Thank You, Mr. Mover. A Heartfelt Thank You Culminates a Budd Family Move Proof That Touching Lives Is What Budd Teams Are All About
And the chalked-up driveway said, Thank you, Mr. Mover. This was the note left by the kids in a family Budd had packed up for a cross-country move.
“I love notes like this!” says Gary Grund, Budd Van Lines Senior Vice President. “It’s this kind of heartfelt appreciation that makes our employees know they’ve made the challenging experience of a move a lot easier…made the difficult emotional adjustment people often have about moving a little less painful and a little less sad.”
The stories like this about the appreciation of the kids always gets to Gary. It’s nice to know that our drivers take kids on the trucks, let them blow the horn, he says. And one story that particularly sticks with him: Our driver quieted the anxiety of an autistic youngster whose family was moving from New Jersey to Texas. The driver helped the boy pack his things—it was the last room the team packed—and label his boxes. Then he took the youngster onto the truck to show him where his boxes would be placed on the truck and how they would be the last items loaded and the first to find a place in the family’s new home.
Service like this and the customer gratitude that follows tell the whole story. “They’re proof that our employees are our greatest asset,” says Gary, “and we value every contribution they make to get every move right.”
Moving is a tough business, he adds. It involves more than getting a customer’s belongings from Point A to Point B. It also requires handholding, reassurance, and taking the fear out of change, often a big change. “Our team—in the office and out—are touching people, not just moving furniture.”
Gary says that’s why there’s this connection between our drivers and customers that you wouldn’t typically expect. That’s why they get invited to customers’ holiday dinners and receive holiday cards from them, exchange recipes, or text about Metallica and heavy metal or the softer rock with a strain of bluegrass and country captured by the Grateful Dead.
Relationships That Earn Trust
Michele Alexander, a Budd Client Service Supervisor who’s a 30-year moving industry professional and 12-year Budd employee, says she’s not at all surprised by these stories. In a company whose mission is to be the absolute best moving company in America, Budd employees truly walk the talk, she says.
And Michele is part of that—a big part. She heads a 5-woman team that’s stationed all over the country. Nancy Muniz works with her at headquarters. Melissa Latzke is in Phoenix. LeShauna Washington and Valerie Bentley are stationed in Marietta and College Park, Georgia. And Anshanet Ball works in Denver. These 6 women become the first point of contact with customers planning a move. Sometimes it’s a 20-minute call to assure a corporate customer who’s a veteran mover that their antiques and art will be handled safely. Other times it’s an hour call with a first-time mover who needs to fully understand the process. Either way, they do whatever it takes to help customers begin their move on the right foot. “We start building a relationship and earning a customer’s trust, and that’s deepened as customers work with the survey, pricing, and planning teams to complete the onboarding process and then ultimately our drivers.”
“We’re always there for our customers,” Michele says. And that means weekends, too. The team provides customers who move on a Saturday or Sunday with Michele’s contact information, and she becomes the weekend point person who addresses any last-minute move jitters, concerns, or questions.
She also says that sometimes traffic, construction, accidents, weather, or other uncontrollable circumstance can cause a delay in arrival. When a driver notifies her of these issues, she’s immediately on the phone with a customer to not only notify them but also provide an accommodation: dinner, a hotel reservation, or whatever else is necessary to make up for the inconvenience. “We always make things right. “Accountability is an important part of building that relationship with the customer and earning their trust.”
Caring Kid Glove Transport
Budd’s drivers will tell you they cannot do their jobs without the coordinator, survey, planning, and pricing teams. And Michele is quick to say that when she assigns a driver team to a move, she has every confidence that they, too, will provide the top-notch service as well as the innovative features Budd is known for.
