Do Homeowners Really Want To Pay $100 Hour To Vacuum?

[Shane Deubell]

This is something that i really can't understand about this industry....

What is this obsession with vacuuming or PRE-vacuuming?

The average suburban homeowner has a better vacuum then the average carpet cleaner, in the biggest homes they have central vacuum systems as big as your truckmount. To me this adds to my costs, a service people really have no interest in paying for. Yes, in Bel-Air it makes sense but everywhere else?

Honestly, it makes no sense to me.

 

[hogjowl]

I don't know how long you have been on these boards, but I can tell you that this very subject has been the topic of heated discussion ever since these boards were first opened. My take on the subject has always been simply that when the IICRC first started discussing guidelines for cleaning they had a problem with a two step process ... prespray and extract was just not complicated enough to justify their efforts. So some einstein came up with the vacuuming step.

With open slot glides, prevacuuming most jobs is not necessary ... and if the home owner actually vacuums prior to cleaning ... so much the better.

However, with glides ... it a whole different matter. And, since I am not going to clean without a glide, I keep my vacuum warm and easy to reach.

 

[Derek]

some have a better vac than me, but rarely use it better.

some HWE guys do it. alot more VLM guys do it - it's a huge part of VLM for me.

 

[Shane Deubell]

I don't know how long you have been on these boards, but I can tell you that this very subject has been the topic of heated discussion ever since these boards were first opened. My take on the subject has always been simply that when the IICRC first started discussing guidelines for cleaning they had a problem with a two step process ... prespray and extract was just not complicated enough to justify their efforts. So some einstein came up with the vacuuming step.

With open slot glides, prevacuuming most jobs is not necessary ... and if the home owner actually vacuums prior to cleaning ... so much the better.

However, with glides ... it a whole different matter. And, since I am not going to clean without a glide, I keep my vacuum warm and easy to reach.

And you wonder why you have such a hard time with marketing....

Only takes me 3 seconds {no books} to figure out the average homeowner has no interest in paying $100 hour to vacuum a carpet.

 

[Desk Jockey]

We are often asked if we prevacuum, I think most of out clients expect it. While some may have a built in system a good share of our clients don't vacuum anyway, the maid or house keeper does.

While the TM has the power to vacuum, you be much faster with one guy cleaning and the second vacuuming. One man crews....well one man crews you do everthing, you're pretty much fooked. Well until payday and then its all yours!

 

[Shane Deubell]

Yeah BUTT, if you ask most people if they want to pay some high school drop out $100 hour to vacuum and move furniture?
What is the answer?

Then guys do not understand why they don't have any work... Hello...

 

[Mardie]

Yeah BUTT, if you ask most people if they want to pay some high school drop out $100 hour to vacuum and move furniture?
What is the answer?

Then guys do not understand why they don't have any work... Hello...

I would never tell the customer how much an hr. it is costing them for my work. And iwould never tell them that it is going to cost them x amount for us to vacuum their carpet.
I just do the job. I have never seen a residential vacuum cleaner that even comes close to mine.And to top that of i am pretty sure that my skills with a vacuum cleaner far exeed that of all home owners.
In my area a lot of cc ask the client to vacuum before they get their so they can save money.So do you think these people are going to move all their furniture so they can vacuum then put it back untill the cc shows up. NOT
When i give a quote i tell the client not to bother vacuming because we will be doing it any ways then explain why.

 

[hogjowl]

Shane, don't continue to make yourself look stupid. This thread is not going the way you wanted it to ... so what? Just accept that most professional cleaners will prevacuum.

And if you are stupid enough to TELL your customers your hourly rate, that is YOUR problem.

Personally, my customers have no freaking idea how much they are paying me to vacuum.

 

[Desk Jockey]

In reality they can easily break it down themselves, if we are there 2-hours and the bill is $300.00 they can figure it out.
Vacuuming
Furniture Moving & Replacing on blocks &Tabs
Preconditioning
Cleaning
Grooming

 

[Chris A]

For me vacuuming is just useful enough to keep doing. I'm pretty sure I could do a great job on 75% of jobs without it but I just adjust my speed to the conditions.

 

[Mardie]

Yup

 

[hogjowl]

How many times have you had a customer break it down for themselves, Mr. Fenceridingmakeeverybodyhappyborderjumper?

And resist the urge to make something up just to spite me.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Well its obvious why you only made runner up on ***! LOL

 

[Derek]

some pre-vac, some don't

don't take it personally, we all get paid and the client is happy.

 

[Royal Man]

I'll admit I almost never vacuum. Then again I don't do a swirly or a foam over. I think a steam followed by a pre-spray/scrub and then another steam extract will remove far more that a vac. The harmful soil is inside of the fiber. A vac won't touch it.

 

[Mikey P]

I'll admit I almost never vacuum. Then again I don't do a swirly or a foam over. I think a steam followed by a pre-spray/scrub and then another steam extract will remove far more that a vac. The harmful soil is inside of the fiber. A vac won't touch it.

ignorance is bliss.


but your fancy wrap will distract them to the fact they just got a shitty cleaning.

