consultants screen and is then followed up with a telephone quote or an in-house estimate if required”.

Consumers really appreciate this service-some literally say they “love it!” In fact, MovesOnline recently received the 2011 Government of Alberta’s “Consumer Champion” award. The app is also available on some BBB sites, where the customer can send the inventory to 3 competing movers for bids

Don Kachur, President of MovesOnline says that the app saves moving companies significant sales costs. In practice, about one third of all website visitors complete the online inventory. “My company, Highland Moving, saved over $5000 just in fuel costs alone, not to mention the time saving of salespeople driving to the customer’s home. A complete inventory is a perfect qualifier for our salespeople. They can decide if an in-house visit is necessary or if the move can be closed on the phone.”

“We have found that most moves, especially locals, can be sold without a sales visit” said Kachur. “Closing ratios are about equal to phone-in leads except when we decide that an in-home estimate is required to confirm the quote or close the deal. In these cases, our sales people are closing 63 % of the moves, about double the usual rate. Yes-our sales people love this new sales tool “

MovesOnline.com is available to moving companies in the USA and the UK as a white label product. In other words, the app is logo’ed and colored to match the mover’s website. All that is necessary to set up the service is to redirect the “get a quote” button on your site to point to your MovesOnline pages. “It’s magical” says Kachur. “Finding 20 completed surveys on your screen on Monday morning is awesome. If you have any doubt about how the web will affect the moving business, using this app will radically change your thinking.”

See what all the fuss is about Try MovesOnline here http://www.movesonline.com/Landing.aspx

Highland Moving wins 2011 Government of Alberta Consumer Champion Award

The MovesOnline.com Team — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:05:32 GMT

Manmeet Bhullar, Minister of Service Alberta, presents the 2011 Consumer Champion Award to Don Kachur, President of Highland Moving and Storage Ltd.

Manmeet Bhullar, Minister of Service Alberta, presents the 2011 Consumer Champion Award to Don Kachur, President of Highland Moving and Storage Ltd.
Highland Moving was recognized by the Government of Alberta as the 2011 “Consumer Champion” for the development of CLICKandMOVE.com, a consumer oriented web application that customers can use to solicit comparable moving quotes. The CLICKandMOVE website allows relocating customers to take a virtual room by room tour of their home and simply click on “icons” of furniture that need to be moved. This inventory is then submitted online to multiple moving companies to get accurate and comparable moving quotes. Until now, the consumer could either get estimates on the phone, which are notoriously inaccurate, or face the inconvenience of meeting with multiple salespeople to survey the contents of their home. Not only is CLICKandMOVE a significant time saver in the busy days before a move, but it also ensures that all movers are bidding on the same household inventory, eliminating the prime source of “bait and switch” moving scams.

Highland Moving has provided reliable, honest and friendly moving service to the citizens of Alberta for over 70 years.

Moving Lead Sources 2011 Highland Moving and Starline Overseas Moving

The MovesOnline.com Team — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:28:09 GMT

Our 2011 stats are in and we now find that one third of our total of 10,000+ leads came into our offices with a completed home inventory, prepared on MovesOnline.com by our customers. This removes any doubt that a significant portion of our market wishes to conduct their business online, rather than having a salesperson visit their home. Closing ratios between phone-in and MovesOnline inventories are comparable.

Interestingly, over one half of our leads came from the internet. Twenty percent came from referrals (11%) and repeat customers (9%) while only 13% of our leads were prompted by the yellow pages. How times have changed!

Lead Generators and the Moving Industry Are we dancing with the Devil?

The MovesOnline.com Team — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:13:36 GMT

A recent white paper by Randy Smith discusses the use of “lead gens” or “aggregators” by the self- storage industry. This is a must read for HHG operators and associations because it has direct relevance to the full service moving industry. I agree with most of this white paper except for Randy’s suggested solution, i.e. that as an industry, we try to convince our members to stop dealing with these middlemen. The problem here is that we can’t stop consumers from using lead aggregators. So it is difficult to convince individual operators to ignore this source of revenue. Rather than trying to convince the industry to boycott aggregators we should as an industry, be our own lead aggregator - AMSA take note. That puts us in control of our marketing and helps customers choose movers they can trust. The full report is here:

http://www.anotherclosetselfstorage.com/self_storage_dancing_with_the_devil_final.pdf

AMSA should take control of COD prospecting on the internet

The MovesOnline.com Team — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:12:20 GMT

OK Linda, I am over the line with my comments about the PR campaign. It has been effective and was a necessary reaction to what was going on in the industry at the time. I think it was good policy that is now being nudged out by new technologies available to our customers... and our competitors. Customers now carrying iPads around their home to do an inventory, and google street view is there for our staff to "see" houses at origin and destination. Things are very different today then they were when that policy was implemented.

