Tips For Making Your Office Move A Success
21 July 2014
Tips For Making Your Office Move A Success
When it comes to moving offices there are many things which you need to consider including the timing, security, confidentiality and the simple transportation of all your items without damage or delay. If any one of these things is missed then you could breach your customers confidentiality, leak important information to your clients, break essential pieces of equipment or miss important office opening hours. To avoid any of these things there are a few simple steps which you can take. Firstly, it is imperative to any office, no matter how big or small, that any move is planned to the most intricate of details. There should be a timetable and schedule for every room and a further plan of action within each room. Here, nothing should be left to chance as any issues could have a serious impact on your business and your customers or clients. Each lead should be labelled, each folder, storage drive, computer and laptop should have its place, as should any customer or client documentation. Always plan to move in the quickest time possible and always have a contingency plan in case anything goes wrong. Secondly, whether your office staff or professional movers take charge, always ensure that sturdy packing boxes and suitable box fillers are used for all of your equipment. You do not want to risk the safekeeping of your confidential files or hard drives by putting them in flimsy boxes that could break or rip at any turn. All removal boxes should be clearly labelled with an itinerary relating to their contents, while ideally a master copy of box numbers and contents should also be kept by the office manager as an additional check. Thirdly, you should entrust one of your staff members as a quality manager for the move; someone who can oversee all aspects of the moving process and ensure that everything is co-ordinated and organised effectively and efficiently. Even if you do hire a removals firm to help with the move you will need someone there that you can trust to make sure that no confidentiality agreements are broken and that everything is treated with the utmost care. Without this you would have no way of knowing how good or bad a job the professional movers were doing and what you would need to be aware of in the future. Fourthly, a reputable removals company should be hired to help you plan, organise and take care of the office move. While every business wants to keep their costs down, try not to opt for the cheapest removal firm you can find. If you have a small office with few valuable items then a cheap man and van service may suffice but if you have equipment and files that you couldn’t operate without, make sure you don’t pick just any old removals firm. Finally, try to make sure that there is always someone to answer the phone during the move to avoid upsetting any customers. If you can, transfer calls to a mobile phone or make sure that there is someone in the old or new office that can serve to answer customer queries even while everyone else is still unpacking. Similarly, if you are a sales office make sure that customers can still place orders as and when they need. Not everything needs to be neat, tidy and organised behind the scenes for the front of house to work; customers need never know if things are still coming together in the background.