The question is … Who can he trust?

Not too long ago, I was trying to explain a carpet problem to a business owner, when he interrupted me. “You’re telling me a lot more than I want to know,” he said. “When I want to know about carpet, I’ll call an expert.”

“You’re obviously too busy,” I commented, “and I apologize for taking up your time, sir. Still, I am curious to know one thing. How can one identify an expert when he’s ignorant on the subject?”

You see, the reason this man had a carpet problem was that he went to an ‘expert.’ One that was not trustworthy.

Which is better, a dishonest expert or an ignorant one? There’s plenty of both.

I’ve had a couple of other experiences that I want to share with you, because they explain so well why you must be careful in the marketplace. It’s just too easy to get cheated. And through my newsletters, I’m going to help you all I can in many ways, because I care. It’s as simple as that. However, there is one catch:  You must read my newsletters.  Sign up for Carpet Maintenance Tips on the side of this website and I’ll email you for your snail mail address.

Recently, I was called to remove a spot from new carpeting in a business. And I was surprised to see a soft, cut-pile carpet installed in a very high-traffic area. I asked the office manager how they came to select this particular carpet, and she told me that it was what the carpet salesperson had recommended.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have. But later I called this salesperson to ask why she had recommended the carpet. “With all the dirt coming right off the street and grinding shoe leather, a soft, cut pile can’t last a year.”

“Well,” she said, “you have to recommend what makes you money.”

Every time I think about it, I get mad. But, what can you do? Whatever the business, it seems that rip-offs are becoming more and more common. And it’s certainly true for the carpet cleaning industry.

I was talking with a professional cleaner about carpet cleaning procedure. He explained that his employees pretreat pathways and spots with cleaning agent before they start cleaning, which, to a point, is proper procedure. But this begs the question: How and when is cleaning agent applied to the rest of the carpeting to be cleaned if the rest is not pretreated as well? The only other possibility is that cleaning agent is flowing through the clean wand—the actual cleaning tool. And if cleaning agent is flowing through the cleaning wand, rinsing becomes impossible.

“You don’t rinse carpeting, do you?” I inquired. “Oh yes we do,” he insisted.

“How could you if you don’t pretreat all the carpeting? How is cleaning agent being applied to the rest of the carpet? I questioned.

“We clean the carpeting beyond traffic lanes and spots with just plain water,” he explained.

What this procedure means is that, beyond traffic lanes and spots, there is no cleaning.

Call Shure Clean Carpet Systems, Inc. 770-917-9400

He just moistens the carpet to make people think it has been cleaned.

“But what about the health of children crawling on carpet that you didn’t really clean?” I asked him.

“People don’t care about health,” he said. “All they care about is appearance. So long as the carpet looks better, they’re happy. And, if they’re happy, that’s all I care about.”

There are all kinds of proof that people do care about health. With the forever-rising cost of healthcare, how could they not be? But there is plenty of proof that people are not as well informed about the health threats in their indoor lifestyles as they should be. And there’s proof that many professional cleaners couldn’t care less.

Selfish attitudes are not peculiar to all carpet salespeople or to all carpet cleaners, although such is common in both professions. Still, the problem is not the profession but in the people in the profession, … whatever the profession. I just want you to know that this is not our attitude. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to gain the ‘fast buck’ only to lose the client.

I know that there is but one way we can prosper:

We must keep your business. And, to do that, we must earn your trust and confidence. Therefore, every room we clean for you will be cleaned properly. And every recommendation we give will be based on your best interest, because I’m smart enough to realize that this is the only way we can protect our own. Having honest business ethics is how we work.