Rug Restore Works!

Joe, from Chicago, adds his words to the chorus of high praise for our Rug Restore:

Dear Chris, Thanks again, I've used this product (Rug Restore) (for) a customer, and you wouldn't believe! I had a customer call to clean 330 chairs, hence the order. I am sold (on Rug Restore), and I believe we'll be doing business for some time to come.... (We) may be needing several more Challenger Machines in the very near future. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thank you, Joe, we look forward to serving you and spreading the word about how effective our plant based, environmentally friendly products clean for professionals on the job.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanza, and all-in-all Happy Family Time!

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

New Turbo Pads

This is our thick new Turbo Pad for the Challenger Machine
and the commercial grade Max.

More on this in the next post...

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

This review is reprinted with Grant's (from WA) permission and his words first appeared on Mark Dullea's "Challenger Forum" on October 22, 2008:

New Turbo Pads
I just wanted to share. I believe Challenger now has a new type of OP pad called a Turbo Pad. These are 21" pads that are fairly thick. They hold a TON of soil and are much much gentler on carpets than any cotton pad, yet clean IMO just as well.

I had the benefit of getting one of these pads 4 or 5 months ago and have put about 100 uses or so on mine. It is starting to develop a hole in it so I may not get too much more use out of that one. If these pads don't get holes I would expect them to last 200-300 uses. These pads are well worth the extra $ over cottons, and they also run on the Challenger Max.

I certainly recommend to all you Challenger users to get one or two and try. If you like them as much as I do you may well find yourselves switching over to them.

Thanks for reading with me,

Chris

Hard Surface Floor Cleaning

This picture shows bad stains and dirt on a linoleum floor of a rent house we cleaned up
in Oklahoma this month. The floor has been down for fifteen years, but do you see the
shine on the right, versus the stains on the left? It shows you what the Challenger will do when
you pad clean the hard surface floor with Orbit Glow and then give it a final buff with a clean pad. What a magical result, with very little time, or effort. Try it and see the magic for yourself!

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

OP Beats Steam Cleaning...again

This is a reprint, with permission, from Mark Dullea.
It is a quote from his Challenger Forum found at
www.carpet-cleaning-business.com and I
thought you would find it worth reading.

Customers who stray
Having just returned from 2 weeks away, I had a slew of e-mails and phone calls to return. Prior to leaving, I made sure that the key person at my answering service knew that I would be away, and for how long, and asked that that info be given to all who answer phones and take messages for her. That way, people calling me would be told what day I would be back, and that I would call them right away after coming back. I also set up an "out-of-office" message on my e-mail system giving out the same information.

I have one customer, a nice older lady who has been a customer for the better part of ten years. She runs a doggie day care service out of her home. Unfortunately for her, her house has all white carpeting, and for whatever reason, the dogs in her care seem to manage to roam freely throughout the house, with the expected results. She calls for service about 4 times per year, and every job involves A LOT of pet stain scrubbing and overall deodorizing. She had called me the day before I left on my trip, hoping I could come right over. When I told her that I would be away until June 16, she said I should call her ASAP upon returning, which I just did.

She then very apologetically told me that, due to the odor, her daughter - who had come to visit one day - urged her strongly to call someone else, immediately.
Which she did. She got the number of a Stanley Steemer franchise out of the phone book about a week ago, and had them come over. She said at the time they finished and left the house that she thought they had done a good job. They told her that everything would be fully dry in just a few hours.
She told me that it stayed wet or at least damp to the touch for at least two full days, and that the stains began to re-appear on about the 3rd day. Most of the stains have returned, she told me.

I explained to her about wicking - that even when a carpet's fibers FEEL dry to the touch, there can still be a lot of moisture down in the base of the carpet. As it gradually evaporates, it "wicks" or pulls some of the deep-down soil up the recently cleaned fibers, resoiling them. She is very upset. I told her that she should call the company, tell them of the results and of her dissatisfaction, and try to get her money back. But she is the kind of person who I think would be made very uncomfortable doing this, even though she's in the right. She apologised to me again. I told her it was unnecessary. And she has made an appointment for me to come again in a few weeks.

