A moving company's chatbot: quotes, what's included and the extra charges

Moving companies get the same opening question in almost every chat: “How much to move a two-bedroom flat?” The honest answer depends on volume, distance, floors, parking, packing and dates. A person on the phone asks five questions and gives a range. A badly set-up AI assistant either refuses to say anything or makes up a number.

There’s a good middle path, and it starts on the website, not in the assistant.

What people ask

Question	What the answer depends on	Where it should come from
“How much for a 2-bedroom move?”	Volume, distance, floors, access	Price guide page with ranges
“Do you do packing?”	Service level	Services page
“Do you supply boxes?”	Free or paid; delivery	Services or shop page
“Is there a charge for stairs?”	Floor; lift	Price guide, extras
“Can you move a piano?”	Specialist service	Services page
“Do you do weekends?”	Day; surcharge	Price guide
“Is storage available?”	Duration; size	Storage page
“How far ahead should I book?”	Season; dates	FAQ
“What if something breaks?”	Cover included; claims process	Terms; hand-over for claims
“Do you move abroad?”	Destinations	Services page

Give ranges, not quotes

An assistant shouldn’t produce a firm quote: it doesn’t know the volume or the access. It can, and should, give the ranges your website publishes, and then hand over to whoever does quotes.

That only works if the website has ranges. Many removals sites show no prices at all, which leaves the assistant with nothing but “please request a quote” or, worse, a number from general knowledge. A short price guide fixes this:

Typical prices, local moves (within 30 km), weekdays Studio or 1-bedroom: €450–700. 2-bedroom: €700–1,100. 3-bedroom: €1,100–1,700. Includes: two or three movers, van, blankets, loading and unloading. Extras: stairs without a lift €40 per floor; packing service €45 per mover per hour; Saturday +15%. Your exact price comes after a short video survey.

With that on the page, the assistant can answer “about €700–1,100 for a local 2-bedroom move on a weekday, plus extras for stairs or packing; we’ll confirm after a video survey”, which is useful, honest and traceable to a page.

The extras assistants forget

Stairs and long carries. A third-floor flat without a lift changes the price. If the extra is on a different page from the base price, the assistant often leaves it out.

Weekend and month-end surcharges. The busiest days often cost more. An assistant that quotes the weekday range for a Saturday move sets up a surprise.

Parking and access. Some firms charge for parking permits or long walks from the van. These are usually in the terms, not on the price page.

Packing materials. “Boxes included” or “boxes extra” matters to a customer comparing two quotes.

A made-up example

A removals firm’s price guide says “2-bedroom local move: €700–1,100”. Its extras page says “Saturday moves +15%. Stairs without lift €40 per floor.”

A customer asks: “How much to move my 2-bedroom flat across town on a Saturday? I’m on the 4th floor, no lift.”

The assistant replies: “A local 2-bedroom move costs €700–1,100.”

The real range is closer to €965–1,425: Saturday adds 15%, and four floors add €160. The customer budgets for €900 and gets a survey quote of €1,250.

The fix: put the extras next to the ranges, as in the example guide above, and instruct the assistant to mention them whenever the customer mentions a weekend, a floor or a lift.

Hand-over: where the assistant stops

Everything after the range is a person’s job: the survey, the firm quote, the booking, and any claim for damage. The hand-over message should say what happens next: “Leave your email and moving date, and we’ll send a link for a ten-minute video survey. Quotes are usually sent within a working day.” We wrote more on designing the hand-over.

Collect contact details at this point, not at the start. Someone asking “do you supply boxes?” doesn’t want to give a phone number to find out.

A short test

Ask your assistant:

1. “How much for a 1-bedroom move, 10 km, weekday?”
2. “Same, but on a Saturday and from the 3rd floor without a lift?”
3. “Do you supply boxes, and are they free?”
4. “Can you move a piano?”
5. “What happens if you break something?”

Compare each answer with your pages. Question 2 is where most assistants slip.

EU consumer rules expect prices, including additional charges, to be clear before a contract is made.¹ A price guide with its extras on the same page helps both the assistant and the customer. For services ordered online or by phone, the EU withdrawal rules also apply in many cases, with specific exceptions for services fully performed or for dates the customer fixed.²

If you run a removals firm and want an assistant that gives honest ranges and hands over cleanly, Assistant Setup builds it on your own pages. More examples on our local services page.

Footnotes

1. European Commission, Your Europe, “Pricing and payments”, europa.eu/youreurope. ↩

2. European Commission, Your Europe, “Guarantees and returns”, europa.eu/youreurope. ↩