This question has troubled many cleaning company owners struggling to get enough jobs. The root of the problem usually comes down to a lack of understanding of the consumer market for cleaning.

Just the other day, I asked a new owner facing this challenge to describe what type of customers he wanted. His response was quite typical; he replied, “Anyone with dirty carpet in my area.” This answer indicates he thinks all consumers are basically the same.

The reality is just the opposite. Consumers are far from being the same. With no understanding of the significant differences in consumer thinking, marketing and advertising will prove to be difficult and frustrating. When you are able to identify the different groups and target the most profitable one, marketing will become easier and more rewarding.

Specific consumer groups

Marketing makes a lot more sense when you understand the different types of consumers you may encounter. From 25 years’ worth of observations of industry surveys and studying the marketing results of hundreds of cleaning companies, I have consistently found that consumers fall into three groups: Those who never hire a professional, those who occasionally hire one and those who use professional services regularly. Each of these groups has a different view of hiring professionals along with a completely different set of needs and wants for solving their problems.

Never hire

Approximately 60 percent of consumers will never hire a professional carpet cleaner in their lives. The size of this percentage surprised me when I first heard the survey result. It certainly went a long way toward explaining why finding customers was more difficult than expected. Removing this large portion of people from the pool of potential customers casts the challenge of finding jobs in a whole new light.

This group of people will do the cleaning themselves, cannot afford the expense of hiring a professional or just never realize the need of getting the work done. Low family income plays a major role in shaping this group. I have, though, spoken to retired people who had never hired a professional cleaner even though money was abundantly available. They simply had never considered it a need.

Renters also make up a large part of this group. They often defer the cleaning responsibility to the manager of the property when they move out.

When you realize 60 percent of consumers will never be interested in your services, you can save money by intentionally avoiding advertising to this group. Better results are available when you focus your marketing efforts and money on the other two consumer groups.

Occasional users

The occasional user group makes up about 30 percent of the market and generates approximately 25 percent of the residential revenue for the industry. This group is defined as consumers who hire a cleaner fewer than 10 times during their lifetimes.

Because of their infrequent use, they often go for many years between cleanings and have little loyalty to any companies they may have used in the past. Advertising is the primary means for finding a company to take care of their cleaning needs. Events, such as a special guest arriving or moving to a new home, are generally the spark which motivates their need for cleaning.

This group is critically important to growing companies. These are the potential customers who can most readily be acquired through advertising. Startups usually do not have a customer base from which to draw repeats and referrals, so they must depend on advertising to build their base of customers. Even if they use your services only once, these consumers have the potential to refer more customers, both occasional and regular. Due to the needs and characteristics of this group, there is a prominent set of advertising themes that have worked well to attract these consumers.

• Low prices and discounts: With a low priority for carpet cleaning and limited budget, low prices become powerful motivators for choosing a company.
• Big/powerful equipment: The carpet has often gone well beyond the time of maintenance cleaning. These consumers are aware that major restoration will be required, so they hope “big” equipment might save the day.
• Speedy service: Since a particular event is often the trigger for the cleaning, it creates a deadline that is often a cause for urgency in getting the work completed.
• Big guarantees: This market is often looking for miracles to save their carpet, so bold guarantees provide hope for favorable results.
• Dramatic before and after pictures: Seeing photos of totally trashed carpets being restored to like-new condition is compelling evidence for this group.

Regular users

Only a small portion of the consumer market, about 10 percent, falls into the regular user category, but this group represents 75 percent of the annual residential revenue generated in the industry. This category consists of the people who will hire a cleaner 10 or more times in their lifetimes. They will use a professional a minimum of every three years, and some could call as frequently as every three months.

This group will rarely turn to advertising to find service providers. Instead they repeat their use of a past company or seek out a good referral from a friend or a professional such as a designer or contractor. Consumer review sites such as Angie’s List and Yelp are also growing in popularity with these consumers.

These people have made the maintenance of their carpet a priority. They tend to clean on a scheduled basis instead of waiting until the carpets look abused. Because of their frequency of cleanings, they generally become loyal to their cleaner. It would be inconvenient to have to search for a new company each time they had a need.

