Issue - July/August 2021
Harnessing Big Data
By Olga Aviñó, Marketing Manager, Mudinmar Mobility
The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged the use of new technologies in our normal work routines.
For us as a company, it has always been very important to be at the forefront of new technologies, so we believe that the pandemic has allowed us to evolve in the application of digital tools to our work routines.
In our case, reading, recording and collecting data in our big database has been essential to improve the profitability of our services. Thanks to the analysis of metadata, we were able to identify which services are most in demand, segment our target audience, measure the average volume of jobs accepted or referred to our agents in other countries, and estimate the optimal amount of human and logistical resources required to provide service in the best conditions. We have also incorporated the use of a new automatic rate calculator that has doubled the speed with which we quote both our agents and our private clients.
One of the main tasks that kept us busy during the pandemic was to provide assistance and support to those who contacted us about movement restrictions during the state of alarm. There were many cases of individuals and families who were forced to leave their homes as a matter of urgency or whose relocation had been halted due to the impact of COVID-19. Our team was dedicated to answering their questions and to proposing solutions to their mobility needs, always with the empathy and respect required by the context.
Through our website, we also made updated information available to the public on the state of removals in Spain and in the world. This action led to an increase in the number of visits and an increase in our online presence.
Likewise, to give continuity to the commercial work and in the absence of face-to-face conventions, our team opted for the appearance of the brand in specialized magazines in the mobility and transport sector, interviews in the media, and the creation of advertising content such as banners and advertisements for different digital platforms.
We also did not neglect one of the most important parts of the global mobility industry and the heart of our activities: the relationships with our partners around the world. So, despite the physical barriers and the severity of the situation, we did our best to maintain contact with our partners, form bonds across the distance and manage to stay united in the face of adversity.
As a result of the pandemic, Mudinmar instituted new working dynamics that allow our office workers to better manage their working time and their free time. This is due to the possibility of teleworking—a practice that was not so common in Spain until the arrival of the pandemic in 2020.
Post-quarantine, our team has the possibility of combining face-to-face work with remote work, so they can choose a more flexible schedule that allows them both to improve their performance at work, being present in those time slots of greater commercial influence, and to attend to their needs, activities and events linked to their personal life.
Moreover, our team of operators has integrated hygiene and safety protocols into their work processes, which we are sure will last even when the vaccination rate increases and the use of masks is no longer compulsory. During the first state of alarm in Spain, only those companies offering essential services were allowed to operate. In this context, removal companies were allowed to continue to carry out their functions because of their link with the transport sector. However, only those activities related to the transport of essential goods, such as food, sanitary materials, etc., were considered essential activities.
In this context, we experienced an ambiguous situation as a removal company, full of legal contradictions. On the one hand, we were allowed to move, but depending on the local and provincial authorities, our activities could be restricted or limited. We could even perceive some discomfort from neighbors when we provided services in a residential area, as at that time, home movements were inconceivable in the eyes of society.
However, the pandemic showed that moving house is more than just a voluntary change of residence. Moving home is part of the essential right to housing and often responds to an urgent need to move due to a change of job, a termination of a residence contract or even an eviction.
For this reason, during the pandemic, we kept moving, accompanying, and guiding through our experience those who were forced to leave their homes. In this way, we continued to carry out our functions as a removal company, always with the greatest possible safety and applying new safety and hygiene protocols as the governmental authorities of our country dictated.
We also seized the opportunity born out of the health crisis to reinvent our services. In addition, we offered our vehicles for the transport of essential goods and collaborated with research centers and health institutions in the transport of technical equipment. Moreover, we fitted out of hospital centers in order to halt the advance of the coronavirus in Spain.