I received my machine on Wednesday.

Thursday morning we did a friend's house for practice and then did our first 3 demo's. I pooped out after the first one (4 herniated disks in my back).

The first demo was a church/school and had a glue-down loosing adhesion with the added problem of horrific spills and stains that always wick back and a nap lay that sets immediately after cleaning. That is why I chose this one.

We cleaned the key area under the basketball hoop in the gym. I was amazed. It cleaned up better than ever and even without prespotting all the stains came up except two very faint coffee stains.

We stood around and looked at it for a half hour with the staff just marveling. There was some very slight nap reversal that of course we could not remove.

I woke up at 4:50 a.m. this morning because I was all excited to get over there and check how it looked after drying. It was even better than when we finished cleaning it. One coffee stain was gone completely, the other I could hardly find.

My partner said the other two demo's were awesome too. He said they looked better than he could ever clean them in years with his top-quality truck mount, rx-20 and ultrapac prespray.

This link shows pictures of the job. Note that in picture 1 there are some large coffee stains inside the shadow of the basketball hoop. About halfway back in the basketball hoop you can see a line… from there on back we have cleaned. There were lots of stains in that area, I forgot to take a before picture (doh!).

Picture 2 shows a closer picture of the stain where the basketball hoop’s shadow was… you can see I have cleaned on the left side of the picture.

Picture 3 shows the same area the next day, after drying. They put the basketball hoop up, so you can’t see the shadow of it, but you can see the carpet is perfectly clean and the stain is gone. You can see a couple of scuff marks from feet… they had a Christmas play that night.

Not bad pictures for my first ones, but obviously I have a long way to go before I learn how to do pictures well. Suggestions appreciated. I think I should always stick to clean on the right as you look at the picture and dirty on the left. It didn’t work well having the clean in the background. I was thinking of maybe buying some shop lights at a home improvement store.

But my plan is to take pictures of every job I can, showing before, during and after. Then I will frame those pictures on a page, and type in the customer’s comments at the top. I would like to go back and collect comments a month or so later as well and add those to the bottom of the page. Then I will print it out on glossy film stock and put it in a presentation binder. Over time I will collect a lot of pictorials like this with client testimonials built in. Showing it to prospects will make a very powerfully persuasive presentation.

Jim it looks like you are on the ball. The pics are hard to make out due to sizing, but I trust your word descriptions of them. I have found that when taking pics and posting on the web, you will want to make a overall size of maybe 6x5 or thereabouts. Any larger and it is hard to make out because of all the details the camera pics up. That will also help resolve some of the grainy-ness too.

As far as the presentation folder, I love that idea and have been wanting to do that for a while. I get into the habit of just starting the job and then remembering to take pics after it is mostly done, but without the before- it looses much of its impact.

I clean a gymnasium similar to the one you did- its roughly over 4500 sq ft. I have cleaned it 3-4 times. After the first time they were in awe. I offered a discount price for the first cleaning and then if they would continue to clean every 6 months. Well it was so clean that they put off the second cleaning- almost 9 months. Then they got socked with the 3 cents per a foot price increase. They paid it and then they insisted they be put on the 6 month cleaning cycle. If I remember correctly it took me like 1:30 minutes to clean it the last time from the time I turned off my truck till I started it up to leave. That last time cleaning I grossed over $300 per hour cleaning.

That is another factor you have not yet got to see--each subsequent cleaning cleans even easier and faster, with what appears to be less setting stains. So accounts on a regular schedule get faster to due making yet more $$ per hour for you.

Even with my big bad truckmount and box truck, I make the most $$ per hour running my Cimex and e-capping. I average $100-$300 per hour running it. The most $$ per hour consistently then all of my residential TM cleaning jobs.

I too am trying to make selling commercial an easier system to do. As this is the most profitable facet of my business, it makes sense to pursue it.

One idea I have been throwing around is, for a very desirable account, offer to maintain the entryway for 3 months free of charge to let them see what you can do. In this case, being the entry, I would prevacum well then go to e-capping. A few minutes of work can get you some great exposure. By coming back for free they will get to see the synergistic effect of multiple cleanings, and the buildup of soil repellency. At the end of 3 months you can give them a comment card to rate your cleaning service and get some comments from them- even if they do not go with your service, you get some comments/pics to use for your presentation folder.

Some ideas that I thought would enhance the offering were as follows: Require as part of the free 3 month cleaning, a signature by the decision maker after each of the monthly cleanings-this would get him to notice the carpet after each cleaning, would get him to know you, he can ask questions after each cleaning and you start a relationship with him. Hopefully by the end of the 3 months he is asking you for a price to do the rest of the building and you don't have to do the asking.

The offer could be mailed to businesses, expanding the acceptance rate due to the great offer. You could mail to geographic areas, making a route for the free cleanings that would hopefully convert to a route for regular cleanings.

What do you think????


Tony

I really like your suggestions. It matches well with my desire to have a 3 month follow up.

If you know my mareting style, you know I have become sold on the free cleaning to prove your service. I like the idea of a free 3 months maintenance trial. In addition to all the other great benefits you mentioned, it allows you time to build a stronger personal friendship with the firm.

The required comments/rating card is a great idea too. And I will need a flyer detailing the free program. Hmmm. I better get to work.

Obviously there would have to be limits. You might not want to do this for very small jobs.

As soon as my cell phone contract is up(Oct. 04'), I'm gonna get one of those cell phones that has a camera built in. With that it will be a lot easier to take before and after pics. I rarely carry my expensive Olympus Digital camera with me, but I do always have my cell phone. Snap the pic, and send it to my email address......too cool.

Tom

Like Tony said it's usually better when posting on the web if you use 640x480, or 800x600. Any higher resolution than that and the pics are huge.

Sorry about the size. I don't know anything about posting pictures to the web. I appreciate the tip, although I am still not sure how I did it in the first place. Hehe.