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If a house is trashed the first time you go there, it will probably be trashed every other time you go there. Likewise, just because a customer gets new carpet, it doesn’t automatically mean the dog is going to stop pee’ing on it. You will probably never get the joy of going into that house and not cleaning up dog pee unless the dog dies.
I don’t know if this is a tip of the day, or just a fyi/reminder since I did my 6th different dye treatment in 3 years in the same customer’s house today (fyi, Crayola Color Explosion didn’t budge with 101 or TGP, but red dye treatment did it’s job just like the other 5 times in this house!) and also had to return today to a house I cleaned 2 weeks ago with 1 year old carpet that customer says still smells like dog pee in an upstairs office (fyi, the whole house still smells like cat/dog pee and the dogs pee’d twice in lower level in the 2 weeks since I’d been there and they have a dog door!).
Amen!!!!
A lady I cleaned for had the MOST trashed carpet in the county…then she hit the big time, married a plant manager and moved into an all but brand new $475k home with all but white carpeting throughout…she had me clean it before they moved in. I warned her about keeping it clean….we shall see. It has been 3 months and she is due for a call.
Thanks for the reminder…good way to get more business…all on the current.
Beats paying for new customers.
You sound frustrated Devlin. I don’t blame you. I tell people strait up–if you want the smell to go away, get rid of the dog or train the darn thing.
Hang in there dude.Mike
Dave,
Good post!I took me a while to start noticing this (except for some pet owners who call you frequently) because the messier customers aren’t likely to call you back soon. In fact, I have also noticed that some of the worst places’ owners will only call if I have a pretty good special going on.
Mike
Mike,
Not necessarily frutstrated, just more amazed at people some times and how they live. The dog ones get me more than anything else and how people can leave a pee spot for months without trying to clean it. As long as their checks don’t bounce, I’ll keep coming over and fighting the battle. The red dye house just reinforces that we have quality products! (and she used to use SS but they said the red spots wouldn’t come out) Also this post was just an FYI to some of the newer operators as they may not have fully dealt with this yet. Sometimes I think we take more pride in how our customer’s carpets look than they do.
I turn these jobs down. I don’t want “their” headaches. If I had a TM then I may consider doing the work, but I HATE dragging that damn UM around a house chasing after urine in the carpet when we NEVER know if we’ve gotten it all. It is an all too common thing here in Arizona when customers leave their animals to roam free in the house during the hot days. I have lost numerous good customers due to this and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I do get frustrated with these damn animals. I wish people would realize just how repulsive they really are and not have them in their homes at all.
I Don’t turn jobs down, I charge so I average 100 an hour, If there willing to pay the bill, I smile and sing when I work. I know that most all of you are venting here on the forum wich is a great place to do it, But I’ll say it anyway ALWAYS treat your customers with respect (while still being honest) we don’t need to tell them that our chicken coops are cleaner then there houses. One Job like the forementioned in particular has put me into a $600,000+ home of of a referal. Keep up the good work, and charge accordingly!
PatThere is an immutable Law of the Universe called the Law of Averages, or The Law of Diminishing Returns or something like that.
I think in the carpet cleaning business it kicks in when you are cleaning a carpet or area rug and it falls apart, or something terrible happens that can get in your pocket for a lot of money….at that moment, when you say oops!
You might wish that you had not taken that job for $100/hr or $500/hr…
I have turned down jobs where there is terrible cat urine and feces in and on the carpet and pad…in a rental. I have turned down cleaning $35k oriental rug cleaning jobs…my knowledge/skills/risk and reward do not measure up… others may, but not mine.
Just my tolerance for risk-reward.
But then again, if I was charging and getting $100/hr and say an average of 5 hours work a day, 50 weeks a year and grossing say $225k-$250k /year, then I might take the risks. We are not there and not able to at this time…we exercise caution.
Dave
I never will turn down a job either but I have no reserve on telling them about leaving pet stains for months and then expecting a miracle. We do charge accordingly and I have always been succesful with pet stains. They never want to believe that fluffy pees in more than one spot. I bust out the black light and show them otherwise. Not a personal vandetta against the fluffys of the world, but denial is strong with these “Over loving dog lovers”. I have 3 myself so you know I don’t have a problem with pets but the doggy door has definitely paid for itself.
Mike
I’m sure a number of operators have only 1 or 2 jobs in a day and can spread out the jobs but when I’m doing 4 jobs in a day and a job like this comes up then I’ll so no thanks. I’m not starving for work….if I were only doing 10 jobs a week then yeah I’d do more of them.
When I say I never turn down a job, I do give them a price that they are not willing to pay. Most of those urine jobs (in my area anyway) are priced to high just at my current rate of .40 a sqaure foot. The jobs I have been doing that require the pet treatment are usualy just one or two accidents spots and I don’t charge any extra it takes me at the most a half an hour extra to take care of it. on the exxsesive nasty jobs I just tell them it will be done at my hourly rate of $100 an hour, and give them a ball park on the time it will take, and tell them while I will provede the best service I can, and use everything in my arsesonal I still cant gaurntee any smell or discoloration issues they have. I also am only advertising in the phone books this year, and ask my clients to spread the good word. one customer alone refered me out to the tune of 3000 dollars brought in last month. I just wanted to realy emphize the respect thing.
on a side note I am picking up my new van in rexburg on Monday oh happy days!!!
ya’all have a great night,
Pat
You must see the pet urine issues out here then. When they say they have urine in the carpet they mean it. The average is about 10 spots. I do get the 2-3 softball size ones but a lot of the time the owner has gotten right on those. The jobs where there are 10+ are a lot more frequent than the former.
Now that I have my employee out doing the jobs we will be doing more of them. Oh, and I got the water claw. That thing rocks!! Much easier on your arms seeing that I flush, treat, flush. Less back and forth motions.
I agree with you guys. I do dis-like pet stains very much. I guess I should up the price like you guys did. We used to include it in our overall cleaning price but I learned very quickly that I wasn’t charging enough. If they want it gone, they will pay for it. I rarely have it be just a few pet stains. I have mentioned before to clients that the only sure fire way to deal with the problem, is to do away with sparky. I know that is hard but it is honest when the dog or cat has no potty training.
Dave, you have obviously hit on a topic near and dear to everyone. Myself included. I believe that the trashed homes and carpets will always be that way because they are caused by habits (bad ones). I always say that cats and dogs keep us in business. I have learned to charge accordingly and make sure we manage expectations as to staining and smells. While we do not enjoy heavy pee jobs, we have come to expect them and enjoy the revenue they generate.
I have a regular customer(every 2 months) that I treat their carpet a little differently.Due to the abundance of pet urine I now only use FAE and extract. Then clean normally.They are price sensitive ,and I under priced intially(my fault).Their pack of five dogs quickly give their own homey touch to this residence.Carpet always looks great when I am done.Customer is always pleased.Gotten several jobs due to this customer, and they are better jobs.
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