Just another example of how OP cleaning beats the pants off of "steam" cleaning.
.........................................................................................................................................................................
Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

Square foot vs. Room pricing

Dear Readers,
I wanted to share with you a chat I found on Cleanfax Insider.
I thought the topic would be of great interest to my readers
here. With the permission of Jeff Cross, I am reprinting a portion
of that blog. If you wish to read the entire discussion thread,
you can find it on the Cleanfax website (www.cleanfaxonline.com)
I hope you find it useful:

Subject: Square foot vs. room pricing

Posted By Jeff Cross on 7/23/2008 at 6:56:43 AM

At a recent seminar I attended, a debate on square foot vs. room pricing proved to be interesting. This has been a topic of discussion for many of you, but this time, let’s discuss how the two methods of pricing affect your productivity. For square foot pricing, do you find you get higher prices that help cover the extra time involved in estimates? For room pricing, do you save enough by not having to do in-home estimates to warrant perhaps losing some revenue on larger rooms?

Responses:

RE: Square foot vs. room pricing: Steve Marsh: 7/23/2008 3:32:03 PM

As in so many issues in our industry there is no one correct answer that applies to all businesses. I would like to suggest that we change the question to which companies benefit from offering room pricing and which companies benefit from square foot pricing. Both approaches are legitimate strategies.

I found that per room pricing is beneficial to companies that charge a competitively low price and depend on advertising to provide a majority of the jobs performed. This approach eliminates a massive amount of time on the phone and in person to establish the cleaning price. Per room pricing allows consumers to calculate their own cost to have their carpets cleaned. For the many consumers where price is one of their primary deciding factors in choosing a cleaner, this approach is great.

For companies that charge above budget prices and get most of their jobs from repeat and referrals I find square foot pricing advantageous. The customers of these companies typically are less concerned with the lowest price and more concerned about quality and service. These customers are likely to repeat and are worth investing the time to measure their rooms once (keep the information so you never have to do it again). This is a more fair and accurate pricing system and is easier to raise prices to higher levels with this approach.

RE: Square foot vs. room pricing: Dan Mabesoone: 7/23/2008 8:00:48 PM

I agree with Steve, but i prefer pricing by the square foot. To me, there are several advantages.

I believe we are MORE productive, not less. I pre-inspect 95% of the carpets we clean. During the pre-inspection, I qualify both the expectations of our services and I prequalify the client! There is no "quibbling" over price. It's all established before the technician even arrives. If the customer decides not to have us do the work, there is no lost production time because my techs are cleaning the carpets that were previously inspected and priced by me.

I also believe we are more productive because i make notes on the estimate form that help the technicians, such as: driveway hard to find; step driveway so back in; red house with green shutters; advised customer traffic areas will still look worn even after cleaning; customer concerned about drying times; customer had problems with previous cleaner, etc.

Also, for a variety of reasons, not everyone is a customer that I want to do work for. I get to determine that before we do any work, and avoid problems by eliminating someone we shouldn't be working for and again eliminate any lost production time.

I also get a higher ticket price. I offer protector on every job, and about 50% of my customers take it. and if they decide against it, they have several days to think about it before we do the work, and many times they change their mind and decide to take the protector.

.....................................................................................................................................................

Thanks for reading with me,

Chris

Carpet stain removal

Dear Friends,
Good Morning! I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend.
I had an inquiry this morning from the British Virgin Islands where
a restoration service wanted to know if the Challenger Pad System
would help in their business. They are having a problem with recurring
stains on commercial tiles. They are using a foam cleaning system at this
time. This is the truth I shared with them:

"I can start your week off right with some very good news for your
restoration service: Yes! The Challenger Pad System will clean
your commercial carpet tiles and remove the stains so they do
not come back. I heard from another customer just this morning who
said his ad copy reads: when (his service) removes a stain it stays gone,
or he will come back and do the whole job again for free! He said he has
never gotten a call back to rework a stain since he began using
the Challenger System. " (I got the call from that "other customer"
this morning because he wanted to order his second machine and expand
his business to keep up with the demand for his services.)

