by Craig Kaminer / Photos courtesy of Modern Moving

Luke Heintz started working for a small local moving company on weekends and holiday breaks when he was just 15. When he was 20 he figured it was time for him to start his own business, improve on what he learned, and disrupt the moving industry before someone else did.

He quickly realized that many customers are not happy with the entire moving process or service. He determined that having clients deal with one person from beginning to end was the best way to do things differently than all the other competitors. He created a well-trained team to not only make the move but to also offer a high level of communications and service at each step of the way.

Modern Moving was founded by Luke just before the pandemic and he figured that things would not go well with everyone staying home. But he quickly found out that people were buying and selling at a historic pace, and they all need to move. So what could have been a disaster turned out to be a blessing. Within months Modern Moving picked up a lot of business that the national companies couldn't handle, and immediately hired 20 employees.

Luke is a fast learner. He discovered that people threw out his business cards so that many of the people he gave them to couldn’t remember his company when they needed a mover. So he started handing out yellow rubber duckies. Something as simple as marketing with rubber duckies turned into a game changer. More than 50 percent of the people he and his team handed rubber duckies to kept the duck and the card. And business grew quickly.

In 2022, with meteoric growth Luke reached out to Monty Jodeh to come in as CEO and partner to manage the growth and development of a vision for the future of Modern Moving. Monty brought 25 years of entrepreneurial experience and business development, which is exactly what Modern Moving needed for its next phase. A vision was created, a strategy was formulated and is being executed under his direction.

If you choose to call Modern Moving for an estimate (and we hope you will), you’ll find that they have novel approach to something as un-sexy as moving. They start by building a relationship with all of their customers and understanding their expectations. One account person is assigned to each project from the beginning…from your first call to the in-home estimate, to the planning and the specific move date.

By the time the truck shows up on moving day, you will know your point of contact quite well and you’ll find he/she more service oriented than any other moving company you have ever used. Luke evangelizes, “Because you get what you pay for, clients have to feel comfortable with you from step one all the way till the end. I would say that's the biggest thing that makes us different. We obviously dress the part with khaki pants and collared shirts so people want us to be in their house.

Everyone even wears a belt so they look nice and presentable. Modern Moving blanket wraps everything as an extra precaution for all of the furniture. Then throughout the day the one point of contact you know– and presumably like – swings by to make sure everything's running smoothly with the crew, with the customer, and making sure everyone’s happy. Luke emphasizes, “Because we do that, it’s an infinitely better experience and just works out better.”

Just read these verified reviews. Amit Bery wrote, “Modern Moving Company was fantastic. Hunter was responsive, accommodating, and friendly. He came out personally to look at size of the job to get an accurate estimate (I actually paid less than I was quoted!). His team was incredibly professional. They contacted me prior to being dispatched. They came and efficiently but carefully packed our home. On a separate day, they skillfully moved our stuff with not a single bit of damage. The process was quick, easy, and painless. Best movers I have ever used!” Luke is a big believer in holding himself and his company accountable. Because he knows when someone is moving and something gets damaged it's their fault. They can't be perfect on every move, but they pride themselves on how quickly they take care of the problem. A lot of other companies have attitudes and don’t know why customers get so upset.

“We invest heavily in training and taking care of clients worldly possessions because our clients are investing in us,” Luke says. “So we invest in taking care of them and their possessions.” Regardless of where you move, Modern Moving always uses their own equipment and employees even if it's out of town. They never broker anything out to United or another well-known carrier. It's always one of their team members traveling with your things, unloading the truck, and setting it up the way you expect.

The company takes extra care for someone to go out and really pay attention to detail of what they're doing.  “We go out to every home that we're moving, we estimate everything, we photographed everything so that our teams know what they're walking into and can be prepared for move day. If there's a 10-foot glass mirror, the team knows about it two days before they even move it so we have a special box on the truck that day. It's all about the communication. Not just between us and the customer, but between anyone in the front office that knows what's going on.” So everybody at Modern Moving gets trained to do the same thing so anyone can jump in on a move and do it exactly as the others would do it. Obviously, some people have their skills at being better at one thing and someone else is better at another thing. “As operators of the company, we know those skills and help the team improve, Luke explains, We will never put someone on packing if they are not good at it. And we give our teams monthly reviews so they know where they need to improve.

“Most movers in St. Louis have terrible turnover, but Modern Moving works hard at building a fun culture, finding and keeping committed people, and most of all, exceeding our clients’ expectations.” Reflecting on the past few years, Luke says, ”This is a crazy business. We'll have people that schedule six months in advance but we also have someone schedule a day in advance. It honestly just depends on the situation. I have so many people call us when other moving companies cancel day of, so they need us desperately. It happens more than you think. We work hard to move things around and take those clients because helping someone out last minute, it's an automatic client for life. And we want clients for life!”