My family has been in the moving business for 70 years and as a mover, I believe that an in-house estimate is preferable. But I also believe that it is a mistake to ignore our new connected customers. All of our customers are different and we must cater to every constituency lest we loose control of yet another big chunk of our industry business.

My objective with this blog is to convince the AMSA to take control of COD prospecting on the internet and help our members compete in this new marketing world. In my recents travels around the USA, the constant refrain was that our members find it impossible to get to page one of google listings. Not only do we all compete against each other- and every one of us is trying to get to top position.- but we also compete against rogues and brokers who skim profit from our members, and who lower the perception of the entire industry. If the AMSA helps members band together to secure a top position on search engines, we do have the ability to push brokers off their google pedestals The AMSA could help their members "be found" in the Internet jungle. What we cannot achieve individually, we can achieve as a group-or at least as an industry. We could provide good quality leads to a few (not 6 or 7) of our members.

And we can offer our customers the tools that they can use to save time and make shopping for a mover easy. So, why don't WE become the biggest online aggregator of moving leads?. AMSA has the presence and respect to "pull" visits on the web, provided we use proper Search Engine Optimization, dedicate some assets to social media and PR and if we can offer the web tools that the new connected consumer wants. The AMSA has the power to become the "go to" place for relocating consumers. On AMSA.org, customers could find movers to do in-house estimates OR, they could use their iPad to fill out ONE online inventory and then solicit bids from 3 (?) of our members. The customer could then use review sites, company websites and social media recommendations to decide which companies they would like to see in their home. Naturally we would recommend that the customer see at least one consultant to verify their moving requirements.

Our members can also benefit by avoiding the crooked customer. No one tells the press about the people who try to underestimate their moving requirements to get a better price and then cry murder when we have to justifiably increase their price because they have way more to move than they told us about. Now we have written proof of what the customer TOLD US that they wanted to move and we can be justified in charging extra.

Sales people will become more efficient not to mention greener by saving fuel. They will be more effective because instead of doing 3 estimates for every 1 move book, they may be doing only 1 or 2 visits per booking. A customer inventory is a fantastic qualifier for our sales departments. And qualified moving leads few and far between from current lead generators.

Maybe we should be training our salespeople how to use the web to increase their sales efficiency and teach them how to sell in a new environment. My sales experience with online inventories is that it is a new skill set that needs to be learned, from new qualifying techniques to new scripts for selling on the phone or in the house. We should teach it, not condemn it.

Perhaps one day we will invite customers to submit their moving reviews to the AMSA website. This is allot more appealing to me than customers submitting reviews to a Moving Scam type site where no one necessarily verifies the reviews for credibility. AMSA could ensure that exceptionally critical reviews are honest customer comments. (I still remember that poor small mover who came to our convention and stood up in the plenary session and told how his little one man business was crushed by a false review on Moving Scam). Someone needs to defend our members against malicious or bogus reviews. Someone will become the Travelocity for the moving industry. That might as well be us.

Finally Linda, thank you for joining the conversation. I apologize for my snotty remarks about the AMSA-but I did get you involved and I appreciate your input.

Will moving consultants disappear?

The MovesOnline.com Team — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:40:31 GMT

Disruptive change in the future of the moving sales process

In a recent presentation to the Calgary Real Estate Board by Dr. Jim Dewald, Associate Dean at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary commented on the “disruptive change” now happening in the real estate industry. He describes disruptive change as a change which “disrupts current business models (or ‘the way of doing things’) and leads to innovation and consumer satisfaction”. What is interesting, he states, is this type of change results in services that are often seen as inferior to current products or services” yet they still survive and prosper-and take business away from companies who cling to existing paradigms.

For realtors, their role as a “matching service” i.e. matching buyers with houses for sale has largely been replaced by the internet. Sites such as Zillow have radically disrupted the one-on-one, personal approach of realtors in surveying the market for customers. This does not diminish their role as negotiators, but all but eliminates their role as “finders” of real estate for buyers.

Why are consumers flooding to realty web sites in spite of it being regarded by many as inferior to the personal consultation? Convenience ! Web smart shoppers can surf the web at home, at a time that is convenient for them, and can short list homes to view with a realtor. While these innovations in the real estate industry are seen as inferior by the industry as well as many consumers, there is also a quickly growing group of consumers who are web savvy and who prefer the “no contact” search for a new home.

