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Does anyone have a written guarantee? I went to a business class over the weekend and they highly recommend a written guarantee. It’s something that can set us apart from the most everyone else. Two things it makes people feel comfortable and you can put in it want you want. If some one does have it can they email me at matt@heavensbestfc.om or call me at 970-568-9455 and give some ideas of what is in there. Thanks in advance.
I have been seeing a lot more guarantees lately. The one that has caught my attention is that for thirty days after cleaning if any spot on the carpet comes back or a new spot occurs the company will come back for free to clean it up.
Guarantees should be handled with care. Also, people may see it as you “guarantee to remove all spots”. We all know that none of us guarantee that. Hate to get into a debate on whether a pet spot reappeared……or it is a new spot. That’s a no win battle almost every time, and even if you “win”, you probably lose the customer which partially defeats the purpose of the guarantee.
Agree with Devlin . . . People either know the kind of service you give or have heard many times. I like this, “If you see any problems after I leave, please give me a call and I will come back to fix it.”
The good thing is that you write the guarantee so you can alter it whenever you want. I really want to do this just don’t know exactly how to word it or what to put in it. I’ll post something when I come up with an one and would like some more feed back and if any wants to have a copy there more than welcome. I’ll be in touch.
So this is what I think I feel safe with putting in a guarantee. Most spots that come back come back a day or two later. I think that it would be safe to put together a written guarantee that says will come back if a spot does but putting a 10 day max to it. I would give a copy of the guarantee to every customer so they now about the 10 max and the guarantee would also have check list of everything the techs are suppose to do. All this is suppose to make the customer feel more comfortable and hopefully have more reason to call us back. This is different than other carpet cleaners and that’s what I want. Please let me know what you think.
I actually try to error in the opposite direction and give my customers a reality check – depending on what the stain was caused by, and how deep it penetrated the surface, etc., there is no one on the planet that can guarantee it will not return with time, humidity, etc. However, with the application of our stain protector, I can tell them we can prevent further spills, etc. from becoming a future problem. So far, everyone seems to understand this and appreciates the honesty.
You of course have to go down as far as the stain goes. I have pulled up carpet and cut out pad where some vegetable oil spilled at got left. When I took out that pad I could squeeze out some oil out of the pad. That would of course kept on coming back until the pad was replaced. Then I put it all back down. Spots coming back is a concern for a lot of people. I want to have niches, things that put us apart from the competition, hopefully to give a better service and put peoples mind at ease about having a carpet cleaners come in there home.
I take my car to a local car wash (they are always busy, even during snowy weather) and they offer an unconditional 48 hr guarantee. You can bring your car back for any reason (bird dropping, new dirt, etc) they don’t care if you just wanted another car wash, no questions asked. This place is always busy and has friendly employees. I too have been thinking of offering some type of guarantee that will stand out. Iām not sure what this would entail.
Now this type of guarantee would be interesting – and very possible to offer. As an example, I recently cleaned for a repeat customer and a week later the gentleman called me very distressed. He had dropped an entire plate of spagetti on his newly cleaned carpet and his wife was distressed! (they are both about 80 yrs old) He didn’t know what to do but stated he was willing to pay whatever necessary to clean it up! After I calmed him down I agreed to come over at the ened of the day and help them. Of course, as with every job I use protector so I wasn’t too worried. I cleaned up the spots in about 15 minutes and they had their checkbook ready – and I gladly told them “no thank you”! I have done this more than once. Another recent example involved a vacant house I had just cleaned for a client’s mother’s house who had just passed away. The water line from the fridge began to leak two days after my cleaning and causeed a problem all the way into a family room. I went back and cleaned the area again and accepted no pay. As I explained to my clients in these cases, they just spent a lot of money having their carpets cleaned – and I wanted them to be able to enjoy it for longer than just a few days!!! The word of mouth “good will” created from these circumstances greatly outweighs any time lost in my opinion. I only wish I could receive service like this myself – which is exactly what we all need to consider when we help our customers! A 48 hour guarantee is a great idea!
Jeff,
I like the way you think. Good will spreads quickly. I do the same for my customers even if it’s months down the road. I work it into my schedule after I assure them that it is not an emergency. It may be a week after they call before I can get there but I don’t charge a dime. I also re-apply protector on that spot and refill their spray spotter while I’m there. I find this is a great way to receive a hug from the little old ladies. š
Jeff:
I have been thinking of a similar guarantee. The car wash I mentioned has several locations and the management staffs is hands on and seem to focus on providing excellent customer service. I have been contemplating on offering a similar “no questions asked guarantee.” I’m not sure if a 7day or 14 day would be appropriate. Of course this would be a guide. If I have a customer that calls back say on the 18th day with a reasonable request, I would still consider doing the follow up at no charge. I think it is important to have an established time-frame to protect yourself from unwanted call backs.
I still have a lot of questions/concerns with a written guarantee, especially when it comes to pet spots where the animal(s) still reside in the house. There would have to be a lot of “fine print” in that guarantee in my opinion to CYA. I do like setting yourself apart from the competition and showing yet another way how you stand behind your work. I’m sure we all have instances where we go back and don’t charge for it even if it’s the customer’s fault. I am much more willing when the customer works with my schedule so I’m doing it when I’m in the area as opposed to making a trip specifically for them. One thing I will say is that if you are going to do it, I would recommend only doing it for jobs/rooms where you apply protectant. That can be yet another way to get protectant on a job if you don’t include it in your main price. There is nothing worse than getting a call back on a job at or barely above your minimun service call price. If you include protectant, you should help cover some call back costs in such a situation as your price would obviously be higher.
This maybe a good idea don’t have the written guarantee unless they have protector applied. Another plus on having the protector applied. I think we need to have certain number of day limit. The question then would be how many days. In my experience if spots come back it is a day or two later, most of the time anyway. I have been advised seven days I was thinking 10 days. What do you all think?
All good points! Definitely agree protector is a requirement! Also don’t want to go back and clean a whole room because they had a party and trashed the floor – knowingly! I think a simple guarantee against an accidental spill, or an an isolated problem which was really no fault of the owner is appropriate. It could even be phrased like “because things happen!” or something similar. I like the idea of keeping the time frame short too – perhaps 3 days? You could always make an exception – it’s easy to know who is telling the truth – ha! But that time limit would help protect you against those who would take advantage!!
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