One of the components that make Good Green Moving a great company is our employees. They interact with our clients, provide estimates, safely move all of their earthly goods from point A to point B, and suggest ways to save time and money. In the first of a series of Employee Spotlights, I interviewed Sean Wilkins, one of our Estimators, about what it takes to move a six bedroom, five bath home from Pleasanton to St. Helena.
You’ve been with us since the beginning right?
“For about three years now, since Good Green Moving started. I’ve seen the whole transformation from an idea you had to what we’ve become today.”
Thank you for sticking with us. Why do you do it? What’s the best part of the job for you?
“I think the atmosphere is the best part. It’s like a family here. It’s fun to come to work every day. I like the group activities and socializing together is a great way to see what people are like outside of work.”
What makes your day?
“Seeing everyone here and having positive energy makes my day. But what makes me most happy is when clients are very pleased with a move.”
“Clients often call our warehouse and say our team was great – before, during and after a move. But a lot of preparation is involved. We first go to a house and provide tips on packing themselves to save money, renting our plastic crates, and other suggestions.”
What would you like to do more of at Good Green Moving?
“I started as a mover and did that for about three years. Now that I have been promoted, I’m doing more estimating and it’s definitely a lot easier than moving clients’ stuff.”
What’s one move you won’t forget?
“It’s hard to describe just one because we do about 35 to 40 moves a month. So in three years, I’ve probably done way more than 400 moves. But the best one was moving a client near Brentwood past Antioch off of Highway 4 north to a big house near Lake Berryessa. It was a great move because the client was such a great guy who had a lot of valuables in six bedrooms.”
“It was a seven-day move. First, we had to pack the whole house and that took about four days. We spent one day moving with four 26-foot trucks. Then, we spent another two days unpacking. It involved our whole crew of 18 people and we got it done.”
There’s been some hard moves as well.
“There has. I remember one for what turned out to be a hoarder. The woman lived in a two-story townhouse in Novato and moved to a three-bedroom home in Vallejo. She was in the process of recovering from being a hoarder, so she wanted us to get rid of all the stuff she didn’t need anymore.”
“She had a lot of canned goods that were old and expired, as well as garbage bags filled with stuff,like plastic wrappers and boxes from items she had bought over the years. It was hard to walk through her house because the stuff was piled everywhere.”
“In the end we got it done. We filled up a 26-foot truck twice and took a few trips to the dump. That was the equivalent of maybe 1,000 pounds of junk. For the remainder of her items, we filled up a 26-foot truck and took one trip a day for five days. For each trip, we had to pack everything in Novato, then drop off the boxes in Vallejo. It was a hard move, but great to see that we could help her.”
If you had to describe what we give customers besides moving their possessions, what would it be?
“You’re going to get honesty, the best service, and we’re going to leave you with a smile.”
