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7 Smart Ways to Prepare for Busy Season

Written by Steve Johnson | Nov 14, 2023 7:13:00 AM

Busy season is around the corner! As you start gearing up, here are some tips to help you prepare. 🚀


1 | Develop marketing and promotional campaigns

Start looking to develop marketing and promotional campaigns to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Posting ads on social media, reaching out to local media, and creating print ads in local catalogs are all great places to start. You may also consider offering discounts or special promotions to customers who book their moves early or on weekdays during the busy season.

2 | Consider collaborating with partners

As a moving company, you can create a ton of impact by connecting with other businesses in the moving industry, such as real estate agents or cleaning services, to offer customers a more comprehensive service. This can help differentiate the moving company from competitors and provide added value to customers. Get people talking about you – it's a great way to get leads!

💡In SmartMoving 2.0, you can manage these relationships with an affiliate portal- see here for more details.  

‍3 | Review your sales strategy

Start by reviewing your marketing strategy and identifying areas where you can improve. Make sure your website is up to date, your social media channels are active, and your advertising campaigns are targeted to your ideal customers.

SmartMoving can make this even easier by giving you a complete view of the sales and marketing funnel.  

As you route leads into SmartMoving, you can easily manage your growing sales funnel with intelligent lead routing, automated lead follow ups and reminders, plus create sales templates and automated workflows that help you quickly convert leads to opportunities. By creating nudges and automation, you can be sure not to let any leads fall through the cracks! More touch points with potential customers mean higher job conversion for you. Cha-ching!

But how do you know your strategy is working? We’ve got that covered too. Track your sales and marketing spend to determine key ROI data points and adjust to the best strategy using advanced analytics.  

4 | Review and improve processes

Review your existing processes and procedures to identify areas you have gaps or could improve. Maybe it means streamlining processes, implementing new technologies, or internal staff training. You know your business- but taking the time to think through this can prevent headaches in the future.  

For SmartMoving customers, there is a ton of support available to you in SmartMoving 2.0. Our team has created tons of customizable features that you can configure to meet your needs ahead of the busy season.  

When you set up rules in your CRM based on your business needs, it can make complicated tasks super simple. Take estimates for example -using our intuitive rule-based pricing engine, you can set up over 50+ new criteria to help you accurately price moves and add fees. You can also create different tariffs to set up pricing rules based on branch. With all of these options at your fingertips, it’s easier than ever to generate complicated estimates in minutes, reduce billing mistakes and never miss out on revenue again!

5 | Support your crew

Is your crew able to tackle more moves on the calendar? Consider hiring and training new staff as the season begins. Prep your team and think about any incentives you might want to offer them.

From an operational perspective, SmartMoving is here to help you manage your team. Managing your crew can feel complex, but we’ve added extra support to help make it simpler. With team calendars, hourly rates by role, and daily rate overrides, you can easily schedule jobs and process payroll for your crew.

6 | Order supplies and perform equipment maintenance

Make sure you have enough supplies and equipment to handle the increase in demand. This includes boxes, packing materials, moving blankets, and more. This is also a great time to get your trucks and other equipment serviced to avoid unexpected issues during the busy season.  

7 | Monitor your finances

Keep a close eye on your money! Monitor your expenses, track revenue, and adjust your budget as needed to ensure that your business remains profitable. While it’s easy to overlook this when things are busy, it’s important to keep tabs on accounting. Keeping accurate records also lets you celebrate when you hit your revenue goals! 💪

The first step to accurate accounting starts with accurate estimates. Through the SmartMoving 2.0 auto pricing engine, you can automatically add charge fees and pricing models based on your configured rules. Reduce mistakes and never leave additional cash on the table!

Closing jobs is also easier than ever in our job finalization workflow. Breeze through sending detailed invoices to your customers, provide them with the option to make online payments, and move onto your next job quickly! The SmartMoving accounting tab keeps all of your financial information in one spot and empowers you to generate reports and make intelligent decisions for your business with that data.

Are you a current customer who is new to SmartMoving 2.0?

Be sure to configure all of your customizations now and get familiar with the upgrade ahead of your busy season so you can yield all of the benefits of a quicker, more customized platform.

Our support team has created resources to support your transition:

Not a SmartMoving customer? Don’t head into the busy season without extra support!  

Have the power at your fingertips to a platform that is built around your business. Rather than waiting months for a unique interface from our competitors, we're able to onboard new customers and get them up and running in an average of 3 weeks' time.