Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Mike Halliday on July 30, 2013, 05:35:29 pm
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Just sat here in Costa coffee watching a company called ( deleted name ) bonnet clean the carpets.
16ft x16ft. 10mins. no vacuuming, pull tables & chair to one side, clean, then move across and clean the other side. all tables replaced onto damp carpet with no foils.
He's starting the next carpet same bonnet, can see his pump up sprayer he used 1lt of prespray.
WAIT...WAIT!!! He dunked the bonnet into his bucket of water.
He's finished. Been here 25 minutes
I feel like buying him a coffee for this demonstration on professional bonnet cleaning
FANTASTIC!! He,s going to clean the chairs!!! Guess what machine he is going to use?
I will try and take a photo....
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Got some great photos, but you can't post pics from an iPad onto CIU :-\
He is cleaning the chairs with a steam machine that has extraction ...... about the size of a small flight suitcase. pre spraying the chairs on the carpet he has just cleaned,
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Wish you had called me over Mike from mcdons.
Not sure but i am guessing kingson ....... i did see there van there.
Geoff
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He may have only been allocated 30mins to do the job by his employer and Costa Coffee might only be paying peanuts to have them cleaned ,
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Geoff look at the time.... It was this tea time not when I saw you at dinner time.
This company are national with branches in Glasgow ( head office) Luton and Staffordshire.
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Is the company well known? Im intrigued who it is.
Just shows an employee will never do as good a job.
It can work well to tell a customer this. (if the competition is using employees)
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I can't see the point in being interested in what other companies are doing as long as you are doing it right yourself.
On a slight digression....
I walked out to get some stuff from my van today and saw a group of people perhaps 15 yards away stood behind a 4ft fence. One bloke was towering above the rest of the people perhaps 2 foot! Now I thought this bloke was perhaps stood on a small wall. I saw that in the group of people there was a bloke taller than me, maybe 6ft 3 and the tall bloke was far taller.
When these people dispersed, the very tall bloke was indeed not stood on a wall and walked off!
When I got inside the nursury I was working, i said to the caretaker.....you know I'm not sure what i just saw outside. I told him that I think I saw a very tall bloke outside who seemed to tower over even a tall bloke!
Oh yea he said.... thats Big All, he's 8 foot 4 :o and used to be a basket ball player and has much to do with the local schools.
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Don't know why you are surprised, there are acres of commercial carpets cleaned everyday by large companies who don't know what they are doing.
One of my customers has just sold a machine to a very large facilities company. When they demoed it they were asked to do a specific area as the rest had been cleaned only days earlier. No we'll try it here, jaws dropped, but we've just done that area, we'll have to do it all again now. Yes but properly with the right kit.
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To be honest I am surprised, just a few small changes he could have gone from a crap job to an acceptable job.
I'm sat here again looking at the carpets and they look no different.
Mike you are right why should I be bothered how other companies work, but what puts me off trying to get large contracts is knowing I will have someone who I can trust to do the job right..... so I don't get any call backs.
But if this job is an example of how other national companies work then maybe I should reconsider
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The big company mentality is everyone wants to look good on paper.
Someone was responsible for assigning the contract and got a pat on the back for screwing the cheapest company to the floor.
The sales rep at the company promised them the earth and impressed them with health and safety blurb and his knowledge of key performance indicators.
The sales rep then has nothing to do with the implementation and goes off to check his commision stats.
The contract company then advertise a minimum wage job (after all its only cleaning) and drag a grateful dole waller off the street.
I was in a Costa at the weekend, the carpets were shabby, I had more throth in my cup than liquid and your the wrong side of a fiver if you want a slice of cake to go with it. The place was heaving. :-\
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Believe it or not there is an element of the market that is not so much about standards and getting things done right, but more about getting things done on the cheap just so that they can say they've been done, almost a tick box operation.
My son's law firm in Manchester get their carpets cleaned every now and then, the guy from a big firm (can't remember the name) shows up with a padding system, skips over the reception and main areas and leaves. The carpets look on slightly better but no one gives a fook - the carpets have been cleaned. Strange, but true.
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Unfortunately a sympton of couldn't care less Britain. Bet this doesn't happen in Germany.
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maybe you could tell them that they are wasting there money, might as well not bother etc.... https://www.facebook.com/CostaCoffee
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There is a bakers near us who supply Costas with there cakes,
they get them for £4.50 delivered, they are pre cut into 14 slices,
and they knock it out a £3 a slice, thieving gits, but good business
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Comes down to price also if its in the cleaning spec then on paper the carpets have been cleaned, when tendering for large multi store carpets contractors are to blame as they think its a bidding war and then go and cut corners with the cleaning or the training of the staff or the machinery and products.
