[jasonl]

I went to a job last week, my employees were cleaning the bedrooms upstairs, and the customer answered the door and said the stairs had cleaned up well........ all they had done was walk up them with the equipment. Customers often say a job is good to be polite .

[*paul_moss]

Jason are your guys using those new extraction wand shoes now?

[Mike Osbourne]

They showed you how to make them on Blue Peter last week......double sided sticky tape.

[Simon Gerrard]

Jason,
Nice website.

Simon

[turneylogan]

I've had the opposite experience. A couple of customers said my job was much better than the previous clean 'who had a big truck outside'. They said they didn't vacuum and just went straight in with wand and they couldn't see any difference. My sister has a small hotel up in Scotland and she had the same experience with a TM'er.

So I don't think you can make such generalisms. It goes back to who is behind the machine and how much they care about doing a decent job.

Simon, are you on a secret mission from MI5 or something to put porty-owners out of business?

 

[Mike Osbourne]

It's a one man crusade to make the world a cleaner place.... and sell a second hand truckmount.

[carpet guy]

I think Simon has just found out how to use a keyboard

[Simon Gerrard]

Turney,
Of course, you are quite right, there are good and bad in both TM and portable.
The point I was trying to make as uncontroversially as I could is that those five customers I've just gained were once someone else's customers, in this case portable guy's customers and that is just in the space of just a few weeks, so how many will they lose in the course of a year. And that is just people that have responded to our advertising, how many do we and others get from ex-portable customers telling all of their friends about this fantastic machine and how clean and dry her carpets were, which results in the phone calls that start, 'Are you the company with the big machine outside?'
If portable guy's are quite then I think they may have to look at themselves as much as at market conditions because if they have any switched on and motivated Truck Mount companies in their area then they are steadily taking your customers off them and they are doing that because they won't invest in the only thing that can compete with a Truck Mount and that is a Truck Mount.
Having said all of that, 'Hats Off' to all you portable chaps that have carved out a successful businesses for yourselves...respect!

Simon

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

Simon

Got a day off today because my tm is in having work done!

I don't think you have taken the slight bit of notice of what is being said!

Obviously you do a good job else you wouldn't be getting these recommendations but what if you didn't do as good a job! The truckmount would then work against you, for example:

"don't have that bloke with the big machine in his van he's rubbish!".

Whether you have a portable or a tm it will always come down to quality of workmanship, end of story!

I don't have a portable i have a tm but i don't accredit the success of my business to the fact that i have a tm just to the fact that my custies like me and i do a good job!

Cheers Goron

[Simon Gerrard]

Goron,
Can't argue with that.
Like you, I bend over backwards to produce the very best results for my customers and that is made a lot easier because of my Truck Mount. As you quite rightly point out it's the workmanship that counts, but isn't it also the quality of the tools he's using?


Simon

[Steve Chapman]

i agree with Goron,

most customers are not remotely interested in the machine you have, just whether you do a good job at a decent price and are a nice person, and thats within any ones grasp!

You seriously dont need a t/m to run a good carpet cleaning business unless you do alot of commercial work, a porty will do the job, unless you are a perfectionist who wants to get every tiny grain of dirt out  :

We ran our business for 12 years using porties and kept our customers happy over that time, those same customers either get the t/m or a porty depending on the workload, and i've never had anyone notice the difference.

If you want to do the job in half the time however then thats where the value is ,but if you haven't got the workload to go along with that then whats the point?

If your prices are right then you are prob only doing 2 to 3 jobs a day, easily possible with a porty,

We run two t/m's now but really only because we do work for the local council, that needs doing in a short space of time and covering a huge area !

Would i give up my t/m now, not likely, but its a luxury you get used to  

steve

[carpet guy]

Well done that man for an honest comment..............I KNOW I would never lose and never have lost a customer to a T/M machine, partly because I'm good and partly because nobody cares.

No point in saying..............Ah, but once they experience a T /M you'll never see them again..............99% will never see a T/M, so it really doesn't matter.

Even if they got one calling, it's STILL DOWN TO THE PERSON /  THE CHEMICALS / THE ABILITY TO DO A GOOD JOB.

Best analogy that comes to mind, is a story about the golfing legend Sam Snead, who played a round of golf, using just one club and won. He even won another golf bet using gardening tools.

