[ian richards]

Hi Guys

This is an idea that i have been toying with for a while now, and after speaking to a supplier who has been doing it for a while now, and very successfully!!! I thought well lets ask. It may be a good idea or it may be a bad one.
WHO KNOWS!! YOU DECIDE!!!
It may have even been metioned on this forum before, i dont know, but i would certainly value your feedback as to wether you think that it may work, if you dont think so, then thats ok, its just an idea!

The idea is, if we could get a group of CC's across the uk to all advertise as being a National company it would obviously open a few doors to more commercial work and maybe insurance work too. 
So i get a phone call to ask, do we cover Manchester, i say yes we do and then pass it on to the relevent company, a bit like how Interflora works, the same would apply for Essex, the North east, Wales or anywhere in the uk for that matter. The only stipulation that i would make is that the company would be members of the NCCA. and maybe Wool safe approved.
I know doing this would bring a variety of problems, but i'm sure they could be overcome.
We could sail under the flag of lets say "The National Guild of Carpet cleaners"
SORRY!! but that was the first thing that came in to my head. 
Anyway take a vote and leave some feed back.

Cheers

Ian
 

[Everbrite]

Yes very good idea but not to keen on the NCCA part.Why not just those who have been in the business say over ten years?? if a company can still be trading for over ten years they cant be all that bad.

[ian richards]

Good point, but i thoght of the idea and based on that i wouldnt be allowed in
 
Ian

[Dave_Lee]

Ian,
Isnt the idea what you are suggesting just the same as a franchise, like interflora. On the other hand maybe you mean a national call centre (many franchises also have one) with the enquiries being passed to a member in that locality (like the NCCA). Sounds good, but imo unlikely to work, especially long term.
Dave.

[des]

Over the last year i have done ten jobs for other carpet cleaner,s around the country I think if we all had the area that we covered on our profile or a list  it would be very easy to look up the carpet cleaner in the area and offer him the job If you wanted to make sure that the standard remained high you could have a card system which could be returned to the person running it and if you had so many conplaints about you standerd of cleaning you would be removed from the list for a period or for good Some monthly money could be involved (a small amount )to help with the running cost but to start with lets just get our names on a list and the area that we cover for those who are interested  des ps im sure some one,s wife is sat at home and would love to answer the phone and pass on the telephone to the man or woman in the area and recive a payment for this   (TOGETHER WE ARE STRONG ) I cover the salisbury area in wiltshire and i would be willing to do jobs up to 25 miles area   ,who,s next

[Everbrite]

Ten years was just a number i plucked out Ian. NCCA means nothing to most of the public but the number of years trading speaks for its self. By all means count me in I am sure we could get a list and go from there.

[darrenlee]

great idea, in theory.
take some managing and time.
could work, if you think about it, it needs to be a bit like interflora, but inter clean.
needs a base that then allocates jobs to areas.
cost,  funding £ per area a year. that would be the hard part.
my opinion have to elect someone say southeast, southwest,
midlands, northeast, northwest, etc who are then on a panel
who are the voice for that area. re elected from members every 2 years. these panel members can then see where members funds are going etc. and decide salarys for who ever is running
central operations. majbe me 

[Gavin Reardon]

Hi All

I all ready do a simlar thing with carpet cleaners in South+Mid Wales so I would be able to cover that area.

I belive the NCCA is a good thing as you will know the carpet cleaner has had some training and is fully insured. Just cos you been doing it a long time to me does not mean you been doing it right for a long time!

NCCA members have this sort of thing in place already only this week they have put two jobs my way. My be what we need to do is plug the NCCA more so the UK become use to the name and what it means.

Regards Gavin

[ian richards]

145 times this subject has been read, but not a lot of feedback left.
We need as many as we can to leave some feedback even if you think its a waste of time, all you guy's that post regular on this forum.

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!

Leave some feedback.

I am quite prepared to push it forward if there is enough possitive feedback.

Ian

[Karl Wildey]

ok great idea, been done before and failed, no ones yet to do it with success.

So lets rock the boat.
Ncca/IICRC trained - a must.
I cleaned carpets for 10 years before I took my first carpet cleaning course, and  there was bucket loads I did not know. Being in business does not make you a good carpet cleaning, just a good marketer, just looks at chem-dry, (only joking chem-dry).
Why anti-NCCA, is it just cos they ask for a yearly sub, and you have to pay a one -off training price too.
I make well above my yearly sub in recommendations and contact work.

