How to Make Home Moving Reviews Work for You

Can you trust online reviews? How reliable are online reviews? Are online reviews fake? Can you believe online reviews? Are online reviews important?

These are all questions you have probably asked yourself as you browse through the hundreds of home moving companies online.

You will undoubtedly search the Internet for reviews recommending the most reputable home removal companies. But how relevant is that review to YOUR home move?

This guide to home moving reviews will give you tips on how to ask yourself the right questions to enable you to consider only reviews that are useful to you, and ultimately, to choose the right home removal company to make your moving day experience as stress-free as possible.

You may also like to read: Why Social Proof Matters When Choosing a Removal Company. What is social proof? The social proof psychology concept states that people put great faith in the things that have worked out well for others in the past. If it worked for them it should work for you too right? But is that really the case? Here we seek to find the answer to that question.

How Not to Become Overwhelmed by Reviews

There are far too many home removal company reviews to consider every company and every review intelligently, so firstly we must reduce the number of reviews we need to analyze.

The cost of moving home is going to be a major factor for most people, so your first action is to get some quotes using an online quote estimator.

The quote estimator will eliminate the companies for you that are unable to carry out your move on your preferred date, or to the area you have requested and will also eliminate the moving companies that do not have the resources to perform your removal.

Having received your quotes, you now have a short list of companies that will perform your removal on the date you requested, to the destination you requested, have the required manpower and vehicles, and you now have an estimate of how much it will cost you to move.

Crucially, having used a home removal company review website, you know that the companies that contacted you will have been reviewed and rated by other home movers.

But what do those reviews really tell you, and how will those home moving reviews help you when it comes to selecting the right removal company to move your worldly goods?

You may also like to read: How to Pick a Good Removal Company. The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide. Picking the right removal company can be tricky but in this guide, we show a real example of how to pick a good removal company out of the hundreds of choices you have.

Tips for Making Home Moving Reviews Work for You

Reviews can be a treasure trove of information to help you avoid moving day mistakes, and therefore make YOUR moving day go so much smoother.

Reviews are also useful in that they may highlight to you problems or things for consideration that you had not factored into your moving day plans.

So the following guide will help you to ask yourself the right questions so that you can make reviews work for you.

How many reviews has the removal company received?

One five-star and one two-star review are of little use to you. Look for at least ten reviews with a range of star ratings.

Rarely do companies get things 100% right, every time.

But if they got it wrong, how did they rate in resolving the problem?

Equally, a hundred five-star reviews may mean the company has a very busy PR department!

Although the best review websites will have software built into their site that will alert the reader if a number of reviews are generated from the same Internet provider address.

How old are the reviews?

Reviews from 2002 are useful to show the longevity of the company, which may suggest a reputable moving company, but reviews from last month are far more relevant to your move.

‘Bert’ may be the best mover in the business according to reviews dated 2004, but if he retired five years ago that review is of little use to you.

It is said that ‘new isn’t always better’ but when considering reviews, the newer, the better.

Where were those reviews posted?

If you are using an Internet search engine to find reviews about a specific company, reviews posted on a social media site, for example, could just be friends of the owner.

It is far better to use an independent, reputable online home moving review site.

Are the reviewers regular movers or first-timers?

The opinion of a home mover, using a house moving company for the second or third time, is far more valuable than a novice mover.

If someone has never tried caviar before and eats it for the first time, then posts a review saying ‘’that was the best caviar I have ever tasted’’, they have no benchmark to judge the experience upon.

Equally, if the review states that they have used this company many many times, alarm bells should be ringing in your head, and you need to consider if this is a fake review.

Do reviewers all commend the same attribute of the home moving company?

If using eco-friendly packing materials, or using loading straps, is important to you, then a number of reviewers praising that part of the service may indicate that it is the norm for that company and not a one-off.

The removal company may have a four-star rating but if loading ramps for your quad bike is important to you, and features in reviews, this may be the moving company for you in preference to a five-star company that uses a tail lift vehicle.

What size was the reviewers’ move?

A simple ten-box home move has no relevance to your four-bedroom home, a garage, and a shed move.

Look for reviews with a similar size move to your own. It will give you peace of mind that the removal company has the right-sized vehicles, manpower, and organizational skills to competently manage your home move.

Is the company franchised?

Those five-star reviews may be for the entire company or one particularly good region of the country.

Equally, the bad reviews may be concentrated in one area. Look for reviews specifically from reviewers in your area.

You may also like to read: Moving Brokers: What you need to Know and Why. Moving brokers are basically booking agents, the middlemen between you and the removal company. Is that a problem? Well. it could be. Here we look at the rise of the moving broker in the UK and what to watch out for.

Are you moving long distances?

If you are embarking on a long-distance move, the top-rated moving companies in your area may all be local movers, therefore they may have no experience of long-distance home moving.

They may have quoted you to do the move, they may have the right size vehicle and they may be able to move you on the date you requested, but this could be the first time they have been to Lands End from Fife.

Do they know that their vehicle will fit under that bridge or down that narrow lane?

Ask the question when they provide your quote if that is an important consideration for your home move.

Is the removal company legally registered?

Is the removal company top rated, but not a member of a professional body, for example, the British Association of Removers?

Do you want the security of professional accreditation should you be the ‘one in one hundred’ it goes wrong for?

Members of such an organization have standards of business and ethics that they must adhere to. Additionally, there are set procedures that the removal company must follow in the event that you have a complaint against them.

You may also like to read: Home Removal Industry Associations and Trade Organisations. Here we look at what benefit, as a consumer, it has that a removal company belongs to one of the trade associations.

Are you moving valuable and fragile items?

If you are moving antiques or specialized items, for example, a piano, has the removal company with the best reviews in your area ever had experience moving such items?

Moving boxes from A to B is one thing, packing and safely moving your collection of Ming vases is quite another.

Why Your Review is Important

People today place as much faith in online reviews as they do in word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family.

So now you know the questions to ask yourself to make reviews work for you.

It will always be a question of balance and what you consider to be the most important aspects of your home move. A four-star rated moving company may meet your criteria better than a five-star rated company.

Reviews are invaluable, but the value of the content of the review is only relevant if it contains truthful and accurate information, from a legitimate source, that correlates to your own move, which then enables you to make an informed decision.

‘‘Maybe I’ll post a consumer review: Bought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10’’ – from The Martian by Andy Weir

And when your moving day is over, you now know the specific information to provide to other home movers when you write your own review of that moving company.

Reviews are a great indicator of performance, not just for consumers, but for the company that moved you.

Praising the moving company’s services indicates they are getting their service right, and is a great motivator to continue to provide the level of service the reviewer enjoyed.

Equally, a less favourable or constructive review may help them to improve their services or offer additional services that they had not even considered.

And should you have a problem with your removal company, posting a review may be the incentive they need to resolve your issue quicker.

Just do not forget to update your review with the outcome of your complaint.

That is great news for the consumer and service provider, which is why it is so important to not only post reviews but to post well-written, factual, and informative reviews.

You may also like to read: How to Write a Review About a Removal Company. In this guide, we look at how to leave a review that other home movers will find really useful.

Whatever questions you needed answering when you began reading the online home moving reviews, you can be sure that there are others who have the same or similar questions.

You found the reviews invaluable when making your decision, you can now help others make a well-considered decision using your review.