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10-Mar-10 10:00 PM CST Move Consultants – how to hire and what you buy when you hireIf you have never hired a move consultant or you don’t know what one is, this is the article for you! A move consultant is an organized, drill-sergeanty type of human being or group who really cares about your company, your company’s bottom line and how to get the company efficiently from Point A to Point B while ensuring you stay in business as long as possible. No small feat you say… and it is true. Hiring a move consultant really is an easy thing to do. First, you will want to do a little homework. Your homework should include looking up moving consultants in your area. Second, ask around about move consultants. While I would not say you need to hire someone to vet this out for you, I would say a few prudent conversations with your friends, architects, property managers and brokers would get you a number of names. Call these companies, ask for referrals and check them out. Find out how they saved their clients money and time. If a move consultant is doing their job, they will save you time, save you money and make you look like the expert in your organization for having hired them. Here in Houston a moving company on a large move is likely to cost between $800 and $1000 per hour. It is imperative that you have someone with experience at the helm or you will end up with a very large bill and possible chaos in your new space come opening day. Interview your top two or three picks. If you are planning a large move, it is important that you like who you are hiring and feel like they are a fit with your company. It is also important that you know they know every pitfall and the solution for any issues that may arise. I would suggest coming up with a few scenarios and testing them out in your interview process. Further, ask for references around the scenarios they are discussing and call those companies for their take. One thing to avoid is anyone who will not be present on move day. When you hire a move consultant, you want them there for the weekend, day or night to guarantee that your goods are properly handled from beginning to end. If someone tries to hand you a book to tell you how to do it, be wary – you want the help and the expertise of the real consultant, not the one in the book who may or may not have conducted a move! Following are a number of additional reasons to hire a move consultant: 1. Time - Your time is really better focused on what you do for a living. The move consulting wheel has been invented and you don’t need to try to figure it out while continuing to do your full time job, as this will be another full time job. 2. Processes - In addition to wanting their processes, you want their experience with those processes. While some move consultants provide purely scheduling, others go into great detail for every little thing associated with your business. They look at everything and make certain that all of your things are accounted for in “to do” lists. They then track those lists (and things) all the way to the new space. 3. Planning - The move consultant should make sure all things fit according to the plan. Not every consultant does this so you need to make sure yours does. It is imperative that everything you are sending to the new space fits and that you know it fits before you get it the room. This will save you time and money. 4. RFP’s (request for proposals) - A good move consultant will have all the RFP’s you need to conduct your move. They will take a template and hone it to fit your needs for a number of services including your mover, your shelving vendor, deinstallation/reinstallation of computer equipment and/or crate rental. The big one here is the mover RFP. It is imperative that it be written for exactly the elements on your job. Are you moving files, is the mover packing the files, and are the file cabinets being moved loaded –can the file cabinets be moved loaded safely and without damage? There are a number of items to be considered and most of all, you want an RFP to reflect that reality and get you a good number. Your move consultant will write mover contract directly to you and then oversee that contract making sure that the mover comes in on or under their proposed amount. A good RFP will ensure no “scope creep” and no surprises when the bill comes due. 5. Experience – A move consultant will have encountered broken elevators, broken down trucks, floods, fires, delinquent movers, etc. One of the more stressful activities a person can perform in their career is managing their companies move. All eyes are on you with the expectation that you will keep your company running as long as possible. In a nutshell, you want and should have it all. A good move consultant will be concerned with all your pain points – furniture planning, movers, computers, communications, all the way down to the coffee and paper clips. You want someone with know how who cares about you and your bottom line. Good luck on your next move, I recommend hiring a move consultant so that you can keep on moving on! Renee McNiel, PMP, has been a Move Consultant for twenty-one years. She has managed the moves of 3 people all the way to 5000 people for her corporate, institution and hospital clients. She owns Corporate Move Consulting Inc. in Houston, Texas.
Rating: 5.00 / 5.00
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For additional information on this Interesting article, please contact:
Renee McNiel, PMP
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