Cintas strikes again

[knoxclean]

Well we lost another monthly account to Cintas. Large office building we cleaned the carpets in monthly. The corporate office signed a deal with them for all their locations nation wide. This is the 3rd account in a year and a half. The biggest one was a hospital system we lost about 18 months ago. As in the other cases the local management had no say in the deal and has to comply.

I guess we need to stay with small Mom and Pop commercial jobs. Anyone else dealing with this?

 

[Papa John]

Cintas is doing carpet cleaning now? is that the same company that does laundry? bet they got it on price and will soon start to cut corners...

 

[Desk Jockey]

Actually John they are doing a good job using an Aerotec and Zipper. They are targeting larger accounts and I've heard they are very competitive.

 

[Shane Deubell]

They definitely have taken a piece of the pie here.

The way to beat them is by actually estimating jobs and not just X sqr ft number by your rate. Their salespeople have no idea how long things take, we do.

Also by creative bids, remember large corporations are very inflexible.
For example on one I included a service call (spot cleaning) every month. Then told them we would set up a log in on our website so employees can come directly to us.
Mixed in encap with HWE based on the needs of the building.

This kind of value added service they cant match or wont. Us independents can do whatever we want.

 

[mirf]

National accounts want national companies

 

[Shane Deubell]

Well of course, if you have 5000 locations the last thing you want is to have 5000 carpet cleaners to pay every month.
Total mess.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

I don't buy that.

 

[knoxclean]

In all my cases Cintas is getting more then the carpet cleaning. They take on housekeeping, janitorial and other services and throwing in carpet cleaning as part of a package deal so there is no way to bid against them. Companies like the all in one deal so they only have one contractor to deal with. Even if they do a bad job at cleaning they won't change vendors because its all tied together.

 

[hogjowl]

This, too, shall pass.

 

[Papa John]

Actually John they are doing a good job using an Aerotec and Zipper. They are targeting larger accounts and I've heard they are very competitive.

With that kind of set up then they deserve to win.. production rates can easily compete with encap with much higher quality results. Triple wand with Zippers and A vortex/aerotech and Abra-ka-dabra u done.

 

[Papa John]

One thing to keep in mind when doing business with big companies is they generally-- They may take 60 or more days to pay and require a small "kickback" to parent company for their "Marketing" efforts to all their branches.
With some accounts-- Be careful what you wish for-- you might just get it and regret it.-- sometimes its cheaper to stay home --ie. Groupon

 

[TomKing]

Cintas here also. They are not looking for anything that bills under $1000 for carpet cleaning. They are bundeling withother services. Uniforms, bathroom cleaning, mats etc. They have a targeted sales team for different products here in the midwest. They lead with the bathroom cleaning services and then move on to add others.

Target the 5-10k sf accounts and you should be golden. These are usally smaller privately owned companies. Those are your golden eggs.

Now if you can just get past the gate keeper and find these gems your set.

 

[kingjoelking]

Cintas has been Cleaning Carpets in the Phoenix market for about 4 years now if I remember right. They may have big trucks but they still have hourly employees hacking it out. Have heard lots of complaints about there services and many have switched back. And yes they are marketing as a one stop shop. And severly undercutting the carpet cleaning because it is being made up on the other Services.

 

[JS41035]

If an aerotech and a zipper were the magic bullet for profitable Commercial carpet cleaning, You would see more folks doing it. I grind out a ton of commercial carpet. Theres a reason most guys doing this work are using cheaper home made or fuel fired units. There really isnt a ton of money in it. Night work draws a certain type of employee. You might get a couple good guys but generally its a rough crowd. Nationwide service contracts almost always require Subcontractors. I've seen that run its course. They can carve out a marketshare very quickly (they have the contacts) but in the end a 100,000 dollar rig with 2 guys doing low priced Com work is not the recipe for riches that the bean counter that dreamed it up thinks it will be. I'm sure they have amazing production rates ( 2 zippers and an AT, you freakin better) but it still the same game its been for 30 years.

 

[dealtimeman]

An aerotech and some zippers will do a good job with most areas but when it comes to problematic account or situations they are always fired and we come back in as they don't have the expertise or specific know how to handle those types of jobs.

