Playbook, removals company
The move where the day matters more than the price
A large share of removals work is somebody's parent leaving a house they have been in for forty years, arranged by a son or a daughter, going somewhere smaller with a lift and a warden. The questions that arrive are not about volume. They are about whether the crew will place the furniture rather than stack it, whether the bed will be made up, whether the person can sit somewhere while it happens, and whether anybody minds that most of it is not coming.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for accessibility requests holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The person asking is frequently not the person moving, so the enquiry has to work for a relative acting on somebody's behalf, and the survey may have to be arranged around a third person entirely.
- What is being requested is a way of working rather than an item on a price list: unpack into cupboards, make the bed up first, leave the kettle and a mug somewhere findable, keep a chair out until the end.
- The access questions differ from a standard move: a stairlift that has to come out, a wet room threshold, a wheelchair route that must stay clear while a crew is carrying, a lift in a block that is small or out of service.
- Downsizing is usually part of it, so a large part of the house is going nowhere, and the survey has to record what is coming rather than what is there, or the van and the crew are sized for a house that is staying put.
How it arrives
- my mum is moving into sheltered housing can you help
- will you unpack and put things away
- can you make the bed up on the day
- she uses a wheelchair is that a problem
- we are only taking about a third of the house
- i am arranging this for my father can i deal with you instead
What has to be indexed for this to work
| What the crew will do beyond carrying | Unpacking into cupboards, making a bed up, reconnecting a washing machine, hanging curtains, taking packaging away the same day. Whether each is included, quoted separately or not offered. Families ask for all of it and currently get a different answer each time. |
|---|---|
| How you handle a move arranged by somebody else | Who you take instructions from, what you need in writing, and how a survey works where the person moving is present but a relative is organising. Say it plainly, because families are anxious about doing this wrongly. |
| The access details that change the job | Lift sizes, stairs, thresholds, doorway widths, a stairlift to be removed, carrying distance from the vehicle, and whether a route has to stay clear during the carry. All settled at the survey, all worth raising well before it. |
| Specialist handling, and what is beyond you | A mobility scooter, a hospital bed, a hoist, a piano, anything needing more than a crew and a tail lift. Naming the limit honestly is far more useful than a general statement of willingness to help. |
The reply
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. On the day, things like unpacking into cupboards, making a bed up first and taking the packaging away are set out on our services page, with which are included and which are quoted separately [1]. Access is the part worth raising early: lift size, thresholds, whether a stairlift has to come out, and whether a route needs to stay clear while we carry [2]. If you are arranging this for a parent, that is entirely normal and our terms say who we take instructions from [3]. I cannot arrange or price anything, but leave your name, an email and both postcodes and a surveyor will call and work round whoever needs to be there.
The first three words matter more than anything else in the reply, because the person asking half expects to be a nuisance. Access is raised by the assistant rather than waited for, since a family thinking about their mother will not think about a lift until the day. The instruction question is answered as routine, which is what removes the fear of doing it wrongly.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any request for a specific arrangement on the day, anything involving medical equipment or a hoist, and any case where somebody needs the survey conducted in a particular way.
Arrangements like this should be agreed with a person rather than assumed from a page. Leave your name, an email, both postcodes and a line about what is needed, and a surveyor will call and go through it properly.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never promise a particular crew, a particular arrangement on the day, or that a request has been noted, since nothing said here is written down anywhere.
- Never say a lift, a doorway or a route will be fine, which is a measurement and belongs to the survey.
- Never repeat or dwell on anything about a person's health beyond what the enquiry needs in order to make sense.
- Never suggest specialist equipment such as a hoist or a hospital bed can simply be loaded, when it may need handling the crew is not equipped for.
Questions
- These enquiries are sensitive. Should a widget answer them at all?
- It should answer the factual half and hand over quickly. What the crew will and will not do, and which access details matter, are facts, and they are worth having at ten at night. Everything past that is a phone call, and the reply should reach that point fast.
- Can it note that somebody needs a particular arrangement?
- It cannot note anything anywhere. What is said in the chat reaches you only as the enquiry email it sends, so a request that matters has to be repeated to the surveyor. The page must not imply that saying it once is enough.
- Should we publish that we take instructions from a relative?
- Yes, with your own conditions attached. Families arranging a move for a parent worry about whether they are allowed to, and a plain sentence about who you deal with and what you want in writing removes a hesitation that otherwise turns into no enquiry at all.
Keep reading
- Everything for a removals companyPrice depends on volume and access, so a survey comes first. Insurance limits are what customers misunderstand most, so say them plainly.
- Handling accessibility requests in generalTwo different things arrive as one message. A published accessibility statement answers the first. The second is a request, and it needs a person.
- The morning of the move, described before it happensThe crew arrives early, walks round, and starts. What to do the night before, and the things they are not allowed to load.
- Pricing a move on volume and access rather than on bedroomsTwo three bedroom houses can differ by half a van and a flight of stairs. Volume and access are the price, and neither is in a message.
- The word insured, and the limit nobody expects behind itCustomers hear insured and think replacement value. Standard cover is a liability limit, usually per item, with exclusions that matter.
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