Rick,

Thanks for your answer below on Vacations. It sparked some need for clarification.

1. If a tech requires a helper for misc. things like furniture moving, vaccuming and does not contribute much with another cimex actually cleaning, how would that affect how they both are paid?

2. On a job that we feel the Cimex will cover 2000 to 2500 sf per hour, should vacuuming time be added in or included in our estimate of time?

3. What happens to the pay rate when things like office furniture and dividers are in the mix in addition to carpet.

thanks so much. Really appreciate your sharing with us.

John Long

Good questions John:

1. A good rule of thumb is the one that goes like this...
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
Therefore, if a tech spends extra time, I'm gonna take care of him.
There's plenty of money in this to take care of my people. Sometimes they give a little extra without being compensated. But our policy is that they let us know if there's something they run into that's beyond normal. PEOPLE are a necessary commodity to provide a service. PEOPLE are our greatest asset, so I go out of my way to take good care of my people. This makes it possible to have good people working for us who are generally happy to take care of me too. And they don't need a lot of babysitting or handholding along the way either. Could I expect excellent results from my employees if I didn't take care of them? Not according to the quote above. On the flip side, I can also lay down the hammer if they screw up, because I'm paying for better than that (and I expect not to be ripped off). This honest and reciprocal relationship with our employees works pretty well most of the time. {If you'd like to hear an example of this firsthand, call our office and speak with Beth, Karina or Brenda and you'll hear for yourself how these three well paid part timers jump over tall buildings taking care of our customers and our business}

2. See my post about vacuuming below...
http://www.network54.com/Forum/228309/message/1143747166/Re-+Vac+times

3. Same as #1 above.






Rick Gelinas
encapman

Thanks Rick.

I think I mis-worded #3 above and confused you. When I was talking about chairs and office dividers being "in the mix" I meant not as obstacles to deal with but THINGS TO CLEAN.

Paying by the square foot would have to be adjusted to pay them for cleaning things other than carpets on a job that had carpet and the other things to clean, right? So, do you go by the same hourly he might have achieved if he was just cleaned carpets at .02 a sf, or is there another "formula up you sleeve?"

By the way we had our first 10,000 sf encap job, and did really well, even though our production was not as high as it could have been. We trained a totally new man on the cimex, and in minutes he was doing carpet cleaning! Amazing. The experienced tech used our 15" swing machine in the smaller areas. The customer was pleased and the techs came home with plenty of energy left, instead of being beat from swinging the wand!

Anyway, back to the question, what about paying techs for carpet and uph cleaning as well as dividers on the same job?

Thanks,
John L.

Now I understand #3... Sometimes it needs to spelled out for me

I pay them a base hourly rate of $15-$20 per hour (depending on the technician) for "other stuff".

And we pay a minimum of $40 for any small job. So if they were to clean a small job where we'd charge our $100 minimum, our tech would be paid $40.

Also, they don't get paid for steering wheel time, they get paid for the work produced. The reason for this is that's how we charge the customer for the job (regardless of driving time in most cases). So we pay our techs accordingly. Of course, there are exceptions... Going back to the golden rule, if they have to do some out of the ordinary driving - I'm going to cover that for them. For instance we have a group of stores spread out over a few counties. I'll have a tech out driving for most of a Saturday earning a couple hundred dollars cleaning carpets. He gets paid an extra $40 for the additional driving time.




Rick Gelinas
encapman

P.S.

And when we have a large GRAVY job where we make a bucket load of money, I'll throw each tech a nice chunk of extra money. I figure they worked hard to make me a tidy some of moo-la, I want them to have some too

(Proverbs 11:25) . . .The generous soul will itself be made fat, and the one freely watering [others] will himself also be freely watered. 






Rick Gelinas
encapman

Can't go wrong with that advice!

Thanks

John L.