Meet Tom O’Gorman of Gentle Giant Moving Company in Somerville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom O’Gorman.

Tom, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was referred to Gentle Giant in 1994 by one of my college friends who worked at the company a wonderful experience. In the 1990s, there was a lot of room and flexibility to learn many types of roles, so I could assist in many areas of the company. From working on the trucks, to assisting with reception and sales, I was able to gain a lot of experience and a wide set of skills as the company continued to grow. Since our company prefers to hire within, I eventually moved into working in sales full-time for about seven years. Soon after, I was an operations manager for over five years, then moved into becoming the Director of Sales, and I’ve been involved with marketing as well. My current title is the Vice President of Sales, and I love the camaraderie and people I get to work with here every day.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We have had a variety of obstacles over the last 37 years in business. The housing crisis in 2008 was memorable to us, with the challenges in the economy and the housing market. With this, we also had some difficulties with hiring our annual H2B visa employees for the busy summer months, but since our need for labor declined in 2008 and 2009 with the economy, we managed. Since the company was founded, we have grown beyond Massachusetts, and we now have warehouses in 12 states. When you are trying to grow business in other regions, it is difficult to do so from the ground up, when new customers haven’t heard of your company before. This type of grassroots marketing can be timely and tiring. Over the years as the company has grown larger, we also had a struggle of high demand with not enough resources, especially in the summer. We had so many jobs and leads, but only so many movers and operations staff to get everything done. In more recent years, our competitors have been growing more, which is another obstacle. Finally, an annual struggle is that our business is slower in the winter months, which is more of an industry-wide challenge.

Please tell us about Gentle Giant Moving Company.
We are a national moving company, and we specialize in local, interstate and commercial moves, as well as storage. Our main office is headquartered in Massachusetts, but we have warehouses in a total of 12 states, on the east coast and west coast. We specialize in top notch moving services and strive to provide the best customer service in our industry. When Larry O’Toole founded Gentle Giant in 1980, he wanted to break the stereotype of lazy, inconsiderate movers. Our full-time employees are trained extensively, are athletes and do whatever it takes to make customers happy. We are set apart from other companies because quality, honesty, respect and teamwork are what keeps our business moving forward. We have won awards over the years for being a healthiest employer and a Best Place to Work in Massachusetts and beyond.

Personally, I am most proud of how we have maintained our company value and culture so well over the years. We have grown as a company so much in 37 years in terms of sales and operations, but our core values and standards are still exactly the same. We have not substituted quality for growth, and feedback from our customers validates this message. It has been humbling to play a part in this growth.

Contact Info:

• Address: 29 Harding Street, Somerville, MA 02143
• Website: https://www.gentlegiant.com/
• Phone: 800-442-6863

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