Moving Case Study:
Imlach Group Delights Customers with Yembo
X
INCREASE
In survey capacity per surveyor
%
INCREASE
Of survey accuracy compared to on-site
%
AVG RATING
From customers using a Yembo AI-assisted survey
The Company
Imlach Group, based out of Detroit, MI, is a family-owned business that has been in the moving industry for more than 95 years. The founder, Charles Imlach started out by helping local families and businesses move in their spare time. However, when he saw that people needed a trustworthy mover, he and his sons started Imlach Group in 1924. Now, Imlach Group specializes in providing top-of-the-line relocation experiences for individuals and companies looking to move locally, nationally, or internationally. Since 1951, as an agent of the Atlas Van Line network, Imlach Group has built and developed its reputation on the principles of trust, quality service, and a constant commitment to exceeding customer expectations.
Summary
As part of their commitment to customer success, Imlach launched their video survey program near the end of 2019 utilizing various virtual communication tools. Ultimately, they figured this would result in the ability to perform more surveys in a shorter timeframe with a better customer experience compared to in-home surveys. With the onset of COVID in 2020, this became the main method of surveying for the company.
Three things became immediately apparent:
- Customers appreciated the online experience.
- Imlach saw a significant reduction in overhead surveying costs.
- A much higher number of surveys could be conducted virtually than in-home.
Additionally, Imlach found that they were spending a large amount of capital for surveys to be conducted by a third party for shipments outside of their immediate local market. After testing a variety of surveying tools, Imlach Group determined that the Yembo’s AI platform offered the most desirable and effective technological remedy to address their needs.
The Challenge
After doing an initial audit of their survey processes, the Imlach team identified three key challenges facing themselves, their process, and their customers’ experiences. First, the Imlach team was not in the position to expand into different local markets or keep the necessary employees on staff to complete the workload
of nearly 3,000 surveys nationwide per year. Second, because their manual process took hours of time and effort for the surveyor, they often found themselves outsourcing the labor to other Atlas Agents nationwide for a flat fee per survey. Third, they found that customers did not appreciate the long wait times when scheduling on-site surveys, the occasional delays due to traffic or weather, or changes in the estimated price due to a poor or inaccurate survey. They concluded that these key factors warranted a full process change and the implementation of technological assistance to help mitigate costs, improve customer satisfaction, and standardize and streamline the survey process.
By design, Imlach Group had always maintained a small and streamlined workforce. However, as the company grew, so did the number of inbound survey requests. With the on-site survey process, the Imlach team had to manually record items from each room in the customer’s home and create an inventory list. Due to these manual constraints, the Imlach survey team could only accomplish 3-4 on-site surveys per surveyor per day. This required them to contract outside Atlas Agents to help conduct and review surveys. Over time, the growing influx of surveys forced the Imlach team to decide between three options:
- Expand the company and hire surveyors throughout the country to handle
incoming survey requests - Continue to export the survey labor to other Atlas Agents at a significant
cost-per-survey (CPS) fee - Find a solution that would empower their current employees with the ability to handle a larger load of surveys.
Because the first two “options” were not feasible from a monetary or logistical perspective, the Imlach team began their search for a tool to aid them in streamlining this pivotal business process.
At first, Imlach Group experimented with various forms of communication and surveying. These forms included
- Recording the customer’s home while on-site and surveying it after the fact
- FaceTiming or using a similar video communication software to view the customer’s home
- Using a proprietary technology developed by their corporate office to both virtually record the customer’s home and survey it manually afterwards.
While the Imlach team saw some success with each of these options, it was clear that these were only temporary solutions to a permanent problem. Once the COVID-19 Pandemic began, Imlach Group was forced to find a more permanent, technological, and customer-centric solution.
While searching for the right solution, the Imlach team worked tirelessly to eliminate the options that would put any strain on the customer. Some solutions they found required the customer to download an app (which posed a problem for some customers who only possessed a work phone that did not permit them to download apps). Other solutions offered a purely web-based experience, but required that the customer interact with a non-Imlach representative. Still, other solutions required the customer to manually complete an itemised inventory of all the goods moving from their home by themselves. After a comprehensive audit of each of these surveying solutions, the Imlach team determined that Yembo offered the most robust andcomprehensive set of tools to streamline and facilitate an unparalleled and non-intrusive survey experience for their customers.
The Solution
After doing an initial audit of their survey processes, the Imlach team identified three key challenges facing themselves, their process, and their customers’ experiences. First, the Imlach team was not in the position to expand into different local markets or keep the necessary employees on staff to complete the workload
of nearly 3,000 surveys nationwide per year. Second, because their manual process took hours of time and effort for the surveyor, they often found themselves outsourcing the labor to other Atlas Agents nationwide for a flat fee per survey.
Third, they found that customers did not appreciate the long wait times when scheduling on-site surveys, the occasional delays due to traffic or weather, or changes in the estimated price due to a poor or inaccurate survey. They concluded that these key factors warranted a full process change and the implementation of technological assistance to help mitigate costs, improve customer satisfaction, and
standardize and streamline the survey process.
By design, Imlach Group had always maintained a small and streamlined workforce. However, as the company grew, so did the number of inbound survey requests. With the on-site survey process, the Imlach team had to manually record items from each room in the customer’s home and create an inventory list. Due to these manual constraints, the Imlach survey team could only accomplish 3-4 on-site surveys per surveyor per day. This required them to contract outside Atlas Agents to help conduct and review surveys. Over time, the growing influx of surveys forced the Imlach team to decide between three options:
- Expand the company and hire surveyors throughout the country to handle
incoming survey requests - Continue to export the survey labor to other Atlas Agents at a significant
cost-per-survey (CPS) fee - Find a solution that would empower their current employees with the ability to handle a larger load of surveys.
At first, Imlach Group experimented with various forms of communication and surveying. These forms included:
- Recording the customer’s home while on-site and surveying it after the fact
- FaceTiming or using a similar video communication software to view the customer’s home
- Using a proprietary technology developed by their corporate office to both virtually record the customer’s home and survey it manually afterwards.
While the Imlach team saw some success with each of these options, it was clear that these were only temporary solutions to a permanent problem. Once the COVID-19 Pandemic began, Imlach Group was forced to find a more permanent, technological, and customer-centric solution.
While searching for the right solution, the Imlach team worked tirelessly to eliminate the options that would put any strain on the customer. Some solutions they found required the customer to download an app (which posed a problem for some customers who only possessed a work phone that did not permit them to download apps). Other solutions offered a purely web-based experience, but required that the customer interact with a non-Imlach representative. Still, other solutions required the customer to manually complete an itemised inventory of all the goods moving from their home by themselves. After a comprehensive audit of each of these surveying solutions, the Imlach team determined that Yembo offered the most robust and
comprehensive set of tools to streamline and facilitate an unparalleled and non-intrusive survey experience for their customers.
The Results
After Imlach decided to bring Yembo into the fold, they saw significant success
throughout the organization. In brief, since they’ve started using Yembo, Imlach has
experienced:
- 3.5x increase in surveyor efficiency (Per Surveyor: 10-15 on-site surveys per week increased to 40-50 Yembo surveys per week)
- 20% increase in number of accurate surveys from on-site surveying
- Conservative savings of nearly $500,000 (car allowances, auto-expenses, outsourced labor, payroll expenses, technology expenses)
- 98.6% average rating from customers following a Yembo AI-assisted survey