I hope this causes Barry, in the British Virgin Islands, to thoroughly
checkout the Challenger Pad System. I know it will meet his needs and
improve his bottom line.
Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

Customer Service Concerns, Part Two

What you see on the screen is not always what you get on the Blog!
I am sorry I cut off half the article I just posted. This is the second
half by Howard Partridge. I hope you get it all this time!
Thanks for reading with me,

Once she had said everything she wanted to say, I said "Ms. Lee, that was (Name of Tech) that was at your home. Not only does our company do thorough background checks on every person we hire, (Name of Tech) has been with us for about 4 years. This would be completely out of his character. In fact, his wife and his son both work for our company and they are personal friends of mine. I know other people that know them as well. We know the personal side of their life very intimately, so this would be totally out of character, but let me do this...Let me talk with (Name of Tech) to see if there is anything he saw that may give us any insight."

I called my guy and asked him about his visit and anything that he saw. I asked what his impression of the son was, etc.

After talking with my guy, I called the client back and said, "Ms. Lee, I talked with my guy, and he didn't see anything that would give us any clues. Would you please let us know if there is anything else we can do. If you find your earrings, please let us know.

About two weeks later she called to let us know she found her earrings and booked the job with us.

A few years ago, we had a client that filed a police report on some things that were missing, and only because our guys were among many of the service people in that home, the undercover officers came to interview my guys.

After the interview, they said "We know your guys didn't have anything to do with it because of the body language that your guys are displaying. We have been doing this for many years, and can tell when someone has something to hide. These guys are clean as a whistle!"

So, if you are accused, don't get defensive, simply listen carefully, promise to talk to the parties involved, respond quickly, and invite any future feedback.

.......................................................................................................................................
Howard Partridge built his carpet cleaning company from the trunk of his car into a $2 million per year organization. His thirteen truck company is one of the most respected high end residential firms in the country. He is the president of Phenomenal Products, Inc., which offers proven business solutions to the carpet cleaning industry. He co-authored the FAST TRACK Business System for carpet cleaners with Bridgepoint Systems.

Customer Service Concerns

Business Building A Newsletter for members of the Interlink eNetwork By Howard Partridge June, 2008 How To Handle An Unhappy Customer

If you have been in business for any length of time and have employees, sooner or later you will get a call that goes something like this; "Your man was at my house, and I had a set of earrings..." In our 18 years of experience there have been a handful of of these situations. In most cases, the client was absolutely sure that we were the only one in the house, and that it couldn't have been anyone else. In ALL cases, they humbly admitted that their valuables were found. When you get a call like that, listen very closely. Then say, "Mrs. Jones, I will definitely check into this immediately, but let me assure you that our company does a thorough background check on all of our employees. The employee that was at your home (or business) has been with us for (number of years), and we haven't had any problems with him. This would be completely out of his character." You may want to go a little farther with it. Recently, I got a very personal call from one of our clients. She would not tell my staff what the call was in regard to. When I called her back, I learned that one of our in-home consultants had been to her home. She started by saying she did not realize that we were scheduled to come out. She was at work, and allowed us to go into the home with her son at home. So, she was already a bit put out because in her mind, we were not scheduled to be there. She went on to tell me that in the very area that we inspected, a pair of diamond earrings were missing. I listened very carefully. I asked her a few "clarification" questions. In other words, "Okay, so you didn't realize that you were booked that day..." She responds. "Okay, and you were at work..." "Okay, and your son was there?" So, I reviewed the entire situation, step by step before even talking about the earrings. "And the earrings were where?" After realizing my concern, she began second guessing herself..."I'm not saying that your guy did it..."

Once she had said everything she wanted to say, I said "Ms. Lee, that was (Name of Tech) that was at your home. Not only does our company do thorough background checks on every person we hire, (Name of Tech) has been with us for about 4 years. This would be completely out of his character. In fact, his wife and his son both work for our company and they are personal friends of mine. I know other people that know them as well. We know the personal side of their life very intimately, so this would be totally out of character, but let me do this...Let me talk with (Name of Tech) to see if there is anything he saw that may give us any insight." I called my guy and asked him about his visit and anything that he saw. I asked what his impression of the son was, etc. After talking with my guy, I called the client back and said, "Ms. Lee, I talked with my guy, and he didn't see anything that would give us any clues. Would you please let us know if there is anything else we can do. If you find your earrings, please let us know. About two weeks later she called to let us know she found her earrings and booked the job with us. A few years ago, we had a client that filed a police report on some things that were missing, and only because our guys were among many of the service people in that home, the undercover officers came to interview my guys. After the interview, they said "We know your guys didn't have anything to do with it because of the body language that your guys are displaying. We have been doing this for many years, and can tell when someone has something to hide. These guys are clean as a whistle!" So, if you are accused, don't get defensive, simply listen carefully, promise to talk to the parties involved, respond quickly, and invite any future feedback. ........................................................................... Howard Partridge built his carpet cleaning company from the trunk of his car into a $2 million per year organization. His thirteen truck company is one of the most respected high end residential firms in the country. He is the president of Phenomenal Products, Inc., which offers proven business solutions to the carpet cleaning industry. He co-authored the FAST TRACK Business System for carpet cleaners with Bridgepoint Systems.

