ronald pantelas
Member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2006
- Messages
- 314
I had something happen to me that will change the way I talk to would be customers forever. I had lunch today at a fast food place. When leaving I see one of the largest carpet cleaning services nice looking truck in the first space. I see a fellow carpet cleaner in the front seat, so I stop and say hello. Well I wave to all cc's on the road, some are friendly, some could not be bothered. Well this guy was very cool. So after a few minutes, I ask him does he mind if I look in the van at his equipment. The company had a Butler in it. Well I was happy to see the largest company using a Butler unit. Since I run a Butler I was very happy to ask him about his machine. He did not have high heat or the larger vac like me. So he told me his limitations due to faulty maintenance, company unwilling to provide what they need to improve. His heat was 190. They looked like they have been cleaning this way since 1975. When I looked at his hose reel they were running 25 foot whip of 1.5 hose into the butler 1.5 wand. Yes that is the way you get it from Butler, why? I don't know. He was also using powder in the truckmount for extraction, when Butler says liquid only. So he was having chemical flow problems. I told him to loose the 1.5 whip and go 2 inch to the wand. Buy a 2 inch wand. He says his dry times are horrible 12 hours. And use only liquid as Butler says. Butler knows their chemical system. He also says he does not know how much longer he can push a wand. I told him to buy a glide. He was unaware about what a glide was. He seemed very happy to get the info I provided. He says most employees stick around for 3 months, they schedule to much work per day, techs have to work too fast to get to the next job. Sometimes making sub standard money. He found it amazing that they get so much work,providing the service they do. He is one of the senior employees for the company. This was very eye opening for me to hear and see this. I needed to share this with the owner operator. We provide a service that is worth twice what we are charging. No more will I even think for one minute the companies getting all the work are good. Its all Marketing. So lets strengthen are conversations with these customers to increase are market share and lift the industrys customer satisfaction. We are so much better informed, are equipment is better, and are techniques are better. But they get the work. Whats up with that? Well this old boy will be closing more customers in the future. When you hire one of us (owner/operator) you truely are giving the customer the best for their home or business. The value is there! I hope I helped someone with this post. I know it helped me tremendously. Ron