What should your company know about video surveys?

Video surveys can be a useful tool for relocating employees when shipping their household goods. Zeke Oaks with Alexander’s Mobility Services has more about the technology in this Relo Tip Tuesday.

***

Complete transcript: “Hi, I’m Zeke Oaks with Alexander’s Mobility Services, an agent for Atlas Van Line. Welcome to Relo Tip Tuesday.

Today, my question is, ‘What should your company know about video surveys?’

A video survey is a virtual walkthrough of a customer’s home used to determine contents, weight and accuracy to determine a household goods shipping estimate.

Traditionally, a surveyor meets in the employee’s home, walks through in person and prepares a survey. With this new app-based technology, a virtual survey can be done using the employee’s smart phone, iPad or other device. There are options out there that also allow the employee to virtually capture that and submit it at a later time.

Video surveys are convenient for employees, faster to complete, easier to schedule and more flexible. They work really well for shipments in remote areas or very small, fast-moving shipments. I would recommend a traditional survey for your larger moves and your VIP shipments.

Most companies have a trained surveyor walking through with the employee during the virtual survey, capturing the data on a computer on the other end and entering it into the survey tool. Using this approach, they’re able to get accuracy that is near or better than the traditional in-home survey.

Before implementing or allowing a supplier to use this system, you should be sure that your company’s security policies align with your supplier’s security policies. A few things to consider would be:

Does the supplier obtain consent and retain record of this consent?
Who has access to the record and what do they do in the ways of storage?
Does the supplier allow the employee to terminate the video at any time?
And will the supplier ensure that they will not sell your employee’s personal contact information?

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and many participants believe this is a great option for employees in an increasingly fast-paced and technologically driven world. Thanks for watching!”