Mark, you run a very respectable operation. Love the tarps and protective gear. Love the pre scrub and high flow cleaning. I just gotta wonder is taking 2 vans to a main level rancher a little bit of over kill? Seem to me that all those hoses might get all tangled up and in each others way. On most residential jobs 2 solid workers in the know how can knock out most any residential job quick with great results. What is gained from running 2 trucks on most jobs?( If my memory serves me right you do run 2 trucks on most jobs I think)
Hey Jon,
It's kind of a long story, but will try my best to shorten it. Was single guy, met my wife with 3 girls. Was a band director at this time (had got out of carpet cleaning a bit), needed extra money to make ends meet. Decided to get back into the carpet clean biz again. Was just gonna keep it small and be a "lone wolf". People found out I was back in business and it started to get busy. Had a van break down once (new parts on the van went out a week later) and I was 40 miles away in the woods, couldn't finish job until next day. (mind you I was teaching full time and working evenings) At that point, bought second van and
Butler so would always be ready. Found the second van a help on some large jobs as the wife and girls would come out and help.
Fast forward and our middle daughter is now a "Beauty school drop out" and needs a job. She can also be a handful and was not good at keeping a job....so my wife says "I need help at least tabbing, raking, pulling hoses...." We started to get SO MANY job demands in a day and SO MANY large jobs, we started bringing both vans and our daughter(s) could run them. Our youngest daughter also would help. They are about 90 pounds each soaking wet, and could move couches, run the
Butlers even with 2.5 inch hose, greenhorn wands....you name it, there was nothing stopping them! And the clients loved them! Again, I was just going to be the main cleaner, so my clients were used to having me on site.
Fast forward another 2 years....the girls are now tired of working for me, so they bring home boys. No matter what, my clients were really used to having me on site. "I was the only one who could clean that well". You probably know the routine. So, I have been showing up on most job site, but also sending the boys out to people who really know them and trust them. A little at a time I can start to back off, but a lot of these past clients really want to see me just to "Shoot the Time with BS and me". We found that was still an important part of our business. I am slowly introducing my clients to my Son in Law and youngest daughters boyfriend. It is just taking time....and since they look like they are 16 years old, it just takes time for the client base to really see they are darn good cleaners!
While doing this routine, we also discovered that 2 vans and 3 of us was making cleaning fun! (and easier).
We do run 2 vans on a lot of jobs. The job you are referring to was 800 square feet and with 2 people and one van would have probably taken about 2.5 to 3 hours. It actually with the 3 of us and the 2 vans, it took 47 minutes to do prevac, sticky tab, prespray, groom, wipe up, wrap up and call the next client. With 1 van and 2 people, the job would have probably taken at least 2 hours. There is just something about having a 3rd person on site that knows the routine, that can reduce a lot of time. If the third person is good at keeping their pockets warm in their hands, it is a waste of time. We also found that with 3 people, It is just physically easier on all of us. Seems we can pace ourselves better during the daily rush.
You can't travel 3 people in one
Butler van, so another vehicle was necessary at the beginning to bring the new young kid on board (youngest daughters boyfriend needed a job). Well after 3 years, we found we could actually do more jobs, make people happy by being in and out quicker, and offer the full service they wanted, and they can get on with their day. We also found we would show up and people would ask IF WE COULD ADD MORE WORK. It always seemed to happen and throw off our day and schedule...and then tend to not be as positive moment with the next client on our list. We were also finding that even if the vans are split up, we tend to put on similar miles and similar gas expenses through out the day, so another reason we decided to try both vans on jobs. It has worked well for us.
This past Monday, we only had 6 pretty decent size residential jobs scheduled for the day, but for some odd reason, we had 7 other add on calls that needed attention right away that day, so we ended up splitting up most of the day. The boys went one way, and I went another and we just kept plugging away. Pretty rare I will not try to get to my clients with a justifiable emergency situation. We did have a couple of the "regular scheduled" jobs that we needed both vans on site to keep the schedule. That day was a $3200 day of carpet and upholstery cleaning for us with the restaurant job we had too. With each van we are averaging $200 per hour on site with them. Sometimes it is A LOT More.
As far as getting in each others way or getting tangled up, we really don't experience that because we just know what to do at this point. We communicate as to what is "coming in next" and what our "next procedure" is amongst ourselves. A lot of times, we really don't need to say anything....we just read each other. We also tend to keep bringing things back to the van as we are done with them to open up our areas. You will see in one of the videos, we will start wrapping up one van when we get to a point so that is done quicker and then help do the final wrap up on last van.
For us, this system has worked great and our clients love it. On some jobs, if they are small, one of us will tend to move on to the next job (typically me) and start meeting with the client and start prepping for the arrival of the second van when needed. It's not an exact science, but just a way we are doing things currently and might have to change up more in the future.
Sorry for the long post and I did not address everything, so if someone has a question because it does not make sense....or "this is just really dumb!"...because I did not address everything, I will sure try to answer something better.
Mark
Saiger
