How to grow revenue with moving software

Revenue is the lifeblood of your moving company, allowing you to cover costs and make a profit. All things held equal, the more revenue you make, the higher your profit.

While there are plenty of ways to increase revenue, an often overlooked way is to use moving software. Unfortunately, many moving companies underestimate the importance of having an all-in-one software for movers , likely because the software of the past did not fit the bill when it came to ease of use, scalability, and the ability to help you actually generate revenue.

This is no longer the case. 

Here are three ways you can use moving software to grow your revenue, so you feel confident about investing in it.

1. Use the CRM to improve lead conversion
2. Create upsell workflows to increase average contract values
3. Improve capacity through an easy-to-use dispatch calendar

1. Use the CRM to improve lead conversion

Most decent modern moving software today has CRM or customer relationship capabilities. CRM solutions allow you to track and manage your relationships with potential and existing clients to drive more revenue.  

At a high level, you can use the software to:

• Store basic customer information like their name and address.
• Capture leads by using a lead form on your website. You can gather details such as the name of the lead, their phone number, their email, when they want to move, what their location is, where they want to move, whether they’re flexible on the move dates, and any additional notes like how they heard about you. Depending on the software, you can also use your own custom lead form thanks to API integrations, or the generic one that comes standard with the software.
• Nurture and manage leads through the entire sales process, from when you capture a lead and send a quote to when you get sign-off on the job and receive your money. 
• Review sales data to determine what’s working and what’s not and make better business decisions. Good software provides reporting features that allow you to identify which jobs are the most profitable, how much they cost to serve, and your conversion rates (leads signed vs. total leads on the system).

More specifically, a CRM improves lead conversion in the following two ways:

• It provides visibility into the customer lifecycle for sales to better prioritize and manage their time and respond to new requests quickly.
• It improves your closing rates and allows you to move through the sales process efficiently and quickly thanks to tools like a sophisticated billing system and a streamlined estimation process.

Using the CRM for improved visibility into the customer lifecycle

Potential customers go through certain sales stages, from when they first contact you and you capture their information to when you book a move and get paid.

The exact sales stage names may vary slightly between companies and different moving software, but will usually include a variation of a: 

• Quote pending stage—a customer has reached out and wants some pricing
• Quote accepted stage—the customer has approved the quote
• Confirmation stage—you send a move confirmation agreement, and the customer e-signs it to confirm the details

Here's an example of what this looks like using Supermove’s moving software:

Want to chat with Amanda or one of our other Supermove experts? Book a demo now.

Using the moving software, your sales team can see where any lead is at any given time during the sales process and manage their status. This provides a quick overview of your sales pipeline at a glance and informs sales what still needs to be done to move leads along, so you get paid. 

As a result, sales can better prioritize and manage their time and respond to new customer requests quickly. This allows them to close leads faster while keeping the pipeline full at all times to maximize revenue.

For instance, you may have a new lead who has just enquired about your services and prices. To move them through the sales funnel to the quote pending stage, you simply have to create and send a quote. 

For customers who have accepted a quote, you can also quickly and easily set dates for following up to ensure you book the move on your calendar ASAP. Simply filter according to the accepted quotes and set the follow-up date. 

That way you don’t have to rely on memory to get the moves booked, allowing you to steadily move all customers through the sales pipelines.

Using the CRM for higher close rates with a quick turnaround

Taking too long to turn around a quote and move a prospect through your sales funnel dramatically increases the chances of that potential customer going to the competition.

The right moving software provides a basket of tools to get quotes out easily and quickly and improve close rates. Two important ones include:

• A billing system that simplifies pricing
• A streamlined estimation process for accurate estimates

A sophisticated, easy-to-use billing engine

We all know that moves often have extremely complex pricing. 

Pricing will incorporate factors like specific local and state regulations, fuel price, mileage, and the number of trucks. It may also involve incredibly complicated formulas to get to this specific pricing.

But software with a robust billing engine helps price these complicated moves very quickly and accurately. All you have to do is input a few numbers, and the software does all the math for you, eliminating errors in the process which can otherwise be hugely costly. 

Just think about the repercussions of an error that leads you to undercharging. In an industry that already operates on razor-thin margins, this can be your entire profit out the window.

While some CRMs provide a core set of features to help with this pricing, the really robust solutions are also configurable. This means you can customize them to work the way you want. After all, moving companies like yours have vastly different pricing needs, dictating the need for this flexibility. For instance, while you may only want local moves priced, another company may want military and local moves priced. 

Supermove is an example of moving software that’s fully configurable. The software provides core features but is adaptable with a team that can create individual billing systems for each customer to ensure billing is compliant. 

Plus, because moving companies’ needs change day-to-day, Supermove works with you to understand what updates and new billing features need to be built as you grow.

See Supermove in action— check out our free tour.

