Virtual Estimates 2.0: How to Start or Scale Your Virtual Surveys

A virtual survey is a recording of all items within a property, typically created prior to a move. It involves capturing video footage of each room and its contents to create a visual catalog of a moving company customer’s belongings, including detailed shots of individual items.

Virtual estimates are no longer a Zoom-based workaround from the lockdown era. They’re a key competitive differentiator for profitable moving businesses.

By offering the option to record a livestreamed video, you can eliminate the cost and inconvenience of sending out an estimator, improve the customer experience, and get more profitability out of every job.

And the best part? It’s easier than you think. Let’s get started.

Why offer virtual estimates?

For modern movers focused on topline growth, virtual surveys are a triple  threat — they save you from sending out estimators, allow you take on remote and long-distance jobs, and provide convenience to customers. And the benefits don’t stop there. 

Whether you’re just getting started with virtual estimates or looking to scale your business without the cost of additional estimators, the right survey tool can be your ticket higher sales and profitability.

Here are just a few of the benefits virtual surveys can deliver.

1. Accurate pre-move surveys = accurate job costing

If you’re struggling to plan resources effectively, virtual estimates might be the game-changer your business needs. A recorded video gives you better accuracy compared to photos, plus it's accessible and agreed upon by all parties, so you can put the right crew and equipment on every job.

This can help you improve your crew management by:

• Reducing lost revenue due to undercharging
• Reducing the drive-time, fuel, and labor costs required for in-person surveys (crucial for remote and long-distance locations!)
• Speeding up the booking process by eliminating the need to coordinate schedules between customers and time-strapped estimators
• Eliminating unpleasant surprises for your crew
• Finishing more jobs on time and reducing the risk of cost overruns

The right virtual survey tool doesn’t just provide a more convenient option for your customers, it also frees up time and energy for your team.

2. Book more jobs faster

With flexible survey options, you no longer need to spend hours juggling customer and estimator schedules. Instead, you can speed up the booking process and reduce the risk of losing leads to a competitor by letting customers record their own inventories.

The result is:

• More options for customers who prefer an in-person survey vs. those who might be hesitant to have unknown team members in their home
• The ability to assess a job anytime, anywhere via mobile device — including long distance jobs and remote locations
• Increased survey capacity, enabling estimators to conduct more surveys in a day

By embracing virtual surveys, estimators can optimize efficiency and help you book more jobs, while offering a better experience to customers.

3. Elevated customer experience (and profits!)

From FaceTime to TikTok, customers spend hours online every day engaging via video. By taking your pre-move surveys virtual, you can meet prospects where they are and send accurate estimates faster.

Fly Guy Moving CEO Kyler Cryder found that when given the option, 70% of customers choose a virtual estimate over an in-house visit.

Here are just a few of the ways virtual estimates can improve the customer experience:

• Consumers expect instant everything, including their moving quotes. With virtual estimates, you gain the ability to create an accurate estimate during the first call. 
• Accurate estimates reduce awkward conversations about having to charge more than originally quoted.
• Impress customers by ensuring every job has the right equipment, supplies, and crew size to run smoothly.
• Estimate jobs anytime and anywhere, including long-distance jobs and remote locations. 

Video surveys help you make sure every job is profitable, accurately quoted, and well-resourced. The customer never has to worry about getting an inconsistent experience, or worse, feeling like there’s been a ‘bait and switch’.

4. Better communication for drama-free moves

With virtual estimates, you get one streamlined communication process from the customer to your team — and a much smaller window for potential miscommunications.

By making it easy to communicate all the info a crew needs before and during the move, virtual surveys help you:

• Quickly identify staircases with sharp angles, small door frames, and items that need special handling.
• Eliminate miscommunications between the customer and estimator.
• Reduce conflicting information between customers and your inventory list.
• Keep your crew happy.

Crews don’t have to worry about arriving on site and seeing an extra sofa that wasn’t in the inventory list. Virtual estimates help you keep everyone on the same page, with less back-and-forth and fewer communication misfires.

5. One place for your team to access recordings

Tools like Zoom and FaceTime are great at what they do, but they don't integrate with your moving company software or crew apps, making it difficult to share video content.

And, instead of asking potential customers to download software, integrated video survey tools help you provide:

• Instant accessibility for customers without the need to download additional software or manually upload videos to opportunities
• A secure and central place for all crew members to access recordings
• A modern and professional digital survey process, with zero downloading or searching for lost or deleted videos

Video tools that work within your moving company software can make virtual surveys feel like a seamless part of the client experience journey, with no manual uploading or downloading required.

A better virtual survey process

Virtual surveys don’t just save you money on drive-time and fuel. They also add a layer of protection, profitability, and service to your business.

To make sure no detail is missed, use a professional, made-for-movers survey tool to keep everyone on the same page. With accurate surveys at scale, you can reduce the risk of a job costing more in crew hours or eating into your profits and help your estimators conduct more surveys in a day.

If you're ready to up your virtual survey game, SmartMoving has just the thing. Our integration with LiveSwitch makes it easy to launch and record video calls right from the opportunity screen in SmartMoving.

See how it works in this video👇. Then, follow these steps to turn on the LiveSwitch integration in SmartMoving.