Your relationship with your moving company begins from your first phone call to their offices. Based on reviews, estimates, and their initial attitude, you decide they are the right moving professionals to move your entire life from one residence to another, and it is best to become their friend when you do.

Partnering with a great professional moving company is one of the major decisions in your life, and if you find and hire a great moving company that is welcoming, trustworthy, and budget-friendly, you should step back and let the professionals take over from there. If you do, your stress levels drop and the moving company can move you both efficiently and effectively.

For everyone’s sanity, it is important that you get along with the movers that you hire, and we have come up with some ways to make sure that you maintain a good relationship with your moving crew from start to finish.

1) Find a No-Hassle, Professional Moving Company to Ensure You Get Along With Your Movers

You are doomed if you do not find the right moving company. Your good intentions to have a great moving experience on moving day with your moving crew begins with your choice of moving professionals. Do not be hasty, reckless, or cheap with your choice because it will come back to bite you in the end. You choose a moving company to reduce your stress and ease your moving-day fears. Right? Therefore, do the research and pick a good one.

When hiring a great moving company to move your possessions to your new residence, find a reliable mover with a reputation to match. Recommendations from friends and families go a long way, but reading reviews on Yelp and Google can be just as helpful. While researching companies, find five moving companies that you feel meet your requirements for customer service and cost, and then interview them all for added security.

When you call potential moving companies ask them the following questions:

Does the moving company use staff employees or use freelance workers on their moving crew? In other words, do they subcontract portions of the work to people they do not know? Find a moving company that has fully employed moving crews because companies hold their own employees to a higher standard, which keeps them accountable for their actions. Moreover, employed staff members receive background checks and drug tests unlike most contract employees.

How long has the moving company been in operation? This should not be your moving crew’s first moving experience. The crew that comes to your house should be highly trained, have some experience, and be managed by people who have been around the block. Furthermore, the moving company should be licensed by the state and have a US DOT number.

What does the moving company do to protect fragile items properly? Your moving company should not blink when asked this simple question. The moving company you choose should have options available for basic insurance and additional insurance. Your goods should be covered in case of accidental damage or theft, and more than one option should be made available to you to boost coverage if you feel the need to do so.

After interviewing your potential candidates, narrow your choices further to three companies. From there, you will want to get in-person estimates. While small moves do not require an actual visit from the moving company before you hire them, large moves are tricky and you should request an in-person estimate. Here is where your relationship with the moving company begins. They should be open to the idea, and you should be kind to them when they arrive to your home to establish a good rapport.

Once you have received three bids in writing, you are set to make your decision on the best moving company option coupled with what is best for your budget, but do not be too cheap if you want great service because you might be surprised to find out that your “cheap” hourly rate is a mask to take advantage of you. Professionals like Royal Moving Co. charge an hourly fee, but they do not sneak in hidden costs like many of their competitors, so even if Royal’s hourly fee is slightly more in the beginning, in the end you will end up paying a lot less by choosing them.

Royal’s all-inclusive hourly cost includes anything you need without additional fees, including packing and unpacking and disassembly and reassembly (if you need it), packing supplies, insurance, trucks with all gas and miles covered, and taxes included.

Now that you understand how to begin the relationship, let us get to moving day.

2) Always be Punctual to Ensure You Get Along with Your Movers

You will be charged for your moving services whether you are there or not. While it is an inconvenience to the moving company if you are not home when they arrive at your old or new residence, in the end, you end up paying for it. So, do not be surprised to see higher charges than you expect because their fees begin at the agreed-upon time of arrival whether you are there or not.

Furthermore, your movers have an estimated window of time in which they calculated based on the number of rooms in your old residence house and the distance to your new home. More than likely, their schedule is tight, and they might have another move that day, or plans with friends or family after they complete your move, like most working folks do. So, be kind by being punctual. If you cannot be there yourself, assign someone who can be present, so that the move starts on time, which always reduces the stress of a moving day when things stay on schedule.