I just read this article in my email and thought you would like to see it as well. Thanks for reading with me.

Tile Cleaning with Challenger

Mark, in Boston, sent me this email from his Challenger Forum discussion.

"I did a job yesterday consisting of a ceramic tile with grout floor, and a stone with grout floor, in the same house. I used my Challenger with Tile and Grout Brush, and touched up some limited areas of still grey grout lines quickly with a spray bottle of hot water, a grout brush (hand brush) and a small stair pad to absorb the little bit of liquid soil produced by this part of the job. The tile and stone portion of my work at this house took about three hours, and was worth just under $400 of the $645 total invoice. (The other work was a 12' x 15' oriental rug (at $0.95/s.f.) and 10 dining room chairs (at $8.50 each). Total job time: approximately 5 hours."

I get lots of questions about tile and grout cleaning, so I wanted to include this professional cleaning expert's experience. It is always helpful to know how long a job takes, how much money is made, and how the job was priced for the invoice. I hope this helps you.

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

New Use for The Max

I wanted to give you an update of a project we have doing in the wilderness of the Oachita Mountains
of Oklahoma. We have been working in the loft of a lodge out in the piney woods there. The first picture shows us sanding down the wooden floor to bare wood and then sanding between the sanding sealer layer and the finish layers. We used the Max and a wire screen disk under it. These last two pictures show the finished floor. We did not use any kind of stain just a clear poly finish. I believe I posted pictures, in an earlier post, showing how badly stained and in need of refinishing the floor was when we started this project. I wanted to show you how it turned out in the final stages.

THE MAX RULES.

Actually the Challenger did the
rough sanding in the beginning
and the Max did this later sanding.
However, we could have used either machine for every step along the way in this project.

THE CHALLENGER RULES.

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

Carpet Cleaning for the Clergy

I got a phone call today from a lovely lady in New York, named Donna. She wanted to tell me a story about a cleaning job she completed recently with her Challenger Pad System. She had been called to clean a carpet in a church office area which was installed in the 60's or 70's. The area was, for some years, part of a nunnery but now was used for public offices by the church. Her most serious problem was a large ink stain in one open area. With a combination of Rug Restore, Orbit Natural, and frequently changing pads which were absorbing the stain, Challenger was able to remove the ink stain and Donna was ecstatic! She moved on from there to the rectory where the parish priest told her he had been advised by carpet cleaning professionals that the carpet was so stained it could not be saved and must be replaced. Donna decided to take a whack at it with her amazing Challenger Pad System, anyhow. The most serious problems in this area were the cat stains, of all descriptions, throughout the rectory. Watching Donna clean with her Challenger, one of the secretaries at the rectory wanted to try the machine. This lady was 67 years old and had never used an oscillating pad machine before but after a few minutes she did decided she did not want to turn the machine back to Donna because, as she described it: 'This machine is so much fun and the results so gratifying, I don't want to quit!'
Once again, Donna found that the Challenger was able to remove the stains in the carpet even though others had said the carpet could not be saved. When the parish priest came to inspect the cleaning job he declared it, "Amazing. Incredible. Please feel free to use us as a recommendation." In fact, he agreed to sign a glowing letter of reference for Donna's cleaning portfolio.
Donna told me her only regret was that her digital camera was not working and she was not
able to get before and after pictures of her efforts at the church. She figured, at the very least, the priest owed her big time for such an amazing cleaning job so that next time she went to confession he would be obligated to give her immediate absolution!
Cute story, but true! Thanks for reading with me,

Chris

How many sq. ft./hour can Challenger Clean?

