Whether you’re relocating to a new house or office, it’s a widely accepted fact that moving is a stressful experience with a capacity for things to go wrong. But does it always have to be this way?
Here to challenge this perception is Ron Holt, who after his own moving experiences saw the opportunity to create a business that streamlined the moving process and deliver amazing customer service.
Without further ado, allow me to introduce the founder of Pink Zebra Moving, Ron Holt.
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I’m Ron Holt, founder of Pink Zebra Moving. We have one goal: to disrupt the local moving industry by delivering a better, more positive customer experience.
Prior to starting Pink Zebra Moving, I was the CEO and founder of Two Maids & A Mop; a residential cleaning brand that served 90 locations prior to my exit from the business. Pink Zebra Moving currently serves seven locations across the country and has plans to open 15-20 new locations per year for the next several years.
I was on top of the entrepreneurial mountain after building a small cleaning business into a 90-location franchise empire. It took me nearly 20 years to pull it off, and the rewards from my hard work should have been exciting to me.
Unfortunately, I found myself struggling with the role of corporate CEO towards the end of my time at Two Maids. The constant meetings and corporate bureaucracy weren’t nearly as exciting as my old startup days.
Around that time of self-discovery, my mother-in-law hired a local moving company. It was terrible, like super bad. Tons of damage, rude customer service, trucks were late, and worst of all, the final bill exceeded her original estimate by more than 300%.
It was so bad that it sparked my entrepreneurial instincts. I Yelped moving services from Seattle to Miami. Time after time, similar experiences looked to be occurring across this country. That’s when the light bulb moment occurred. I decided to sell my franchise empire to start a disruptive moving company built on delivering a positive customer experience. No software code needed, just good old-fashioned professionalism.
The Pink Zebra Moving brand is built on a customer-first principle. I believe that entering the industry from a customer perspective provided us with a more open mind to new ideas and practices.
Most people in our industry enter the industry from the trade perspective. They may have worked for a moving company in the past and then later decided to start their own company. It’s a trade-first perspective that doesn’t promote new ways to attack the industry, in my opinion.
In our case, we had a blast coming up with new ways to combat the negative experiences so many people were living through with other moving companies across the country. How could we handle a damage claim better? How could we arrive at a job site in a more fun, engaging way? How could we put on a show rather than simply work hard during a move? What surprises could we deliver during a move? How could we do the opposite of everyone else in our industry? All questions we attacked during the early days of our brand’s formation.
I have always believed in jumping into the pool rather than slowly stepping into it. So, I jumped right into the moving industry by opening a business in my hometown of Birmingham, AL. We were terrible. So many good ideas but we proved that poor execution of a good idea is still a bad practice.
We took our lumps and eventually decided to pause the opening for a few months so that we could execute better and more efficiently. Once we reopened the business, business boomed right out of the gate, and we haven’t looked back since then. Those early customers probably wouldn’t agree with our vision of industry disruption.
We surprise people. We entertain people. We even feed people — for free! We deliver unique and remarkable customer experiences every single time for all of our customers. It’s an unexpected level of service that makes people smile.
Our goal is to make our customers say, “Wow, I can’t believe they did that for me!” People talk to other people when a moving company surprises them in a positive way. Here’s a quick example. We leave behind a surprise box after we finish every job. The box contains goodies such as chocolates and candy, but the best surprise is a personalized item that usually makes people wonder how we knew so much about them.
If you love the Denver Broncos, then you may receive an autographed John Elway koozie. If you are a busy parent of young kids, then you may receive a gift card to a local spa. We love this part of our business, and it always makes people wonder how we knew so much about them. So for us, our best way to earn a customer is to simply treat a current customer like a rock star.
Seth Godin wrote a fantastic book more than 20 years ago called Purple Cow. I’ve used its principles to build my businesses for two decades now. I would encourage everyone to read the book today. It may be 20 years old but the content still works in today’s marketplace.
There’s a guy down in Savannah, GA, who owns a baseball team called the Savannah Bananas. His name is Jesse Cole. His thoughts on customer experience made me sell a large business to focus on a small startup. Everyone will know his name in a few years. Get in early on the Jesse Cole train because he’s our present-day Walt Disney.
We currently serve seven markets across the country. That’s a great start, considering that we offered the franchise opportunity to the market just a few months ago. But we have big plans, huge plans, to open 15-20 new locations every year for the next several years.
We plan to not only disrupt the local moving industry, but we also aim to create an entirely new category of movers called Happy Movers. The industry may not see us coming yet, but it’s going to happen. Pink Zebra Moving is the world’s first HAPPY moving company, but we believe that other moving companies will one day follow our lead.
Dream big. Make a big plan. Break the plan into small steps. Celebrate your victories every time you take a small step. That’s the recipe I’ve used to build two brands from idea to real-life success. You can do it too.
Visit our consumer website at www.pinkzebramoving.com if you’re interested in hiring a moving company. We can move a lamp downstairs or relocate your entire possessions across the country. We do it all, and it’s fun too!
Visit our franchise opportunity site at www.pinkzebramovingfranchise.com if you’re interested in opening a franchise in your local market. Our franchisees range from former salespeople to corporate managers. In other words, you don’t have to know anything about the moving industry to open your own Pink Zebra Moving franchise.
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