has anyone ever heard of a carpet cleaning company doing something like this?

here is the idea...

putting customers on monthly plans that can include a number of different cleanings etc...

say 2 carpet cleanings per year with protector applied after the first cleaning of the year, 1 tile cleaning service per year, and 1 upholstery visit per year


then they sign up to pay a certain amount monthly based on the sq ft they have.. tile/carpet and how many pieces of furniture etc

you would market it as a trouble free way of keeping their home looking great year round at an all inclusive low monthly cost.... of course many wont be interested but you really wouldnt need to land too many that are.

this type of system would also really lock them in as your customer and if it worked would take us in the direction of not paying a penny for advertising

you could even entice them with say a free spotting/spill visit if they sign up, which a lot of the time would be a quick encap spot cleaning.


just a thought I have been tossing around for the last few years.. many many companies operate successfully like this

pest control, landscaping, exterior cleaning/maintenance, windows, maid service, etc


why not steam cleaning? trying to think outside the box here, so many carpet cleaners run their business the same way... being different is what makes you stand out

interesting...ive had thoughts like this too except i think it needs to be simplified....when they sound complex its a hard sale...IMO. I think if they had a package per year where they can buy it or pay it out over months would be kind of the same except very simple.....ie two cleanings for $xxx or $xx a month and the savings is in the later cleanings because they commited. or maybe they want 4 cleanings w encap ....I had a woman one time who only wanted us to vaccum....we did it every other week and she paid a year at a time.

I think it would actually work well for people owning winter homes where they sit empty most of the time. That would ensure that the home was ready to go whenever the whim hits them.

Just make it a simple schedule....

well the idea is you need proper marketing material and not shooting from the hip.

needs to be an easy to read laid out brochure or online where they can select which services they want.


after all we are in the maintenance business and maintenance is meant to be on schedule and regular.


they would receive a discount, first cleaning would be more expensive over haul... like crb everywhere, pretreat, move furniture, then apply protector

second cleaning, since you were the last there and you know it was flushed would likely be strong dry encap visit.


the target obviously would be people who can afford it and care a lot about their home, people who dont miss 60-80/month or more but rather prefer to easy no hassle scheduling and re occurring visits

To me, it sounds too confusing, and hard to keep track of...and honestly more for an owner/operator that lacks sales skills, or is simply afraid to ask for more work.

I prefer, to just ask if a customer needs any T&G, Uphol cleaning done while I'm there doing lets say the carpet. You would be surprised how many times just by asking, and not selling you get more work. And if they say, "not now maybe in 6 months, or next time", I'll make a note of it on my invoice, so I can remind them.

Although I've had many monthly or regular commercial contracts. Which are much easier to keep committed and on track than the typical homeowner.

True Davey...AC, I think what youre looking at has merit but easy is the trick and honestly I owe any success ive had in this business to my follow ups!...I think most people just clean and go....many people are on a basic same schedule year to year....I send out a thank you card and then right at 6 months I send a reminder that time is approaching then I send one one week prior to it being exactly a year. Many people go on Vacation the same time every year so they do many things the same time....I focus on this....I had a cool simple postcard that said OMG its been a year!? better call Xtreme to get em clean. My point is...we should be doing a maintenance without realizing it anyway. Its just not on a contract. (residential)

Jon Dons Strategies for Success Business and Marketing Seminar has a module on this program and it includes everything you need to implement the program

http://sfs.jondon.com/special/SFS%20Special%20Report-%20An%20Overview%20of%20the%20Stay%20Beautiful%20Program.pdf

High maintenance. Keeping track of money received, time to schedule, customer wants to put cleaning off, wants more cleaned, wants less cleaned...

My CC^ Just mentioned some of the biggest probs wtih it, including "cust want's to put off".  You will be lucky to have 5-10% stick to the plan.......while you're doing all the work to keep track, and try to get them to do what they've agreed to....it'll be a bunch of time you work that you won't get paid for.

Davey Cracker wrote:To me, it sounds too confusing, and hard to keep track of...and honestly more for an owner/operator that lacks sales skills, or is simply afraid to ask for more work.

I prefer, to just ask if a customer needs any T&G, Uphol cleaning done while I'm there doing lets say the carpet.  You would be surprised how many times just by asking, and not selling you get more work.  And if they say, "not now maybe in 6 months, or next time", I'll make a note of it on my invoice, so I can remind them.