Commonly, this group has an above-average family income, which makes frequent hiring of professionals possible. They often have busy schedules and value hiring companies that can make the process go smoothly and with minimal inconvenience. Carpet cleaning is often only one of many professional services they use. Experience has taught them low-price companies are generally not a good value and are willing to pay more for services.

These consumers have different needs from the previous group, so they respond to a completely different set of marketing themes. They often judge a company as “budget” if they see the themes used for the occasional user group. Instead, they are attracted to the following themes:

• Professional service: These customers are willing to pay more in exchange for confidence that the job will be done correctly the first time and that their entire experience will be a good one.
• Knowledge/credentials: Evidence of certification, relevant education, industry involvement and external business validation (i.e., BBB and social review sites) provides the customer confidence that a company knows how to do the job.
• Expertise: They don’t want someone learning on their job. They want to know that the company has been around and is sufficiently experienced.
• Confidence: They want to sense the company is confident in what they do and able to give quality advice and solve problems.
• Photos of nice homes: These consumers have nice homes and would like to see photos of the company working in equally nice (and better) homes.

This consumer group should be the goal market for most companies. The profitability is far greater since no advertising expense or discounts are generally required. These customers are willing to pay higher prices, and their homes are significantly cleaner than the previous group, making the jobs quicker.

The challenge in obtaining these clients is that you cannot win them directly. These customers are generally acquired via referrals. Occasional users rarely convert to regular users. Still, do not neglect to advertise to them, since referrals from occasional users can lead to more desirable customers.

Just because regular users will likely call the same company again next time does not mean they would not change companies if they found a better option. Quality service is rare, and many of these customers will gladly switch to a company providing more of the traits just listed.

If startup companies want to grow beyond their dependence on occasional users, they will need to implement a good follow-up system. It is the process of staying in touch with customers that leads to developing and holding onto repeat and referral customers.

A good clientele doesn’t just happen

All customers are not the same. Make a conscious decision and apply your focused attention in order to build a clientele that is both profitable and enjoyable to work for.

Evaluate what marketing themes you are using for your company. If the first question callers ask is “How much do you charge?” you are probably using the themes that occasional users are looking for. This can be helpful in the start-up stage. Make the most of your occasional users by encouraging them to write Yelp reviews or refer you to their friends and family.

When you are ready to attract a more regular clientele, make the adjustments needed to reach those customers. Implement a follow-up system to keep them coming back and remind them to refer their friends.

Knowing and understanding the differences between the three consumer groups can inform your marketing and advertising strategy for maximum success throughout your career.

The time has come to take control. The clientele you want is within your reach.

Steve Marsh is a 40-year veteran of the carpet cleaning industry, an instructor and a Senior Carpet Inspector. He helps home-service companies quickly establish profitable clienteles and then progress on to serve higher quality customers. To help companies achieve these goals he created the step-by-step programs��Single Truck Success��and Be Competition Free. For more information, visit��.

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It’s a condition considered to require consulting with a doctor for treatment, according to some medical references, if the condition is debilitating to the one who
suffers from it.

However, I’d like to go on record that a little OCD is good for you and the health of your company.

When I owned and operated my own company, I had a little OCD. I couldn’t end the day without spending some quality time with my equipment using
a spray bottle of Windex and a few paper towels. I wiped everything down, cleaned out all the filters, checked all the fluids and more. I cleaned the wand
and upholstery tools. Scrubbed them until they shined.

For me, it was a way to wrap up the day and be ready for the next morning, which started with a completely clean and maintained van, truckmount and accessories.

Yes, OCD is usually tied to washing and cleaning rituals… which is why I think a little OCD can be good for cleaning and restoration companies.

I knew of other business owners and their techs who would open the doors to their vans and stuff would fall out. Maybe an empty Coke can. Or a McDonald’s
wrapper. Or a bunch of stuff. I’ve seen it many times. I don’t think they had any OCD. Far from it.

A little OCD can help prevent what you see in the picture of the waste tank filter. Nothing kills a cleaning job faster than a truckmount starving for air.

