Great First Impressions On Moving Day

As a moving company, the first impression that you make when your crew shows up at the door of the customer's house can determine the success of the entire move. You know, think about it. When they show up, if the customer has an expectation of how that move is going to go, and you already sold them on a professional service, otherwise they would have not chose your company. They would have went with somebody else. Right? So they're expecting professionalism. And if when the movers show up, they don't feel that and they don't experience that and the expectation that they had is not met, it could start to develop into a problem move. Right? And in the society that we're in, in the way that people operate, they're already thinking about the negative review that they're going to post online. So, you know, this showing up, the first impression when you get to the job, it plants the seed in the customer's mind of how that day is going to go. And if it's not a good first impression, it could shift their entire way of being that day. You know, so if you've got movers that are like customers just like, hovering over me, they're following me everywhere I go, don't touch this. Be careful with that. Chances are it's because they didn't sense and feel the professionalism from your crew when they showed up. So they don't have the confidence in their ability to provide the service that you promised them. You know, if you're joining me for the first time, my name is Louis Massaro. I'm founder and CEO of Moving Mastery, where we help moving company owners set up proven systems and processes in their business to create raving fans, increase profits, reduce stress, and live a better quality of life. And, you know, I recently went through a move myself, and I could tell you from having gone through that experience, I want to kind of share with you what I experienced on the day of the move. First of all, they were late. Okay? So it's like, you know, that's part of it. That's understandable. Okay, that's understandable. But then when the driver showed up, the driver showed up in a rental truck. Okay. Not only a rental truck, in a U Haul rental truck. Right. Not even like a nice Penske. It was a U haul rental truck. And his helpers weren't there. Right. They showed up a few minutes later separately. They were kind of hired help that he didn't work with before. He didn't know the local agency sent them over. But when I went out to the truck and he opened up the truck. All his pads were just thrown all over the place. The dolly was thrown over there. And for me, I know that's a huge, huge. No, no. It's like, no. Like, you've got to have your truck on point, straps holding up the pads, everything nice and neat, swept out. But I'm like, you know what? I get it. I understand it. I see what happened. His tractor and his trailer broke down. It went in the shop, okay? I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. He just went on. I'm playing it out in my head the same way that the customers played out in their head, right? But I know how moves are supposed to go, unlike most customers. And so I'm like, okay, he grabbed all the pads and just threw them on the truck. He's by himself. He just wanted to get here. So he's not making me wait any longer, making us wait any longer. And that was the start of it, right? And then the crews, they didn't really know any, you know, they didn't know the driver. He didn't introduce me to the cruise. It was just not a good first impression, right? And so it caused me to kind of, you know, hover over them a little bit, which I normally would not do. I'd normally say, hey, do your thing. Like, I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you how to do your job. But I needed to make sure that they did know how to do their job, that they were the right crew to be there before they loaded up all my stuff. So the point of the story is that that initial first impression wasn't good. And only because I understood all the variables and the reasons that it was happening was I able to start making sense of it for myself. But most customers will not do that, right? Most customers, that initial first impression is start. They're going to start in their mind. They're already writing out that negative review that they're going to post. They're already looking for leverage of how they're going to ask you for a discount when it comes time to pay the bill. So, you know, you might be thinking, Louis, but, you know, we want to do a good job for all of our customers. My intention is to do a good job, but how do I get my crews to consistently do a good job? And what about the customers that no matter what you do, they're unhappy? And I think that, you know, the amount of customers that no matter what you do, they're unhappy is much smaller than most people, you know, make it out to be, right? I think it's. I think it's an excuse, and I think we need to go into the moves not looking at, hey, no matter what we do, they're not going to be happy. But instead focus on making a great first impression. Focus on creating a raving fan customer and understand that it might not go 100% right every single time, but still not go into it and saying they're not going to be happy anyways. What's the point, right? And then as far as your crew, you just need to be able to train them on what you want them to do. So let me give you three things that will be helpful for creating a great first impression which will set the tone for the rest of the move. First one is the customer greeting. All right, you want to have a moving process. You want to have a checklist for your movers to go out there, and. And one of the first things on it is the customer greeting. When they walk up to the door, how do they introduce themselves and what are the helpers or the other members of the crew doing at that time? Right? So for me, it's like the driver's got to walk up, introduce himself, introduce the crew. The crew's got to have, you know, pads on their shoulder, shrink wrap under their arm, everything ready to go, looking like they're there to work, not over there smoking a cigarette, not messing around in the truck, going, customer ordered three movers. They need to see three movers at the door, right? Then the second thing you want to do is an immediate display of care and concern. An immediate display of care and concern. What does that mean? Well, the helpers are walking in with pads, right? They're walking in with door jamb protectors. They're walking in with floor protectors. They need to start doing that right away, right? Right away. For the customer to see you're there, you're not messing around. This puts a, wow. This. The customer all of a sudden is like, okay, they're here. They care about my stuff. They're concerned about causing any damage, and they're getting right to work. They're not wasting time, you know, especially, you know, if you're paying on a local move, if they're paying by the hour and they don't feel like you're really moving along again. You're planting the seeds for that bad review later on or that unsatisfied customer. So that immediate display of care is important, right? The third thing you want to do is make sure you've got a clean and organized truck. Clean and organized truck. You know, I know it sounds simple, and I know you might intend to do that, and I know you might want your crews to do that, but are you making sure that before that truck shows up at the customer's house, before the door comes up or the doors open, whatever type of trucks you've got, that the pads are nicely neatly stacked and folded, the dolly, it's strapped in, it's swept out, and it looks good because you have to realize the customer doesn't look at it and just go, oh, it's a truck. We do this every day. Oh, those are pads. They look at it and say, my stuff is going in there. Right? All my belongings are going in that truck. It should not look like an episode of Hoarders in your truck. It should look like a nice, clean place where their stuff is going to go. All right, these are three simple tips if you want to dive deep into what I call creating the perfect move method. I put together a free training. It's called the perfect move Method. I'll break down for you how to set this up, the three phases that you need to go through. You can get it for free at my website. It's LewisMassaro.com perfect move LewisMassaro.com perfect move go get that free training and start creating more raving fans, which bring in more profits, they reduce stress, you have happier customers, you're prouder of the job that you do, which all leads to a better quality of life. So until I see you next time, go out there every single day. Profit in your business, thrive in your life. I'll talk to you soon. Hey, my friend, before you go, you've got to hurry and watch these next few videos over here. They will absolutely help you take your moving company to the next level. Go watch them now and I'll see you over there.