Although I've had many monthly or regular commercial contracts.  Which are much easier to keep committed and on track than the typical homeowner.

actually I would consider it quite the opposite,   an owner operator that lacks business management skills would have a hard time with this, like 90% of carpet cleaners

this is no different than operations of any landscaping company,  pest control,   and many other maintenance based service companies

also any of these companies dont have problems with customers sticking to the plan

you always get some flakes, but no where near 90%

Ive ran a business format just like this in the past

Matt; My carpet cleaner wrote:High maintenance. Keeping track of money received, time to schedule, customer wants to put cleaning off, wants more cleaned, wants less cleaned...

you have to have the system in place, this would not work writing down info on a napkin

you would have to run crm software, with a reminder program

Devon07 wrote:True Davey...AC, I think what youre looking at has merit but easy is the trick and honestly I owe any success ive had in this business to my follow ups!...I think most people just clean and go....many people are on a basic same schedule year to year....I send out a thank you card and then right at 6 months I send a reminder that time is approaching then I send one one week prior to it being exactly a year. Many people go on Vacation the same time every year so they do many things the same time....I focus on this....I had a cool simple postcard that said OMG its been a year!? better call Xtreme to get em clean. My point is...we should be doing a maintenance without realizing it anyway. Its just not on a contract. (residential)

exactly Devon,    its the same just with an agreement.    

business management is vastly overlooked by carpet cleaners,    its not easy until you have systems in place.       The reason failure rate is so high in our industry is noof programs are implemented.. and 90% of carpet cleaners just fly by their pants.

they find a source for jobs and just wait for the phone to ring,    with no tracking systems,   no analyzing,    very few even have a reminder system..... then they rely on upsales and charging high rates, or some bait and switch. These work for periods of time but dont induce any kind of business growth, which is why we live in the USA! lol

companies that rely on new jobs and new work all the time have success because their service is a much higher ticket,   like $5000-25000

we are in a business where most every job is under $1k,   many times half of that so residual income and scheduled maintenance is crucial

its actually really simple,  

you let them choose the frequency of visits for carpets,   like 2x per year

then tile,  and upholstery if they want to check those boxes.

you can even have a program that calculates their sq. ft. and breaks it down into a monthly fee.    


you might be surprised how many would gladly sign up for a program like this,  who otherwise would not fork out 1400.00 for one big cleaning.      

most customers dont care about all the fancy processes that carpet cleaners love to talk about but simply want trouble free clean carpets with the least thought possible.


I can think of at least 3 landscape maintenance software programs that would even work for this

ACpower1 wrote:

Davey Cracker wrote:To me, it sounds too confusing, and hard to keep track of...and honestly more for an owner/operator that lacks sales skills, or is simply afraid to ask for more work.

I prefer, to just ask if a customer needs any T&G, Uphol cleaning done while I'm there doing lets say the carpet.  You would be surprised how many times just by asking, and not selling you get more work.  And if they say, "not now maybe in 6 months, or next time", I'll make a note of it on my invoice, so I can remind them.

Although I've had many monthly or regular commercial contracts.  Which are much easier to keep committed and on track than the typical homeowner.

actually I would consider it quite the opposite,   an owner operator that lacks business management skills would have a hard time with this,  like 90% of carpet cleaners

this is no different than operations of any landscaping company,  pest control,   and many other maintenance based service companies

Well I guess you nailed me there.

1 pt. on the board for AC!!

But since you're just the opposite as me it sounds, please let us know how it ends up working out for you.................time invested vs. added income.

I wasnt talking about u Davey

ACpower1 wrote:also any of these companies dont have problems with customers sticking to the plan

you always get some flakes,    but no where near 90%

Ive ran a business format just like this in the past

Let me remind you of one of the the big differences.........

Pest control, and landscaping both don't require the customer to necessarily be home or to be prepared for you, and mentally prepare themselves beforehand.

There's just a lot of people out there that consider having cleaning done in their homes a big deal, and mentally stressful to many. Not to mention you put off having your lawn mowed for a month and it starts to become embarrassing from anyone passing by and your neighbors. Skip pest control for a month, you're living with bugs in your house, most won't put up with that. Put off carpet cleaning for a month or a year, few notice. Unless they're having a get together, and people will notice. That's why we get calls all the time for example on a Thursday afternoon like, "Help I'm having a party tomorrow night and I need it cleaned before then!!"..........or think about how often you hear 'I've been meaning to have this done for months, but.'....

Ok, I realize will will likely have to agree to disagree again, so I'll let it be at that.

But If you to decide to precede, I do wish you painless success.

ACpower1 wrote:I wasnt talking about u Davey

I wasn't taking offense to what you said, no worries. Although Quoting my post and responding, sounds like you were talking to me. Which again, I take no offense to, so no prob here..

How much can they save using a contracted service? What would the savings be say for the year....I would want to see a savings on something I know I would be using without a doubt. customers use as needed and save when they dont need us....pay bigger when they do. we are kind of a service that is a want until the need.