Retailers/Customers want you to use "Other Stuff"

[Jim Pemberton]

How often are you asked to use products that you usually would not?

Retailers requiring "CRI SOA" products?

Consumers worried about "allergies" and "chemical sensitivity"?

The new "clean with water only" myth related to some new carpets?

How do you handle this when it happens?

 

[Mikey P]

a few times a year a new Volvo Mom will ask for water only.


We are always able to talk some sense into them.

 

[Becker]

I blame a lot of it on places like zerorez, and another local guy running radio ads.

Little do both leave out they still use presprays, sure they might rinse " clean " with just water.

The one guy has been airing some real laughable ads, filled with misleading bs, attacking the other cleaners. But it is a big market. So I just enjoy the humor. Kinda like that mirco extraction guy that reinvented carpet cleaning with lots of fancy words and pics of drafting tools rotovac head and drawings. Lol.


....

 

[ruff]

As per allergies "green" etc; I carry enough different products to satisfy their wishes.
As per water: I explain that water alone is not a very good rinsing agent and as a result what will be left in the carpet will be far worse than the miniscule amount of detergent residue.

I make it clear that I'm happy to do a water alone cleaning, as long as they are willing to sign that I will not come back for free, if stains come back.

Usually between the explanation and the signing, they get it.

 

[Steamin McFadden]

Never been asked about cri, soa, products. Once in awhile I get asked if I use the "chemical method" or the "steam method" I just tell them everyone uses some kind of chemical and no one uses just "steam" and that they have been mislead by marketing BS.

What you really want to know is if I VLM or Truck mount clean. ( they say yes,) then I tell them I do both depending on the situation or specific need, But 99 percent of the time I will use the truck mount because its better 99% of the time.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Occasionally we get a newer install that wants us to use oil-flow 141 as a spotter because the manufacturer told them to use it for spotting.

Very few that want water only.

In general we make our recommendations and anything they want different from that, we can't be held responsible for results. Usually that just a verbal but when necessary a written will be used.

 

[Dolly Llama]

had a custy with severe allergies to damn near everything .
Couple that with being a hi-strung lunatic ....


She wanted us to use her chems ...i was OK with that, but told her I couldn't offer any 100% satisfaction assurances .
She was OK with that and we did her place a couple times a year for several years til she moved away (which didn't bother me in the least)

Others have been chem salesman or were convinced by a late night infomercial that their elixir was mAgiC

same as above with Allergic Annie , we'll do it as long as it's not a hazardous poison, but they get no kind of job quality assurance


..L.T.A.

 

[The Great Oz]

How often are you asked to use products that you usually would not?
Pretty rare.
Retailers requiring "CRI SOA" products?
Zero. None. Never happens.
Consumers worried about "allergies" and "chemical sensitivity"?
Daily.

The new "clean with water only" myth related to some new carpets?
About once a week we have a customer ask about water only cleaning.

How do you handle this when it happens?
A few residential customers want us to use water, a very few have requested a brand of cleaner they've seen at the natural flooring store or on-line, one requested that we use a particular protectant because it was "organic." Of the many buildings in Seattle that are LEED certified, none has required the use of a LEED product for cleaning. One school district required us to use a "natural citrus-based product" and showed us the orange product they wanted us to use.

Having a LEED product on the truck wouldn't be much of an issue if we had a customer require it. Using a residential customer's preferred product wouldn't be an issue either, if we thought it was a good product and they paid for it. Education about water cleaning works with most customers, if it doesn't we allow them to keep calling around, and we let the organic protector customer know we'd looked up the MSDS for her chosen product and felt it required too much PPE for our comfort.

The school was interesting because they gave us a sample of the orange stuff to try. We found it foamy/greasy and didn't rinse well. We used our normal products to clean the buildings and added an extra charge for defoamer. The truck-mount equipped in-house staff high fived our techs because now they had the name of a product that worked, and they would be able to overrule the administrator that required the use of the orange stuff. They won't be calling us again, but that's an overall win for the taxpayer.

 

[Bjorn]

I am getting a little back lash from the years of all this so called GREEN CLEAN thing going on
customers are asking " your not one of those green cleaners are you " Because this time we want the carpets cleaned right.

 

[Ron Werner]

Every now and then someone will ask about "what cleaner I am using" ie is it green, ie is it safe. I tell them its safe enough for me to use it every day, and its green enough without sacrificing the clean. I also carry some "natural" plant based cleaners that if need be I can use that.

 

[Louis]

When people ask me is that stuff safe, I tell them yes it is, I spray it and breathe it all day. We carry the unhealthy stuff on the truck but we only use that if it requires it.