The moving industry can look to more “sophisticated” industries such as real estate, airlines and travel, as harbingers of our own marketing future. The role of the moving consultant has already started to transform as web apps begin to make it easy for some consumers to do their own inventory online, as well as finding all the information they need for a smooth move. There is no shortage of available information on the web about the moving process. Could it be that the role of the moving consultant will evolve just as the role of realtors has changed with web commerce?

It is already happening. The role of the moving consultant as an inventory taker has already been chipped away by online inventory sites which are easy to use by consumers and comprehensive enough to create bid ready inventories. But just as in the real estate business, salespeople will not disappear. They will change their roles from information gatherers and service consultants to more of a pure sales position. They will be more productive, since much of the spade work of visiting the home and creating an inventory will be replaced with in-home visits that are targeted to close sales - to end the sales process rather than begin it. And, based on a household inventory submitted to them online, they will only visit “qualified” customers and use the phone for quoting on less desirable leads or redirect them to a call center. Companies that embrace the web and utilize the power of customer self service will have fewer salespeople booking more moves. In short, a more productive sales force.

For the original article by CIR Realty on Dr. Dewalds presentation go to http://cirrealtyblog.com/?p=298

Customer Generated Inventories

The MovesOnline.com Team — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:31:00 GMT

Customer generated inventories continue to evolve and gain acceptance in the relocation industry. Doree Bonner, a major multiple branch mover in the UK, has recently introduced a MovesOnline clone that will eliminate the need for many (but not all) in house surveys. The new web app on their site will save Dorree significant sales costs while at the same time, meet the needs and demands of the new Internet empowered consumer. (if you have any doubt about what the new customer wants, just have a look at the testimonials received from customers who have managed to avoid the inconvenience of meeting multiple salesmen at home).

The concept of customer generated inventories is now well established in England. Even the British Association of Removers has introduced their own BAR web inventory app which customers use on the Association site. Completed inventories are then sent to BAR members for bid. Meanwhile, across the pond, in a desperate attempt to protect their business from encroachment by web savvy movers, the AMSA still insists that consumers must have an in-house survey.

Will the Internet finally change the way our industry sells business? Who has the crystal ball (or Internet connection) that will predict how our industry evolves in the digital age? The Brits? Nope. The Yanks? Nope. The answer, as always, is the consumer. And they have spoken.

Don Kachur

For information on how your moving company can take advantage of the internet to sell moves, visit http://www.movesonline.com.

CLICKandMOVE MARKETING MODEL

The MovesOnline.com Team — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:44:47 GMT

New Marketing Channel for Moving Companies

Until recently, almost all of a mover’s leads came in on the telephone, usually via the Yellow Pages. A few years ago, a second communication link to the customer arrived in the form of the internet. Consumers could now contact movers through the mover’s web page as well as by phone.
Now things are about to change again. The recent introduction of smart mobile web devices adds a third source of business for moving companies. Smart phone “apps” are now being used by an increasing number of industries to connect customers directly to a business, bypassing both the phone and the company website.

This new channel to movers will first be available to customers in the form of ClickandMove.com. Relocating consumers will download the app from iTunes and use it to input their moving requirements, including a complete household inventory. They can then select two or three movers from the Click and Move service provider list on the app to contact and bid on their move. Movers may follow up by phone or with an in-house estimate if they wish.

Since our vision is to create a place where consumers can go to quickly and easily get competitive quotes from reliable movers, I would like the customer to be able to select from a list of participating AMSA and BBB members in their area. Smartphone apps are a completely new and separate marketing channel, and customers will use them to contact moving companies , just as they use the yellow pages and websites to contact movers now.. Experts suggest that “Apps” will be as significant as the yellow pages and the web as a source of business for virtually all industries. (See attached graphic and video)

Our preliminary business plan is to allow the customer to download the app and submit his information to one AMSA member at no charge. The customer will be charged a small fee to submit each additional request. Movers will not be charged for leads for an initial trial period of 3months. We are attempting to get paid, to some degree, by the customers, who are the people that are raving about the convenience of the app.

Since this is a new concept, we will need to experiment with our pricing model as we go. We will attempt to balance the fees between customer and mover, however any fee to movers will be comparatively nominal and any mover can opt out anytime they wish.

Participating AMSA and BBB members will see free leads complete with accurate inventories, arriving in their inboxes in time for spring selling.

