Hi guys

I'm Gonna take some of Ricks advise and change the company trading name for the commercial carpet cleaning side of the business.

Kinder Clean is what we trade as, but as Rick would say it's too 'Fluffy' and I was hoping I might get some good name suggestions from the forum.

Cheers

Paul

I would HIGHLY recommend reading the book... The 22 Immutable Laws Of Branding . It's awesome!

I read that book one weekend and promptly came up with a new name for our cleaning business. Our original name was Pioneer Maintenance. I liked that name. But it didn't bring me new customers. After reading that book I learned the value of establishing a good brand name, and I changed our name to Kleenstep.

The power of a name... With Kleenstep people went straight to ready to buy --- right off the bat. With Pioneer I had to SELL them first. With a better name, sales resistance basically disappeared. People would sometimes ask me if my company was a franchise. I knew then that I had created a "brand".

So go read the book. Then get creative in building a "brand".



http://search.barnesandnoble.com/22-Immutable-Laws-of-Branding/Al-Ries/e/9780060007737/?itm=1






Rick Gelinas

I use the name Extreme Steam i thaught up that name when i had a monster mount with a propane heater. but now i use a porty and an op machine. and i still use the name. 1 out of 100 customers asked me wheres the steam lol. but i love the name so i still use it.

Hello everyone, I'm new to this board. I see I am not the only Paul, so I will post as Paul C.

Paul, Look just go out their and get the work. Dont worry to much about what you call yourself. Worrying about what you should call yourself is going to be the least of your problems.

My company name is Crystal Carpet Care. I run eleven vans, been in business for 22 years and my business is 95% commercial cleaning. No disrespect to you Rick in any way but I have never lost an account, never not won over an account because My company name is Crystal. I, am just not buying this name thing when it comes to our market. My opinion and thats all it is...

If I'm looking to get a new account and I'm up against another carpet cleaner called Kleenstep or any other name you want to think of. Whats going to land that account for me or the other guy is two things. Quality of work and price. (sad to say, it may just be price) Not what we call ourselves. Customer service and a well run company I'm not going to even mention. That better be automatic.

Paul, call yourself what you want, but its not going to matter. Just get the work and do a better job than anyone else and you will have more work than you know what to do with..

P.S. I'm a bonnet cleaner to the bone. LOL... We bonnet clean everything. We have two truck mounts for bad carpet that we first aquire and water damage, thats it.
I'm not completly sold on encap, but I'm coming around. Thats why I joined this board.

Paul C

While it's true that everything Paul C stated about quality of the service experience and pricing bears more heavily by far, than the name of your company. However the process of selling becomes much easier with a good brand-able name and corresponding logo and graphics that works to convey the right image to the prospect.

Would anyone ship a package with Fred's Package Service? Not likely, but Fred Smith's FedEx might work. Would you buy a car manufactured by Henry's Motor Company? Not likely, but Ford Motor Company sounds alright. Now if Ford or FedEx failed to deliver on quality or price their brand name would suffer. However we can't get around the benefit of a brand.

Consider a few brands you know... Cimex, Releasit, Vortex, Butler, ProChem, HydraMaster, ServPro, ServiceMaster, ChemDry, Stanley Steemer. These brand names, like our own personal names, defines an identity. That identity can be good or bad. However we can't get around the fact the brand is very important. What brand of toothpaste do you use? What brand of dish soap do you use in your home? Probably been using the same brands for years. People identify with brands. And so it goes with the brand we choose for our company. [Read the book to learn more]







Rick Gelinas

I'm not saying that brand reconition is not important. Rick all these companies you mention are big million dollar corporations that spend millions on promoting just their name. I was talking about the carpet cleaning industry which is made up mostly of independents. Their is no independent that is going to spend that kind of money on name branding. I'm talking carpet cleaning. More important I'm talking commercial carpet care and Pauls post about what he should name his company. Their is no carpet cleaning company out their that is just going to market thier name. Not happening... Their marketing their service along with an offer in the hopes for a good return on investment. and of course their name is in the offer. I think every carpet cleaner should be known as THE carpet cleaner in their area of doing business.

I kind of feel we are getting off topic alittle. These large carpet cleaning franchises you talk about are not just promoting their name alone. They are also promoting with a offer. They need a good return on investment because their franchisee's are who are paying for all their marketing. and again these large franchises are national companies that service all of the U.S.

My post was about what you should name your company in response to Pauls post. Like I said, its not that important what you call yourself. Again, I'm not saying you should'nt market your name/brand. but you will be hard pressed to find a independent carpet cleaner that is just going to market his name and nothing else. I have yet to see one.

I'm talking carpet cleaning, more important I'm talking commercial carpet cleaning not toothpaste, cars, Fed-x or anything else. At the end of the day I still say its not what you call yourself but how well you perform. (carpet cleaning, LOL)


Paul C

Paul-

I feel VERY strongly that you need to change the name of your biz to get more commercial work. To me, the name "Kinder Care" is confusing- is it "kinder" as in "nicer", or is it "kinder" as in "kindergarten?" When I first saw your name, I thought it was for a child day care service.

That being said, my biz name is Pinnacle Cleaning- not too imaginative!

A strong word like Absolute, Professional, Perfect, Preferred, Trusted, coupled with a descriptive word like commercial or carpet might work for your biz.

Or have your name also be a dot com.

Let us know what you come up with!

Kevin Kluth
Pinnacle Cleaning
www.rochestercarpetcare.com
www.rochesterrugcleaning.com
www.fullerdirect.com/0704120

Gentlemen, I can tell you from firsthand experience the power of a name. When we changed our name from Pioneer Maintenance to Kleenstep, the response was nothing short of incredible. The types of accounts we could land with far less effort was simply amazing to me. I've lived it; a good name is a powerful thing. In fact, I saw so much value in that name I went ahead and made the investment and got a registered trademark for Kleenstep










Rick Gelinas

Guys I have to say Rick is on the money.
We trust him with many other things in our business, he is where many of us want to be, so I just bet he knows how he got there.

From experience when we shortened our name,Hebert's RCS just using our initials instead of our whole name I noticed a difference in dealing with commercial prospects.

This will remain our parent company as we have lots of clients who know this name, how ever I am finding less resistance to our DBA for commercial Green Kleen It, as Rick as done we are in the process of registering the name and will copy write the logo once it is finished.


I would even suggest cold calling prospect using two different names and see what happens.

We had the name Owens Cleaning Service for years. Once we changed it to PROCLEAN, people always ask me if it is a franchise. Never got that with the old name.

I say learn from the big guys out there. I liked the name Prochem, so just changed it for our business.

We don't just do carpet cleaning, so it's a great all inclusive name.

Sometimes having a generic, simple name is better than having a unique name. People feel like they already know you even if they don't.