Latest / Scaling Up with Fexingo: How Small Businesses Become Mid-Market Companies / How a Moving Company Scaled to 18 Million by Fixing Online Reviews
Transcript
- Lucas: You know, when you think about scaling a business, the last thing that comes to mind is moving furniture. But a company called Boulder Movers, based in Colorado, managed to grow from 2 million to 18 million in just four years — and they did it by fixing something really specific: their online reputation and booking process. Luna: I think I've seen that company on Google. They show up with a ton of five-star reviews, right? Lucas: Exactly. And that didn't happen by accident. They were stuck at around 2 million for years, relying on referrals and local ads. Then the founder, a guy named Derek Waters, realized the problem wasn't demand — it was that they were losing customers before they even got a chance to quote. He told me their call to booking conversion rate was under 20 percent. Luna: That's brutal. So every five calls, only one turned into a move. What was going wrong? Lucas: A few things. First, they were a single office with a landline. If the phone rang at lunch, it went to voicemail. And even when someone answered, the dispatcher would take down the details and promise to call back with a price — often hours later. By then, the customer had already called three other movers. Luna: Right. So speed is everything in that business. If you don't quote fast, you're out. Lucas: Exactly. So Derek did three things. First, he switched to a call-tracking system that routed incoming calls to the nearest crew's mobile phone. That way, if a truck was finishing a job nearby, the crew leader could answer and quote on the spot. It cut their average response time from 90 minutes to under three. Luna: That's smart. And I bet the customer felt like they were getting immediate, personal attention. Lucas: That's exactly what happened. Second, he built a simple online booking tool. Nothing fancy — just a form that let customers input their move details and get an instant estimate. It captured about 60 percent of the calls that came in after hours. And because the tool was tied to their pricing engine, the quotes were actually accurate. Luna: So they solved the responsiveness issue. But what about the reviews? That's what really caught my eye. Lucas: That was the third piece, and honestly the most important. Derek realized that even if they got the booking right, their Google rating was a 4.2 — which is okay, but not great. So he made a rule: at the end of every move, the crew leader would ask the customer for a review. They'd hand them a card with a QR code that linked directly to the Google review page. Luna: Did they get pushback from the crews? That can feel awkward. Lucas: At first, yes. But Derek tied it to a bonus — if the crew got a five-star review, they each got an extra 20 bucks per move. Suddenly, the crews were invested. Their rating climbed to 4.9 over eighteen months. And that drove more organic traffic, higher click-through rates, and a conversion rate that went from under 20 percent to over 40. Luna: So the reviews became a virtuous cycle. More reviews meant higher ranking, more calls, and better-quality leads. Lucas: That's the whole idea. But the thing I found really interesting is that Derek didn't try to fix everything at once. He did the call routing first, then the booking tool, then the reviews — one at a time. He told me the biggest mistake he sees other small business owners make is trying to overhaul the entire operation in a single quarter. It's too disruptive. Luna: That makes sense. If you change the booking process and the pricing model and the routing all at once, how do you know what's working? Lucas: Exactly. And you also risk breaking the existing revenue stream. Derek's approach was to test each change on a subset of calls first. For example, he only introduced the online booking tool for residential moves under five miles for the first month. Once he saw that the estimates were holding up and cancellations weren't spiking, he rolled it out to all moves. Luna: That kind of discipline is rare. Most people want to go big or go home. Lucas: Yeah, and that's often what kills them. Look, Boulder Movers is now at 18 million, and they're on track for 22 this year. But they didn't add a single truck until they were past 10 million. They just got more efficient with what they had. Luna: So they scaled capacity on demand by improving utilization. That's textbook operational leverage. Lucas: That's exactly it. And I think there's a lesson here for any service business — whether you're a plumber, a landscaper, or even a consultant. The first bottleneck isn't usually capital or labor. It's the glue that holds the customer experience together: picking up the phone, giving a fast quote, and building social proof. Luna: Before we get too deep, I want to say something about these conversations. If they've moved your work forward in some small way — maybe you've tried one of these ideas, or they've shifted how you think about your own business — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. It's at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: I appreciate that, Luna. And honestly, the support from listeners is what lets us keep this ad-free and focused on real stories. It adds up fast. Luna: Absolutely. So back to Boulder Movers — after they fixed the booking and reviews, what was the next bottleneck? Lucas: It became crew reliability. Once they had more demand, they needed to make sure every move happened on time and without damage. So Derek created a quality checklist that crews had to complete on every job — things like taking photos of the truck before and after, logging any issues, and following up within 24 hours. He also invested in a simple CRM that tracked which crews had the highest review ratings, and he started routing the most complex moves to the top-rated teams. Luna: So they used the data they were already collecting to optimize staffing. That's smart because it also creates a career path for crew members who want to improve. Lucas: Exactly. And it's something most small moving companies never do — they kind of treat all moves as interchangeable, but they're not. A three-bedroom house in a downtown walk-up is a completely different challenge than a one-bedroom apartment with an elevator. Boulder Movers started charging a premium for those difficult jobs, and because they assigned their best crews, they earned those higher rates with fewer problems. Luna: That's a great example of using data to price better, not just more. Lucas: Right. And I think that's the through-line of this story. Scaling isn't about grand gestures. It's about finding the one thing that's costing you the most opportunities, fixing it cleanly, and then moving to the next thing. Derek Waters went from 2 to 18 million by focusing on three specific improvements over eighteen months — and each one built on the last. Luna: So the takeaway: pick one bottleneck, fix it, then pick the next. Don't boil the ocean. Lucas: Exactly. And if you're running a service business, start with the phone. You might be surprised how much revenue is sitting in those missed calls. Luna: Great episode. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. See you next time.