Pet Odor Procedures for Upholstery

Pets don’t only contaminate carpet! Small pets often have “accidents” (some are “on purposes”) on your customers’ furniture. The processes used to treat furniture for animal odor are much like the processes that you use on carpet.

If cleaning and a surface application of deodorizer does not suffice, you can inject deodorizer into cushions. To distribute this deodorant throughout the cushion foam, put the cushion in a plastic bag and use your vacuum hose and extractor to draw the air out of the cushion in side of the bag. This will more evenly distribute the deodorizer that you’ve injected.

Note: Be sure to clean the cushion again afterward, as you very likely see watermarks appear on the cushion as injected deodorizer wicks to the surface.

If this measure is not sufficient, consider removing the cushion foam and using a sub surface extraction tool, such as the Water Claw Spot Lifter or the Flash Extractor.

In cases of extreme contamination, cushion foam might be better discarded and replaced.

Do not inject deodorizer into the body of a sofa or chair without a specific written release. Injecting deodorizing materials into the structure of a chair or sofa may cause materials or markers used beneath the fabric to bleed through and leave permanent stains.

Winterfest 2009 News

PEMBERTONS ANNUAL WINTERFEST AGAIN PACKS SPECTRUM CENTER

Now in its eleventh year, Pembertons’ annual Winterfest trade show once again posted impressive attendance numbers and earned high marks from guests among the companies who packed the Spectrum Banquet Center for this end-of-January cleaning and restoration industry tradition.

According to Winterfest veterans, this Pembertons’ exclusive event continually sets high expectations.

Mark Cermak, a Winterfest regular, agreed that it is a must-see event. “Once again… an absolutely fantastic Winterfest. Enjoyed once again the pleasure of seeing so many friends and making many more. It’s already on our calendar for January 2010!”

Attendees began arriving at 7:30 a.m. to enjoy continental breakfast, get early looks at the new exhibits, and find friends to sit with during the presentations and catered lunch. These early birds helped consume dozens of doughnuts & Danish, gallons and gallons of coffee, as well as fresh orange and apple juices.

Lee Pemberton, as has been the tradition, kicked off Winterfest’s program with a startling view of today’s consumer and how the current “econoclast” coupled with the destruction of trust has shaped current and future consumer attitudes, reshaping the world for cleaners and restorers.

Lee spoked strongly about the need to focus on “Educational Marketing” to rebuild consumer trust in each individual market area. One guest summarized Lee’s comments this way. “It never ceases to amaze me how progressive Lee is. Lee firmly stated “Turn off your television sets! Pay attention to the things you can control or change and don’t be paralyzed by the media”!

The Winterfest programs always break at noon for a sumptuous catered lunch. This year it featured endless fried chicken, meatball entrees, vegetables, potatoes, salads, and beverages. A perennial favorite, the wine and cheese bar, opened at 2:00 and served wine, beer, cheese and hors d’oeuvres until 4:00.

By 3:30 p.m. the room was packed with cleaners and restorer’s anxiously waiting to see if they would be the winner of one of the 3 Grand Prizes. All told, $11,000. worth of prizes were awarded at Winterfest 2009!

You will find Winterfest pictures located here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cleanlee0522/Winterfest2009PrizeWinners#slideshow

Unexpected Feedback on Color Repair Class

Our company has sponsored color repair classes every other year or so over the past several years. This particular class is hard to fill, as not many cleaners seem to want to perform this service, or do not believe that they can be successful in doing so.

While I hold the instructor that we used for this last course in high regard, I didn’t expect that the responses from these students would be much different.

I was mistaken!!!!

Here are some comments from two of the students who attended the Color Repair Technician class that Jeff Cross taught here on December 2nd and 3rd, 2008:

“Jeff offered the most education and hands on color repair practice in any such workshop that I have ever been involved with. I learned more in two days about color repair than I have in the last fifteen years of attending such classes!”
Frank C

“I had no experience in color repair and wanted to add it as a service to my customers. Jeff Cross made it easy to understand and less intimidating than I thought it would be. It was hands on, which makes it easier for me to go to a customers house with confidence.”
Jeff M

The first comment was from a fifteen year veteran of color repair, the other from someone who had never performed the service prior to the class. Both men left with confidence based on Jeff’s approach of simplicity, and hours of well supervised, hands on practice.

We’ll put some pictures from the class up here soon.

Oh, and we’ll not be waiting two or three years to have this class put on here again. Look for Jeff to be back later in 2009.

Severe Animal Odors – When Salvage is No Longer an Option

When is it not worth saving carpet that has been extensively contaminated by urine or other animal discharges?

There are a few rules of thumb, including:

When over 20% of the carpet is contaminated

When contamination has caused severe color loss

When contamination has caused extensive delamination

When the floor underneath of the carpet is hardwood, and could be refinished to a good appearance and improve the room without carpet

When the cost of the products and labor involved begins to near the value of new carpet, pad, tack strip, and installation

That said, do not think carpet replacement will solve the problem! In cases where carpet has been contaminated so badly that it needs to be replaced, you must assume that the subfloor is also badly contaminated. Sanding and sealing will need to be done at a minimum, and in cases of extensive penetration of urine throughout the subfloor, entire sections of the floor may need to be replaced.

Surface Treatment of Urine Odors

If you’ve done a reasonably thorough inspection of most urine odor situations, you’ll likely have found that most urine odor contamination problems require more than just a surface spray application or cleaning.

