Carpet Cleaners And Good Choices

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Everyone has seen the cartoons where the angel sits on one shoulder and the devil sits on the other fighting over the conscience of a wishy washy mind.  Carpet cleaners, like everyone else, are not immune to temptation.  I own a commercial carpet cleaning company in the Twin Cities Area (Minneapolis, St. Paul and surrounding areas) of Minnesota.  My crews and I can be spotted cleaning bowling alleys and bars until 5 or 6 in the morning.  It is so tempting for carpet cleaners who are out that late cleaning to cut corners and not do a quality job.  How do I prevent my crews from taking the easy way out at 4am?

  • I start by hiring idealists.  Idealists, by my definition, are the kind of professionals who would do a great job whether anyone is looking or not.
  • Next, I make sure to pay well enough that my employees value their jobs and don’t want to risk losing them.  (employees that are paid poorly don’t want to lose their jobs but won’t go out of their way to make sure they keep them either)
  • Bonuses should be won and lost based on customer satisfaction.  The rewards and penalties should be big enough to be a big deal to the technicians.
  • I give 10% of our profits to my employees at the end of every year.  This ensures that my technicians take every client seriously for the sake of ongoing business and referrals.
  • Lastly, these professionals should know that if they cut a corner today, they will be back to correct it soon after.  They will not get out of work, instead they are creating more work and inconvenience for themselves

Temptation is a fact of life for everyone.  I don’t believe life is about avoiding temptation or shielding people from it.  I believe it is about understanding the temptations and making that temptation unappealing.  These policies have really worked well for my company and also protected my employees from making decisions that could cause us no choice but to lose a good employee.

Which Carpeted Areas Are Most Susceptible To Damage

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What areas of a home are the most important to clean in a home?  As a carpet cleaning expert here in the Twin Cities, I recommend cleaning all carpet at least once a year.  However, some areas may need more attention.  These areas include:

  • Stairs
    • Stairs take a heavy beating because we slide our feet over the nose of the stairs as we walk down and kick them as we walk up.
  • Halls
  • Halls wear out quickly because we have only a narrow width on which our feet can walk, forcing us to concentrate all of our steps on a single stretch of carpet.  Also, we make turns at the same specific points as we pivot to enter rooms.
  • Path from main living space to kitchen or bathroom.
    • Because we travel to the kitchen and bathroom every single day, this path becomes routine.
  • Entrances
    • Especially if you live in a climate that requires sand and salt to be spread on the roads, areas where people enter your home can be one of the most soiled areas of all.  I recommend taking your shoes off at the door.  Even so, these areas tend to receive the most soil.
  • Around beds and in front of sofas
    • Any time I move a bed or sofa, I see a matted area of carpet that is worn out from people getting up and down off of the furniture.

If you can’t afford to clean all of your carpet, make sure these areas are cleaned and protected at least once a year.  Said areas might require more than once a year, depending on the number of residents and guests you have in your home.

Horse Power in Carpet Cleaning

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Wouldn’t it be great if carpet cleaning equipment was powered by actual horses?  This might not be the best thing for the horses, but at least you could actually see the difference in power between the different companies based on how many horses pulled up in front of your home or business.  My family owns a commercial carpet cleaning company in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area of Minnesota.  One of the difficult tasks we have is educating prospective clients as to why we are the best choice in carpet cleaning.  While our track record speaks for itself when it comes to equipment, the general public doesn’t know the difference between one cleaning unit and the next.

The honest truth is that almost every single carpet cleaner, no matter how it sounds in their advertisement, uses hot water extraction.  They might spout magic water, or low moisture, but that’s all fancy ways of saying hot water extraction.  It’s the oldest and most effective method.  The jargon is simply what the radio stations marketing team says to make the equipment seem to be something new, even when it’s not.  The process is the same from one machine to the next, but there are two areas that they differ:

The first is maintenance.  This is determined by how easy it is to maintain the equipment and how often will it break down.  This part only affects the odds that something might go wrong during or before a job, not necessarily the quality.

Secondly, and most important to the consumer, is the power source that the equipment runs on.  Portables almost all run on electricity.  The issue with electricity is that they run on circuit breakers that would trip if you draw too much power.  Next, is the Kubota style cleaning units, these are a 4 cylinder engine separate from the trucks engine.  This is far more powerful than the portable.  Finally, is the direct drive carpet cleaning unit.  Direct drive means that the carpet cleaning unit is powered by the actual engine of the vehicle that houses the equipment.  These are almost always vans with V8 engines in them.  These direct drive carpet cleaning units are the most powerful and effective units on the market because V8 engines have 8 cylinders, which create far more horse power than 4 cylinder engines.  Horse power translates directly to vacuum strength for drying time, solution pressure for rinsing, and heat for releasing tough stains and stripping away grease and oil.

I recommend always asking if your carpet cleaner uses a direct drive carpet cleaning system that runs on an 8 cylinder engine.  This is also important because companies may have several different types and you may not know which one will show up for the actual cleaning.

Vacuuming Carpet is Important

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Vacuuming carpet is essential for several reasons, but not everyone does this.  Whether they are too busy, lazy, or think it is unnecessary, many people neglect the maintenance of their carpet.  Vacuuming is important for multiple reasons;

  • Allergens reside in the carpet and vacuuming greatly decreases their volume.
  • Dirt and dust are sharp particles and saw through the carpet fibers as people walk across them.  The greater the volume of these sharp materials, the faster this fiber damage will occur and the traffic areas become discolored.
  • Dust recycling through the furnace can filter through the carpet fibers and cause permanent discoloration around furniture, bedspreads, underneath doors, and especially along baseboards.

Vacuuming the carpet removes these dusts, allergens, and abrasive dirt from the carpet.  Here are a few tips to help maximize your effort:

  • At least once a week, be sure to vacuum the areas where people walk.
  • Vacuum along walls and under furniture as needed.  In dusty homes, this means once a month.  You can get away with only quarterly or less in homes that don’t get very dusty.
  • Clean out your vacuum filter whenever it gets full, as it not only loses suction, but can actually begin dispersing the dust throughout the air.
  • Clean or replace your furnace filter once a month or as needed.  This filter cuts down on the amount of airborne dust and allergens that cycle through the house as the furnace runs.
  • Run your furnace fan in the “on” position.  The furnace filter can only do its job when the fan is running.

As a carpet cleaner in the Twin Cities Area of Minneapolis and St. Paul, I have cleaned all kinds of properties.  Those that vacuum and follow these steps tend to remain in much better condition than those that don’t.

Ryan Zakariasen of the Commercial Steam Team Joins BNI Minnesota

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As a company that has always relied heavily on referrals, my family and I decided to join the Business Networkers International (BNI) Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin Chapter.  My father, brother, and I own the Commercial Steam Team carpet cleaning company.  Our reason for joining BNI was simple; Anyone who experiences our technicians, customer service, and sees their results, refers us to all of their friends.  BNI is a community where word of exceptional work spreads very fast.

I have been attending the BNI South Metro chapter in Edina Minnesota for a few months now and as the members told me when I joined, “BNI works.”  Our technicians have already cleaned for several of the BNI members and their testimonials continue to encourage even more people to use our service.

What I like most about BNI is that everyone in the group knows they are accountable for the service they provide to their fellow members and their referrals.  I feel confident that I can use and refer their services to my friends, family and colleagues.

I definitely recommend BNI to any and all small business owners that provide excellent service because in BNI, great work does not go unnoticed.