Regular cleaners make regular money, extraordinary cleaners make extraordinary money no matter what time you are cleaning.

 

[Danny Strickland]

is CintAs bringing trainers to their location to educate their production team? Remember all the bitching about Stanley Steemer? They're still king of the hill as far as name recognition goes.

If you want to be a specialist, do it, but don't complain because a company with deep pockets can get into the cleaning biz and take accounts due to an already established relationship with the parent or home office. CintAs might be 1-2 good managers away from being able to run a well oiled commercial clening division. When you don't have to hire techs who are people persons to smooze Mrs. Piffleton outta her $$$ and can teach them the simple art of running a few different cleaning machines, why couldn't they be successful in the commercial arena???

Ps not talking about Eco Clean here. I know David and Liz run a quality business and are good folks. David will put on his sales hat and replace the account(s), but I know from experience that it's not easy to replace 3-4 established accounts.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Why Daniel Strickland, look what the cat coughed up!

 

[Danny Strickland]

Careful there MoonChacho, my mom called me Daniel when I was in BIG trouble!!!!

 

[Desk Jockey]

Uhhhuh that's exactly why I call you that also!

 

[ruff]

Mr. Strickland's theory sounds good.
In reality it does not always work.

Be interesting to know how long their employees stay with them. Not very long would be my guess.
Which means continuous never ending re-training of employees + the occasional learning mistakes that we all make only compounded, as every newly trained employee inevitably will make them.

May make for happy headquarter, yet dissatisfied local managers. They may still have to go with them but there will be grumbling.

Very few companies like Chavez and Daburns, can train employees, be continuously (neverendingly if I may) diligent about it and maintain high quality standards. It calls for pride of ownership, care, stubbornness and resilience.

If it was that simple Costco would have long taken all of us out of business.

When you don't have to hire techs who are people persons to smooze Mrs. Piffleton

That, if you haven't realized yet, is called "creating a relationship". It works very well with individuals, for businesses who are somewhat interested in return clients. And to a somewhat lesser degree, yet still very important, with commercial accounts as well.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Doesnt really matter to me.

If not them then its the 200 guys running around here with portables/brush pro in pick up truck.
This industry is a never ending machine of competition.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Its possible to do but the same focus towards growing sales would be need to be emphasized towards training & quality control.

It can be done but generally sales becomes the higher priority. Danny is right in that a commercial cleaning tech doesn't need to have the same client interaction skills that a resident tech needs.

 

[ruff]

.....a commercial cleaning tech doesn't need to have the same client interaction skills that a resident tech needs.

Yep.
But it comes with it's twin brother- lack of loyalty.
As long as they are the best deal in town and they'll put up with them.
Once there's a better deal (CHEAPER!!!!!!!) and as Shane said there's a never ending new and hungrier companies, unless there's a relationship- they're out. And knowing commercial accounts, they may be out even if there is a relationship.

Unless they're very smart about making the manager's life easy. Which brings us back to the same old issues we just discussed.

Life is beautiful. We just need to find our niche.

Sorry, gotta go and do some schmoozing. Badabing!

 

[Desk Jockey]

If you look at past history, then it will eventually fail BUT even if it does, you can't afford to sit back and wait.

You have to do as David, Tom & Shane do and continue to seek sales regardless of what the competition does.

 

[hogjowl]

I cried over the country club account I lost to Cintas for a couple of minutes. Then I moved on.

My nap was waiting.

 

[Desk Jockey]

We lost a country club to them also but got it back the following year. The manager wasn't impressed with their cleaning.

 

[hogjowl]

I've already been contacted by the manager of the one I lost and for the same reasons. His "hands are tied" right now, but ...

 

[Desk Jockey]

I figure their cleaning is probably pretty darn good but when you limit the tools at your disposal you're going to be limited with your results.

 

[ruff]

You really don't get it, do you?
I'm starting to suspect either denial or self inflicted institutional perception deficiency (IPD )

You can load them with every gadget ever invented, script every word that comes out of their mouth, systematize the living day light out of their 27 moments of truth and it won't make that much difference.

Cause:

 

[Desk Jockey]

is this the first sign of dementia?