However, once your customer is made aware of the cost involved in either Subsurface Treatments or Total Restoration of urine contamination, some will ask you to “just spray something on the top, because I can’t afford to do that.”

You must be VERY careful before you give in to this seemingly reasonable request.

If urine contamination has penetrated into carpet backings and cushion, not only will a surface treatment rarely work, more often than not your cleaning will actually make the odor worse! If this happens, your customer will rapidly forget their “reasonable request” and they might actually insist that you now completely treat the carpet at no additional cost, because it “smells worse than ever now!”

This trap reminds me of what happens to cleaners who dry clean furniture because the customer is fearful of the “S” code that insists on dry cleaning. Only when the fabric doesn’t clean up well (most often the case) do they THEN want it to be cleaned with water, but of course at no charge.

To avoid this trap, make certain that in your initial inspection that you show your customer the extent of the damage from urine. Remind them that surface treatment and cleaning will likely (not maybe) make the odor worse. Have the will power to refuse to do the job wrong for less money.

Because ultimately you’ll be doing the job “right” for free later if you don’t!

Browning Correction with Red Dye Removal Products

I was recently sent a cushion asked to correct a browning problem on a cotton fabric. The browning was not severe, but it was widespread, and did not respond to an acid based browning treatment.

I felt that the next logical step would be to try a mild reducing agent. Before I tried this standard procedure, I thought this might be a good time to try something that I’d heard worked, but had never tried myself: Using a red dye stain remover.

I applied a small amount of Pros Choice Red One to the most severely discolored area, and was pleasantly surprised when the brown disappeared after just a few minutes. After I saw how rapidly and completely the product worked, I applied it to the rest of the fabric, and likewise the brown disappeared everywhere.

After the fabric dried completely, a few areas still were light brown, but one more application took care of that small amount of discoloration.

My conclusions are that this product removed browning more easily and quickly than the products most of us use for cellose browning. Also, consider this:

How many of us carry true cellulose browning removal products on our trucks any longer? But most of us carry red dye removers, such as Red One. This means we can get more use out of less products, which keeps things simpler for our staff, and ourselves.

Area Rug Opportunities, Part II

In my last post I discussed the growing opportunity in cleaning area rugs, especially as it parallels the growth of hard floor surfaces in homes.

Once you decide that you would like to expand your services into this growing market, you now have to mak this decision:

Will I clean area rugs in place, in the home, just like I clean wall to wall carpet?

Or will I set up a small in plant operation with the understanding it will require an investment in overhead, specialty equipment and tools, and training?

It would be unfair to suggest that cleaners are not able to “do something” to area rugs in homes; its been done for years. However, every time that a delicate area rug is cleaned in this fashion, the cleaner is either undercleaning the rug or taking a considerable risk in damaging the rug, or the flooring below it.

Area rugs are best cleaned in an environment that can allow for better dry soil removal, more complete flushing of the rug itelf, and more controlled drying than can possibly be done in the home. The advantages of cleaning rugs in this fashion are many, and the ability to charge a fair price for this far better service is not difficult.

Another type of Bait and Switch

Last week I reviewed the most commonly understood method of “bait and switch” advertising done by carpet cleaners.

There is, however, another sort of marketing misrepresentation going on in our industry, and I feel it is as damaging as the more conventional low price bait and switch tactics that we are more familiar with.

When a cleaner sells their service as a very high price, and sells the higher price as being of more value because of extra steps that are provided, or extra services that are rendered, but the cleaner does not deliver the promised services, that too is a type of “bait and switch”, is it not?

Let’s look at this scenario:

“Rolls Royce Carpet Cleaning” sells carpet cleaning at a premium price by promising that the following steps will be taken:

Prevacuuming
Preconditioning
Prescrubbing with a rotary scrubber or counter rotating brush machine
Hot water extraction with soft water
Corners and edges cleaned with a special hand tool
Carpet Groomed
Speed Drying

All too often cleaners who sell the benefits of such multistep cleanings end up only providing 2 or at most 3 of these steps.

When someone pays a very high price for such a service, and when the results end up not being any better than a more moderately priced company, they will eventually find themselves going back to lower priced cleaners, and likely resenting the price that they paid for the service that was ultimately less than what was promised.

In these tough economic times, consumers will look for value in their purchases of services, and will quickly drop service providers who they feel aren’t delivering value to them.

Marketing

As this winter moves slowly toward springtime, I have gotten several calls and visits from cleaners who are looking for ways to “get more business”. While we should all look for ways to build our business throughout the year, this season’s gloomy weather, and the economic gloomy forecast, has created periods of slow or no business that create real worries among the newer members of the cleaning industry.

Just today I was visited by a concerned business owner who wanted to know what sort of postcards or mailings that he could do to help to build his fledgling business. While I advised him that such mailings can be helpful, I began to suggest that he make calls on a variety of businesses to either ask for business, or to build a referral network.

I could see by his expression that he didn’t want to make such calls. The more that I explained the benefits involved in this direct, “belly to belly” selling technique, the more he “shut me out”, and he simply created one excuse after another as to why he could not or would not make such calls.

The fact remains: In a service business there is no substitute for direct, face to face visits. Such “cold calls” are very difficult to do for most, which is all the more reason why cleaners should do it!

Few cleaners have the will and discipline needed to make such calls. That means you have few competitors to worry about when competing in such a fashion.

Is it easy to do? No. But remember, one definition of a successful person is this:

“Successful people do the things failures don’t like to do.”

Make one more sales call today; chances are, none of your competitors will be there.

Introduction