Focus grouping: minimums, fees, etc.

I have a question about people's perceptions about moving fees and what-not. I've always endeavored to offer top-notch service for affordable prices, but there's always a tension between what people expect and what we need just to keep the lights on. As the owner/manager/sometimes mover, I'm responsible for the bottom line and often see things primarily through the prism of the bottom line. I know we could raise rates and still get about as much business. But, do we need to? Not yet, but if gas goes up anymore, or any of a hundred other things get more expensive, or if a truck breaks down...

Anyway, what do you think about the following:

Minimums: it's common for moving companies to charge a minimum number of hours for their work, even when the minimum exceeds the amount of time actually worked. It is a defensible charge. You have to pay your guys for travel time to and from the job. You burn fuel during that time, too. And then there's the harder-to-measure wear and tear to the truck while you're using it to get to someone's job, and then head back to HQ.

If the customer decides to get started early and takes a few loads to the new place before the movers arrive, the job that the company was budgeting to take, say 3-5 hours, takes 2 hours instead. Now, we don't necessarily mind that, but we would like to know in advance so that we can plan and "fill the gap." We could have added another job to the schedule.

I think you see what I'm getting at. Minimums aren't always (or necessarily even often) sketchy. There's a good reason for them -- staying in business.

Nonetheless, I know that people often see that and think "What a scam. Charging for time you didn't work? There oughtta be a law!"

Base rates and zone fees: I don't know many companies that do it this way, but it's a slight modification of the minimum idea. The gist: They charge a "base rate" which is essentially a minimum amount needed to make the job worth it, or they'll charge a "zone fee" or sometimes what they call a "truck fee" to avoid having a high hourly rate, but still make enough to cover the basic, unavoidable costs like fuel and payroll for the non-billable time of the job.

Right now we do the latter: zone/truck fee plus low hourly rate. The idea is that our hard costs are covered, and the customer has control of the overall time it takes to do the job by being prepared. Prepare well: fast, inexpensive job. Don't pack: the job takes longer and costs potentially a hell of a lot more. To help customers keep costs low, we provide a free Moving Guide that shows them how to be as efficient as possible, thereby saving money.

Still, we're debating whether we have the best possible system right now. We're considering everything: minimums with and without raising rates, base rates plus our standard hourly labor rate, etc. We like the idea of being able to present the customer with just ONE simple, affordable rate. On our end, we like it because we don't have to calculate distances and give zone fees, which about 25 percent of our customers push back on. It's a completely legitimate, defensible charge, but the fact that I have to explain that immediately calls that claim into question.

So, thoughts? When you contact moving companies, or any service-oriented company, what do you expect? What raises the alarm bells? Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Chris

MTB at Five Years, and et cetera

So, a couple of weeks ago, My Truck Buddy hit the five-year mark. Back in October I had grand plans to invite the 10,000 customers in our database to some sort of picnic, but several harsh realities intruded:

No money
No time
No permits

Re: that last point, as it happens, getting a permit for a 10,000 person party in a public space is not only expensive, but impossible unless you can buy a congressman. U.S. congressman preferred, but even a state rep will do. We'll shoot for a 10-year blow-out party. Alas...

I haven't really had a lot of time for reflection, but I did note something with some amusement the other day. I was driving back from our quarterly Shenandoah company camping trip. I passed a sign for Marshall, VA and moment of mania -- I simultaneously laughed out loud and fought off tears. Marshall was the site of my very first moving job way back in 2007. It was the first one I did with my little pickup truck, grossly overestimating the amount of stuff it could handle, and grossly underestimating the distance from the destination: Arlington.

The job: clean out a 10X10 storage unit and deliver the contents to a place near Columbia Pike. The customer had found me on Craigslist and couldn't resist my "introductory pricing." I was such a terrible capitalist I felt terrible actually asking for money. So, I charged $35 for the first load, and minus $5 per extra load if necessary.

