Do you offer a stain and spot warranty with protector sales

[Cameron1]

For those that offer this service, what is the cost per foot? What brand do you use? How is the warranty worded? Has it increased sales ?

On another note, what is your best pitch for this service other than the warranty?

Also, in your heart of hearts do you believe that these type products work as advertised? If not , why not

 

[KC OHanlon]

We offer a one year protection plan on our spotfree carpet protector and eighteen months on our spotfree upholstery protector. The plan includes a free spotting kit and covers any spot or spill. If the customer can't remove the spot themselves, we will send a tech out to for free. If the spot still won't come out, we offer a 100% money back guarantee.
The cost is 20 cents a foot for carpet (or packaged with a traffic area cleaning for 18 cents) and around $8.50 a foot on upholstery.

Product wise, I've found that the only way it actually works is if it's actually applied. We use dedicated cordless sprayers and a premium protector to make it as easy as possible for the employees to properly apply the product and track consumption to make sure that enough is being used.

 

[J Scott W]

I went through phases in how I felt about protectors. At first I thought they were great because the sales people told me so. Later I began to doubt the results. Finally I tested half of my own office area and living room. After a month, the difference was noticeable. So I had convinced myself the value of protectors.

We offer a training kit that discusses protector types, demos to help you sell protectors, wording for the warranty and how to offer the warranty, sales brochures and so forth. Also material to do the demos with - carpet squares, blotter cards and so forth.

Scott Warrington

 

[MicahR]

Back when I was a commissioned carpet cleaning employee I sold a lot of protector.

I did believe in the product because of personal experience. I.e. I would apply it to my own carpet and upholstery and saw first hand how it preformed vs. when I didn't apply it.

Here's how our warranty service went. We told them about the warranty which was: Any area that was cleaned and protected I would come back out and clean any spill/spot they couldn't get out themselves with the free bottle of neutral spotter we left with them. Non reoccurring spot for up to six months after cleaning. That was it no paperwork to sign just a verbal this is what is covers.

It generally was an easy sell with the warranty and because I believed it worked in fact I would tell them I did not clean for myself without applying it afterward. I would educate them on how it worked as well and I had the blotter cards if need be to show them how it worked.

If I had to do it over again I would use a written carbon copy form so to make it more official. Oh, and I can count on two hands the warranty service calls I went back to do out of the thousands of carpets I cleaned.

 

[WISE]

Steve--

I'll email ya the materials we use...

Basically our protector warranties are included on top 2 (of 3) cleaning package options.



WISE

PS-Thanks for sitting in on the Hot Seat; good info about your experiences.
PPS--Scott Rendall (BRC Systems) has an excellent report on this...Not sure if that was one of his e-zine free reports or a payfor...GREAT info either way.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

The best reason to offer a protector warranty is:

Better customer relationships.
Any protector can fail. I've not found one that hasn't, one time or another, for a multitude of reasons.

If your customer pays extra for what amounts to "a promise" from you, and it fails, your customer feels taken advantage of.

A very assertive client would call and complain, but most don't.

BUT if you have a warranty program and encourage them to contact you if there is a failure (real or perceived) , then you can take care of the spot, and your relationship with your client remains as strong, if not stronger than ever.

 

[WISE]

Jim--

What we try to do is not sell the protector...explain the benefits and offer peace of mind...then let them buy the peace of mind. And when they do have to call ya; a quick cheerful return to remedy does a couple things:
A--I think consumer perception is that most companies in any field rarely do what they say they will; when they say they will. Take care of it Quick and Easy for them; that goes miles to their perception, IMO.

B--and also important--We are back in their house again...maybe several months later and I bet there is something dirty in there! Couch; LR, whatever...

I agree completely with what you are saying--in fact, we don't sell the protector without a warranty--if there is a problem, I want to take care of it. The warranty gives them a compelling reason to notify us...they aren't complaining; they are excercising the terms of their warranty they paid for...so I think they feel good about it all the way around.

take care--WISE

 

[Audra]

We explain the benefits of protector & guess we have a natural way of explaining it to them...not "selling" it but letting them know why they need it. 95-98 percent of our clients want & believe in protector. We charge .28 c for protector on carpet & usually $8-$10 per foot on upholstery.

 

[Larry Cobb]

Steve;

One key point of sucessfully offering a warranty, is the very low "call back" rate.

Assuming you leave a good spotter & offer a top performing solvent-based fluorochemical, the "warranty spot clean" rate should be less than 1/4 of 1%.

The second key point is that it assures the customer of your confidence in the protector working sucessfully...

You may want to exclude a few things like furniture stains and urine spots. Limit the warranty protection to the price of the original treatment.

Price it about 25% higher than basic protection and include a spotter based on encapsulation technology.

Larry Cobb
Mikey Board Supporting Member

 

[GRHeacock]

I had it set up on several levels.

A 1 year, a 3 year, a 5 year and a 7 year length warranty, all at ascending prices.

It depended on the type of carpet and customer's use.

Most people went for the longest one at the highest price.

I even wrote a Special Report on this phenomenon.

E-mail me if you want a copy at- dfrif@juno.com.

Generally speaking, the calls for service were minuscule, and this program was a moneymaker for me.

One key feature was the carpet had to be cleaned by me at a minimum of yearly, at regular prices.

Some commercial customers declined a protector. I found if I applied it anyway, it made my job easier to maintain on a regular basis.

Gary

 

[John Olson]

Most of the cleaners here that offer warranties on protector are not actually the ones who are warranting it. They let the manufacturer warranty their product. Now I am not sure of who else besides CTI that does this but Stain Guardian with it's two warranties per bottle has been a great up-sell for the guys with brains enough to figure out it is much easier to let them warranty the product then trying to offer their own.