Jun 6, 2018 What It Means to Be Mover Friendly

By Ben Heller

Here at PricePoint, one of our founding principles is that we’re “Mover Friendly.” As a core component of our culture, it’s important to define what that means, how it guides our company, and why this matters to you.

There are lots of moving solutions out there, but most aren’t mover friendly. We see bid boards that require lots of movers to populate thousands and thousands of rates. There are solutions that layer an audit on as part of a standard process. And there are many solutions that drive costs down so low that quality inevitably suffers. None of that is mover friendly.

So what does it mean to be mover friendly?

Four ways Price Point is Mover Friendly: Design for mover, Reward quality, Fair compensation, Don't Compete with Movers

At the highest level, it means that we first design software with the mover as a customer. We didn't build for the buyer and treat the mover as an afterthought. Our initial goal in developing software was to simplify and streamline the pricing process for movers. We created flexible pricing solutions based on movers' existing tariff models, so they'd spend less time populating and managing rates and more time focusing on their clients. We believed connecting moving partners to each other would enable better, faster, and less costly quotes across networks of partners. Then, only after solving needs for movers, did we go on to solve a problem for the buyers.

Second, we think a mover friendly solution should measure, incentivize, and reward quality. Movers enter your home and handle everything you own. It’s a stressful time that can be made worse if your move goes wrong. Movers who do a great job deserve to be rewarded. Those movers that go above and beyond to provide great service to their customers will only do so if they can be profitable…and people will only pay a premium for quality if they know it exists. Soon, PricePoint will be tracking and showcasing mover quality. We’ll enable sorting based upon client preferences of price and quality, enabling a balance that maximizes value for every client’s unique needs.

Third, we believe movers need to be fairly compensated and profitable. Marketplaces that don’t treat the seller as a customer will inevitably drive pricing to zero and will be a burden to use. In order to ensure that movers are paid fairly for their services, we cannot have a race to the bottom. Being responsible with the marketplace is important to creating a mover friendly solution. Any mover friendly solution has to be protective of the pricing data and discourage an environment that aggressively drives the price down as the intended goal. Efficiencies will be gained in a market, but any solution that is mover friendly must avoid commoditization and highlight differentiations.

“Being mover friendly is in our DNA and part of what makes us different.”

Fourth, we understand that a mover friendly solution should support movers, not compete with them. We partner with RMCs and movers to enhance their abilities to sell directly to corporate clients. It’s a way for the people who built this industry to adapt and fight against the “Ubers” that are coming to eliminate the van lines, agents, and RMCs in our industry.

Being mover friendly is in our DNA and part of what makes us different. It enables us to be an independent solution that streamlines the buying and selling of moving simply in a way that is easy for everyone to understand. And it will help guide us in building balanced solutions that work well for all of our customers, not just the buyers.

Would you like to learn more?

Let's connect.

 

Ben Heller

CEO Ben fell in love with the mobility industry while running Accentureʼs global mobility consulting practice. Focusing on the mobility supply chain, he learned the hard way that move pricing is complicated, unclear, and vulnerable to manipulation. After evaluating all existing alternatives, Ben partnered with Ryan to make data-driven moving decisions possible.