The less said the better when it comes to creating repeats out of pet owners

Cleanworks

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If you equate educating to lecturing.......you must have gone to the wrong school or hung out with the wrong 'educational' crowd :winky:

You educate your clients (because you are the expert and they most likely have been exposed to some misinformation & claims) in an informed, concise (not crazy complicated, unless they ask for more details) and friendly manner.

Do not assume that they don't get it (patronizing), because they do. And if you do it right your clients will appreciate it and think highly of you.

I don't make decisions for my clients regarding their property (see under "patronizing".) I help them make the best, informed decision for themselves.

Capiche?
I agree 100 percent. I do my best to help my customers make good decisions regarding cleaning and future purchases. I receive many compliments and thanks for the info that I provide. My educated customers not only stay with me but also refer their friends and family to me.
 
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If you equate educating to lecturing.......you must have gone to the wrong school or hung out with the wrong 'educational' crowd :winky:

You educate your clients (because you are the expert and they most likely have been exposed to some misinformation & claims) in an informed, concise (not crazy complicated, unless they ask for more details) and friendly manner.

Do not assume that they don't get it (patronizing), because they do. And if you do it right your clients will appreciate it and think highly of you.

I don't make decisions for my clients regarding their property (see under "patronizing".) I help them make the best, informed decision for themselves.

Capiche?

I hear what you are saying. So, are you educating me or lecturing me? :) I will admit, I am not a hipster. No way! Yet, I can tolerate a lecture. Is this board filled with a bunch of smart alecs? How professional is that?
 
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If you equate educating to lecturing.......you must have gone to the wrong school or hung out with the wrong 'educational' crowd :winky:

You educate your clients (because you are the expert and they most likely have been exposed to some misinformation & claims) in an informed, concise (not crazy complicated, unless they ask for more details) and friendly manner.

Do not assume that they don't get it (patronizing), because they do. And if you do it right your clients will appreciate it and think highly of you.

I don't make decisions for my clients regarding their property (see under "patronizing".) I help them make the best, informed decision for themselves.

Capiche?
I'm sorry, I just looked at my original post to you on this, and I botched some words Here are the corrections, and I should have added a ? at the end of my first statement so as to simply solicit a clarification from you if you thought necessary.

You mean scolding? cause lecturing is educating. Informing, teaching, educating, lecturing, all synonyms? So, you must mean scolding or something to make the person feel bad? Anyway, some good pointers in this thread.
 

ruff

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I hear what you are saying. So, are you educating me or lecturing me? :) I will admit, I am not a hipster. No way! Yet, I can tolerate a lecture. Is this board filled with a bunch of smart alecs? How professional is that?

I am giving you my point of view. Lots of POV's here and different ways to conduct business. It ain't black or white.

Part of getting the most out of this board, is learning who to listen to and on what subject. You'll need to form your own opinion and apply what works for your business and your personality.
 
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I am giving you my point of view. Lots of POV's here and different ways to conduct business. It ain't black or white.

Part of getting the most out of this board, is learning who to listen to and on what subject. You'll need to form your own opinion and apply what works for your business and your personality.
Ok, no problem. I may not fully understand what you were aiming at (yet, I think what you said was laced with a little more than a point of view). :)
 

ruff

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I am just a straight shooter Patrick. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. With the occasional joke.

Sorry. Maybe these will help convey my point better:

images


images


images
 
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ruff

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I do not remember my mom using vinegar to do any cleaning in our house. Of course, I do not remember doing much cleaning as I grew up on the farm. Replacing a urine smell with a vinegar smell is not my idea of odor removal. It does make sense now why the vinegar smell or acetic acid smell is so strong as the acid neutralized the ammonia and did not work like a pairing agent. I would of loved using vinegar whenever I cleaned out the chicken coops as it reaked of ammonia. Vinegar is not that strong so it would not of worked in the chicken coop and may not in every instance neutralize the quantity of ammonia salts in carpet or rugs. I generally thought that rug washers used acetic acid to stablize loose dyes not for odor control. Citric and glycolic acid have the benefit of neutralizing the ammonia od0r by reducing the pH without leaving the smell of vinegar (acetic acid). As a professional why would you use any product that smelled like common vinegar. We have never liked the smell of vinegar which is why we stopped using acetic acid in our urine neutralizer and replaced it with citric acid and glycolic acid with a much lower and professional odor profile a few years ago. In any event, this only became clear to me in the last year as we improved our Urine Neutralizer (renamed from TCU Neutralizer) formula. Also, as a practice I would believe anyone when they admit to not knowing something.

I guess I have not been that successful about them paragraphs. :winky:

Somebody should remove Tom away from here. I just bought all these products, because I understand Tom's explanations, appreciate and trust them. I hate it when other companies come out with a product (say Un-Duz-It- Unleashed) with a mystic statement about how it does it all, without any real explanation. YES, you can say that after many such product claims we, cleaners, have developed some mistrust.