Long story short: I lost my shirt. A packed 10X10 storage unit is a huge amount of volume. I managed to manhandle a washer and dryer into the back of my truck, by myself, and that was it for load #1. After the second trip I realized I was outrageously understaffed and under-equipped, so I rented a Budget truck (cost: over $100). The customer and I got a lot more of it in there, but my packing skills were...in an embryonic state, you could say.

The customer was very understanding. She knew she was getting a good deal. She even tipped me over $100, but I still didn't make a profit unless you count cash-in-hand as "real money" and expenses paid by card "phony money," (which, I suppose, a lot of people do).

My wife was at a real estate investment (REI) conference that day, and sat next to a friend of mine. When she told him what I was doing that day, he laughed and said "Entrepreneurs don't do the work!" It stung when I heard about it, but I knew he was headed for a reckoning of some kind. He'd spent, by his estimate, about $100,000 on various REI products just as the market was crashing. I don't know what happened to that guy, but I can tell him that entrepreneurs do MOST of the work, and the slow grind is much better than the fast buck most of the time.

Anyway...

Five years. Over 10,000 customers in our database (Of course, we've only had the capacity to serve about half of those in the last five years, but still that's more than I ever imagined.) We have about 340 Yelp.com reviews, dozens of Angie's List reviews, and the vast majority of those are 5-stars and A's, respectively. (I'm not sure if I can mention that about Angie's List, but I'm sure they'll notify me if it violates their rules...) We earned the Washington City Paper's "Best of" runner-up award in the Movers category. And finally, I've received hundreds and hundreds of private emails thanking us for the service and complimenting our guys for their hard work and integrity.

Again, this is beyond my imagining.

You might surmise from these infrequent blog posts and Facebook status updates that I walk around starry-eyed in a state of constant awe and amazement. Actually, I often do. But then reality tends to clock me upside the head with a crisis or two.

Lots of work ahead. We're always streamlining our processes -- from estimates to post-move follow-up, we're always arguing about the best, most efficient system that doesn't kill us and makes it easy for people to move. Truck Buddies David and Jeremiah are principally responsible for that right now, but many others have helped move this stone up the hill.

I guess now that we've made it to five years, we'll have to shoot for ten. Why not? I don't have anything else going on.

MTB voted Washington City Paper's "Best Of" Mover Runner-Up

The Washington City Paper runs an annual contest looking for the best products, services and businesses in the DC area. For little companies like My Truck Buddy, it's a pretty big deal.

Naturally, we're most interested in the "Best Movers" category, but a close second is obviously the "Fastest Chipotle." For about four straight years, our buddies at Bookstore Movers have won the title (and I've never waited in line more than a few minutes at the Crystal City Chipotle.) Bookstore definitely earns it, if the character and dedication to service by owner Matt Wixon is any indication. I know him, would definitely call him a friend, and always find new ways to emulate his work.

We must have learned a few things from them because this year we achieved "Runner Up" status in the City Paper's contest. Yeah, I'm proud. It's not a bad milestone to hit just before our five year anniversary.

It's already inspiring some great marketing campaign ideas. (If I had time for marketing, much less "campaigns.") For example: "When you're ready to settle, go with the buddy who was there all along!" Or maybe "'Second best' still has 'best' in it."

It's a work in progress. Like everything else.

Many, many thanks to everyone who voted for us. I have no idea how many votes were cast, but I know that we have a hell of a lot more dedicated fans and supporters than I imagined. To even get on the radar for something like this is amazing. In all seriousness, I'm deeply humbled and yes, a little bit terrified. (For a naturally shy guy like me, doing anything in the public arena is terrifying.)

Thank YOU!

To answer Michael Hyatt's question...

Yes, yes I believe every business should have a blog of one form or another.

Thank you for asking,
Chris

;-)

Living better with less

I wouldn't exactly call this "news," but it's a lesson that bears repeating: if you own a lot of stuff, it tends to end up owning you.

