As moving professionals, at some point, we’ve all spoken to customers who need a quote right that very moment. 

The first time for me was a newlywed couple who called us looking for a move into their brand new home. As challenging as staging a move already is, the hardest part was when they dropped the line, “We’re taking off on our honeymoon early tomorrow morning, so can you just kind of tell us now how much the move will cost right now?”

This is when things get tricky, with your business on one end and a customer on the other, waiting for you to give them a number, right then and there.

Giving over-the-phone estimates is not easy. Fortunately, there’s a way to nail down a fairly accurate quote: It’s all about asking the right questions, as well as making sure the customer understands the importance of their answers. Here’s what to do.

How to Build Your Time Estimate

Step 1: Account for every room in the house 

The first question I recommend is: “How many bedrooms do you have?” This gives you a fairly consistent idea of the size of the place being moved. But be sure to quickly follow this up by asking the customer what other rooms they have—and what is inside each. As long as they don’t have four grand pianos and a half dozen pinball machines, the following estimates should apply:

It is important to note a couple of things here:

• These are averages based on previous moves (albeit countless moves that have been performed since the dawn of the moving industry)
• These averages, in turn, gravitate towards average circumstances: a 100-foot carry from the front door to the truck; an average number of staircases; rooms with an average amount of furniture; an average number of boxes; and a minor amount of furniture disassembly

But if every home was average, estimates would be much easier to give. In reality, we need to find out how a customer’s home might be different from the average to come up with an estimate that will deliver the expected service at the agreed price once the move is done. 

Step 2: Know your distances (plus the moving grounds)

I learned quickly to look not just at what a customer had but where it was in the house and how we were going to have to get it out.

THE INSIDE ROUTE: how’s your stuff getting out?

Carrying a heavy armoire down a long set of stairs is one thing, but getting a medium-sized dresser down a narrow, angled staircase is tougher and takes longer. And of course, everything else has to go down that same narrow staircase with the ninety-degree angle (too often paired with a low ceiling and/or a banister of some obtrusive kind).

“All other things being equal, unloading a customer’s belongings can take as much as one-third less time than loading them.”

Narrow doorways to narrow hallways can also slow things down—perhaps not by a full hour, but those extra minutes add up. Meanwhile, apartment buildings often have stairs that pull a u-turn halfway down. If the stairwell is wide, no problem! But if you’ve got a narrow space to work with, that means more minutes. So does being on the eighth floor with no elevator (hello, New York City).

THE OUTSIDE ROUTE: how close can we get the truck to the door?

If you can pull up the customer’s driveway, or park right outside the customer’s apartment building, awesome. If you have to park out in the street, or if it’s a long haul from the apartment building door to the truck, then you can safely tack thirty minutes onto a smaller move and an hour onto a larger one (for 3-4 bedrooms).

Another thing to consider is whether the path from the door to the truck is leveled. Having to go downslope can actually slow you down a bit. And going upslope will absolutely drag things out. It may not be by a lot, but any major slope may bump your estimated time up a half notch.

Keep track of all these minute-eating variables, they add up!

Step 3: Sort out the variables

Take an estimate of the heavy, bulky and high-maintenance Items! (If your business is listed on a move providing service like HireAHelper, “Extra Heavy Items” will be automatically communicated to you, which is part of the convenience.)

What’s an “Extra Heavy Item”? We’re talking time-consuming items like:

• Pianos (both grand pianos and larger uprights) 
• Gun safes (including laying down)
• Hot tubs
• Pool tables 
• Grandfather clocks (which need to be serviced)
• Exercise equipment like weight benches, including any plates that need to be removed

Variations apply, but a decent rule of thumb is that for Extra Heavy Items, four movers will spend 30-45 minutes on each such item.

“Remember to always give your customer a range, with the estimate in your head falling in the middle.”

There are exceptions. A hot tub that is already unhooked and ready to be carried from the backyard to the driveway and onto the truck requires little extra time. One mover can tackle servicing that grandfather clock, but the care it requires will keep them occupied for a half-hour, minimum. Disassembling an exercise machine and boxing up the plates and smaller parts may also only require one person, but again, the task can eat up half an hour, easily. 

Note: Feel free to try to muscle that exercise machine down that curved staircase and across that marble floor to the front door and out to the truck at the curb, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Step 4: Figure out the weather conditions

The weather itself usually doesn’t especially slow things down, but what does add time to the job is making sure everything is done safely.

This means taking time to clear out and keep away snow and ice; keeping floors, stairs, trucks and ramps dry so we maintain sure-footing; and not overheating when the mid-summer sun is blazing and the inside of the truck is 120 degrees. It is difficult to predict to what extent the weather will affect our ability to get the job done in a timely manner.

Here’s my best advice: Go ahead and tell the customer it’s an uncertain science. In other words, tell them you will do everything you can to keep everything dry and safe in as little time as possible, but the impact will vary. Making walkways or shoveling or cooling down should only take a few extra minutes here and there to keep things from getting bad. But do take those few minutes. It’s much better than losing several hours due to a sprained ankle.

Step 5: How many people are on your crew (on both ends)?

It may seem reasonable to say that a job that takes two people ten hours might take four people five hours. And the reality isn’t that far off. However, having two movers empty the house to a staging area and another two people grabbing all that stuff and loading it on the truck takes less than half the time it would take two movers to do it all. This difference only grows with the size of the job.

In other words, more muscle makes things exponentially quicker.

Also, it took me exactly one local move to learn that unloading a truck is way faster than loading it. All other things being equal, unloading a customer’s belongings can take as much as one-third less time than loading them.

Final step: What’s the drive time?

Take the time to look at a map and know how long it will take your crew to get to the job site. Your job doesn’t officially begin until you arrive, but your crew’s hours definitely accumulate even before they start the job. Also, take some time to consider how long it will take to drive from origin to destination, but in a loaded (versus unloaded) truck.

Bottom Line

Never completely wing your estimate. If you guess low, you’ll end the job with an angry customer demanding to know why their bill is twice the given estimate, and you can start counting the minutes until they post a negative review. If your estimate is too high, then there goes your prospective customer, running across the street to the competition.

Ask the right questions, and pay attention to every detail before giving your estimate. Over the phone, get as much information as possible about all the furniture, all the boxes, and all the variables, reminding your prospective customer that the accuracy of their estimate hinges on the accuracy of their information. (Or trust that your customer service rep at HireAHelper has already done this for you.)

Use the chart in this post, and add or subtract from those estimates depending on the extras. Remember to always give your customer a range, with the estimate in your head falling in the middle. Make it clear that every home and every situation is different, but based on your experience you are giving them an estimate they can bank on.