You'd never think I'd ask this

[Ron Werner]

Is vacuuming really that important?

Reading Big Mike's thread, Ken Snow, others, from a business perspective, and from a customer satisfaction perspective,
and assuming just normal maintenance cleaning not the trashed/dog-cat hair EVERYwhere carpet,

is it more efficient to lower the price a little, do an extra job per day, by skipping the vacuuming?
All these cleaners that just prespray/groom/steam clean a carpet , looks fine, customer is happy, and they are usually busier. Can reach more custies with a lower price.

 

[Nate The Great]

Do you like to see yourself type?

 

[Jim Nelson]

Do you have a filter on your tm and do you get any thing in it. I vac one the other day seam to put less hr on the tm looked real good.

 

[Mikey P]

I'd say about 25% of our jobs we are wasting our time by pre vacuuming.

 

[Fred Homan]

Once in a while I do not pre-vacuum....MOST customers do not vacuum worth a $hit.....And they do not vacuum the edges or stair edges....

 

[ruff]

Ron,
I'll tell you what once a smart marketing guy advised me. He said: I can tell you a lot of stories and I have a zillion theories about what works and what doesn't, yet there is only one person that really knows- your client.

Ask your clients.
Start with just a few.

Ask them if you did not vacuum, since they do it regularly, and reduced the cleaning price by.....
Will they like it?

They will tell you.

 

[Doug Cox]

Ron- Just because I may charge less than you (which I don't know) doesn't mean I gross less.

 

[Mikey P]

Thats the problem, you cant trust the customer's judgment on the subject.

Just today I had two customers tell me not to bother vacuuming in an etempt to save money. Both were minimum charge frequent flier type jobs..

We did anyways due to dogs and filled the BM cup to the top with dirt and hair.

 

[Wayne Miller]

Pre-vac'ing never struck me as being that much extra work. People notice when you use a lobby broom to brush out corners, gutters, behind doors and such. That I get a little tired of but people do appreciate the extra effort.

 

[Jimmy L]

Ron it becomes inefficent when you spend HOURS vacuuming.

 

[sweendogg]

Ron.. you have already killed the horse on the subject of how important it is. But if you are loosing customers because they simply can't afford you, then you need to rethink a couple of things.

Number 1) Thought your customer may be happier paying less, but will you be satisfied with the job knowing you may have left dry soil behind?

Number 2) Can you still vacuum but move faster doing so and still keep production up to afford to post cheaper pricing?

Number 3) You could also try not prescrubbing with the sebo but rahter a softer nylon push broom and cover more area faster this way.

Or another option is to speed up the entire process with a helper. If you get your production up you could afford to lower prices to do more customers in a day as well. Just some thoughts on the subject.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

I agree with David. You can keep your price the same or lower it some by getting a helper to prespray, vac, scrub etc. in front of you as well as pull hoses. You will be so much more productive. Pay your helper a percentage (they will make good money) and eventually they can do some jobs solo for you. Work smarter not harder.

 

[Art Kelley]

Try this Ron: Skip the prevac, clean the carpets, empty your filter box. You will notice no difference, but your head will explode.

 

[CleanEvo]

If I walk into a house and the carpets don't need to be pre-vaced... I don't pre-vac. If I walk into a house and it needs to be pre-vaced, then I pre-vac... but I don't spend an hour doing it.

I can appreciate Ron's viewpoint that he wants to get everything out of the carpet, but most of your customers are paying you to make the carpets look good.

 

[Dolly Llama]

Pre-vac'ing never struck me as being that much extra work. .

"work" or "time" ?

since time is money.....
it's not a awful lot more with two man crew
but single man crew it consumes a LOT of time on the job.


there's two kinds of CCers
those that have to be the "greatest, most thorough, CCer ever"
and those that make their custy's happy

I can assure you, you don't have to be the former to make money and have a long list of happy shinny peeps


most of youinz never do side by side evaluations.
if you did, you'd notice that in most "average" res scenarios, you wouldn't be able to tell any difference in appearance.
and the fact is, the majority of custys only care about appearance...that's why they called you in the first place


..L.T.A.

 

[Doug Cox]

Damn, Larry is one smart sum o' bitch

 

[steve frasier]

if the customer/housekeeper vacuumed I usually won't, some a crb machine does just fine

did one today, when we arrived she was still in bed and hadn't move a thing. Also very cluttered and house full of dog piss. Loaded up with acid rinse and perxodie. Pile lifted it. Then flushed the hell out of it. She could hardly keep up a she was cleaning up the rooms before we got to them.

she was more then happy when we left

 

[BigMike]

We do pre vac sometimes but sometimes the customer does it.

 

[BigMike]

I couldn't have said that better myself!

Pre-vac'ing never struck me as being that much extra work. .

"work" or "time" ?

since time is money.....
it's not a awful lot more with two man crew
but single man crew it consumes a LOT of time on the job.


there's two kinds of CCers
those that have to be the "greatest, most thorough, CCer ever"
and those that make their custy's happy

I can assure you, you don't have to be the former to make money and have a long list of happy shinny peeps


most of youinz never do side by side evaluations.
if you did, you'd notice that in most "average" res scenarios, you wouldn't be able to tell any difference in appearance.
and the fact is, the majority of custys only care about appearance...that's why they called you in the first place


..L.T.A.