AND FINALLY... you are missing the point. The suggestion is to get a national carpet cleaning company together, so we can get big contracts with the national chain companies, and these chains use only reconised carpet cleaning companies ie NCCA trained.
When it comes to the public, you would have to spend a fortune getting a reconised name across, think of all those national know names, none of them are small spenders are they, and we are objecting at joining the NCCA, why? Is it because of the costs involved.

[woodman]

I raised a similar topic quite a while back and proposed something along the lines you are discussing now called the National Network of Professional Carpet Cleaners ( NNPCC).

It got a very luke warm reception just like you are finding now and got no further than an idea.

A tie in with the NCCA would be the way to go but I really don't think they would be interested.

[BeeClean]

maybe im missing something but isnt this what the ncca should be doing

[Ken Wainwright]

My view about the NCCA Membership issue in this type of instance is this.  It is a guarantee of a good minimum standard of training. It is  a quarantee that a company is suitably insured. NCCA Members are obliged to conduct themselves with integrity.  For a marketing company as envisaged, this would be a no cost way of ensuring these basic, minimum requirements, so let the NCCA do this work for you    The actual NCCA membership in itself can mean as much or as little as you want it to.

The biggest challenge will be from the organisational/administration aspect along with costs involved. It will be more akin to a franchise as others have suggested.

Not for me, but I wish you all the best of fortune.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

PS The NCCA is NOT a sales/marketing company. It is a trade association for carpet and upholstery cleaners. Yes,  part of it's role is to educate the public about the benefits of using NCCA Members, but this is only a small part of the associations activities. There are companies better placed at providing marketing training and skills than the NCCA.

[BeeClean]

Ken, is this idea something that the ncca has considered?

[Karl Wildey]

NCCA is an assocaition, and represents a collection of carpet cleaners under one banner. The public can use a NCCA member and have some guarantees that non-NCCA members can not provide. But, the NCCA is not there to find work and national contracts.

The idea (the title of this discussion) is a good idea, but a lot of hard work, a lot of time.
 I am sure lots of cc will wish to join, but who will put up the time, and effort to get this up and running.

[paul@ctcs]

Guys,

Allocate you regional leaders and arrange a meeting when we all get together at MK. Why not run a thread for nominations for area leader then run a poll for each zone to decide who takes it, with results only visable at the end of a fixed time period, to add suspence

Paul

[Ken Wainwright]

Simon

Not being a director of the NCCA, I'm not priviliged to what is discussed at board meetings. And much of this discussion is confidential anyway.  However, many NCCA members, me included, have discussed this issue both privately and publicly. It wouldn't be unreasonable of me to suspect that NCCA Directors will have done so too.

If the membership felt that the Association should be more proactive and aggressive in marketing directlly to the consumer in order to create more work, all you need to do is put a proposal forward for discussion at the AGM. You need to be a member first. Then vote for or against it. OK, it wouldn't be that simple as a suitable Director with the necessary skills would need to be appointed or, more likely, an outside agency or perhaps an employee taken on board. Then there's the funding. It would be an enourmous investment. The consquences would then be that many members would not then be prepared to pay the vastly increased membership fees (me included) and the Association would then be moving away from being an association to becoming a marketing company.

Many have voiced an opinion that the NCCA should be leading the way with a national sales/marketing programme. As stated by many, this is not their "raison d'etre". But, this expertise does exist elsewhere. What about approaching the likes of ProClean or The Alltec Network. Companies like this already have the skills,  expertise and infrastructure to implement much of what is being disussed. A serious commitment to their programmes is required, and no small sum of cash too. Most carpet cleaners know that already. Or, being perhaps a little cynical, is it that apart from a select few, not enough people are prepared to put their money where their mouth is 

Safe and happy marketing
Ken

[Everbrite]

why do you guys make it look and sound so complicated why do you want the NCCA to hold your hands all the time??

[paul@ctcs]

I agree there is no point getting hung up on the ncca, I would say being IICRC  trained would be prefrable, due to the more in depth courses. Advertising would come at a cost but nothing we dont already have to do, with YP etc.

Paul

[Everbrite]

Well said that man well said. You will do for me
Most of the domestics that i do have no idea who or what is the NCCA they need to spend some money in that sector.