Trends transforming the Indian packers and movers industry

By Sahil Mithal, co-founder, ShiftKarado

Technology has massively innovated and benefitted businesses in India and across the globe. The relocation industry is no different. It has powered relocation businesses with tools that offer low-cost pricing and real-time solutions to customers. This wasn’t the case a few decades ago. Shifting to a new house or transporting goods from one city to another was a daunting task, involving heavy manpower. But technology has improved it and made it organised, convenient and transparent.

At present, the industry is facing many impediments; it’s highly unorganised state is one of the major ones, as of now, which is hindering growth. With this, there is a stereotyped notion about many movers and packers across India. Many companies are still handling their operations through a poorly trained workforce and using mini tricks loaded with riskily-tied household items, which are more concerned about reaching the right destination on time and safely move the cargos to the right place.

Here are a few newest trends that are driving transformation in the Indian packers and movers industry as detailed by ShiftKarado, packers and movers company.

Transparency in Pricing – This business has many hidden charges involved in the overall process of relocation, which a customer is updated about only at the time of final payment. And for years, this system has only attracted complaints from customers. Businesses in the beginning lure customers with low rates, which later turn out to be a huge cost for an average person. They are charged in the form of extra carriage, disassembling or anything else, which extremely vexes customers. But with instant pricing, companies ensure fair price and practices to their customers and they never feel cheated. Today, companies provide pricing information instantly to customers at the time of booking the service, basis the volume and nature of household items to be shifted; they provide every minute detail to their customers.

Real-time Tracking – Technology has given birth to diverse mobility solutions. Some come with GPS tracking, allowing customers to relax while their shifting process is work in progress. A customer is enabled to do live tracking of their household items/ shipment from anywhere. GPS services are more beneficial for long-distance transportation of goods. Such services enormously add value to an organisation’s offerings, build trust among customers, and develop better reliability in the long term. This strategic approach clearly removes the long-old challenge that customers have been facing for ages – transparency. Earlier, customers just used to book a local transporter to get their things shifted, which incurred a lot of expenses with no transparency. Fortunately, the advent of tech advancements has completely freed customers from such issues.

Digital payments – Modern technologies have almost replaced all the cash transactions, which earlier was the only choice for customers. Still, in some cases when you have no money in your bank account, but only cash to make payments, you can go for the cash on delivery (COD) option. Plus, digital mode comes with additional benefits as well such as instant payment option, maintaining the transaction history of debit/credit cards or internet banking, and many more. Today the payments have become much faster due to UPI services. Therefore digital payments save a lot of time and give seamless transaction experiences to customers. Besides, they are also a secure way of transferring money from one account to another.

The Rise of Chatbots – Artificial intelligence is not a buzzword anymore. But the kind of innovations it’s still bringing into our lives will always create a buzz from time to time. Chatbots are AI-based creations that are designed to offer seamless customer support services. It’s a software that interprets whatever you write or ask through a voice message and accordingly responds to them. The best part about these awesome bots is: they can chat and resolve multiple issues and queries at the same time. Well, in this case, we can say robots have absolutely replaced humans. Research says that chatbots are 18 times more efficient than humans when it comes to giving instant responses and ensure customer satisfaction.

For companies who are striving to make a change in the relocation business, it’s important that they understand the aforementioned trends, timely adopt tech innovations and leverage the digital wave to deliver better and personalised customer experiences. There can be many techniques and strategies to do that, but success will always depend on how well you embrace such disruption.