Tom,
  1. In light urine damage are Pet Zone and Urine Stain Remover pretty similar? Or would one do more than the other?
  2. If I am using Urine stain remover as the last of the 3 step, you recommend. And since the odor is likely by then to be removed, why not just use peroxide?
  3. What do you offer for pet odor removal from Wool and or (if different) natural fibers?
 
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Cleanworks

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I guess I have not been that successful about them paragraphs. :winky:

Somebody should remove Tom away from here. I just bought all these products, because I understand Tom's explanations, appreciate and trust them. I hate it when other companies come out with a product (say Un-Duz-It- Unleashed) with a mystic statement about how it does it all, without any real explanation. YES, you can say that after many such product claims we, cleaners, have developed some mistrust.

Tom,
  1. In light urine damage will Pet Zone and Urine stain remover pretty similar?
  2. What do you offer for pet odor removal for Wool and or (if different) natural fibers?
Doncha just use febreeze?
 

ruff

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Only when their eyes glaze or if they outright refuse to hear my explanation :winky:
And straight to the nose.
Because of the more lasting effect.
 
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Tom Forsythe

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In light urine damage are Pet Zone and Urine Stain Remover pretty similar? Or would one do more than the other?
If I am using Urine stain remover as the last of the 3 step, you recommend. And since the odor is likely by then to be removed, why not just use peroxide?
What do you offer for pet odor removal from Wool and or (if different) natural fibers?

For light urine damage use Urine Stain Remover which can be a few seconds of spraying with no rinsing necessary. Use of Pet Zone is a process that takes 20 to 30 minutes and needs to be rinsed.

The Urine Stain Remover has a pH of 5.5 since it is accelerated (better stain removal for the percentage used) somewhat by alkalinity while peroxide by itself is a pH of 2.5. This allows us to use less peroxide which in some formulas which impacts shipping classifications and cost. We include surfactants so there is better penetration into the fiber for more complete stain removal. Wicking of stains can occur in the drying process. We include Hydrocide so there is some additional odor removal. We add non re-soiloing polymers so that you can spray and go knowing it will not be a re-soiling issue by itself. If you do not see any measurable benefit in your situation then by all means use peroxide alone. Our sales for this product indicate that we have a lot of users who see the benefits.

We designed Wool Medic to be our acid product for wool and Hydrocide CD13 is the version we recommend for wool. Both of these products do not have much fragrance as I believe an oriental rug should smell like wool and not a fragrance when returned to the house. Pit washing, rug suckers, marinators, wash tubs all do a good job of flushing urine which is always the key for successful urine mediation.
 

Rick J

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I do not remember my mom using vinegar to do any cleaning in our house. Of course, I do not remember doing much cleaning as I grew up on the farm. Replacing a urine smell with a vinegar smell is not my idea of odor removal. It does make sense now why the vinegar smell or acetic acid smell is so strong as the acid neutralized the ammonia and did not work like a pairing agent. I would of loved using vinegar whenever I cleaned out the chicken coops as it reaked of ammonia. Vinegar is not that strong so it would not of worked in the chicken coop and may not in every instance neutralize the quantity of ammonia salts in carpet or rugs. I generally thought that rug washers used acetic acid to stablize loose dyes not for odor control. Citric and glycolic acid have the benefit of neutralizing the ammonia od0r by reducing the pH without leaving the smell of vinegar (acetic acid). As a professional why would you use any product that smelled like common vinegar. We have never liked the smell of vinegar which is why we stopped using acetic acid in our urine neutralizer and replaced it with citric acid and glycolic acid with a much lower and professional odor profile a few years ago. In any event, this only became clear to me in the last year as we improved our Urine Neutralizer (renamed from TCU Neutralizer) formula. Also, as a practice I would believe anyone when they admit to not knowing something.


My reply was meant mainly as a tongue in cheeky thing. AS, I have been told countless times by customers that they use vinegar. !!

When it come to this, if I am in a custy's place (not a rental, completely different) .
I just say Hey, it is just dirt!. Different kind of soil, and often requires different approach/products to attack. That is what we do, clean dirt. !
 

Andy

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when a customer is concerned about the odor my usual reply- ' I know some company's guarantee pet odor removal. And I can do it but this is what I will have to do. I will have to treat the top. disengage the carpet and treat and clean the back side. remove the pad. seal the subfloor. replace the pad. re-stretch the carpet. (means ALL the furniture has to be removed from the room). then I will clean the carpet. It will take longer to dry also. I have never had anybody do it but I can. What would you like me to do? response is 'Don't pull the carpet, do the best you can'
Extra oxdizer to the prespray, post spray enzyme / deodorizer and done. sometimes I will use the water claw if there is a heavily saturated area.
The theory- The prespray and the oxidizer will remove the urine that you can get to cleaning. Since the carpet is left wetter in that area it will probably wick, as the urine is wicked to the surface the post spray enzyme / deodorizer will continue to work while the carpet drys.
With apologies to Scott and Tom this worked with Chemiesters Hue Renew but did not work with Boost All. Do not know why that has just been my experience.
 
