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Thanks for the reply guys. Needless to say she didn’t call me back and I’m glad because after I thought about it I didn’t really want to do only half of a job. If I’m going to put in the extra physical work for upholstery than I want it to be worth it. You make a good point about the difference in the color if bleeding occurs even on a minimal level. Do you think that I should recommend to customers that all upholstery be cleaned at once or not all? Even if bleeding doesn’t occur over time won’t the regularly cleaned portions be slightly different in coloring? This would be kind of like the carpet does in high traffic or sunlight exposed areas regardless of what care you take with them? I guess I could make an exception for an ’emergency’ spill or accident that only occurred to one section, but it would still probably benefit both myself and the furniture to have the entire piece on the same cleaning regimen. Just a thought.
I’m kind of in the same boat as you Trevor. I wasn’t in training too long ago myself and have yet to do upholstery for anyone else except for the boss(my wife). I think that it’s just like anything else though. We’re going to just have to get in the reps and get comfortable with it. I think that maybe doing them for friends and family might be a way for us to practice and get comfortable with it before doing it for a customer. I don’t know about you, but my family would be much more understanding about me replacing their furniture piece than a customer might. With that being said there appears to be really good money in upholstery even though I’m not particularly fond of doing them. Corporate wasn’t trying to scare us at all because they obviously truly believe in the system. They were just trying to make absolutely sure that we are always aware of what we’re dealing with and to never take any piece of upholstery for granted! I do charge a pretty high dollar amount if anyone wants this service and if I feel even the least bit apprehensive about a piece I’ll walk away. I guess the most important thing is to get as comfortable as you can with the process and even then to know when to back off when you don’t feel absolutely comfortable with it. I hope this helps.
Thanks Neil. I know that it probably won’t take too much time to actually clean the cushions. The problem is whether I can make it worth my time or not. I’m still really new and business is excrutiatingly slow, but it has started to trickle in and build consistentlly within the last few days. I will eventually need to have a minimum charge for jobs to be worth it, but when you’re new and hungry you’re willing to spend $25 in gas to make $50. I’m sure that you can empathize with the situation as I’m sure that most of you have been there before like me. Later Neil.
Thanks Gordon. She’s trying to stay as cool and relaxed as she can. I know that it’s a lot of stress for her right now with the baby and our new business. She’s also still interviewing for possible teaching positions in our business territory. Of course, if things work out the way we hope she’ll be able to stay home with our son from now on. Later.
You’re absolutely right Gordon. I chose not to let it bother me almost as soon as I initially posted (vented) it on the forum. Don’t get me wrong, it does bother me that a potential customer thinks I stood them up even if I didn’t. I think that I handled it pretty well even though she may not think so. Who knows? In time she may gain a little perspective of her own and remember how I remained apologetic and pleasant despite the situation. I don’t know yet what kind of patience it takes to be a father, but I’ll soon know as my wife and I are expecting our first one in late July. I’ll need as much patience and understanding as I can muster with a new business and baby boy during the same time of my life. Later.
I really feel your pain Mike. My early job this Friday is a classic example of your number 3. Although it is a very small and clean area there will be a sofa, love seat, and chair to move and clean under. The only problem is where do you move it to. The entire house is really small. I mean really small. Small to the point where I don’t know how they got the pieces into the living room to begin with. There really is no place to move the furniture to so I’ll have to move some, clean some, move…well, I think we get the picture. The only real beauty of it is that this job will take little to no solution and the actual cleaning will be a breeze. By the way, I charge 30 cents per square foot and deduct 10% for not moving furniture. I will move a set of dining room chairs or an end table or two, but nothing else for the discount. Well, that’s not entirely true because I did clean under a sofa for a very elderly woman because I wussed out. She didn’t even ask me to. I just thought it needed it and so I did it. Darn those sweet grandmothers! 😉 I’ve really got to toughen myself up! I borrowed from Brian Sutton’s idea of deducting an even larger percentage of a BR if the bed takes up an inordinate amount of the space. It’s usually about 50% of that particular room. This has only been done for their master bedrooms and only if absolutely no cleaning is to be done behind or under it. I hope this helps. Later.
