Finally lost an account to Cintas

[knoxclean]

It was coming and I knew it. We had a great little account at a local hospital cleaning monthly for the past 10 years. Not big but around $12,000 a year. About 8 months ago I had a guy apply for a job that was the housekeeping manager at this hospital. I asked him why he was leaving that job and he said the the hospital was starting to sub out all the cleaning and maintenance work.So I knew it would not be long before I got the call.

The manager at the hospital was more upset than I was when he told me. They were forcing him to use this company and it was out of his hands because Cintas had national contracts with Sodexo who was providing all the services at the hospital.

He promised he would do what he could to get us in on "special projects" but he needs to see how this plays out first. Oh well it's easy enough to replace, that's the way it goes sometimes.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Man that sux. As you said David just keep pushing and you'll make it up.

 

[Bjorn]

I lost one of my long time accounts to cintas ( one they don't clean up here ) After I was told I was no longer doing the cleaning I got a call from cleanway asking me if I would like to clean said account. I said cut to the chase you don't need a quote from me you have a set price already what your going to pay. The price was less than half of what I was doing it for. I laughed the girl on the phone asked what was so funny, You have no idea do you I have been cleaning that place for years at xxxx price. She says so you don't want the work.

I hung up. click

 

[Shane Deubell]

I could write a book on this subject....

We lost a $40k account AFTER I gave them a testimonial to get the janitorial account.
It was too big for us and they only worked with national vendors. Well, i found out how they saved money really quick.

ME! They deleted the truckmount part from the contract and bought portables to win the contract.

Big mystery why i am so cynical....

 

[Wing It]

It may take time but you will get that job back. Make sure not to burn any bridges on your way out because you will be back. I heard their insurance is paying a large sum here in nashville to replace thousands of square feet of wool carpet they burned. Great equipment alone doesn't get you very far.

 

[TomKing]

cintas has never been profitable in their carpet cleaning division. They are moving to $1000 job minimums in our market. Give it a few years and they will be done. Focus on what they are not selling.

 

[Able 1]

cintas has never been profitable in their carpet cleaning division. They are moving to $1000 job minimums in our market. Give it a few years and they will be done. Focus on what they are not selling.

Their carpet cleaning division isn't around here yet..

I am on the edge to lose one of my props($30,000)per year due to management change( I took one of his from this same change, not a good trade).. I'm going to clean some tile tomorrow! Thanks Tom!

 

[pearly]

Cintas is no problem to overcome we have taken 20 hotels from them in the Austin area alone and about to move to dalls/ft worth and houston---they cannot clean anything right and hotel hate hoses running everywhere and dry time is awful rooms out of service overnight- our turnaround is less than an hour with full water extraction. (The waterclaw inventor)

 

[bob vawter]

pray tell?

 

[Shane Deubell]

Have to keep selling commercial jobs and never stop. Eventually you will lose jobs, not always to competition but maybe budget reasons.

The key is to be open minded, most people have a one track mind. Some customers hate HWE and others encap, i don' waste my time trying to "educate" anyone.
I just book the job...

 

[encapman]

My company was called in to clean the carpet in a Cintas building. The job came to us through another company that had worked closely with Cintas. I would have to say it was more of a rescue effort. This particular Cintas location handles their fire extinguisher and safety products. They had already tried to clean it with the Cintas system and the carpet was a huge wicking nightmare! The carpet was nearly black in the high traffic areas. Part of the problem was that there was poor airflow and the HVAC system cuts off on a timer, so the Cintas HWE cleaning was doomed right from the start. The carpet looked bad! The first time we serviced the account we cleaned it with the Cimex and Releasit. A few months later they had it cleaned again, and this time we cleaned it with the Vario machine and Releasit. Both times it looked great after it was cleaned. But quite honestly I won't be too disappointed if they don't call us back again, the job is a huge pain in the butt. I just think it's funny that we were called in there to solve a problem for Cintas; you'd think they'd have the expertise to solve this problem themselves. Bottom line - don't fear Cintas - go toe to toe with them. From what I saw here, they have a hard time when it comes to cleaning challenging commercial carpet.

 

[encapman]

Proof we were there. This particular room was not too dirty.

 

[Desk Jockey]

We lost a country club to the two years ago but got it back last year. The manager said he was not impressed with their cleaning and what we were doing look far better.

We hit them with everything HWE the impacted areas, OP in the areas that couldn't be taken out of use and Cimex encap'ed the rest. It did look good.

Lockhart......we kicked the big machine square in its ASS!

Seriously its still comes down to the guy behind the wand. If he doesn't care to give it the effort needed you wont deliver a superior product no matter how big your machine is.

 

[Larry Cobb]

We had a local, experienced Janitorial account that was forced to buy their chemicals thru a national vendor.

We had developed a special hi-solvent Prespray for the high school soiling conditions.

Well after trying the "national vendor" prespray for a month or so, the results were poor, so the "national vendor" contacted us to supply the original prespray to janitorial account.

So now the school district pays an additional vendor margin,

for the exact same prespray .

Larry

 

[Desk Jockey]

With an account like that I would think you could afford to be more competitive with your prices instead of bragging how you stuck it to the district. ????

Weren't they buying in large enough volume so it could be a win win for everyone?

 

[Able 1]

With an account like that I would think you could afford to be more competitive with your prices instead of bragging how you stuck it to the district. ????

Weren't they buying in large enough volume so it could be a win win for everyone?

Yeah, Richard it's just how our inefficient Government works, lots of needless spending to comply with stupid regulations and policies..

I used to dig holes... Now a helper where I was working(real easy job) on state government pay makes like $46 an hour(lead guy like $28plus pension and healthcare).. For that $46 they could employ three guys and have things done in half the time.. There are no checks with government, what do they care, the only money they actually make is from our pockets.

Go get em' Larry!

 

[Desk Jockey]

Man, you depressed me.

I hate that shit. It makes no sense at all.

 

[Larry Cobb]

We charged the "national vendor" the same price for the prespray (in roughly the same quantity purchase size).

Then the "national vendor" added their mark-up (probably ~20%).

And our teachers are forced to buy needed supplies for their students . . . .

Larry

P.S. I could also tell you about the small school districts with confirmed "Stachy mold" . . .
who cannot afford to have it remediated properly,
and ask me for suggestions. "What would you do", Richard ??

 

[Desk Jockey]

Ok I see, thanks Larry. Yea its a messed up system.

 

[Greg Cole]

We just lost a flood yesterday to a RotoRooter restoration company.

Ok I see, thanks Larry. Yea its a messed up system.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Yea but while the have the Roto Rooter name they are not the drain cleaning people. They are an actual restoration franchise.

We lose work every day to franchises........but we also take some from them too.