Graham Hill tells the story of how he learned to live with a lot less.

Coincidentally, this coincides with our spring cleaning bonanza! Well, it's not exactly a bonanza, but we're planning to take on a lot more junk removal jobs if it comes up. I highly recommend it -- a light load equals a light heart!

Let's dish! A meal plan for the ambitious shut-in

Yesterday was my wife's birthday. By now, she knows that she'd better just make the plans because I'm...not so good at making social plans. Besides, she doesn't like surprises.

So, she chose to go to Let's Dish. It's not a restaurant. It's not a kitchen, not really. It's a place where you go and prepare a bunch of meals yourself, then take them home, pop them in the freezer, and set yourself up for a week or two of delicious home-cooked meals. I joked on Facebook that it's a restaurant where you make the food and then don't get to eat it. That's not quite true -- you just have to do it at home.

This is AWESOME!

She did this when pregnant with #3 in preparation of a lot of downtime, and while #3 was early, it still worked extremely well. If I'd been completely in charge, me and the kids would have spent a fortune on pizza and Chinese food.

Here's how it works (as best as I can tell -- I pretty much just followed along):

You pick your menu and pay online, and pick a date. You have about a two-hour window to show up.

You get your "itinerary," which is basically your menu. After donning awesome green aprons and washing your hands, you find an open station with a recipe sheet on it with one of your dishes.

From there it's pretty simple: Just dump all the ingredients on the menu (see below) into bags or tins or whatever, then bag it up and stick it in the freezer.

What's great is that you don't have to mess with finding all the right tea- or tablespoon utensils. No calculating fractions of a cup or whatever. (This is one of the more maddening things for me in the rare, few times I actually cook). All the utensils are in the tubs of ingredients. Just follow the instructions and you'll be Gordon Ramsey. If you want to go off on anyone, I suppose you could, but it's generally frowned upon.

So easy a mover could do it.

Like I said, we've had the meals before, and they're damn good. MUCH better than something you nuke or dump out of a can. I couldn't tell you all the dishes we put together, but the recipe here shows Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Fries.

Aside form the great meals, I was impressed by the whole business operation. As far as I could tell, they thought of everything: all the right ingredients were right there in front of us at every station, it was highly organized and coordinated, and there was always someone there to answer your questions. They even anticipated the natural consequence of preparing a dozen or so mouth-watering meals: a little snack bar featuring their other dishes. (Yesterday they had an odd (but delicious) pairing of stuffing and scones). I imagine that's also designed to keep people from stuffing their faces with the ingredients which may have...ah...crossed my mind.

Check out their website for details. It MAY seem a bit expensive, but when you consider what you're getting, it's actually much cheaper than eating the same meals in a restaurant AND preparing it all at home yourself. As my wife noted, even if you buy some of the smallest measures of ingredients, you'll probably end up with things like a year's worth of kosher salt or beef base you'll never use unless you become an Iron Chef.

Highly recommended. Let me know if you go and how you liked it!

Got twins? Triplets? More? Northern Virginia Parents of Multiples can help

Northern Virginia Parents of Multiples (NVPOM) helps parents with multiples (twins, triplets and more) with resources, advice and fellowship. As an overwrought parent of three of different ages, I can only imagine what it's like to raise multiple kids of the exact same age. Oy.

Actually, I don't have to imagine it -- one of our Truck Buddies is a father of twin baby boys. He always looks wiped out, and likely will for the next 18 years or so...

NVPOM hosts two consignment sales per year, and My Truck Buddy is happy to help them with the logistics. We've helped them two or three times so far, and I'm honored to be able to do so. You could say we're pretty baby friendly around here.

Their next consignment sale is coming up on March 2nd, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. I believe this is an event exclusively for parents of multiples, but I couldn't say whether or not parents of one or different-aged multiple children can go. It might not hurt to check because these consignment sales are loaded with useful baby gear and clothes at roughly 50 percent off -- or more.

Check it out!