Did the one club thing myself as a youngster and beat the club champ.

Just to illustrate the point. It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it

[Dave_Lee]

Ive got a big TM and Im fed up of custys that say "your machine does a great job" I keep having to stop myself saying "the operator doesnt do a bad one either!" Truth is although WE know its down to the operator. Custys ARE greatly impressed by Professional looking equipment, and even if the job is only as good as the last CC, if your equipment is more impressive by a mile, chances are they will be even more enthused to tell their friends about you, and use you again.
Dave

[carpet guy]

Are you seriously suggesting that machines don't look " professional " because they can be taken to the client's door. Rather than left in the van.

I've never felt the need to excuse my machine, other than to apologise for the noise, although in most cases it would be outside.

[Straker Cleaning]

Not heard any TM operators claim that porty users are or look 'unprofessional' ............ bear in mind that many of them carry porty machines as back up  :

If i wanted to do more than 1 or 2 jobs a day, work past lunchtime, take on jobs where outside noise was not an issue, where leaving the customer's door ajar and leaving van open .......... then i would buy one tomorrow 
Seriously considering Prowler as a 'middle ground' option though 

[stuart_clark]

Hi carpet guy !
I run three portables, one of them is a Scorpion, i have been in the carpet cleaning business for just over fifteen years, and I get a very good price for the work we do, I employe two people and run two vans, there are three  carpet cleaning companies in my area with petrol or diesel truck mounts, yet they dont get anyway near the prices i get, Its certainly not about the power of the machines but rather the service that you give the right type of customer! any fool can go about cleaning three piece suites for £25 and full house carpets for £50, its not that there customers are loyal to them, its just that they are the cheapest and that type of customer will only stay with them as long as no one else goes lower in price

[spencer davies]

My Sprinter is in being sign written at the moment, although we have only used the TM for a couple of weeks I will be glad to get it back. As as other posts, we ran our business for 24 years using the best portables we could get, I always had positive comments from customers regarding quality of work.

The truckmount does take the quality of my work to the next level, without doubt, along with excellent drying times, although top end portables do a great job, they simply do not match up to the TM in my opinion.



Regards




S

[Mr Dvae]

I use a portable and a truckmount and a bonnet system, for a nice easy day i prefer the portable, however with the truckmount i can half the price of other cleaners and still take a grand in a day. There is no doubt that having the truckmount has doubled my business in the last few years enableing me to carry out work i couldn't possibly have taken on before. the end result is far more income.
However for a portable guy to say they're happy with the porty is rubbish or they wouldn't be purchasing 'dry-fusion', 'texatherm', or the 'host' systems,each diversification opens up new opportunities and a whole new range of income.  Portable machines are cabable of cleaning 200 to 500 yrds of carpet in a day yet truckmounts are capable of cleaning 200 to 4000 yrds of carpeting in a day , so i think that all that simon is trying to say is that a TM will give you an opportunity to earn more money it doesn't take a genius to work out that he's right!

[Ian Gourlay]

I think what Simon needs to do is tell how he gets 500 yards of carpet to clean a day

Im sure everyone would have a truckmount but to justify it you need the volume of work and that is the answer why not a truckmount 

[Nigel_W]

Why would you need 500 yards a day to justify owning a tm.?

I bought my TM  in 1997 from Prochem. At the time it cost me @£20,000 with all the bits. There has been a small amount of maintenance each year - much less than I was spending replacing pumps and vac motors on portables. The petrol costs are more than paid for by efficiency savings. So far after 11 years I have effectively paid less than £2000 per year to own a truck mount. i expect it to last a few more years too.

Maybe you meant 500 yards per year?

The other question though is what comes first - The TM or the work. In my case I already had the work and the TM made it more efficient. If you are new to the business or very quiet it is easy to see that the size of investment required would be offputting. However most  serious carpet cleaners reach a point after a 10 years where they have a quality customer database providing a volume of repeat business. It is at this point where there is the biggest  advantage to be gained by upgrading to a TM. It would help most businesses to kick on to the next level of income with earnings in excess of £100k and beyond. Some don;t want to work that hard, not financially motivated or don't want to be VAT registered etc. But for those that are ambitious I think it is  a no brainer.

Nigel