What cleans a carpet better? A £100 hoover or a £10,000 truckmount?
There's only two cases I spend any amount of time with a vacuum in my hand, and that's as Joe says above if there's big bits that'll get shoved around by the wand rather than sucked up easily. Second case is the edges - if there's loads of crap accumulated round the edges of the carpet I'll go round with the crevice tool because it's actually quicker than trying to do it with the wand.
However I always agitate, either with a groomer, duo or rotary brush. All 3 of which flick up loads of crap to the top of the carpet. Most importantly they gather up all the fluff and hair, so it can get removed easily by extraction
On upholstery, I still vac the sides and back and most importantly down the inside edges where all the money goes (thinly veiled excuse to make a few more pence on each job
).
I disagree with the suggestion that customers take offence if you start off with a vacuum. However, if you offend them by telling them their vacuuming is rubbish they will! If you put a spin on it, like "your vacuuming is very helpful but I always do this because vacuuming twice is better than vacuuming once - I want to make sure I get the best job done for you" or "I can see I'm not going to get much out of the carpet because you've vacuumed it so well, but it's always worth doing this because my vacuuming process is also to lift the pile, which helps the cleaning process". People find it impossible to take offence at a compliment!
