Finding the Sweet Spot
3 tips on how to Select a Customer, Yes, I said “Select” a Customer.
Most every Mover is either biting off more than we can chew or trying to provide superhuman service in the extremely busy season. My question is why? Where is the sweet spot? That elusive controlled chaos of a downhill skier, being on the edge but not over it. Using all our ability but having the control to cross the finish line, both profitable and with a satisfied customer.
In my opinion, in an ever-growing supply and demand environment we should be looking for that sweet spot. There are not enough professional Movers to service all the business in the peak season. Given that, Movers should become more selective when deciding how to deploy their equipment and manpower. In short, we should be more selective when choosing a customer, you heard me right, with high demand and low supply comes the ability to “select” the customers you want to work with.
When we overextend ourselves and try to be everything to everyone, we are saddled with mopping up the mess after the customers are moved. We extend ourselves to the point of breaking and then we, the agents, are left holding the bag as they say. After the claims and goodwill is all settled, did we make any money or just piss-off a customer?
We have all had the situation whereby we try to squeeze in an extra move or try to do a client a favour or just get forced into doing a move we know will be the straw that will breaks our back. We call in favours from our agent family, we carefully explain to the client the length of the delivery date the transit time and how difficult this move is to do on short notice. A little voice in the back of our mind is saying this is going to go south but we do it. Often resulting in a service breakdown and an unhappy customer. It doesn’t matter that we jumped through hoops to get them out of their home in the first place, the focus is on the negative.
Now this comes with the territory, if you are working with an account, they expect the moves to be done and they should be. But, with our dwindling capacity should we be selecting the customers we want to work with rather than trying to be everything to everyone?
Hear are three criteria you may want to consider when evaluating your customer. *The following is my opinion and may not reflect the entire moving industry.
1) Compensation and speed of payment.
When resources are scarce prices usually go up. What is the customer willing to pay? Like every other service or product should we have a first-class service, an economy service and a standby service? Should a customer paying a good rate get an upgrade? At McWilliams we have an “extra mile” service that provides executive shelf to shelf service, same crew through, beds made, dishes washed and back in cupboards, art hung and more. You walk out of your old home and into a fully functional new home. We charge extra for that.
As an industry we are asked to provide a generic service on a reduced price, something that doesn’t happen in any other industry, if you pay less you generally get less. Volume discounts have reduced our overall prices down to near breaking points. As mentioned before, volume does not help in the ability to manage the demand. In that same vein, if an account is extremely cost conscious, they should have access to a lesser rate but on a lesser service. Longer transit times, alternative shipping, reduced insurance cost for less coverage, partial packing, dock to dock service? We must start to justify our silly discounts and collectively look at compensating based on services offered, not by just pulling discounts out of the air.
Speed of payment is also crucial when selecting a customer. Resources should be pointed at the customers that pay for the work in a timely professional manner. Paying for our service can be as important as being compensated fairly. A clear payment policy should be in place with penalties for late payment. This holds true for Relocation Management Companies. There should be pre agreed timelines for invoices. If a corporation is paying an RMC in a timely fashion their supply chain should be paid in the same timely fashion. On the other hand, if a corporation is slow to pay an RMC this should be communicated to the supplier in advance.
2) Off season or year-round work
Corporate moving was coveted because of the year-round business. It took the swing out of the year by providing needed business in the off season. Its important to keep resources moving all year round so any client that has off season moves is a valuable find in this industry. This is not rocket sciences if the employee does not have kids and are renting, they can move anytime, why move in the summer?
3) Partnership
One of the key parts in selecting a customer is mutual respect, a partnership, a relationship. There are always two sides to every coin and if you have earned the respect of the account over a history of service, slight hiccups can be managed. There are a million variables in a relocation and good quality report can point out weakness and areas for improvement. We provide extensive reports to our corporations, reporting the good and the bad. We also come back with the way we resolved a situation and steps to prevent it in the future.
In a good partnership we can also have frank conversation on gray areas such as claims that shall we say may be exaggerated by the transferee. If you don’t track and report, you have no way to develop a service history. Service levels, key performance indicators and rigorous reporting demonstrate consistent quality and deflates the odd service slip.
As the supply of quality labour dwindles and the demand for our service increase, we must be more selective of the clients we want to work with and the partnerships we want to develop. Not every customer is a good customer. The moving industry must find the sweet spot. Overextending ourselves to try to please everyone leaves us holding the bag and only results in the lose of money and the lose of face.