What Should a Moving Company Do in the Off-Season to Fill Spring?

The short answer: Use October through March to stay in touch with the customers you moved last summer. Check in personally, ask happy customers for a Google review while the move is still fresh in their minds, and ask for referrals before spring arrives. Movers who build those conversations in winter start spring with booked jobs instead of an empty calendar.

Key Takeaways

• Summer customers are your spring pipeline: the people you moved from June to September know the people who will move next April.
• Reviews go stale fast: 74% of consumers in BrightLocal’s 2026 survey look for reviews written in the last three months, so a winter gap shows up in spring.
• Referrals take several touches: across Snoball’s moving customers, it takes 3 to 5 touch points on average before the first referral.
• Give each month one job: check in, ask for reviews, say thanks, ask for referrals, work your partners, then get ready.
• Relationships beat price cuts: a slow month is a better time to build trust than to give away margin.

Why does the off-season decide your spring?

Because spring jobs get booked from relationships you build before spring. By the time the phones are ringing in April, most families have already asked a friend who they used.

The demand is steady. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, 11.8% of people moved in 2024, and 8.9% moved within the same state. Those are the local and regional moves that travel by word of mouth. Your summer customers have neighbors, coworkers, and family inside that number.

The problem is that most moving companies go quiet on past customers the day the truck leaves. A plan for reactivating past customers as referral sources turns those dormant names into the people who fill your spring schedule.

What should you do each month from October to March?

Give every month one clear job. Small, consistent steps beat one big push in February.

October: Check in with summer customers

Reach out to everyone you moved between June and September. Ask how the new place is coming together and whether anything from the move needs attention. This is a personal note, not a pitch. It also surfaces any unhappy customer while you still have time to make it right.

November: Ask for reviews

Customers who replied warmly in October are ready for a review request. Ask every customer, not just the ones you expect to be glowing, and make the link easy to reach. Reviews often come naturally once a real conversation is going, which is why reviews tend to follow the referral conversation instead of arriving from a cold request.

December: Say thank you

Send a short holiday thank-you with no ask attached. It keeps your name familiar and costs nothing. People remember the mover who remembered them.

January: Ask for referrals

Once the holidays are over, many families start talking about a spring or summer move. This is the moment to ask your past customers who they know that is planning one. Make the offer simple, and pay the reward only after the referred move is complete.

February: Work your referral partners

Call the real estate agents, property managers, and storage facilities who sent you jobs last year. Share what you have open in April and May. Follow up on every January referral quickly, because a referred customer who waits a week often books someone else.

March: Respond, tidy up, and get ready

Reply to every review that came in over the winter. Update your Google Business Profile photos with last season’s crews and trucks. Then look at who has referred once already and thank them again before the rush starts.

How do summer customers turn into spring referrals?

Through repeated, personal contact. One ask almost never does it.

Across 300+ moving companies on Snoball, it takes 3 to 5 touch points on average before a past customer sends a first referral. That is exactly why the off-season matters. October, November, December, and January give you four natural reasons to reach out before you ever need the business.

It pays off. Moving Ahead Services has earned 163 referrals and 87 reviews by keeping those conversations going with past customers. Referred customers also arrive with trust already built: Snoball’s moving customers see a booking rate of 40% or more from referrals.

Should the plan stop when spring gets busy?

No. Spring and summer are when you create next winter’s pipeline, so the conversations should keep running all year.

The companies that struggle every January are usually the ones that only think about referrals when the calendar looks thin. A year-round referral program keeps working while your crews are slammed, and it means every summer customer enters the same rhythm the moment their move is done.

The hard part is time. In July, nobody in the office has an hour to write personal check-ins. That is the gap a done-for-you approach fills: real people handle the follow-up so your team can handle the moves.

What should you avoid in the off-season?

Avoid the deep public discount. A big winter sale cuts margin on jobs you might have booked anyway, and it teaches customers to wait for the next one.

Also avoid the single mass email in February. A generic blast to your whole list gets ignored, and it does nothing for your reviews. Personal, spaced-out conversations get replies, and replies are what turn into reviews and referrals.

What can you do this week?

Pull a list of every customer you moved from June through September. Sort it by move date and start your October check-ins with the oldest jobs first, since they have gone the longest without hearing from you.

Then put the other five months on the calendar now, with one owner for each step. A plan written in October is the difference between a spring you chase and a spring that is already booked.