Month: December 2014

How can moving and storage companies help you during a company move?

Moving and storage companies aren’t just experienced in the logistics of moving your business’s equipment from one location to the next. They can also pass on information they’ve learned from their other clients.

The following three tips will make your office transition easier than ever:

1. Use Visuals to Update Your Clients – Switching locations introduces the risk that you’ll lose customers. Why? Some people just aren’t invested enough to find out where you’re headed. Familiarity sells, so keep your customers informed through social media, email, or a newsletter. Show them pictures of your new place of business and make sure you reference well-known landmarks when directing customers to your new space.
2. Set Up Phone and Internet Services in Advance – First, find out whether or not the services you’re already using will work at your new property before you sign a lease. Then set up new services at least a month in advance to ensure you have time to address any problems.
3. Move at the End of a Workday – Do you want your employees around to pitch in? While they may not be the best choice to disassemble office furniture or pack up files, they can certainly pack and move their personal belongings , which means that much less to do for the move. Moving at the end of a workday is often best for this reason. Have movers show up about an hour after closing time and streamline the shift to your new locale.

Call Nilson Van for more tips from one of the community’s top moving and storage companies.

Where can you find reliable moving company ratings?

Before you invite movers into your home to give you accurate estimates, it’s important to check out moving company ratings and other information online. The moving industry has undergone tremendous regulation in the past ten years because of scams, and you don’t want to invite potential criminals into your home.

Visit these three sites before scheduling any appointments for estimates:

1. BBB Online – The Better Business Bureau keeps tracks of complaints that companies receive and the methods by which they resolved them. If you read the details of cases, you can get a good idea for the level of concern providers place on customer satisfaction, property protection, and timely work.
2. Yelp – Yelp is a review service, and you’ll find both good and bad experiences listed here. The trick is to read a fair amount of reviews. Keep an eye out for any reviews that seem fake or lack any detail about their experience.
3. Safersys.org – While not a review service, this website will help you get a better look at the official services a business offers. All you need are companies’ USDOT numbers, and then you can get a thorough look at their practices. Further, by contacting the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, you can make sure their insurance and licensure are current.

Contact Nilson Van today for all the information you need to check out our moving company ratings and legal status online.

What should you look for in an international moving company?

Commercial moving and international moving are some of the trickiest endeavors to take on, meaning professional assistance is needed when you’re taking on both of these challenges at once. Moving a business across national borders makes for a precarious endeavor that begins months before the actual move. And the preparation work doesn’t end with filing for the appropriate visas, licenses, and other paperwork.

The logistics of actually moving your equipment to a foreign locale may also take months of preparation, not to mention the time needed to physically move your possessions and get them all through customs.

Here are the most important elements to consider when hiring a company for an international commercial move:

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  Experience – Before you hire a company for an international commercial move, it’s important to talk with its former clients. Movers with appropriate experience will be able to connect you with businesses they’ve shifted across country lines. If they have no references, move along. You don’t want a business cutting its teeth at your expense.

  
  
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  Local partnerships – Many times international movers will only complete the first half of a journey and rely instead on partners in another country to complete the process. This is expected, but it makes checking references doubly important.

  
  
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  Licenses and insurance – You can go to safersys.org to see a company’s official list of services, along with the licenses and insurance they carry. If you want to go the extra mile, you can also call the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration at 202-385-2423 for updated insurance information and at 202-336-9805 to check on a company’s license status.

  
  

You could also skip straight to one of the area’s most capable international moving companies. Contact Nilson Van for an in-person quote today.

How can door-to-door movers really help you if you’re only moving across town (or even across the street)?

Most people moving in-state, or especially in-city, won’t hire door-to-door movers unless they have special circumstances, but they’re actually very beneficial for every move for a number of reasons. For just a few hundred dollars, you can hand your worries (and your backaches) over to someone else, and spend the day celebrating your new home with your friends, instead of pressing them into service.

Here are just a few of the payoffs you get from hiring door-to-door movers:

• Affordability – Interstate moves generally cost over $1000, so the cost of hiring a mover when you could spend a few hours moving yourself from one house to another may initially seem too excessive for your budget. But compare that to the cost of renting any equipment yourself, the gas of driving everything on your own, and replacing anything that gets broken or damaged due to your moving inexperience. In-state moves cost a fraction of the expected cost and are well worth the expense.
• Safety – Lower-back pain is a chronic problem in our country because we spend a lot of our time seated and then try to tackle difficult tasks like lifting couches and dressers. This exertion can have serious consequences if you find it’s too much for your body. Movers do these tasks every day for a living and have extensive safety measures in place, so they are more suited to moving your heavy furniture while you manage other tasks and keep yourself safe.
• Assurance – Professional moving companies have both experience and insurance, so your property is generally less likely to be damaged and more likely to be replaced right away if it is. You don’t have to take their word for it either. Each company you ask for an in-home quote from should have a USDOT number, and this number can be used to check their status. Visit safersys.org to find out more about a company’s official protection plan and history. You can also check out review sites like Yelp and BBB Online to see the experiences other people have had using them.

Call 803-786-1090 to schedule an in-home quote with the area’s best door-to-door movers, Nilson Van.