Recently, I had coffee with Terri, a long-time Rose City Moving and Storage customer.

In her capacity as a facilities manager, when it comes to maintaining operational continuity with strict attention to the bottom line, the buck stops at her desk. Her responsibilities have included complex business moves and relocations throughout the Portland Metropolitan area, and beyond.

I figured – and correctly as it turned out – that she had a story or two that I’d find interesting, and I wasn’t disappointed.

My questions were straightforward, but I had more in mind that a mere autopsy of her customer experience.

I wanted to learn about her relationship with Rose City from the very beginning. How it started, what was important to her, what was that made her a customer. And what kept her a customer.

Armed with that information, I’d follow-up and learn her feelings about the move itself.

Here’s what Terri told me.

With virtually no advance warning, a manufacturing company presented her with a major challenge: Essentially, do the impossible and oh-by-the-way, with little time or margin for error.

They were moving from Bend in Central Oregon to Hillsboro. Their business – advanced grid management, transformer monitoring and substation automation – was growing so quickly that demand for their products had outstripped facility capacity. Suddenly, the plan was to leave a satellite office in Bend, relocate headquarters to the Portland area, and do it over a weekend with the least possible operational downtime.

Terri got on the phone and contacted three major moving companies. Each agreed to make the trip to Bend the next day to take a look and bid the job.

Here’s the thing. Rose City was the only one of three that showed up, and in minutes it became clear they really meant business.

A real pro with an eye on learning what it would take to move the business, willing to spend as long as necessary to develop a sound moving plan that would get the job done – on-time and on budget – without surprises on the back end.

Next time: Rose City delivers: More on what was involved.