How has COVID-19 affected the moving & relocation business?
2020 and 2021 were very busy years for outbound moves. A lot of expatriates got locked out of China when the borders were closed. Unsure of when they would be able to return, many chose to have their goods packed up and shipped to them. Perhaps 50% of the moves we handled that year, the clients were not in China. In these cases we got access to their residence via their ayi or colleagues and we did a video call with them to find out what they wanted to ship.
Inbound relocation has been slow however as many expatriates found it challenging to obtain a visa for them or for their family. The exception however is Chinese nationals, many of whom chose to return to China, presumably due to the safety of relatively few COVID cases.
COVID-19 however did make us stop and pause to examine our business operations and to examine how we could improve efficiencies to improve productivity and cost containment. As a result of this exercise, we did re-model our processes and did achieve cost savings and increase efficiencies. We also examined ways on how we could improve our client experience. We spoke to many of our clients to better understand what were the causes of their stress pressure points. We discovered that whilst our staff were good at delivering their items to their new residence and unpacking everything and placing things where they want, it was still challenging and time consuming to organise their new residence in a functional and organised way. It can take them several weeks or longer to organise their new homes.
Based on this feedback, we launched a new service called ‘VIP Settling-in Service’. We hired an expert (accompanied by two assistants) in ‘de-cluttering’ who can spend a whole day (or longer) helping new arrivals to organise their new home in the most functional and organised way. Recently they were hired by a Consulate to help a Consul-General move into a new home in Shanghai.
Asian Tigers Group is an international moving & relocation company, and is recognised as a market leader. With offices in 14 countries across Asia and over 1,500 staff and with affiliations with more than 500 global providers, we can offer our clients both in-depth local knowledge and a worldwide service scope. In mainland China we have been operating since 1998 and employ more than 280 professional staff in 11 offices around China. We specialise in international, domestic and local moving – as well as office relocations and records management services.
