What a moving company website answers before a quote

For your trade 6 min read

The quote is the whole decision. Here is what a moving company website has to answer so somebody can ask for one without worrying.

Somebody has an accepted offer and a closing date that could still slip. They are about to ask three movers for a price, and what weighs on them more than the price is how much of their life they have to hand over to a stranger before anyone will tell them a number.

The job of a moving website is to answer the quote questions before the quote gets asked for.

What actually decides the price

Nobody expects a figure from a web page. They do expect to understand what the figure is made of, because a price you cannot explain feels like a price that can move.

Write it out. How much there is to move, which is volume rather than the number of bedrooms. How far it is going. What the access is at both ends, which is stairs, lifts, and how close a truck can park. Whether you are packing or they are. How much of the furniture has to come apart and go back together. Whether the day is the last Friday of the month, when every mover in the county is already booked.

Six sentences explaining the shape of a price does more for a nervous reader than any number would.

Will somebody actually look at the house

People ask this because everybody has heard about the price that changed on the day.

Say how you survey. In person, or by video call on their phone, or by a detailed list they fill in. Say how long it takes. Say whether the resulting figure is a fixed price or an estimate, and use whichever word is true, because those two words mean different things by the time the truck is loaded.

If you quote from a phone conversation alone, say what you assume when you do it. A guess with its assumptions written down is honest. A guess presented as a quote is where the day goes wrong.

What is in the price and what sits outside it

The invoice surprise is the thing people remember and repeat, and it is almost always about something that was never named.

List what is included as standard. Then list, in the same place, what is charged separately. Boxes and tape. Wardrobe cartons. Dismantling a bed and putting it back. Disconnecting an appliance. Waiting time when the keys are not released. A long carry when the truck cannot get near the door. A permit for the parking bay. Storage between the two dates.

None of that costs you the job when it is read in advance. All of it costs you the job when it appears at the bottom of an invoice.

What you will not move

A page that names the exclusions reads as a page written by somebody who has done this before.

Fuel, gas bottles, aerosols, paint and anything else the truck will not carry. Plants, and why. Pets, and what you suggest instead. Pianos, safes, hot tubs and gun cabinets, if those need a specialist or a second crew. Anything left loose in a drawer.

Add the sentence that helps rather than sells: passports, jewelry, medication, the laptop and the documents for the closing travel in their car, not in your truck. Say it before the day and you will not be the one having that conversation on a driveway.

What happens if something breaks

Something occasionally breaks, and a website that pretends otherwise sets up a bad conversation later.

There is usually a basic level of cover included with the job, and it is often worked out by weight rather than by what a thing is actually worth, which surprises people when a light and expensive item is the one that goes. Say what your standard cover is, what the alternative is, and how a claim is made and how long it takes.

If you are licensed or registered for interstate work, put the registration number on the page as text. A reader can check it, and that does more than any reassuring sentence.

The date that might move

Half the anxiety in a move is that the date depends on a closing that depends on other people.

Say what your deposit is for and whether it is refundable. Say how much notice you need to change a date, and what a change costs at two weeks, at two days, and on the morning. Say what happens if keys are late, if the load has to sit on the truck overnight, or if the family needs a week of storage in the middle.

Somebody who reads that they will not be abandoned if their closing slips will call you before they call the cheaper name.

What makes the day run longer than the quote

This section saves your customer money, which is why it earns you the job.

Being packed by the time the crew arrives, rather than nearly packed. A parking space held at both ends. A lift booked with the building, if there is a building. Beds already apart if that was the arrangement. Somebody staying in the house who can answer where things go, instead of everyone leaving for the new place at once.

Write it as advice, not as terms and conditions. It is the same information either way, and only one version reads like it was written for the reader.

A short checklist

• The things that decide a price, written in plain sentences
• How you survey, and whether the result is a fixed price or an estimate
• What is included, and what is charged on top, in the same place
• The items you will not carry, and the ones they should carry themselves
• Your standard cover, the alternative, and how a claim works
• Deposit, notice period, and what happens when a closing date slips
• Local and long distance answered separately, with the towns named
• A form that asks for both addresses, both floors, and the date

Questions people ask

Should I put prices on a moving website

Put a starting point and the things that change it, not a final figure. A number quoted without seeing the house is a number you will have to take back, and taking it back on the day is worse than never giving it.

Do I need an online quote calculator

Only if it produces something you will honor. A calculator that ends in "we will contact you" is a form with extra steps and it annoys the person who spent five minutes on it.

What should my quote form actually ask

Both addresses, the floor at each end, the parking situation, the date and whether it is fixed, roughly how many rooms, and anything unusually heavy. That is enough to price properly or to book a survey.

Should local and long distance be on the same page

No. They are different worries. Somebody moving two towns over is thinking about the afternoon, and somebody moving two states is thinking about which day their bed arrives.

How do I handle customers who only want the cheapest price

Answer the exclusions and the cover clearly and let the page do the sorting. The reader who leaves over your parking charge was going to dispute it on the day.

Is it worth listing every town I serve

Name the towns you actually cover in text. A radius means nothing to somebody who does not know where the center of it is.