Thoughts from Larry Kruger, Customer Development, McWilliams Moving & Storage, Ontario, Canada, on resetting the moving industry post-pandemic.
Do you know how they train elephants not to run away? They shackle their ankles to a spike in the ground when they are very young. Over time, they become conditioned to think that they cannot break free. When they are fully grown, they could easily pull the spike from the ground, but they have been trained to think that the chain, and a very small spike in the ground, will hold them, so they never even try.
Now this is an exaggerated example, but many movers are conditioned, like these majestic animals, to become mere beasts of burden. Some of us in the moving industry have been trained to think of ourselves as a simple link in a mobility supply chain: interchangeable manual labour, a dime a dozen commodity, that can be swapped in a heartbeat.
How did this happen? Somewhere along the line the real estate industry reduced our industry to a faceless link in their supply chain. Full credit to the Relocation Management Companies for developing an entire ecosystem around getting a listing. The reality, however, is that without a mover there is no mobility industry. There is perhaps a long-term assignment industry but not relocation. Look up relocation in the dictionary … I rest my case ...
Photo: Larry Kruger.