Don’t think competition, think partnership

About five years (2005) ago I had a meeting with Steve Yapp (the franchise owner for PODS California, Central Coast) and we figured out that we could look at each other either as competitors or partners. Fact is, together, we provide a value-added service to certain niche customer. Quite simply, Meathead Movers provides the best possible loaders/un-loaders, which is ideal for PODS clients, since PODS only provides the container, and not the labor to load. Conversely, PODS is far superior alternative vs the Van Lines for all moves out of state (since we don’t have a nation-wide network, yet). We also refer PODS to clients who need a specific type of storage (staging home, remolding home/office, emergency situations, etc).

What helped us move past the inevitable conflict/awkwardness ("will you steal my customer away from me" concern) was our shared desire to offer the best service option for the customer and to encourage our employees to offer what is truly our best advice on how to accommodate their moving and storage needs. Per our philosophy, our job is to inform customers of the facts, and if that includes the client choosing another service, then we have faith our honesty and integrity will show and Meathead will earn their business next time (when the time is right). Besides, from what I’ve observed having conducted thousands of interviews, companies that ask their employees to mislead inadvertently kill their own culture and credibility in themselves. Meathead Movers is proud to be the official loaders/un-loaders of PODS and we thankful for the opportunity to serve their clients.