A streamlined estimation process for better estimates

Accurate estimates are crucial due to the small margins the moving industry operates on. Get it wrong, and you’ll find yourself undercharging clients. 

For accurate estimates, you need to figure out all the items that need to be moved. Historically, movers would use pen and paper to do this. They’d go to the customer’s house, pull out a notepad, write down the different rooms (e.g., bathroom and living room), and list all the items in those rooms. 

If you’ve ever compiled your estimates this way, you know this process is time-consuming, prone to error, involves double data entry as the information also needs to be captured digitally, and requires that you create duplicate documents.

Out with the old and in with the new: using tablets to record moving data

More and more movers are using technology to help, turning to tablets to input data digitally from the get-go. Using an app, you can input all the moving data directly on the tablet and sync it to ensure it goes right to one central place in the moving software. 

The result is no more copy-pasting and fewer mistakes which ensures you’re not over or undercharging clients and can maximize your revenue. Everyone also has visibility into the data and can easily access it without you having to make duplicate documents.

Virtual survey capabilities

In addition, some moving companies also use the virtual survey capabilities that some software offers to eliminate the need to go to the site in person, which saves time and fuel costs.

For example, using Supermove, you can send the customer a text that includes a link they can click on for instructions on how to film and photograph their home. The customer is not asked to input all the items but to film and photograph their home. The moving team will then look at the footage and fill out the list of items based on the footage provided. 

The big downside is that movers may need to call the client back to get clarity on specific items on the list.

2. Create upsell workflows to increase average contract values

Some moving software also makes it easy to create upsell workflows so you can increase average contract value. For example, in Supermove you can include the option for clients to buy valuation coverage as part of the final sales process, where you send an email requesting the customer to confirm the job via an e-signature. 

Usually, as part of this email, there’s a link that customers click on that takes them to the confirmation page they must sign. 

However, by making a few quick adjustments on the back end, you can adjust the workflow so that when customers click on the link, they are first asked to choose valuation coverage. It’s a perfect last-chance upsell to boost the overall contract value of the move.

Moving software also makes it much easier to sell white glove services such as packing, where you pack the clients’ belongings for an extra fee instead of having them do it themselves. 

With the software, the salesperson can easily organize a proposal detailing the services and listing out all of those fees. If the customers are interested in those services, they can agree to it by e-signing the confirmation agreement sent via the software. 

Upsells are also possible, even if you have a weird way of calculating them. And this speaks directly to the strength of the billing system mentioned earlier, which simplifies complicated pricing proposals. For example, if you need to calculate a fuel surcharge, Supemove can look at the mileage of your move and calculate that surcharge automatically—charging more for a longer move and less for a shorter one.

3. Improve capacity through an easy-to-use dispatch calendar

As the owner of a moving company, you have a bunch of trucks and a bunch of moves. You have to coordinate which guys are on which trucks, which trucks are going to which places, and where the trucks are going afterward. It can get hugely complicated, fast.

If you’re like moving companies of the past, you’d manage and coordinate all this from a big whiteboard and write everything out. But this takes time, and it’s easy to lose a lot of money off of dispatching mistakes: trucks go to the wrong place, guys aren’t booked for the jobs and so don’t show, or too many guys are booked for the jobs.

With the right software, you can improve your scheduling, dispatching, and organizing, which can become incredibly difficult when working with manual methods as your moving company grows.

Moving software gives you visibility into your crews and their availability for accurate scheduling and avoiding untimely delays. You can manage everything from one central dispatch calendar or dispatch board, assigning trucks to jobs and jobs to trucks that need them. You can quickly identify the available capacity for assets (trucks and labor) and schedule jobs where there is bandwidth.

Certain software like Supemove even lets you send text reminders to your crew about upcoming jobs, which details the job and time. These reminders ensure your crew don’t forget to show up and have all the details about the job for move day.

Ultimately, moving software helps you:

• Eliminate BIG mistakes where you book too many trucks, double book a truck for a particular job, or even double book jobs. These are incredibly costly mistakes because you will also lose the whole job.
• Become more efficient at managing your scheduling and dispatching. This helps you move through jobs quicker, and you can take on more moves per week and MAKE MORE MONEY.

Grow your revenue with moving software today

Moving software of the past may not have been up to scratch when it came to helping moving companies like yours generate revenue. 

But much has changed, and the right moving software can help you grow your business in tangible ways. You can use a CRM to improve lead conversion thanks to better visibility into the sales process and a streamlined billing and estimation system. You can boost the average contact value of your moves by incorporating subtle upsells as part of the sales workflow. 

Finally, you can also improve your capacity to make more money thanks to a more organized way of scheduling and dispatching jobs that eliminates mistakes. Simply use the intuitive scheduling and dispatching dashboard to manage and track all your moves from one place.

Learn more about how Supermove can help you grow your revenue. Schedule a demo today.

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