A little OCD means you will work on that stain a little longer than your competition, and you will probably get better results.

A little OCD means you will monitor your drying results a little closer than your competition, and you will probably get the job drier — faster.

Pay attention to the details. Use a little OCD to your benefit. Your customers will really appreciate it.

Jeff Cross is the executive editor of Cleanfax and an industry trainer and consultant. He can be reached at jcross@cleanfax.com

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The second step in the process of creating a successful company is about vision.

One of my favorite quotes is, “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” You know how it is. You read an article or go to a seminar and get an idea, but you never do anything about it. I’ve done that.

Worse, we wake up every day with no vision. We just get through the day. Here’s one of the most important questions you could ever ask yourself as a business owner:

“W��� did I go into this business to start with?”

Was it to make a lot of money? Or was it to be your own boss, to chart your own course or to have a little more free time?

How did that work out for you?

The brutal reality

The brutal reality of most business owners’ lives is they feel like slaves to their businesses. There’s very little family time, the business consumes your mind 24/7, there’s no real freedom, you feel like you have a job rather than a business and your day is consumed by putting out fires.

Recently, I was speaking with a new coaching client’s wife, and she was emotionally distraught because she was worried her husband would kill himself working day and night.

This owner is completely overwhelmed because he tries do everything himself. He’s angry because two of his key people walked out, and he’s worried because he forgets appointments. He answers every phone call, goes on every job and does all the paperwork.

He’s literally a prisoner of his own making. What’s his future? Is this the life he went into business for? Is this the vision he anticipated years ago?

No.

I know how that guy feels because I felt like that.

Create a vision for your business

After a few years in business, I became frustrated because I had to do everything myself and because I had not figured out how to hire and lead the right people.

I was angry because when I did tell my employees what to do, they didn’t do it because I didn’t know how to lead.

I was overwhelmed because I was trying to carry the entire load because I didn’t have any systems.

So, what changed? I got a new vision for my company. I read The E-Myth Revisited, a book by my good friend Michael Gerber. After reading that book, my vision became clear: I would have a turnkey cleaning business that ran without me.

Is that even possible? It is. But that might not be your vision. Your vision is what’s important. Start by simply creating a vision for your business one year from today. Use paper or a computer document; it doesn’t matter as long as long as you do it.

Now, describe the business you want one year from now. Create a picture of your business. You have to see the picture in your mind before it becomes reality. A vision is a picture. The more inspiring the picture is, the more exciting it is to you and the more you’ll engage your mind, will and emotion to accomplish it.

The first thing you need to be successful is inspiration. Inspiration comes from desire, and desire comes from a vision. If you won’t visualize your preferred future, someone else will. If you can’t create the picture, you’ll end up somewhere by accident. Do you want your business success to be by accident?

Do you want to grow? My guess is that you aren’t completely satisfied with where your business is right now.

Paint the picture

Start with your daily schedule. What do you want your daily schedule to look like?

Remember the life goals you did last month? There’s a great exercise I do called “The Perfect Day.” Where do you wake up? Whom are you with? What do you do in the morning, throughout the day and in the evening?

Think about the things you are doing right now that you don’t like to do (or that you’re not good at), and take those out of the picture. Think about the parts you love to do, and keep those in the picture.

Don’t worry about how you’ll accomplish the vision. Instead, focus on why you want it.

Maybe it is spending more time with your family. Maybe it is performing a ministry or community service, or perhaps you just wish to work 50 hours a week instead of 80.

Just write it down. If it is meaningful to you, write it down.

Maybe the picture includes being at little league with your child. Maybe it means date night with your spouse once a week. Maybe it means actually having dinner with the family every night. Remember, don’t worry about how, just what and why for now.

Now, visualize how much money you want to make and how you’ll use that money. Maybe you have debt you want to pay off. Maybe you want a new car. Maybe you need equipment for your business. Think about how much money you’ll need to generate in your business. Don’t worry, you’ll plan that out in the next steps, but — for now — just put something down.

What staff or equipment do you want to add to your business this year? Are there services you wish to add? Are there services you need to get rid of? Which systems have you built in this picture of the future?