P.S. If you have any doubts about the inevitability of the app attack on moving companies, read these comments by our customers. Listening to them is usually pretty good marketing advice. Our launch is set for mid March.

Mobile “apps” will rival yellow pages and websites as the primary source of business leads in the very near future.

This short video from the Financial Times discusses the general use of smart phone apps for business.

http://video.ft.com/v/789275709001/Future-of-cloud-Internet-App

Update: Email system for Updates

Al Ayres — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:16:58 GMT

We finally created a working email system for the MovesOnline web application. With this system we can now more easily inform customers of upcoming changes, improvements, or issues with the system.

The email system is a simple web based page that uses an opensource JavaScript plugin called "tiny_mce". Tiny_mce gives the person sending out the message the ability to format the message similar to how someone would do it in a word editor. The result is a nicely formatted message, ability to add graphics to the message, and the ability to add attachments as well.

With the simple click of a button, all our customers can be kept up to date with anything we are doing with MovesOnline.

Thank-you

The MovesOnline Development Team

Update: Fun With Google Maps

Al Ayres — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:53:10 GMT

We added some minor feature updates to the inventory that is sent out using the MovesOnline system recently.

We have always used a "distance" calculation in the system, but due to some minor changes in Google Maps the feature wasn't working. After some changes we were able to add the "Approximate Distance" for a entered move to the inventory that is submitted. After resolving the issue with distance, we decided to add a few extra features to the inventory as well:

Added link to origin and destination address that clicking on takes you to the location entered.
Added the "Route" that Google calculates between the addresses. i.e. Edmonton, AB Canada --> San Diego, CA USA

Limitations to the above:

If the origin and destination are the same without and address or postal/zip code, then route will not work since Google figures out the locations as being "The Same (no distance)"
Google is not able to calculate all routes (i.e. A route from "Edmonton, AB --> Dublin, Ireland" does not show. I assume because of crossing the ocean)
Misspelled city names, etc... i.e. Somewhere in the World --> Edmonton, AB Canada
Incorrect addresses, or addresses Google Maps is not able to locate.

We hope that these updates help make things even a little better for anyone using the system.

MovesOnline is always changing, and it is the feedback that we get from users that helps us decide what to add, remove, or change in the application.

Thank-you, and stay tuned for more update,
The MovesOnline Development Team

Google Street View and Google Maps added to movers inventory

The MovesOnline.com Team — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:23:33 GMT

MovesOnline has added address quick links on inventory submissions so salespeople and dispatch can quickly “see” street access on Google Maps. Now technology has given us a view of not only the origin but also destination address.

Current Progress

Al Ayres — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 21:03:55 GMT

No major changes to report as of late. Mainly we have been working on getting integration into social media going, fixing a few minor glitches that have always been bugging us, and minor design changes.

We will keep you posted,

MovesOnline Developer Team

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2010 Customers worked for us in 2010

The MovesOnline.com Team — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:15:08 GMT

2010 - Completed customer generated inventories for HighStar Group of Moving Companies

It is almost one year since we started collecting MovesOnline data on Google Analytics. We are a mid-sized moving company serving two, one million person markets. Our international company, Starline Overseas, collected 185 completed customer inventories, and this puts us over 2000 inventories for the year. That’s about two and one half surveyors. Seven thousand people in total visited the site. It’s been a good first year.

The Weight Maximum Factor

The MovesOnline.com Team — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:27:11 GMT

I was invited to meet with the marketing team of one of the largest United agents last week. They have an imaginative take on how MovesOnline will help one area of their business. Several of their key accounts stipulate weight maximums on their transferees. Any of you movers out there that have accounts that use max weights know that the mover can’t win in these situations. If the actual weight is under the estimate, the shipper is upset that he left things behind that he could have taken. It the actual goes over the estimate, and over his allowance, the shipper ends up paying for some of his own move which is even more aggravating. The poor moving consultant takes it on the chin no matter what happens.

The fact that shippers take responsibility for their own inventory when they use MovesOnline has particular relevance here. Now the customers decide for themselves which items they will include in the shipment and what to leave behind or sell. MovesOnline gives them the industry average weight for each item and they can adjust their inventory up or down, using the online application, to balance their shipment with their weight allowance. That takes allot of heat off the moving consultant since transferees now take responsibility for determining the size of their shipment.

MovesOnline is a new tool that will have benefits in many different areas of house goods moving. Future marketing models, which take advantage of the migration of our customers to internet self service, will only be limited by our imagination. May the best innovators win.