What’s the difference between success and failure? Customer types

[One Tough Pressure 580]

I found this to be very interesting. While the article is written in regards to carpet cleaning, change the word from carpet to concrete and see what you can learn. Carpet cleaning is often based on price, so the low baller theory applies there also. See how they give a new twist to the term low baller.

It is a long one, but well worth it in my opinion.

What’s the difference between success and failure?

Customer types

Knowledge and insight are key to cashing in on carpet cleaning’s golden opportunities.

By **** Ragan

I read a story once about a fellow who spent 40 years in the mountains of California searching for gold and died a pauper. Later, a very rich vein of gold was discovered within 50 yards of his shed.

Gold was right under his nose all the time, but he never saw it.

There are also tales of inexperienced miners confusing iron pyrite with gold, which is the reason iron pyrite became known as “fool’s gold.”

I don’t think I could find an analogy more applicable to the carpet cleaning industry. There is an abundance of “gold” to be earned out there. But this industry is loaded with cleaners who will die paupers because they’re forever pursuing “fool’s gold” customers who have no meaningful profit or business building value.

And why do they do it? Because of their lack of knowledge and insight and because of their “I’d rather make some money than no money” attitudes.

Of course that’s their prerogative, but it’s one they’ll suffer from later. Don’t let it happen to you.

Information is overrated

There are two problems with information:

1. You can’t know it’s readily available until you investigate to find it

2. You can’t know how important it is to your success until you absorb and incorporate it into your thinking

For lack of investigative thinking and knowledge assimilation, ours is an industry loaded with professionals who don’t understand the marketplace and are far more interested in learning how to dig for gold (how to clean carpet) than in how to differentiate between “gold” and “fool’s gold” customers.

They waste time pursuing the worthless, while they miss golden opportunities.

Gold standard

Let me give you an example drawn from my personal experiences.

In spite of the fact that I had no intentions of ever selling or installing carpeting, I set out to learn about both when I first opened my business.

I understood that the first “item” I had to sell was myself, which meant that I had to eliminate the handyman image that plagues all cleaners.

To gain people’s confidence, I wanted to be recognized as a reliable authority. To accomplish this task, I had to have extensive knowledge of all aspects of carpeting at least in regard to those aspects that impacted the customer.

During my fourth year in business, I received a call for a quotation to clean a funeral home. As I went from room to room measuring and examining the carpet to be cleaned, I noticed that all of it was glued-down, level loop and that there were air pockets in some places in every room.

I also noticed that new, glued-down carpet was in the process of being installed in the visitation area.

When I went in to discuss cleaning with the property owner, I explained that my charges were higher than average and why.

“My cleaning objective is to restore your carpeting, not just remove the surface soil,” I said. “I don’t put my name on shoddy work.

“And speaking of shoddy work, as I examined your carpeting, I noticed that there are air pockets beneath the carpet in every room. I also noticed that you’re having some new carpet installed. In a few months, you’re going to have air pockets beneath this carpet, as well.”

He looked at me, curiously. “And how do you know this,” he asked.

“Because your carpet layer is spreading glue with a vinyl trawl to hold down his glue expense,” I said. “The result is that there will be insufficient glue in certain spots to keep the carpeting stuck to the slab. That’s the reason you have bubbles beneath carpet in the other rooms, as well.

“In short, you have been and are being ripped off.”

“I wondered why this was happening and that explains it. I appreciate your telling me,” he said. “Needless to say, the carpet retailer won’t get his money until the carpet is reinstalled properly.”

Their business is my business

It may be that you think that I was sticking my nose in other people’s business. If so, I’ll tell you that my customer’s welfare is my business.

I have no tolerance for thieves and liars, and I will expose every one I catch. My customer gets my loyalty and the advantage of my knowledge.

Everything I do will be in his or her best interest, whether it puts money in my pocket or not. How else could one justifiably expect loyalty in return?

To get loyalty, you have to give it. And if you give it, but doesn’t get it, that’s a customer not worth having.

Nevertheless, I got the cleaning jobs. And after service, the property owner explained that he also owned seven other funeral homes. “I want you to maintain all of them. Your work is the best we’ve ever had.”

After a few years, he sold his eight properties to a conglomerate and became the president of the Texas branch of the corporation, which added 26 funeral homes to my contract tally –– all being maintained at a higher-than-average charge.

I also became their carpet selection, purchasing, and installation advisor, which served to weld a relationship that endured for 25 years.

