How to be a successful mover on Citymove

by Paul Lenkiewicz

Since we relaunched the platform a few months ago, Citymove has seen an increasing number of jobs posted every month. As we have been working on the beta site to improve it and drive more bids to be accepted. It may have been frustrating initially for many movers as some jobs were abandoned and some movers and users had a hard time to adjust to the new dynamics. After the last several rounds of updates, and after introducing additional follow up emails and text reminders, we are now seeing more bids accepted than ever before. As a life-long fan of CityMove, I looked through which movers are winning the most jobs, and what they are doing right and put together advice to help new movers be successful.

1. Play the numbers game

Treat jobs like a dating app and try to put in your best offer for every job to see if there is interest in booking with you. Keep in mind you do not always have to beat the lowest existing bid. Your reviews, name recognition, repeat business, and availability may win you the job even if you bid significantly higher than the lowest bid. Here are some statistics to illustrate this point:

For the period of December 2018 to February 2019, only four movers put in bids on at least 90% of new jobs. These four movers accounted for 41% of total accepted jobs on Citymove!
If we include movers who bid on at least 75% of jobs, there are 8 companies and they account for 78% of accepted bids. Clearly, putting in bids works – but it takes persistence.

2. Be fast

One-third of all users accept a bid within the first 48 hours, or faster. Being one of the first to place a bid greatly increases your chances of booking the job. Users tend to look most closely at the first 4 bids they receive.

3. Make assumptions if you need to

Fill in the blanks while bidding, then carefully confirm the details after your bid is accepted. Not every user will put 100% effort into making an accurate posting during onboarding, that is the nature of a platform such as CityMove. If you see the user did not ask for packing services, and has listed no boxes and made no mention in the description, odds are something is off. Place a bid that is most competitive, and once it is accepted reach out to client to confirm the details – and if appropriate, explain there will be an extra charge. Don’t avoid jobs because you are not sure how much to price – do your best and adjust later if you absolutely need to.

4. Ask for reviews

Movers with recent verified reviews book a lot more jobs. Since we have expanded the system so that users can now browse review details and easily navigate to the job details, the reviews can be more valuable than ever to differentiate yourself from the competition.

5. Make sure your profile information is complete

A blank “terms and conditions” page will make users go to the last step before accepting your bid, and see no terms and conditions which looks really unprofessional! Pictures help a lot to build trust as well. Help users get to know you before accepting your bid!

This about wraps up my advice for now. Feel free to contact us to go over your individual profile and success on Citymove. We believe that as we grow the platform it can be a very valuable and fair resource to get additional work for small and large moving companies in NYC and other cities.