Why I Added Portable Storage to My Moving Business
Executive Summary
The moving industry has viewed portable storage and moving as a rival for their customer base until recently. Given this mover’s longevity AND success in the portable storage space, they decided to share their experiences and viewpoints with PSA with the hope of helping fellow movers who have or are currently considering expansion into the portable storage business.
Overview
As a family owned and operated moving company, they collectively decided the company needed to be able to offer a lower price point moving option to accommodate the growing DIY customer segment. The strategy was simple … to maintain and even grow their customer base, they decided it was only logical that they provide prospective customers with options thus eliminating their need to go elsewhere.
Summary of Findings
Some key take-a-ways from this Case Study would be:
- Containers allow customers to control their move schedule and not be confined to a pre-determined mover’s schedule
- Portable storage containers reduce shipment handling for pre or post move storage customers and thus reduce the probability of claims
- Provide access to moving customers earlier in the “sales cycle” in need of de-cluttering prior to staging and selling their house
- Portable storagehas grown 20+% annually over the last 10 years while themoving business has grown only 3-5% annually in that same time period
- Provides sales with an opportunity to offer both a full service and DIY service thus allowing the company to capture more customers
- Portable storage generates additional revenue streams … i.e. labor services
- Provides re-occurring revenue versus a depreciating asset in moving trucks
- The containers have reinforced company name recognition; 40% of the portable storage customers called after seeing these containers in the market
- Container visibility has increased company’s full service moving leads
Read the full case study here.