 

[Mardie]

I'll admit I almost never vacuum. Then again I don't do a swirly or a foam over. I think a steam followed by a pre-spray/scrub and then another steam extract will remove far more that a vac. The harmful soil is inside of the fiber. A vac won't touch it.

You should check out the MB video presentation that Ron W did at mikeyfest. They used a Vortex for the demo and it clearly showed that all the suck in the world will not extract embeded debri that is woven in and bound into and around the fibre.You need the fisical agitation of a brush to realease this debris for extraction.
The soils embeded within the fibre its self is not meant to be removed with a vacuum cleaner.That is what carpet cleaning machines do.

 

[Royal Man]

You should check out the MB video presentation that Ron W did at mikeyfest. They used a Vortex for the demo and it clearly showed that all the suck in the world will not extract embeded debri that is woven in and bound into the fibre.You need the fisical agitation of a brush to realease this debris for extraction.

Each their own. We scrub the carpet with far more physical action than what a beater bar will. A damp scrubbed carpet will release more soil than a dry vacuum will. I can assure you that my clients are thoroughly happy. I spend more time cleaning than their last carpet than guy and I removed the spots they couldn't get out. It's just carpet. They will not be hermetically sealed after we leave. Ron is in a class of his own when I comes to vacuuming. It's his USP !! He probably vacuums his van before the carwash or his laundry before it hits the washer.

 

[Desk Jockey]

some pre-vac, some don'tdon't take it personally, we all get paid and the client is happy.

There is only one way and that is the right way. If some of you want to HALF ASS IT, far be it from me to tell you that you are a hack.

HACKS! ; )

 

[Mardie]

The way i see it is that a cc that does not vacuum is like a duct cleaner that does not use agitation.

 

[Royal Man]

The way i see it is that a cc that does not vacuum is like a duct cleaner that does not use agitation.

(Coming from a carpet cleaner that doesn't rinse ???? )

 

[jcooper]

Miss Plifton,

The first thing we will do when we come to clean your carpets, is pre vacuum. If we don't pre vacuum and start spraying stuff all over the place, it just turns to mud and is much harder to remove. So, the first thing any carpet cleaner you speak to should be telling you is... They pre vac.

You say that to a client with pets(hair) you are golden... How do you get the pet hair up if you don't vac? After you pre spray(wet hair) it's even harder to get up. Clients know this.

Don't get me wrong, pre vac is a pain in the ass and can take up a lot of time. It's certainly not needed on every job, It's in our script so I do it. Sometimes more thoroughly than others.

I don't think they are paying me to vac, they are paying to clean their carpet and sometimes it(vac) helps. Mostly, it helps sell the jobs. Plus, I hate those little pieces of fuzz or string the wand wont get up, drives me nuts.

 

[jcooper]

(Coming from a carpet cleaner that doesn't rinse ???? )

Lol!

 

[Royal Man]

We pull out tons of hair when we rotary scrub it. I would say more than any vacuum would. For us rotary scrubbing impacts a better end result that pre-vacuuming. Do you rotary scrub every job like we do? It makes a hell of a difference and happy clients. Plus, we use a pre-spray that releases hair.

 

[hogjowl]

Thing is, and we all have seen this, you can clean the same carpet vacuuming and not vacuuming, and you can't tell the difference in the appearance of either area.

Unless, of course, you have an REALLY abnormal amount of granular soils and debris on the carpet.

 

[Shane Deubell]

To me its a money issue plain and simple, just lowers the number of prospects in a crummy economy.
This is in the marketing section marty....

Higher costs = higher prices = less prospects

 

[hogjowl]

It's a psychological issue as much as it is an economic one. Marketing is probably over 90% psychological, and the buying decision is probably much less an economic decision than any of us realize.

If you don't prevacuum, how can you expect to really know how it would be perceived by your current customers?

Having said that, let me hasten to say what I have ALWAYS said ... there is a reason why every widely recognized, large fleet business doesn't prevacuum.

 

[Mardie]

It's a psychological issue as much as it is an economic one. Marketing is probably over 90% psychological, and the buying decision is probably much less an economic decision than any of us realize.

If you don't prevacuum, how can you expect to really know how it would be perceived by your current customers?

Having said that, let me hasten to say what I have ALWAYS said ... there is a reason why every widely recognized, large fleet business doesn't prevacuum.

I agree that highly reconized big name fleets can get away without vacuming and a lot of other things as well.People feel comfortable with what they reconize.
But that is all they are doing is getting away with it for that day or untill a good OO comes along then it is game over.
Big name fleets operate on a completely different level than a high end OO. They take the fast food approach and the high end OO takes the fine dinning approach.

I left the splash and dash OO out of this equation.

 

[Mikey P]

Having said that, let me hasten to say what I have ALWAYS said ... there is a reason why every widely recognized, large fleet business doesn't prevacuum.

Why?

because their low end rental clients only care if the pork chop is unstuck from under the coffee table, or are moving out, just plain dumb or so cheap or broke that wont pay more to see and feel the difference of a properly cleaned carpet AND ARE NOT THE SORT OF CUSTOMERS WHO YOU OR I WANT AND NEED TO SURVIVE.

 

[Mardie]

Ya somthing like that