Remember all the hassles you faced last time you moved? You had to get your local and long-distance phone service and utilities hooked up. There were Internet service providers and cable companies to contact, and all those newspaper and magazine subscriptions that had to be transferred to a new address. With all the time you spent calling companies, repeating the same information and waiting on hold, it was enough to make you vow to never move again.
Well, thanks to a new company called MakeTheMove.com, renters no longer have to give up a whole morning or afternoon to get utilities and other services set up in their new apartments. With just a few keystrokes and clicks of the mouse, they can take care of all those sign-ups in less than a half hour, and can do it anytime–24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Denver-based MakeTheMove.com debuted two years ago, with Chicago as one of its first markets. The company now serves renters and home buyers moving to new residences all over the country. The service is free to consumers because MakeTheMove.com is compensated by the service providers to which it links consumers. These include cable TV, long-distance telephone, wireless, paging and Internet service providers, as well as utilities, magazines and newspapers.
How does it work? Anywhere from six weeks to three days before your move, you can log on to the MakeTheMove.com Web site and provide your old and new addresses, as well as the moving date. You’re given a quick preview of some of the services you can access through the site. Then you register, providing name and phone number and establishing a password.
“From there, you will be presented with the services you can transfer or set up in your new apartment,” said Ward Utter, vice president of marketing for MakeTheMove.com. “You click through each utility or service, filling out a brief online form for each one. After completing each service application, you submit it to the `shopping cart.’ When you’re through, you check out, and all your orders are processed.”
The time required to complete the process varies according to the number of services renters want. But 20 minutes is fairly typical, a time frame that compares favorably with the three to four hours it could take to order all the services separately over the phone.
Upon completing this process, users receive an immediate “summary e-mail” from MakeTheMove.com, listing the utilities and services for which the renter has signed up. The final confirmation of the order is generally received about three days later, according to Utter.
Time savings lead the list of benefits MakeTheMove.com provides renters. A close second is that it’s easy to use. “Because it’s one-stop shopping, that’s really a mental victory for the person moving, who usually has so much to get done,” Utter said.
Those who have used the site also like the fact that it’s available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “Renters appreciate the chance to do this at any hour,” Utter said. “A lot of movers are up doing things at midnight.”
MakeTheMove.com also offers benefits to property management companies.
The firm works closely with property managers, who refer renters to MakeTheMove.com. In turn, the property management companies take part in a revenue-sharing program that compensates them for residents referred to MakeTheMove.com.
The service also eliminates a problem that results in property management companies having to deal with unhappy renters.
“We hear of residents moving out of their units and failing to disconnect their utilities,” Utter said. “That presents a problem for the next person to move in, because the utilities are still connected in the previous renter’s name. So that’s an added advantage to using MakeTheMove.com.”
Among Chicago-area property managers who have used the service is Jennifer Giallanza at Village on the Park in Schaumburg. Giallanza first learned about the service in January, tried it out herself without actually placing an order, and has referred current and future residents to the site since February.
“In the apartment industry, our prospective residents are quite savvy these days,” she said. “They rent for convenience, not necessity. Apartment communities are very competitive in offering services and conveniences.” MakeTheMove.com is one such service, and costs a property management company nothing, she added. “It’s a nice service and attraction for people you’re touring through your community,” she said. “And it’s a farewell gift to a resident who may have been with you for years and is now moving on.”
One of the aspects of the service Giallanza particularly likes is that renters moving out of state or just a few miles from Schaumburg aren’t left to wonder what service providers are available in their new communities. MakeTheMove.com provides the names of those providers.
“As soon as they type in their ZIP code and address, it’s in front of them on the screen,” she said.
And because users have to provide information just once rather than repeating it to numerous service providers, the service wins points for eliminating needless repetition.
But Giallanza agrees time savings and convenience are the service’s chief benefits. “Most people are going to set aside an entire morning or afternoon to accomplish these tasks,” she said. “They anticipate the experience will be just dreadful. [They] know that three-quarters of their time will be spent on hold. They don’t want to do it. They procrastinate.
“But with MakeTheMove.com, they do it any time, from virtually anywhere, as long as they have a computer.”
The only downside to using MakeTheMove.com, she said, is that the service in some areas may not offer the entire universe of available options. “At this point, MakeTheMove.com does not necessarily have all service providers in an area signed up with the company,” she said.
“For instance, you may move to an area with seven cable companies available, but only five of them have been signed up with MakeTheMove.com.”
Still, observers believe the advantages of the service will be hard for renters and property management companies to resist. Lisa Trosien, who heads Aurora-based AptExpert.com, a consultancy serving the multifamily housing industry, said she’s heard a lot of “good positive buzz” about MakeTheMove.com.
“Every property management company these days is looking to provide additional services at no extra cost to them,” Trosien said. “If they can provide an extra value to their residents without paying for it, they’re going to look at it very, very seriously.”
Service providers and utility companies also seem to like it. “We all realize how much the Internet is changing our lives,” said Chris Suppes, vice president of marketing and sales with Nicor Gas in Naperville. “We offer it to give customers another channel to communicate with us. It simplifies the task for many people.”
As for the future of MakeTheMove.com, Utter reported the company is already looking toward expansion of its current services. “Moving is very stressful for consumers,” he said. “Aside from utilities, how else can we make this process easier? We’re thinking of every direction you can go in moving, either doing it ourselves or partnering with other providers, to build the end-all site for movers.”