Does your picture inspire you? If it doesn’t, you won’t pursue it. Does it make you nervous? If it doesn’t, it’s too easy.

Challenge yourself. You can do more than you think you can. If you take the time to visualize a better, more meaningful future for yourself and your family, you’ll create the energy to build it.

Without a clearly defined vision for the future, you’ll be forced to focus on the present (or worse — the past) and ultimately be enslaved by it.

In order to be phenomenally successful, you need a phenomenal vision. Look at that picture every day every day, and update it as you go along.

The next step will be to assess where you are and put a plan in place to figure out how you’ll make this vision a reality. A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Howard Partridge started his cleaning business from the trunk of his car over 31 years ago and built it up to over $3M per year. For two decades Partridge has been coaching cleaning and restoration companies, teaching them to have phenomenal success. He is the exclusive small business coach for Ziglar Inc., the world’s first Ziglar Legacy Trainer, the founding member of the John Maxwell Coaching Team, a DISC Certified Trainer, a ONE THING Certified Trainer and a four-time Amazon.com No. 1 bestselling author.

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There isn’t anything wrong with that, but bear in mind that when on a job you are almost always applying protector to fabric you just cleaned, not something new and never used — and never cleaned.

What’s the difference?

When you clean upholstery, you are attempting to remove foreign matter from the fabric, and in your effort to do so, you apply cleaning agents that are designed to dissolve, emulsify and/or suspend soils so that you can rinse them away.

What isn’t so obvious is that if you apply more preconditioner than you can rinse from the fabric, a protective treatment that you apply afterward may not bond properly. Cleaning agent residues interfere with the protector’s ability to bond to the fabric; thus your protector will be ineffective, or at least not as effective as the demonstration you may have given your customer might have implied.

The most important steps you could do for yourself, and ultimately your customer, are as follows:

1. Obtain some soiled cushions. These can often be found at a local thrift store.
2. Clean them using the prespray and any booster additives you might need to restore heavily soiled upholstery.
3. Rinse as thoroughly as you feel necessary to completely remove the suspended soil and detergent residues.
4. Apply your protector according to instructions for the product.
5. Test with drops of water and cooking oil after complete drying has occurred.

You’ll find that if you over-preconditioned and under-rinsed, your protector might not work. You can see the effect of this in the following images.

The example to the left is of fabric that was cleaned but not thoroughly extracted, dried and then had protector applied. The example to the right is of a similar fabric that was cleaned with thorough extraction, dried and then had protector applied.

In both cases, after the protector dried, water droplets were added to the fabrics. The difference in fabric protection performance, as you can see, is significant.

What should you do?

In many cases, cleaners apply far more preconditioner than is necessary because they are used to preconditioning carpet.

Here’s an easy test for you to see you don’t need as much product for upholstery. Take a trigger sprayer of water and spray your pant leg or shirt sleeve. How much does it take to wet out the fabric until you feel it against your skin? That is already more product than you would need to apply to loosen soil.

When you precondition with a sprayer, apply only a light mist of preconditioner. If the soil level is such that you need to apply a heavier amount of product, apply your product to a soft horsehair brush instead of directly to the fabric. If you use shampoo or encapsulation products as your preconditioner, apply them to your brush, sponge or towel with a sprayer designed to create a foam, but not directly to the fabric and not by dipping a brush into a bucket of solution.

By applying preconditioning agents in this fashion, you’ll get enough product on the soil, but not with as much saturation as you might have previously encountered.

You can also purchase cleaning tools with a clear “window” or a completely clear cleaning head. If you use such a tool, you’ll be able to observe if detergent residues remain in a fabric you are cleaning as you rinse.

Practice these suggestions. Build the confidence that you are cleaning fabrics not just to improve their appearance, but also to prepare them to properly accept protector so the customer can receive the value they expect.

An industry trainer and consultant, Jim Pemberton is president of Pembertons Cleaning & Restoration Supplies. Pemberton is the Cleanfax magazine 2007 Person of the Year. He has more than 40 years of experience in the cleaning and restoration industry. You are invited to visit his website at , or e-mail him at Jimpem2@comcast.net.

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