Felicia Zamudio You is one example of the way Budd driving teams stand out. Felicia is one-half of a husband-wife team who move customers around and across the country. Moving may be a male-dominated industry, but Felicia, one of several women on Budd’s driver teams, believes that women hold an important place in this industry. Women can easily establish bonds with the moms and wives who are often at the center of planning a family move. And women pay more attention to detail and focus on the important reminders that can help to streamline a move. For example, she’ll often suggest that small items would be best put in a zip lock bag, so they won’t spill or gently asks whether the family forwarded their mail. “Families have a lot on their plates. Their kids are going to different schools. They have to find new doctors. We add small touches that make a big difference.”
Felicia has great compassion and total understanding of the way that a move can cause a family anxiety. “I’ve lived it,” she says. Felicia, who was in outside technology sales with clients like Microsoft and the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, says she can certainly relate to the emotions customers are experiencing. Two years ago, she and her husband, Saroeun, sold their 4 ½ bedroom Washington State home and exchanged suburban living for a life of service moving people across the country. Eventually, they earned and saved up enough money to buy their trailer, Big Bertha, and then bought Miss Hollywood their 196-inch cab that houses a bathroom with shower, bedroom, and kitchen with pantry.
Felicia loves the life she and her husband have chosen, but admits the going was hard at first. “I had to purge everything, and I had such trouble giving up my things. And then there was the part about learning how to effectively communicate with my husband in an environment in which we were so physically close and in a timeframe that was so constant!” she says. “Sharing my story and telling customers that it’s normal to feel [sad] and [nervous] can be reassuring to them.” And make no mistake. Felicia goes beyond emotional handholding and has been known to help hoist washing machines and dryers to a Brooklyn 8-story walk-up ! In fact, she’ll be earning her CDL (Certified Driver’s License) in December and joining Saroeun in driving their big rig.
Felicia says that showing not just telling customers that they’ll take special care with their belongings is important—letting customers watch as the crew wraps their furniture, taking them on the truck to show its space and cleanliness, and showing them where certain things will be loaded. They even often introduce their customers to their new neighbors who check in to watch them unload the truck. “‘Wow, we didn’t have to think about anything,’ they’ll say. ‘You’re really taking care of my stuff. We trust you.’”
And that doesn’t include the personal accolades. “I never thought a photo of me would be in a customer’s scrap book, that they’d write or call me to ask about my college-age kids, or that we’d be trading recipes.”
Consistency and Communication
Another reason Felicia believes their transports are so efficient comes from the benefit of having the same team on the truck for all moves. She says that they’re a team in every way and have their pattern and dynamic down pat because they consistently work together.
That sense of collaboration exists throughout the company, says Michele. Our teams stay in touch with each other and share information about a customer’s preferences or a requirement for a move so there’s uniformity in every step of the process. I’m on the phone with people on different teams, with the drivers, and on Zoom several times a day with my own team. Plus, everyone’s met because of our training at corporate.
When the You’s were at headquarters recently, they placed tangerine and pastries on everyone’s desk to say thank you. “We couldn’t do our job without the teams in home office and around the country,” Felicia says.
It’s that kind of collaboration that makes everyone a winner—the customers whether corporate or COD (residential) and the Budd team, onsite in corporate or in offices across the country, and on the road. According to Michele and Felicia, the cohesive Budd culture contributes to the collegiality among Budd employees. And management recognizes and acknowledges the customer-first performance of teams and individuals. In fact, both Michele and Felicia emphasize that it was the Budd culture that drew them to the company in the first place and continues to make them advocates and ambassadors for the firm.
“We wouldn’t have it any other way,” says Gary. “This is a challenging business, and this past year has been busier and more demanding than ever. Not one of our team has been daunted or relented in giving 200% and more.”
He emphasizes that Budd is not about filling out survey forms and estimates, not about taking copious information on the phone, or going from dock to dock and picking up boxes. “Individuals are in this business because they want to take care of people. They do this work because they’re committed to the service of others. That’s why they’re here,” Gary says.
“It’s a hard job and movers are unique individuals. Our men and women are our greatest assets. I want everyone to know that and to respect each one of them as the craftswomen and craftsmen they are.”
