Nice to have Scott back here.
-When and how did you get into this industry?
My father had a window cleaning business. I would work summer and school vacations days in the window cleaning business since late 1967 or maybe 1968. Some of the window clinets would als for other services. This could be anything from cleaning tile, vinyl or carpet to helping clean out the garage. I tool that on a side jobs since my dad's company only did windows.
Around 1976, I needed more work and got into carpet cleaning as a full-time occupation.
-How did you go from a Cleaner to instructor to employee of BP?
After many years in the business and meeting many cleaners through industry events, I found I was spending an hour or two every day answering questions from cleaners around the country. All this for free. Rather like the way people ask questions on the forum now. I decided to become an instructor and get paid for some of the training I was doing. I really enjoyed the personal interaction between other cleaners and myself. Doyle Bloss at Steamway and later Bridgepoint got to know me through my teaching and industry events. He put my name into consideration at Bridgepoint when he came over.
Bridgepoint offered me job which I turned down. I did not want to move to Utah. However, through our religious affiliation (Jehovah's Witness) I was also being asked to move to Utah and my wife was asked to help teach American Sign language nearby. So we reexamined the job offer. Everything fell into palce and we made the move.
I found it was much easier to get on the phone or on-line and tell someone how to clean than it was to actually push the wand or crawl around in a crawl space half filled with sewage. So it turned out to be a good mvoe.
-What are your daily duties at BP?
My main role is to answer questions from our distributors and their customers and anyone else who asks about cleaning problems that we have solutions for. These come in by telephone, on-line forums, emails and so forth. Secondly, I do a lot of internal training. Helping our sales staff, store employees, customer service people learn something from my years of experience in cleaning. I also am a contact for many industry organizations. So, I work with IICRC, Connections and other trade associations. Wite some articles for Cleanfax and other industry organizations.
-What are the top five tech help calls BP received last year? What about five years ago, same?
I have been with Bridgepoint for a little less than 5 years. So i am not totally sure what the top 5 questions are from 5 years ago. I have seen a shift from mostly carpet and upholstery cleaning questions to include more about wood, stone and other surfaces. Also more about marketing and running a business.
I have not actually counted every call, but among the top topics the last 6 months have been
Polsihing stone, stripping various coatings from stone and tile and cleaning micro-fiber upholstery. Removing ink and animal urine continue to be hot topics.
-What are BP's top 3 best selling items?
I do not work in sales. So, I don't look at actual figures. But I am pretty sure that Citrus Solv and Flex prespray are two of the biggest sellers. Viper Venom for tile floors is also an industry leading product. A few products that I assisted in developing are also doing well, PetZone and StainZONE.
-Do you have family in the industry? If not would you let them get into it?
My son decided he wanted out of the indsutry or he might still be running my company back in Tennessee. He sold computers for Dell for a while. Eventually he got back into the busiiness he grew up in. He now is a mangaer dealing with stone cleaning and carpet cleaning for a company that serves high-end clinets in the NAshville Tennessee area.
-Did you miss us?
I got shaky and jittery and could not concentrate for weeks after leaving MB. Withdrawal is painful. I hope I don't have to experience it again.
-If Toburen had not found that sucker to buy (and ruin) his business would he be answering technical calls at
Jon Don?
Steve's specialty is more in marketing and management. I am not sure he could keep a job answering technical questions. But I do think we make a good team. Too bad we don't wear the same uniform. Although we enjoy sniping at each other on the boards, Steve and I are good friends.
