Q: Tell us a little bit about your company Moving Squad located in Texas.
A: Moving Squad is a family owned business, we were established back in 2006 here in Austin, Texas and we're really proud to not only serve Austin but all the central Texas area.
Q: What specific services does your company provide its customers?
A: We provide, basically, affordable white glove moving services for both residential and commercial clients.
Q: What is a white glove service?
A: White glove is taking care of anything the client needs--from if they need packing assistance, unpacking assistance, transport for their belongings safely from Point A to Point B, putting items at the designated rooms for delivery, that is what white glove stands for.
Q: What sets Moving Squad apart from other moving companies in the industry?
A: Our honesty, our affordability I think are one of the main aspects as far as why we get such a high recurring rate as far as clients are concerned.
I want to say that at least 3 out of every 10 clients that call us on a daily basis are recurring that had leased us before.
Q: Why did you personally decide to get into the moving industry?
A: My family owns the business. You know, making sure that my parents have all the support and keeping this as a family owned business is very, very important for us.
Q: What's the most important piece of wisdom you can give to someone currently planning a move?
A: Plan on a budget based on the professional that is giving you that budget and not on your own self-estimate, make sure you get everything in writing and always use a licensed mover. Just in case you ever have a problem with the end of your move, there's always someone or an agency here in Texas that can help you.
Q: What's the most common moving mistake you think customers should avoid?
A: Always going with the cheapest price.
Another thing is a lot of clients decide to get rid of unwanted belongings after the move. Planning ahead is always the key to a successful move, so if you can get rid of those items that you're not gonna want – by doing a yard sale or donating them – that's gonna save you time, it's gonna save you a headache with packing and it's gonna save you a lot of money.
Q: Is there a better time for customers to move to save money, month-wise, season-wise?
A: Season-wise the most busy season for licensed movers is always during the student move-in, move-out season. So we want to say from April all the way through August. If you can move outside of those months, most of the time it will be more affordable for you and you can get better availability.
Q: What are some common services you provide for free?
A: Our pricing is very simple, that's probably one of the key factors to why people come back to us. We don't charge anything for stairs (our guys are used to doing third floors on a daily basis), assembly, disassembly needs, appliance connections, disconnects as far as your washer, dryer, refrigerators are concerned.
They're all part of the white glove services we provide within the hourly rate, no additional fee for those.
Q: What is your most memorable moving experience?
A: I want to say that the most memorable moves are always with our elderly clients. Helping those elderly clients … transferring their unreplaceable valuables, whether they're small things or large items, getting them from Point A to Point B safely and keeping them under their very, very tight budget, that's always very rewarding for us.
Q: What is the strangest moving request you have ever received?
A: I think one of the weirdest requests we've ever gotten is a client trying to transport a whole bunch of cages of exotic, illegal animals. Of course we were not able to go through with it.
Our probably second weirdest moves are always a little bit difficult for clients whenever there's a divorce issue going on. So those are always tough moves, but obviously we work for the client that hired [us].
Q: Have you ever moved anything particularly expensive?
A: We have a gallery that we work here with and they have a lot of huge artwork pieces and canvases, we take special care of them. It's my understanding that some of those canvases are like $300,000 a piece, so obviously that additional effort is always something that we do for them.
Q: And you'd recommend insurance?
A: And always recommend insurance. One of the rules in moving is a client understanding that all movers, regardless of their pricing, they carry the same limits and liability. We're regulated by Texas DMV or Texas DOT, so always keep in mind that if you do need that additional protection, do the homework, get those quotes, because if something is very valuable you will regret having an incident at the end of the move.
Q: What is your favorite part about working in the moving industry?
A: Our favorite aspect of the moving industry is the fact that we love what we do regardless of how hard it could be sometimes.
Getting the satisfaction of obtaining that amazement, happy face at the end of the move from a client, that's something that most of the time because we're always in a hurry nowadays, we really don't get from clients, but getting that amazed happy face reaction, it's amazing. It is really rewarding.