This Alabama-based company plans to “revolutionize” the moving industry in Columbus
A Columbus veteran intends to shake up the moving industry with the use of music, food, surprises and a pink zebra mascot named Zeke.
Richard Ralph is the owner and operator of Pink Zebra Moving’s new Columbus location. Ralph served in the military for 22 years and explained how he incorporated some techniques he has from his military background along with Pink Zebra’s mission to make moving fun to create a new type of customer experience.
Employees have been trained to track maintenance, perform inspections that are based on the military’s pre-combat checks, and complete walk-throughs ensuring customers have everything they need. But Pink Zebra’s primary goal is to make moving stress-free for their customers.
“We feel like moving, in a word, sucks,” Pink Zebra founder Ron Holt told the Ledger-Enquirer. “We will just try to make that experience as fun as possible.”
‘We’re trying to have a little bit of fun with that’
One of the ways the company hopes to set itself apart from other moving companies is by providing customers with a free meal the night before their move. This is often a welcome surprise to customers, Holt said.
“Nobody thinks about what they’re going to eat the night before a move,” he said. “And then all of a sudden they look around the kitchen and everything’s boxed up or packed. All the dishes are gone.”
When customers book the moving company, they should expect to have communication with Pink Zebra employees every day whether it’s by the phone, text or email, Holt said. This helps people on both sides know what to expect during the move.
The communication and the walk-throughs are also a chance for employees to get to know customers and what their interests are. They use this information to put together a surprise box that is left behind for customers to find after employees leave.
For example, if employees help a household where one person is an Auburn fan and the other is a Georgia fan, they might get some house-divided items to put in the box with a personal note.
“The reality is after the moving company leaves, you look around and all you see is a lot of work still left to do,” Holt said. “We’re trying to make somebody have a little bit of fun with that.”
Customers should also not be surprised if Pink Zebra employees have fun interactions with them during the move itself. The employees have keywords where they’ll do a particular task or funny gestures, Ralph said.
“If (a customer) says ‘I’m so glad you’re here’ or ‘I’m happy for you to be here’, employees will surround them and start clapping,” he said.
Customers might also say certain phrases that could result in the team doing jumping jacks or something else energetic, Ralph said.
“We dance,” he said. “We sing. We have a boombox and a mascot.”
Pink Zebra’s mascot Zeke, will be making himself known throughout the community now that the location has opened, Holt said. Zeke could show up at community events like Easter egg hunts or a football game watch party.
“Zeke, the pink zebra, usually finds his way all over the place.” Holt said.
‘Return to my start-up roots’
The Pink Zebra franchise began when Holt decided to sell his cleaning business, Two Maids and a Mop, in late 2021. Two Maids and a Mop had almost 100 locations when Holt sold it.
“I was trying to decide whether I wanted to continue to be the CEO of this huge brand,” Holt said. “Or do I want to return to my start-up roots.”
Around the same time Holt was considering a change, his mother-in-law in Birmingham had a negative experience with a moving company. He felt that it was likely that others had gone through something similar, so he began looking through Yelp in other cities to see if people in other markets also had bad reviews.
“There was just one negative experience after the other,” Holt said.
Everything seemed to align since he wanted to run a startup again, he said, and the moving industry seemed untapped.
“We just went all in on moving and trying to learn as much as we could about the industry,” Holt said. “We started experimenting with all sorts of really fun, customer experience ideas.”
The brand began in Alabama, he said, and they decided to start franchising last year after seeing strong success. Columbus will be home to Pink Zebra’s seventh location.
Rates for the company are comparable to competitors, Holt and Ralph said, but customers would need a quote to see what to expect for their move.
Ralph said it was important to him to open the Pink Zebra Moving company here in Columbus because of the presence of Fort Benning. The soldier can benefit from the company’s style of customer service, he said, because he knows what moving from duty station to duty station was like from his own background.
“You’re hoping that your introduction to that city would be a pleasant one,” Ralph said. “And it all starts with the company that moves you there.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
