Introduction
In today’s fiercely competitive moving industry, a high-quality Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform is not just a tool; it is a critical partner in scaling operations. However, balancing the demand for new, cutting-edge features with the necessity of maintaining robust, uninterrupted service for thousands of users is an expensive and complex endeavor.
In this episode of Movified Wednesdays, recorded live at the Moving Titan Retreat in Clearwater, Florida, Mark Hirschi and Steven Reed sit down with Bill, the CEO of SmartMoving. Bill provides a transparent look at the immense costs of running the industry’s leading CRM, explains the backend causes of recent system outages, and reveals exciting new features coming to the platform—including advanced commercial account management, AI workflow automation, and bulletproof “bounce protection” for e-checks.
Key Takeaways
What You'll Learn:
- Why SmartMoving invests over $8 million a year strictly into engineering to maintain system stability.
- The real reason behind recent software outages (the “highway” analogy) and how offshore VAs sharing single logins contribute to system traffic.
- How the new Toby AI assistant can fully automate SMS and email follow-ups for cold leads without manual input.
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The upcoming release of bounce protection for e-checks, requiring customers to store a backup credit card on file.
Table of Contents
- The True Cost of Engineering and Uptime
- Navigating System Outages and Shared Logins
- Empowering Movers with Toby AI
- Expanding into Commercial Moving
- E-Check Updates: Bounce Protection
- Conclusion
The True Cost of Engineering and Uptime
Many moving company owners scrutinize software pricing without understanding the massive overhead required to operate a reliable CRM platform.
Bill shares that SmartMoving currently employs approximately 100 people, with the vast majority dedicated to engineering, customer service, and quality assurance (QA). The company spends over $8 million annually on its engineering team alone. Nearly 25% of that engineering time is dedicated purely to system maintenance and bug fixes, ensuring that the platform maintains its current 99.7% uptime (with an ultimate goal of reaching 99.9%). Furthermore, of their 30-35 engineers, roughly ten are dedicated exclusively to QA to catch critical errors before they ever go live to users.
Navigating System Outages and Shared Logins
In April and May, SmartMoving experienced frustrating system outages. Bill explained the issue using a highway analogy: the platform simply had “too many cars on the highway” as they scaled to handle over 1,300 customers. SmartMoving immediately invested in “widening the highway” to handle the load, resulting in zero outages during the critical peak summer season.
A contributing factor to this extreme server traffic—totaling nearly two billion hits per month—is the practice of login sharing. Many owners hire offshore Virtual Assistants (VAs) through companies like Ready Rolls and have multiple users operating under a single SmartMoving login. While Bill acknowledges that SmartMoving currently does not aggressively police this behavior (doing so would drastically increase base prices for users), he noted that future government compliance standards (such as CMMC) may eventually force the platform to enforce unique logins to maintain security.
Empowering Movers with Toby AI
One of the most exciting recent additions to SmartMoving is the Toby AI assistant, which is included for free in the base subscription.
While many users only utilize Toby for daily email briefs, Bill explained that the AI is capable of much more. Users can currently utilize the in-app chat to perform deposit reconciliations (identifying exactly which invoices have not been paid) and instantly generate pacing charts to compare current mid-month booking metrics against previous months. Furthermore, an upcoming release will allow Toby to handle workflow automations. For example, a user can command Toby to automatically send a specific SMS template if a lead goes cold for two days, keeping the mover in control while completely eliminating manual follow-up tasks.
Expanding into Commercial Moving
For years, commercial movers have had to awkwardly force their commercial jobs into SmartMoving’s residential workflows. Bill acknowledged that this “workaround” is no longer sufficient.
Currently in beta and launching soon, SmartMoving has built an entirely new accounts-based approach designed specifically for commercial moving and commercial warehousing. This feature will finally allow movers to properly bill master accounts (such as a local Home Depot or corporate office) for multiple ongoing deliveries or jobs, rather than treating each move as a standalone residential client.
E-Check Updates: Bounce Protection
To close the episode, Theo from the SmartMoving team made a surprise appearance to announce a highly requested update to the Remedy payments system.
While e-checks (ACH) provide a safer, faster alternative to physical paper checks, they are still subject to bouncing. To combat this, SmartMoving is introducing bounce protection. Moving forward, any customer who pays via e-check will simultaneously be required to place a backup credit card on file. If the e-check bounces, the owner will receive an immediate text and email alert. The system will then present a “big red button” allowing the owner to instantly charge the backup credit card, fully recovering the bounced funds and completely eliminating the risk of fraud or unpaid jobs.
