What to do when the inevitable comes: a damage claim

What to do when the inevitable comes: a damage claim

First of all, you need to understand that damage claims are a part of the business. Repeat: you will have claims. In fact, between 13-20% of all moves will have a damage claim. Movers are people, and people make mistakes.

The most important thing to consider when a customer makes a damage claim is what is a fair dollar amount for the damage.  For example, breaking a lamp will cost $40, but scratching a hardwood floor will cost $1,500.  In order to avoid the more drastic and expensive damage claims, you need to educate and train your movers what to look out for and be careful of while moving.

What happens when something is damaged that your movers did not do?  You need to have evidence that they didn’t do it like inventory sheets. Your movers need to fill out descriptive inventory sheets of all of the items before they are moved to keep damage claims from being unreasonable.

Keeping a good reputation as a company after a damage claim isn’t hard.  Most of the general public does not expect perfection because, again, we are just people. A good judge of a company is by what they do when there are accidents.   What the customer wants is that if you do make a mistake, make it right.  You need to operate with integrity when facing a damage claim.

Simply accept the damage claim and do whatever it takes to make the customer satisfied and you will survive it.

Amy Ison is a junior at duke university studying psychology.