Hi Chris,
You have asked me a couple of times re. how many sq. ft. per hour can the
Challenger do? I did a job yesterday for the first in a 6-story downtown
Boston condominium building. Each floor contained 950 s.f. of carpeting.
Since I was working alone, my first choice would have been to use my
Orbitec CX-20 (or a Challenger Max, if I had one). But access to the
building was difficult, both as far as even using my ramp to unload my
bigger machines, as well as getting equipment into the building itself
(many stairs; no ramp; no loading dock with elevator) So using my
standard Challenger was my only choice. It took me about 50 minutes to do
each floor, which works out to a rate of about 1150 s.f. per hour. And
this included doing my own spraying with a standard 2-gallon pump sprayer,
since my electric sprayer is on the fritz (Do eople still say "on the
fritz"?) All told, it was a job that grossed about $1100 in a day when
the actual work started at 9AM and finished at 4PM. Of that time,
probably about an hour was devoted to running outside to feed the parking
meter, buy coffee a couple of times, and toss down a small lunch. So
dollars-per-hour for each hour actually worked was about $185. The job
was billed at a rate of .17/sq. ft., and there were a dozen or so stairs
cleaned as well.

This particular building is managed my a property management company which
specializes in condominium buildings - as opposed to rental properties.
I got my first building from them a couple of years ago - as kind of a
test - when a condo owner in one of their buildings kept calling their
office saying how much better HER carpet looked after being cleaned by
Drysdale's than did the common area carpet, after being cleaned by whoever
was doing their work at that time. She was such a pain (to them) that
they finally gave me a shot. Now I think I have all of the buildings they
manage - about 15. One building alone - which is done twice per year -
grosses over $3000 each time I do it. It requires two days - one day
working alone, and a second day with a helper to assist me.

Mark D., Boston, MA

Eliminate Paint Stains --Again

Well this time the paint stains are in MY house. I was not very happy about it, but I found jet black Rustoleum paint dripped across the rug in my foyer. Somehow it was overlooked all day and found in the evening when the lights came on in the front hall. Below see the paint on the area rug when the problem was discovered. Then see the picture of the same area rug after the Challenger completely removed the problem. The third picture shows a larger area of the rug to see the paint is truly gone, Gone, GONE! Thanks for reading with me, Chris.

Challenger Eliminates Paint Stains

We recently bought a duplex in our hometown. On one side of the duplex, the previous owners had repainted before their last renters had moved in six months ago. When we did a walk-through of that unit we felt quite certain we would need to recarpet. The previous owners had spilled paint in the master bedroom and hall way and had left spots as large as outdoor trash can lids!

What a mess!

The renters had attempted to clean the mess up, but had been unable to do more than push some of it deeper into the carpet fibers. Six months after the fact we came along with our Challenger and Orbit Natural... and the dried paint disappeared from the carpet as though it had never been there. It was amazing! It even amazed us!

Large dried paint stains. Gone in a heartbeat. Who would have guessed?

Challenger to the rescue.

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

Challenger Takes a Break

I have been justifiably chided for not blogging in a very long time. Mending my ways is on my to-do list now so you should see some progress very soon. Meanwhile I wanted to share one reason why I have been silent for so long. We have four boys and three have been married for some time. The youngest and last of the boys tied the knot this past weekend. He lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL in a condo right on the beach. (He says it is a tough life, but someone has to do it!) Our oldest son lives about two blocks away with his lovely wife and three sons. Both boys are computer engineers and life is GOOD. I am posting a couple of pictures so you can see what a lucky guy this young man is to find his lovely Debbi. In the second picture Debbi is singing a song to Greg at the reception, "My Guy," I think is the name.

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

Using double pads

I hope you are starting the new year out with happy fireworks!

I have been off the blog for an exxxxxxtended holiday. It is time to get busy again before people think I am gone for good! So to that end let me tell you about a conversation I had this afternoon with Bob from Colorado.

He was telling me that he really likes our double thick pads
and wanted to order some more. He said they have a longer nap than the single pads and therefore hold more water and remove more dirt. He said his favorite use for the double pads is on commercial carpet
and in college dorm rooms that have been trashed by too many parties!

Thanks for reading with me,

Chris