Service Area

In 1970 when I got out of the army I started cleaning carpets with a friend. He worked for one of those coupon type companies. He had protable cleaining equipment in the back of his car. He made 20% of the sale and I made 10%. My job was cleaning the carpets and Clydes job was upselling (that is trying to get the customer to spend more money). I was no good at upselling. I did not like it then and I do not like it now. Well any way, we did not last long at that job. Like most other people that clean carpets that way, it was  no way to make a decent living. Clyde went on to other things but I went to work for a very large Janitorial comapny and learned to clean carpets correctly- by guys that had been doing it for 20 years or so. I enjoyed the work and the satisfaction of seeing things clean up well.

After working for others for 15 years I wanted to start my own business. I wanted to be my own boss. Well by that time I had married Melissa and with her encouragement and God's help we started out.

I am grateful for the days of cleaning with portable equipment out of the back of Clydes car because it showed me what happens to customers in that situation. You see the cleaning guys don't make any money if they charge you just the coupon price of a living room, dining room and hall for 19.95. The sales guy is making 4.00 and the cleaner is making 2.00- Will they do a decent job at that rate?- NO- they have to make you spend more just to cover their gas. Not to mention how many houses they have to do in a day to make any money at all. They don't have time to do a good qualtiy job. Or to be concerned about the results.

Now a days some companies are using sub contractors for cleaning. They have big advertisments and coupons offering a great price to get their foot in the door (a whole house for 125.00) The person that is advertising is NOT the person that is cleaning. He is just a marketing guy. He has gotten subcontractors to go in and clean. The catch is the subcontractor will not make any money if he does not up sell. If the customer sticks to their guns and does not go for the up sell how well do you think they will get their carpets cleaned?

I got off on a tangent- that will happen lots as i go forward with this blogging thing.

Anyway back to the story...

I am even more grateful for the training I received from the guys at the janitorial company. They got paid a decent wage and they took their time and did the job right. I learned valuable lessons about carpet cleaning and quality workmanship from some of those guys.

When I was ready to start my own company I knew that the standard method of upselling and low initial price to get your foot in the door was not for me. I wanted to offer a real service. Provide real cleaning and charge a realistic price for what the customer will get in return.

Because you see the other side of the upsell trick is a lot of times if the sales guy is good he can get the customer to spend hundreds of dollars over the coupon price- but the quality of the cleaning will not improve. the cusotmer has just been taken advantage of. Their carpets have been left all wet and their wallet has been sucked dry.

I wanted to do it differently- to offer quality cleaning that would dry the same day let alone the same week like some I have seen. and to charge a reasonable price for that service. We have been told in the years since we started that we have been less expensive than the low price cleaner was by the time he was done Up selling. And their carpets were really clean when we cleaned them.

Well that why I started my own business...