 

[alazo1]

If you've been telling your custies how important it is to vac it will be hard to all of a sudden not do it.

Do it with your new customers or vacuum faster, way faster.

I vacuum about 50% of jobs, specially when there are stinky dogs in the house. Figure I'd get some dander and hair out.

Albert

 

[Brian R]

While you're laying on your death bed...are you going to say "I wish I would have vacuumed for my customers more"?

Take Care
Lisa on Brian's computer.



Really, I've only had one problem where I didn't pre vac...and guess what...I post vaced and it was fine.

This is a non issue everywhere else in the world except for here.

Ron, you are smart guy...You are too anal about this bro.

 

[royalkid]

It still amazes me at how some feel about pre-vac'n...this is the most basic step in carpet cleaning and to me is a must. Let's face it...dry soil is easier to remove than wet soil...I pre-vac all jobs and it usually doesn't take more than 5-10 minutes (average residential job). And a lot of custy's comment on how I'm the 1st cleaner to do it..."Thanx!".

So, it's an easy step in the process...it helps the cleaning, and it can impress custy's who you're trying to show you care...i don't care how many cfm's your TM's are getting, it's hackish to not vac :!:

 

[Wayne Miller]

Okay, time, Larry, never seemed to that that much extra time. Sometimes, but not usually. Is an extra 10, 15 or 20 minutes really gonna break the bank? Seriously, charge a few pennies more....

Ever tried wet-vacuuming potting soil? lol

 

[handdi]

i am still amazed at the sanitare dust cup after a prevac
looks to be pretty important to me and my custys
2 man crew no excuse not to do it
gets me thinkin more about package pricing everyday

 

[Brian R]

Vacuuming up Scoopable kitty litter is as must as well.

 

[Nate The Great]

Vacuuming is included in our cleaning. No if's, and's or but's... That's just the way we get it done. I may work slow, but I don't set out to break any records.

 

[royalkid]

Fred (FCC)...5-10 minutes to vac 3-5 rooms is not that fast...but i'm not 72 years old either. I work with a purpose...i don't rush, but i'm not moving slowly. I can vacuum 5 rooms in 10 minutes (and do a good job)...think about it..2 mins per room...that's plenty. Few will require more...but i think on average it's an easy/fast process...and well worth it.

 

[rick imby]

It still amazes me at how some feel about pre-vac'n...this is the most basic step in carpet cleaning and to me is a must. Let's face it...dry soil is easier to remove than wet soil...I pre-vac all jobs and it usually doesn't take more than 5-10 minutes (average residential job). And a lot of custy's comment on how I'm the 1st cleaner to do it..."Thanx!".

So, it's an easy step in the process...it helps the cleaning, and it can impress custy's who you're trying to show you care...i don't care how many cfm's your TM's are getting, it's hackish to not vac :!:

Hey dirt spinner who you callin hack? oh wait I run a holed glide so I have no choice but to prevac. I have trouble doing a decent vac job in 5-10 minutes. I cannot stand to clean carpets when there is dust and dirt in the edges around the carpet that I cannot get to with my Demon. It is rare the house I do not empty my dust cup at least once. I always walk past the resident with a full cup to get outside to the garbage. Gotta make the point you know.

Our local property managers all require pro carpet cleaning before you get your deposit back. Sometimes people have been in the apt for two months and no cleaning is needed, then I will pass on the vacuum.

 

[royalkid]

well...let's see, if i'm doing 3BR's, LR/DR...BR's are what? 100 sq ft of "exposed" carpet (at most)...DR's are not big, and LR...come on...10 minutes is not that fast for that much...but yes, if i have an empty 5 BR house, LR, GR, DR, halls, stairs, then yes, it'll take longer. But if there are guys out there spending 45mins to an hour to vac an average job...they are just plain SLOW! And if they don't pre-vac at all...then they are just plain HACKS! And this coming from a Chem-Dry guy, so you know it's true! :shock:

 

[lance]

As an O/O time is not on your side. Everything you do takes some amount of time. Talking to the custy does also. The more you care about the job you do, the more time it will take to get those results. There is no secret way to get high quality results....hard work and extra time is the trade off.

Ron, you have convinced me and others that vacing is an important step and using a clear canister is the best way for you and your custy to see the dirt that is pulled out. Can you cut down on vacing...sure. Can you cut down on the time talking to your custy.....of course. Would you be comfortable and have peace of mind doing that? Only you can answer for yourself.

Any CC'er with decent cust. service skills and equipment can make money and get good results. But to offer a premium service for premium custys is a niche and few CC'ers want to go to the trouble of offering it. But I think as an O/O that is a great market to attack. Those referrals are like gold. They are the foundation of any premium service provider.

Those that do less and charge less have to do more jobs which means they have higher overhead and expenses. That's ok in the early years, but later on it will be something that cannot be reduced without changes. Just because these CC'ers do more jobs doesn't mean they are putting more net profit in the bank. If every cost to your business go up just a little, your profit margin decreases accordingly.

Your character plays a large part in running your business....because your business is an extension of you. Let that be your guide.

PS: my Cleartrak rocks......