To Many Pet Stains

@nev wrote:

Just last night I did a job for a guy, and their carpet hadn’t been clean in three years. The traffic stains were so bad, that they were basically black.

I educated the customer and explained that I would work my butt off to get the stains out, but that I could not guarantee anything.

I did my best, and it turned out entirely better than it was–looked new to me considering where it was. But deep down I wanted to do more. Yet I felf as if I exhausted every avenue.

What mad it worse was when he said tha the job was “acceptable”.

Beside the education of the client and setting up the right expectations, can anyone give me wisdom on how you have successfully cleaned extreme traffic stains and pet urine….without telling the clients to remove the darn carpet and padding????

Nev,

You did everything right. I also am hard on myself when the carpet isn’t perfect. You just have to know when is when. Some key things in your comment that I noticed and qouted:

1. Carpet hasn’t been cleaned in 3 years!!!

2. You educated the customer.

3. Unless you didn’t use the pet enzyme, you did exhuast every avenue.

4. If it was “acceptable” to you, then you did all you could.

5. Sometimes you have to tell them their carpet needs to be replaced.

We tell people openly and honestly up front that you may consider replacement, however, we also tell them to atleast let us try and they save however much money it costs to replace, sometimes in thousands. I’d rather pay 200 or 300 bucks than replace it if a carpet cleaner could make an improvement on it. Just depends on the person. In this case, if he hasn’t cleaned it 3 years, then it says a little bit about that person or the way they are. Again, it depends on the person. He trashed it and expects you to make it new. Sometimes we can do that, but sometimes it is unrealistic, not reality. Some peoples expectations are too high. Sometimes we have to walk away. I know that’s hard when your just starting out and need to put that bread on the table. Don’t kick yourself or let him bring you down. Consult the Lord before every job, and after. He will lead you in the right direction. How’s the bid going on your potential client?

God Bless,

Mike Nowlin

Nev,
I explain to customers with pet spots that there are three problems you hope to improve:

1. The visual appearance of spots – for the person of course.

2. The odor for people.

3. The odor for the pet.

I give them three (sometimes four) options:

1. I do a standard cleaning without any extra effort given to the pet spots, other than a bit of pro-spotter for what good it will do. I tell them there is a slight chance for a little visual improvement, but not to count on it. No odor improvement expected. Charge my standard rate.

2. I can treat the pet spots with our pet enzyme prior to the normal cleaning, which will usually improve or remove the visual issue and will probably improve the odor for people. I tell them that depending on what kind of pet they have (some dog breeds have unbelieveable noses) there is a slim chance of removing the odor for the pet, but no promises. Charge $12 per spot up to the size of a dinner plate (Thanks again Brian Sutton for the size recommendation) if part of a normal cleaning. If there only for the pet spots, $25 each for the first two spots and $15 for any more spots.

3. I can treat the spots with our pet enzyme, follow up with our Fresh Scent, and then perform a normal cleaning. I inform them that this improves the chances of satisfying all three pet issues, but still no promises. Charge $25 per spot up to dinner plate size if part of a normal cleaning. Spots only visit – $50 each per spot for the first two and $25 for any more spots. By the way, this will require two separate visits because Fresh Scent needs to be applied when the area is dry.

4. If it is bad enough, I tell them they should decline my services and replace their carpet and padding. If it is really bad, I politely refuse to do anything other than a normal cleaning or I decline the job. The really bad ones are where the urine smell nearly knocks you down when you walk in.

I did clean a small apartment recently for what worked out to about $.79 per square foot. A nice older couple needed it cleaned and they had two out of control dogs. There was no way you could even attempt to treat all the affected areas and I made that clear. He desperately wanted a normal cleaning anyway. He was so nice, I didn’t have the heart to just say no and leave, so I quoted him a price I thought he would decline. Darn him – he said “OK, when can you do it?” On a per hour basis, I actually did very well with that job.

Part of setting expectations is that you can not possibly guarantee future behaviour of their pet. If their pet did a no-no once, then why not again, regardless of any lingering odor. Also, how can you be sure there aren’t any other spots with odor that aren’t showing some discoloration and therefore may go untreated due to not being noticed. Lastly, if their pet has any size at all (meaning a good sized bladder), you can’t be really sure of saturating all contanimated areas in the pad no matter how much enzyme/Fresh Scent you put down.

After presenting these options, most customers (with more than a couple of spots) decline anything other than the normal cleaning. It just depends on their budget, how nice their carpet is, and what conditions they are willing to live in. The ones with the nicer homes seem to want the full service.

I visited a regular customer with a new puppy last week. I treated 21 spots (the spots were of generous size as her dog is a lab) in her family room. That was the most spots I treated in one place up until then. Prior to last week, I was charging $8 per spot. I decided to charge her $10 per spot, but that wasn’t enough. So I decided to raise my prices even more after all that time down on my hands and knees.

If you are like I was when new, Nev, you are probably hesitant to charge enough for your services. I figured out early on which services are hard on my body (sometimes my back and sometimes my nose) and decided to charge more for those. For example, I charge $4.50 per step on stairs. If I have to clean stairs, I am going to be well compensated for it. I also raised my upholstery prices early on because it hurts my back leaning over sofas.

I was a bit late, but I raised my pet spots prices due to the same reason – I don’t really care to treat them, so I will be well compensated for them if I have to.

If you do a search on pet issues, some of our operators charge plenty for treating pet spots and actually do well at it monetarily.

Good luck working this out, Nev!

Mike

Sorry sir, this is beyond the scope of our system. Good day!

I HAVE FOUND THE UPHOLSTERY MATE TO WORK FAIR AT BEST WITH THE STAND UP WAND..JUST NEEDS MORE SUCTION….WITH THE UPHOLSTERY TOOL IT WORKS A LITTLE BETTER FOR SMALL AREAS…YOU REALLY NEED TO USE A HEATED UNIT WITH SOME REAL SUCTION POWER IF YOU WANT TO TRULY EXTRACT HEAVY TRAFFIC AREAS. PADDING JUST CAN’T DO IT (UNLESS YOU SPEND ALOT OF TIME ON IT.
I HAVE GOTTEN TO THE POINT THAT I TELL BERBER CUSTOMERS IT WILL NEVER LOOK LIKE NEW AGAIN,AND I CHARGE 15% MORE FOR IT AS WELL. HATE BERBER ALWAYS WILL

Gordon,

Your crazy bro. Yep, sometimes you want to “drop kick” scotty on down the road; right? 😈 That’s good stuff brother man.

Mike