Not much luck getting into commercial cleaning... hwe? Encap? What can I do?

[ebarnett]

Eric- When you say the key is to get the heavy grease loads out first, do you use a porty, then go back over with a Cimex/OP? Are you using Punch as a pre-treater/first pass with HWE (if you are using HWE)?

I no longer use HWE. For bad grease lanes I prespray a carpet degreaser (shazam kryptonite) and then pick up the grease with tuways or microbeast . After 5 or 6 pads the built up grease is gone. I will often use the micro fiber pads and rinse them out good and then hit the grease lanes again, this allows me to rinse the carpet somewhat of the non encap cleaner. Once the grease is noticable gone, I then encap the restaurant, including the former grease lanes. This method has given me good results, though I must admit I never get the 'wow' 'miracle worker' results that you often get in other commercial settings.

[bonedrycarpet]

Great info! Thank you everyone. Love this board. Thank you Rick!

[prodrying]

We use the Cimex and consistently sell jobs at .18 a square foot on commercial. Since we own two Cimex machines we can clean carpet at a rate 4000-6000 sf an hour and it we get great results in a fraction of the time it would take to HWE the area. I just bought a steamin' demon (used) and might try to use that in certain situations but the set up/tear down of the demon is considerably longer than a Cimex.

[Kron1]

I am trying hard to get into VLM'ing in commercial accounts. It sounds like even with the cimex restaurants may not be the right fit for vlm?

Rick, any tips on getting my foot in when it comes to commercial?

What are true production rates with:

Cimex?

Low Boy?

Anything else that might work?

Thanks


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[encapman]

I have been giving prices, based on my hwe price of about .25 per square foot.  Each time I end up too high...example:

Both examples pretty trashed...

2600 Sq ft of Chinese Buffet-- $600 with them moving everything.  Told they got a hwe price of $400...

3000 Sq ft Chicken Wing place--$700 with me moving everything.  Told they currently pay $350 for hwe.  Said my price was way way too high.

So, what can I do to compete?  

 First of all,  you might want to get more fussy about the type of accounts that you are going after. A chicken joint and a Chinese buffet would not even be on my radar. 

Target accounts that can be productive. Restaurants are normally some of the worst customers out there. Typically they are greasy, under cleaned, under paying, late night work, with ridiculous amounts of furniture to move.  Who wants that? 

Shoot for stores, offices, hotels, schools, doctors offices, hospitals,  bowling alleys, airports, etc. 

After you consider going for a higher end client… Next you'll want to look at your pricing. Generally speaking, .25 per square foot is on the higher end for commercial carpet cleaning.  You might get that sometimes but normally it falls between .10-$.20 per square foot. That's more in range with the averages we see around the country.

 Next, get out and get in front of the decision-maker. Drop off a good-looking flyer. Direct them to your website. Do a free demo. Inspect their carpet and show them how you will improve things. Write up a proposal.  Let them know about your satisfaction guarantee. Explain how you will solve their commercial carpet cleaning problems. Continue to call back on them. Good follow-through pays off. 

 Those are just a few ideas that might help. Hope you get things rolling!

[GroovyJon]

I have been giving prices, based on my hwe price of about .25 per square foot.  Each time I end up too high...example:

Both examples pretty trashed...

2600 Sq ft of Chinese Buffet-- $600 with them moving everything.  Told they got a hwe price of $400...

3000 Sq ft Chicken Wing place--$700 with me moving everything.  Told they currently pay $350 for hwe.  Said my price was way way too high.

So, what can I do to compete?  

 First of all,  you might want to get more fussy about the type of accounts that you are going after. A chicken joint and a Chinese buffet would not even be on my radar. 

Target accounts that can be productive. Restaurants are normally some of the worst customers out there. Typically they are greasy, under cleaned, under paying, late night work, with ridiculous amounts of furniture to move.  Who wants that? 

Shoot for stores, offices, hotels, schools, doctors offices, hospitals,  bowling alleys, airports, etc. 

After you consider going for a higher end client… Next you'll want to look at your pricing. Generally speaking, .25 per square foot is on the higher end for commercial carpet cleaning.  You might get that sometimes but normally it falls between .10-$.20 per square foot. That's more in range with the averages we see around the country.

 Next, get out and get in front of the decision-maker. Drop off a good-looking flyer. Direct them to your website. Do a free demo. Inspect their carpet and show them how you will improve things. Write up a proposal.  Let them know about your satisfaction guarantee. Explain how you will solve their commercial carpet cleaning problems. Continue to call back on them. Good follow-through pays off. 

 Those are just a few ideas that might help. Hope you get things rolling!

Rick could not have said it better, I stay away from restaurants for every reason Rick stated.