I completed these moving furniture Case Studies following a series of in depth interviews with customers who have recently moved with Crown. I wanted to better understand the relocations experience of actual customers, for the benefit of Crown's improvement programme and for other potential customers considering the services of a professional moving company.
Angela Jackson is the National Quality Manager for Crown Relocations New Zealand
Moving Across Town with Crown Relocations
This case study focuses on Alistair (he has asked for his full name to be excluded from the Case Study for privacy reasons), who moved at his own cost locally within Dunedin. After initially planning to relocate from the area he found that it wasn’t feasible to do so, deciding to relocate within Dunedin instead. His change of plans placed him under real pressure due to an expired lease, hence the need for him to have his effects moved into storage for a short period of time.
Although he was not fully certain on where he would be moving to, Alistair contacted various relocation companies, through the internet and approached them for quotes, 6-8 weeks before his actual move. His first impression of some relocation companies was that they were "haphazard, they couldn’t give information at all." However, first impressions weren’t the deciding factor in his selection process; it was Crown’s ability to wait for Alistair to be 100% sure of his ever changing arrangements, "flexibility" was the key for him.
haphazard, they couldn’t give information at all.
Prior to moving out, he found the billing process to be "a bit confusing". This was because the bill was split into two halves while he went into storage. "The bill to first move out was about double what the bill to get my stuff back was". This issue was not clarified, and Alistair was left pondering the issue, although he had a slight idea as to the reasoning he was never fully clear on it. This however, was the only problem for him, as he found the rest of the documentation to be clear and precise, receiving copies of everything. The follow-up planning and move date booking was easy and stress-free.
On moving day, the removals crew were 10-15 minutes late, he did not find this as a hinderance, it was “reasonable”. The moving team were fully prepared and gave an in-depth briefing to Alistair, who had no issues or hassles with this stage of the moving process. The packing was completed with a high level of proficiency and expertise. In terms of communication, Crown were "proactive", even providing a packing-day phone call to check that everything was going smoothly.
Crown again displayed an exemplary level of communication and flexibility with Alastair when arranging his delivery out of store. Alastair had to change the delivery arrangements several times but Crown managed to work around these changes very effectively. There was initially a small problem on delivery day, with the delivery team getting "completely lost" on the way to his new house. Alistair says it was more to do with the problematic location than lack of professionalism on Crown’s part. However, he was overall very happy with the delivery and unpacking skills displayed by the crew. Communication was again very good at this stage of the move, as Crown Dunedin called numerous times to make sure everything was in order. Alistair had no major issues or problems at any stage of the delivery.
The bill to first move out was about double what the bill to get my stuff back was
The highlight of Alistair’s move was the flexibility of Crown to work around his issues in order to get the job done. The only disappointing aspect was the delivery team’s inability to locate his new home, and he suggested that others moving house give their mover clear directions to ensure they can easily find the delivery address. Overall, Alistair’s experience with Crown was a positive one, and he would have no hesitation in using their services again in the future, if the need arose.
With respect to learnings for Crown a lot of positives can be taken from this Case Study. For one, the communication from Crown was excellent; Alistair was informed at all times as to what was happening during his frequent changes of plan. Flexibility also proved to be outstanding on this occasion. While there was an issue with Alistair not initially understanding the pricing, this proved to be minor. As a corrective action, Crown’s operations teams will receive more thorough briefings before leaving their depot, to ensure they don’t get lost and cause any inconvenience to future customers.
