I work in this industry and with there being so many operators you will always get a degree of difference. There are the big players, Munters, Belfor, Chem-Dry, Rainbow & Servicemaster and in each one there will be some excellant people, but there will also be crap, the law of averages dictates this. Even the some small independants the same will be true.
This industry is going through major changes with new laws coming into effect concerning asbestos. in future you will have to presume or strongly presume that a property contains this material and act accordingly. Due to other factors that have taken place the HSE are looking very carefully at how it operates and before long they will be coming down hard.
One of the major problems for this industry is the insurance companies dictate, who they use and they can also dictate the cost of this work. They are all looking to cut costs, and yet get an even better service. The big ones now want everything done at one fixed price, believe me the prices are rock bottom and some of you on this site are making good money cleaning carpets, stick with it you get paid for the work you do, we are still waiting for invoives to be paid six months after the work has been completed, some other go back further.
There is work for the small operator but there needs to be away of them all banding together, to show that they all carry liabiltiy insurance, they have all been trained to a minimum standard, all ther equipment has been tested to an end standard, they all guarentee they can be at an urgent job in 2 hours, plus pages of MI information, believe me the paperwork is bigger than the job.
I've seen the splash and dash operators being given a hard time on this site, because they have no credentials. If you take this one step further, and you are an insurance company, how do they spot the carpet cleaners from fully trained restorers.