Why did it happen? Because, at the beginning of my career, I was interested in learning far more than simply how to clean rugs. Through the whole of my career, I never sold, repaired or installed a single yard of carpeting. But my carpet knowledge ultimately paid very handsome dividends.

And I did nothing that you can’t do. Now, let’s get back to the “gold rush.”

Every client I had during my three decades in business had previously used cleaners who charged far less than I. In other words, I came behind them and gathered the gold they had totally overlooked.

In many instances, I kept on mining the gold from these sources for years to come. The question is why was I able to succeed where others had failed?

For a customer to have gold potential, they must have disposable income –– funds available above what’s required to meet monthly expenses. Regardless of the disposable income available, people don’t spend money on things they don’t care about.

The “fool’s gold” customer couldn’t care less about his or her carpet or about the business or home environment in general. When they clean, if they clean, it’s simply to get the ugly out.

They’re not cleaning because they appreciate “pretty” –– but because they don’t like “ugly.”

Conversely, the gold customer cares. (See my October 2002 and January 2003 CM/Cleanfax articles for more insight into what they care about.) It’s also true that the gold customer can appear to be pyrite simply because they lack knowledge and insight.

Price shopping vs. price selling

Let’s consider the knowledge deficiencies that commonly culminate in price shopping on the customer’s side of the equation and in price selling on the cleaner’s side.

· People know nothing about proper maintenance

Yes, they know they have maintenance problems, such as rapid re-soiling and reappearing spots. But most do not know why they have them.

Surprisingly enough, neither do many cleaners. They’ve never had a day’s training in the proprieties of cleaning. Customers will never know why they should remain loyal to the qualified, educated professional who’s careful to rinse thoroughly if he never explains why rinsing is important.

· People know nothing about the various carpet cleaning methods or about their cleaning deficiencies

To them, the only difference between cleaners and cleaning methods is price. But then, the same can be said for most professional cleaners who lack in-depth understanding of their own cleaning method, let alone understand any other.

How are customers to understand why they should remain loyal to the educated professional who doesn’t educate them?

· People don’t know what constitutes a reasonable charge for cleaning

All they know about price is what they see advertised –– and most cleaners sell price.

The average, advertised price is not a reasonable charge, certainly not for quality workmanship. The service charge has to control service time and that service time (among other things) necessarily controls service quality.

But how is the customer to understand that a reasonable charge for quality service has to be higher if the expert doesn’t explain the reasons?

· People see a carpet cleaner –– all carpet cleaners –– as nothing more than a specialized handyman, which is to be expected, considering that’s precisely what the average cleaner is –– very unprofessional for lack of investigation and assimilated knowledge.

How is the educated expert to be recognized for his expertise if he doesn’t display his knowledge in what he does and says?

Is the price right?

Every cleaner promises quality workmanship. But most rush their work, turning out mediocre to poor cleaning results, which, to the quality-oriented customer, makes every cleaner suspect.

In other words, to the quality oriented, every cleaner is guilty until proven innocent.

It’s up to the cleaner to prove his innocence, up to him to prove that he’s not an average cleaner, which is impossible if he is average.

Therefore, to succeed with the quality oriented, with people who are willing to pay more to get quality, the professional must investigate and assimilate knowledge and then display it, dimensionally.

They give little thought to the soiling process and know nothing about organic, inorganic, and biological contaminants (health hazards) that they permit their children to play upon.

Nor do they consider that these contaminants in their various forms –– tacky soils, particulate soils, and liquid spills –– permeate the carpeting from surface to backing.

When they look down, all they see is an ugly surface. Repeats, referrals, a willingness to pay more, cleaning frequency, how much carpet the customer cleans –– every aspect of a customer’s profit potential is necessarily dependent upon their regard for their carpeting and for cleanliness.

The cleaner who does nothing to educate his customers on the health importance of cleanliness is doing nothing to increase their profit potential.

Not only do these tips fit snugly into the category of business and profit building, they also explain why the average charge for carpet cleaning has risen no more than a nickel per square foot during the past 30 years:

1. There’s a great lack of professionalism in the carpet cleaning industry

2. Cleaners don’t know how to sell

Without in-depth knowledge, price is all you have to sell. And you don’t learn how to sell, much of your acquired knowledge has no sales value.

Again, you’re left with only price to sell.

**** Ragan owns Consumer-Oriented Publications and is a successful, 29-year veteran in the carpet cleaning industry.

[Dave O 15]

Very interesting and educational. Don't know how I found it, but I liked it.