Well, I actually called her back taking the blame for the entire ‘misunderstanding’. She wasn’t too receptive, but she was a lot less accusatory although she didn’t want our services as of this time. She was too blunt for me to even begin trying to offer any incentive, but I think that I won half the battle by calling back and apologizing for our mistake anyways. I was very professional and although you can’t please them all maybe the worst press I’ll get from her is that I screwed up an appointment time. If that’s the worst thing that’s ever said about me than I guess I won’t be doing that badly even though I would like to be absolutely spotless. Wouldn’t we all though? 😉
You’re absolutely right Greg. I believe that I’ll just keep an open mind about the situation. I guess that it feels a lot more personal when it’s your very own business. I cooled down a lot about the situation not more than 5 minutes after I posted about it. That’s one thing that I love about the forums! I can share my experiences and vent a little with people that have been there and done that without the customer ever knowing that I was in the least bit insulted. Anyways, thanks for the advice! I guess it’s better to go ahead and get these kinds of experiences out of the way while I’m still learning so that I can appreciate all of my great return customers in the future. Later.
Thanks Mike. I really like the tiered system. We actually had a tiered system in place, but decided to go with the flat square footage prices for now. As I grow with the business I’m sure that I’ll be rethinking some of my strategies. It looks like I need to charge more for stairs. I’m only charging $2 per step, but I think that I’m going to go up to $3 to $3.50. I believe that some ChemDry’s around here are charging $6 per step if I’m not mistaking so I think that my new rate for stairs will still be very competitive. Later.
You’re right about the upholstery Neil. I absolutely despise cleaning it, but I do ask for more money so I guess that I should learn to love it 8) . Now, I haven’t met a carpet yet that I minded cleaning. Maybe it’s because I’m still a greenhorn in the business. I guess I’m lucky in that the very thing that makes up the biggest part of my day is the one thing that I have absolutely no hang ups about. Not many people can say they love their jobs, but I’ll dare say that I’m pretty close. Let’s just say that I like it a LOT. Thanks for all of your prompt responses and I’ll make sure to check out Greg’s posts in the advertising section. Later.
Thanks Neil. I really like the discount on the apartments. I haven’t bid on any yet, but I’ve sent out nice info packs to several just a few days ago and I’ll be following up on them this week. I have a job this week for carpet and a small tiled space of approximately 100 feet. I gave the customer the estimate of $200 for the carpet with a 10% discount for not moving furniture and $100 for the tile. That’s a $300 ticket and by far my most lucrative job. I wasn’t sure if my pricing on tile was high or low as I was caught off guard with the question which I shouldn’t have been. I had another question for you though. When you provide more than one cleaning service during the same job what order do you prefer to do them in? Do you find that it matters? For instance, when I’m doing upholstery and carpeting would it be best to clean the carpet first and then the furniture? I haven’t come across it yet so I don’t know if it makes any difference or if it’s just a matter of preference. Thanks.
Thanks Neil. It’s good to hear that you’re relatively new and already seem to have your routine and methods pretty much nailed down. Once, again I appreciate the info. The more I see, do and read about the more confident I become in the process. Take care.
Oh, I have and have learned a lot from my neighbor Jim Wilson in Jacksonville. He’s been a tremendous asset and really has gone out of his way to steer me down the path of least resistance. In between I’ve been trying to network really hard and get my name out there in the community. It’s just that everyone does things just a little different and I’ve been compiling a bunch of notes on techniques that all of the different operators have used. I’ve cut and pasted nearly all of the posts regarding different methods used and compiled them on my computer. I’ve become somewhat obsessed with carpet cleaning I guess you could say 😀 . I think that my wife thinks that I’ve gonna a little off the deep end, but I love hearing about different experiences so I can be as prepared as possible.
They look like they could be a really great way to focus on more upscale areas. I would love to find out the results from anyone who uses them.
You used the Napper with no pad on it? Did you have to really hose the carpet down with FAE to prevent the Napper from burning it up? When you cleaned after applying the solution did you use the regular drive plate? What pad? I can attest to the absolute patheticness of the Rug Doctor. The only reason that I resorted to the RD before acquiring my franchise was due to being burned by all of the bait and switch guys. I apologize for all of the questions, but I guess that I’m way more of a visual guy. It sometimes takes me a little while to grasp certain things that are written down and then I see it only once and I get it right away. I really appreciate the feedback!
