How the Infusion of Technology is Transforming the Relocation Industry

By: Atul Mithal, Founder and CEO, Shift Karado

Technology, in its quest to improve upon the status quo, has touched every field of human activity imaginable. It has simplified our lives, and generated several opportunities to boost productivity and efficiency. Several national and international businesses are investing in cutting-edge technologies to optimize their processes and improve the experience they offer their customers. Thus it comes as no surprise that the relocation industry is also embracing technology to offer transparent, low-cost pricing and real-time solutions to all its clients.

Moving to a new apartment or getting valuable goods transported from one city to another can be a daunting task due to the absence of stringent laws, standardization, and transparent pricing. A paucity of skilled management and client service personnel has also contributed to the sector remaining largely disorganized and unsatisfying to customers. In a cost-sensitive country like India, customers often opt for low-cost relocation service providers and unwittingly fall into a trap, because these providers often accept no liability for damages and breakages. This makes the transaction more expensive than the customer had planned for, creating a poor user experience. Technology today has the potential to resolve all these problems – it can help the sector get organized, become more transparent, and help customers track and watch over their belongings, leading to a better customer experience throughout the shift.

The use of technology helps the entire ecosystem, as it makes tasks easier for relocation firms and more reliable and convenient for consumers. This is why every relocation firm today is looking to offer the best possible services to their customers through instant pricing, live tracking, automation, digital catalogues, and mobile applications. Let’s look at some of the recent technological innovations that the best relocation service providers are looking to deploy to attract customers in the relocation industry today.

Insta Pricing: Customers often complain about hidden costs charged by their relocation service provider at the time of final payment. After luring customers with very low rates at the beginning, certain service providers add charges to the initial figure through ‘value added services’. It can be for disassembling certain goods or extra carriage charges because the service provider was unable to park in your society. To ensure a fair practice in such situations, we formulated and introduced a unique insta-pricing model on our platform. A pioneer in this technology, Shift Karado, leverages the model to give out the exact quote for relocating any volume of goods between any two locations instantly. The technology also covers charges as per distance, weight, and nature of goods. So your initial quote is also the final amount to be paid.

Digital Catalogue: A digital catalogue will enable customers to have a reasonably clear idea of the cost of a provider’s services, adding to the level of comfort, reliability, and transparency that the customer feels. With clarity on how the distance of relocation and the weight of goods being relocated would affect the price of their services, customers can choose the best packers and movers for their budget more conveniently.

Mobile apps: Several relocation providers take much longer to transport customer belongings that their initial promise. During this interim period, their customers are often left without any way of knowing where their goods are and how long they shall take to arrive. The use of GPS-enabled phones and smartphone apps help customers track their belongings in transit, and have a clear idea of when to expect its arrival at their new home.

Robots: To provide error-free and tireless services, several companies are in the process of adopting artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. AI is facilitating pick-up and drop schedules and is able to streamline so many functions, thus delivering a competitive advantage for adopters by cutting shipping times and costs. Using robots, relocation service providers can avoid mishaps during loading and unloading and keep all expensive items safe during shifting.

We live in a more dynamic world where a larger number of people follow their ambitions and dreams to relocate their homes from one place to another. With technology having a positive impact in various other fields, it is about time that the relocation services industry also came to be disrupted and improved.