Movin’ on Up…to the Web
BEFORE YOU Move Inc. runs a change-of-address service for consumers that helps its clients retain their own customers. The company now has a Web-based version, called MoveCentral.com (www.movecentral.com). The site is split in two parts, AddressCentral, the change-of-address service, and HelpCentral, a personalized move organizer.
As the company name implies, Before You Move’s selling point is that it identifies customers prior to their move, unlike similar services that find out only after the move is completed.
With the Web service, consumers go to AddressCentral and fill out a form. The company then notifies the consumers’ service providers-magazines, travel clubs, credit cards and the like-of the address change. It tells its clients that their customer is moving. Companies using the service can then contact the customers just before they leave-and just before they migrate to a competitor.
According to Richard E. Libby, president of the Boston-based company, his clients retain 90% of their customers, while those not using the service retain only 60% (yet 85% of movers stay in their vendors’ service area). “It gives them a significant leg up in retaining them,” he says.
In addition to customer retention, there are opportunities for acquisition. About 17 million American households move each year, spending an average of over $8,000 on products and services related to the move. The total move market is valued at $60 billion. The Web site’s HelpCentral has information on truck rentals, moving companies, insurance providers, banks, utilities and home retail stores.
Clients that are big retailers often mine their own databases with Before You Move’s data to determine who of its own customers is moving, and try to sell additional products to them.
Before You Move usually hears from people about 30 days before they move, which gives them an advantage over competitors. Peter T. Lamson, the company’s director of new channel development, who recently moved, says: “Sixty days after I moved I got bombarded with direct marketing solicitations. We identify those people pre-move.”
The land-based service is called AddressExpress. Before You Move also publishes a custom magazine, Move Now, which it says has a circulation of 2 million. The magazine is sent to users of the AddressExpress and AddressCentral programs, and gives companies a customer acquisition avenue.
Before You Move doesn’t rent lists. Instead, it makes money from clients that sponsor the address-change service, which with AddressExpress is promoted in statement stuffers and other media.
“The Web product is taking what we learned from our land-based business and applying it to the Internet,” Libby says. “I don’t mean to downplay the paper product, but the Web site is very intuitive and easy to use.”
Before You Move doesn’t expect to go into portal competition with the Yahoo!s of the world. Though the address-change service is available directly at its own site, it also has co-branded sites with partners such as Planet Direct (www.planetall.com). Other partners include www.planetall.com, www.allapartments.com and www.statefarm. com.