3) Make Your Moving Crew Feel Comfortable to Ensure You Get Along with Your Movers

You hired your moving company for a reason, and if you chose wisely, you should have few concerns about their competence. Your movers are both guests to your home and working professionals that you entrust to take care of your personal belongings. From the beginning, greet them with a friendly tone and treat them in a respectful manner. Ask them their names (and try your best to remember them), introduce them to all of the people in your home, show them your house, and tell them your needs for the day without being condescending in manner. I promise you, they know better than you what needs to be done and how it should be done because they move people every single day. Ask them if they have any questions or need anything from you, and then free them to tackle the task. Being polite goes a long way to getting along with your movers, and it is only human nature that your moving crew will do a better job if they feel respected.

In addition, consider the following things to ensure your movers are comfortable:

Offer your moving crew coffee or a soda
Make sure your moving crew has access to water, ice and cups because moving is a laborious task
Show your moving crew a bathroom they can use that has toilet paper, soap, and paper towels
Make sure that the air conditioning is set to a comfortable level for you moving crew
Offer your moving crew snacks or even a light meal to keep them energized

While some of these things are considered to be going “above and beyond,” keeping your moving crew happy and being aware of their needs creates an environment that maintains morale for your movers that pays dividends in effectiveness and efficiency.

4) Communicate Effectively to Ensure Your Get Along with Your Movers

Keep communication lines open the entire time, and do not treat your moving crew in a degrading way when they ask questions. They want to ensure that they are doing exactly what you need for them to do, so treat every question seriously. Be approachable during the entire process, so they can voice their concerns or needs, without being overbearing or micromanaging. Your best bet is to be available for questions, while staying out of their way.

5) Tip Your Movers for a Job Well Done to Ensure You Get Along with Your Movers

Reputable moving companies have a strict policy against asking for tips from their customers, so tipping is always voluntary. However, while there are some exceptions, most moving experts agree that tipping is an essential practice in the moving industry.

It is typical for a client to tip 15 to 20 percent of the total moving costs in most metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and Portland. In fact, a survey conducted by apartmentguide.com found that 75 percent of responders tipped their moving crew, though the amount of the tips varied. Twenty-five percent said they tipped 20 percent of the total cost of the move, 39 percent of the responders tipped 10 percent, and the remaining participants tipped by the hour or tipped a flat fee.

Therefore, a flat fee also works, and most experts agree that at a minimum, each mover on the moving crew should receive $20-$30, and for more complex moves, you should consider a tip of $40 per mover. You can either give individual tips to each team member or give the total tip to the moving foreman, who is obligated to share the team’s tip equally. Not splitting the tip is a serious offense that could lead to the moving crew chief’s firing.

Finally, some people choose to tip each mover a certain amount of money per hour. These folks typically give each mover a tip of $5 to every mover for every hour they worked, if the job was done efficiently with no problems. For great jobs that involve strenuous lifting, a hot day, and stairs, movers might receive up to $10 per person per hour.

You should consider that moving is one of the most demanding jobs in the service industry. Therefore, if you pay a server 15 percent to 20 percent just to serve your food, why would you not do the same for a moving crew who works much harder on average. Moving crews are prearranging, protecting, moving, unwrapping, and rearranging your personal possessions until you are satisfied, and then, they take the waste away with them before they leave.

Usually, you tip the crew at the end of the move, after you sign the moving paperwork, and the movers have done an efficient job. Often, there is a “gratuity” item line on the final bill, so you can pay the tip and the service fee by credit card.

While tipping a mover is a great way to get along with your moving crew, it is not an obligation. If your were polite and respectful to your movers, and they returned your kindness with bad behavior, such as treating you, and your furnishings and other valuables in a deliberately careless way, then there is no obligation to tip them. In other words, if there is extensive damage, or if the crew is rude and unprofessional, you are not required to tip the moving crew. As with any profession, tipping is only a reward for work that is well done. Performance is the key, so consider speed, efficiency, quality, care, and politeness.

6) Provide Feedback to Ensure You Get Along with Your Movers

Feedback is the inspiration many need to maintain a high morale during your move. While many moving crews are top professionals who care a lot about the quality of their work, it is still nice to hear words of encouragement along the way to keep their energy alive. If they are treated poorly with minimal feedback, they might feel as if they are walking on eggshells, and that is no good for the quality of work that you desire.

Furthermore, at the end of a job well done, leave a nice review on Yelp or Google, and notify the management that the crew who helped you did a great job. Try to name the individuals, so that it is very clear who did a great job. It will make their day, and we all need a pat on the back sometimes, so that we feel appreciated.

Get A Quote