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Tom Forsythe

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From my rug background, if you have enough time and use enough water and have a good squeegee, you can remove urine from rugs without chemical. We did it for several years, but we were a rug shop and needed something to do on the days where few customers showed up to buy rugs. In this situation we had fixed labor and rental costs so they were not counted. Unfortunately, these slow days were common which is one reason I left the rug trade.

Theoretically, use of the water claw with enough time and water you can improve the situation with only water, especially if this is the only job of the day. Those of you who do not want to buys chemicals can schedule these jobs when you have nothing else to do and only want to use water. Of course, you would need to ignore labor and equipment wear and tear costs so that you can focus on free water when hooked up to the customer's faucet.
 
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TConway

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Had one today, customers kids all grown up and gone, so I guess they got lonely and somehow ended up with two puppies to fill that void.
Poly carpet so I mixed up some Code Red with a heavy amount of Pure Force EOC sprayed the pee spots good, actually the whole carpet got a good amount of my mixture, scrubbed it in with my CRB, and let it sit while I finished getting set up, and cleaned it as normal.
Came out great, carpet smelled and looked awesome, customers where super happy and set up another appointment 4 months from now to have me do it again.
She was well aware that it was going to need it, didn't say a word except thank you and I will see you in 4 months.
Funny thing is I did the Drywall for them back when I had my company, one of my favorite homes I did, sits right on the sac river just a beautiful home and setting.
 

CJ-FL

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I just went back and reread the entire thread. So if you want my opinion on just piss, I often walk. The large urine jobs I get are mostly from property management. They want it taken care of because they don't want to deal with the next renter. They know i'll do my best to knock it out and trust me. If i walk into an occupied place, I don't really try to flush the pad. I just soak things down with a couple of scoops of OSR and a whole lotta Siager-cide in my HF. Clean with the acid rinse turned up a bit. I also run around with a spray bottle of USR and post treat all the little spots after dry passes.

Just picture me like a little elf, happily skipping around a home spraying things.
Soaking the pad with OSR and not flushing it out with a claw. Are you experiencing any issues from not flushing it out and has that been relatively effect for you? I currently have medium water claws on my trucks but am having difficulties having my crews “buying into” utilizing them as frequently as they should be. We currently only flood the the pad with an enzyme then clean with HWE. I’m thinking that using your described process might be an improvement.
 

Acp

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We had a property management company referring us, I found out each time a tenant moved out they were keeping the deposit and charging the tenant for carpet replacement.

I saw their ad and it was specifically targeting pet owners. This poor lady had a well trained dog who out of nowhere starting pissing all over the house, and wouldnt stop the whole time she lived there.

I told her the last time I was here it was the same carpet and we did a HEAVY urine treatment, so hes just smelling whats in the pad its not her fault.

Decided to get to the bottom of it and pull the carpet and pad back and saw the floor had been primed with KILZ more than once, even the tack strips were painted but smelled like urine.

Total SCAM, I blew the whistle lol. They were keeping $1500 deposit and charging $2000 on top of that for carpet replacement but never replacing it.
 
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Matthew D

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Thats a very good post makes you think about handling pet people. I am very two sided on the subject part of me says hit them for all you can because it's great money and needs to be done correctly but the other side agrees on the fact that they may not repeat. I think getting them on a cheap monthly routine maintenance plan after is what really should be addressed after 1st corrective cleaning is done at a premium.
 
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Matthew D

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Thats a very good post makes you think about handling pet people. I am very two sided on the subject part of me says hit them for all you can because it's great money and needs to be done correctly but the other side agrees on the fact that they may not repeat. I think getting them on a cheap monthly routine maintenance plan after is what really should be addressed after 1st corrective cleaning is done at a premium.
 

BIG WOOD

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Soaking the pad with OSR and not flushing it out with a claw. Are you experiencing any issues from not flushing it out and has that been relatively effect for you? I currently have medium water claws on my trucks but am having difficulties having my crews “buying into” utilizing them as frequently as they should be. We currently only flood the the pad with an enzyme then clean with HWE. I’m thinking that using your described process might be an improvement.
Try this next time

Flood the heavy urine spot with your acid rinse set at 4:1. Dwell 5-10, extract then rinse, then Do your normal cleaning
 

GeeeAus

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I sell it like it is.

I can simply clean it for you. I worry thats not best for you. Odour issues can be tirining to live with. I can ... help.... make things.... better.....

The more I do, the more resources are involved and the more the consumer buys.

User pays system.
 
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jeremy parr

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Could’nt disagree more, not informing them of options is asking for trouble and a callback from an unhappy customer. I went to a job the other day that I had previously cleaned and only treated from the top, but this time the old cat had hosed 3 corners to the point the pad was soaked and no amount of treatment from the top will correct it. Explained why it could’nt be fixed, how flood washing works, tack replacement, odor barrier etc and now I’m going back for just about triple the price. Have several customers that call me out every few months and once a year have to flood wash the pups favorite area rug cause theres too much build up, same thing, explain yourself or tell them to throw it out, or have them sign theres no guarantee of complete odor removal.
 

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