A customer books a move based on a telephone quote for a three bedroom house. It sounds straightforward and the price is competitive.
On the day, the loft is full, there is a garage nobody mentioned, a shed to empty and a garden full of pots. The vehicle is not large enough and the crew are three hours behind by lunchtime.
There is a conversation about additional charges on a doorstep, on completion day, with a customer who is already having the most stressful day of the year.
1. Explain why a survey exists
It establishes volume, which is what the price is actually based on. Customers assume the price comes from the number of bedrooms and it comes from the number of cubic metres.
2. Offer a video survey as the default
Twenty minutes on a video call, arranged in the evening, with no visit. This removed the main reason customers declined surveys and most firms still treat it as the alternative.
3. Explain that the survey protects them
A firm figure that will not change, a vehicle that is the right size and a crew that is the right number. Framed this way, customers request one rather than resisting it.
4. Ask about the spaces people forget
Loft, garage, shed, cellar, outbuildings and the garden. These are the four most common sources of an underestimate and they are never included in a description.
5. Ask what is not coming
Items being sold, given away or left. Customers frequently plan to dispose of things and then do not, and it is worth confirming close to the date.
6. Ask about anything unusually heavy or large
Pianos, safes, large appliances, gym equipment and anything requiring dismantling. These change the crew size and sometimes the equipment.
7. Ask about fragile and high value items
Artwork, antiques, glass and anything requiring specific packing or additional cover. This affects both the price and what needs agreeing in advance.
8. Ask about access at both ends
Parking, distance to the door, stairs, lifts and any restriction. Access problems at the destination are as expensive as at the origin and are asked about half as often.
9. Establish the packing position clearly
Full packing, part packing, materials only or nothing. This is the single largest variable in the price after volume and customers consistently underestimate how long packing takes.
10. Give a firm price rather than an estimate
Once a survey has been done there is no reason for the figure to move. A firm price is a genuine competitive advantage and it is what customers actually want.
11. Explain what would change the price
Substantially more than surveyed, access that was misdescribed or a change of date. Naming these is fair and it prevents the doorstep conversation.
12. Keep the inventory from the survey
It serves as the record, the basis of any cover and the check on the day, which is the ground in moving quotes that stall without an inventory.
13. Handle the date uncertainty separately
Completion dates move and the survey is not the place to resolve it, which is covered in moving date questions tied to completion day.
14. Book the survey at the point of enquiry
An assistant that captures the property type, the extra spaces, the special items, the access at both ends and the packing requirement, then takes a request for a video survey that evening for you to confirm, converts an enquiry into a firm quotation within a day. Handled with the care in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot, and the same pre proposal assessment appears in site visit and survey questions before a proposal. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under moving companies.