Shaun
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There is a bakers near us who supply Costas with there cakes,
they get them for £4.50 delivered, they are pre cut into 14 slices,
and they knock it out a £3 a slice, thieving gits, but good business
They probably say the same for us carpet cleaners.
a few pence in materials + one hour of graft = £100 :o ;D
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Comes down to price also if its in the cleaning spec then on paper the carpets have been cleaned, when tendering for large multi store carpets contractors are to blame as they think its a bidding war and then go and cut corners with the cleaning or the training of the staff or the machinery and products.
Shaun
I think it is the other way round. It is a bidding war and quite deliberately so on the part of the company looking for contractors and reduce it to a sum of money and not to a specification. In fact specifications don't seem to get mentioned, which isn't surprising as the buyers don't understand what they need to specify in order to buy the correct type of cleaning for their circumstances which undermines the whole exercise and so they end up with what Mike described.
Simon
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I partially agree but at the end of the day it's the company that puts the price in that are more at fault, I've just tendered for a school at £810 they accepted another quote for £225 I wasn't going to compete with their price I was told after I had submitted my price and asked if I could better the £225.so the school are even trying to shave the lower prices, I did ask what quality they were after and they said that they wanted it clean as that is what they were paying for.
Shaun
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Hi Guys
The contract cleaning market is very price driven, where quality is largely neglected, look at hospitals!
This type of client looks at CC much the same, no point in worrying about it as you would not be prepared to even try it at the prices they want to pay.
Cheers
Doug
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I walked into my local Costa... the fabric bases on the chairs were filthy dirty, lots of hot beverage spills!
I offered to clean them at a really low price which included fabric guard.
The manager fed me a load of pony saying they were going to have a re fit and all the furniture would be replaced... that was 8 months ago.
It seems large multi national companies such as Costa's see the general maintenance of their seating and carpets as a bit of non priority !
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Cinemas, train and bus companies are the same. Cinema seats get "cleaned" every 2 -3 years if you are lucky. They don't even get vacuumed in between. Same with most trains, only get cleaned occasionally.
You are basically sitting on filth. People should complain more about it and maybe they'd buck their ideas up.
Its exactly the same with the fire and flood industry. The insurance companies now employ procurement companies to buy services on their behalf. Basically people who haven't a clue about the industry who's only brief is to get the contract as cheap as possible, stuff the quality.
Next time you go into a scruffy place make the manager know about it. If we all do this maybe things may start to change.
Someone should start a Facebook page "scruffy places".
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Someone should start a Facebook page "scruffy places".
I think that's an excellent idea John. It would have the same affect as Watchdog when someone has been getting nowhere with a big company, then they suddenly leap into action and make out its a one off when national TV shames them.
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The real problem is that the buyers don't know what they are supposed to be buying and as far as they are concerned carpet & upholstery cleaning is just carpet & upholstery cleaning. Plus, they have a budget that MUST be stuck to and buy to the budget and not on the basis of need, which is ludicrous imo.
Simon
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Photograph the dirty chairs and upload them to Costa Coffee FB page, like wise for Starbucks etc etc etc , and ask the general public to do the same via the FB page .
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Hi Lads,
I'm pretty sure that a lot Costa Coffee shops are Franchises, so the franchise owner would be responsible for booking their own carpet cleaners. which is probably why they are left to get into a bad state with stains etc. And end up using the cheapest quote and poorest service.
Russ, I'd go back into that branch, they might of changed their mind on refurbishing. because of budgets, new management etc.
Years ago through my ex wife who worked for the Abbey National bank i used to clean the carpets and Upholstery in all the branches in Liverpool on a Saturday afternoon, only started off with one, but the manger passed my number onto his colleagues, each branch had it's own budget at the time, and if the job was under £500 the branch manager had the authority to go ahead with the job. And pay out of the branches petty cash budget.
I was always paid on completion. It was brilliant. until head office had a brain wave and gave the contract out to a national company and took away the branches budgets.
This company i forget who they were now, used to work of a night, one day ex wife phoned me said the company had been in the night before, although the carpets were dry the chewing gum was still there and the branch stunk of "fish" when they complained they were told it would be a week before they could get back and re-clean it. Thought it was only a matter of time before i got that work back, but despite many complaints nationally they kept the contract with the Abbey.
Alby.
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Hi Lads,
I'm pretty sure that a lot Costa Coffee shops are Franchises, so the franchise owner would be responsible for booking their own carpet cleaners. which is probably why they are left to get into a bad state with stains etc. And end up using the cheapest quote and poorest service.
Russ, I'd go back into that branch, they might of changed their mind on refurbishing. because of budgets, new management etc.
Years ago through my ex wife who worked for the Abbey National bank i used to clean the carpets and Upholstery in all the branches in Liverpool on a Saturday afternoon, only started off with one, but the manger passed my number onto his colleagues, each branch had it's own budget at the time, and if the job was under £500 the branch manager had the authority to go ahead with the job. And pay out of the branches petty cash budget.
I was always paid on completion. It was brilliant. until head office had a brain wave and gave the contract out to a national company and took away the branches budgets.
This company i forget who they were now, used to work of a night, one day ex wife phoned me said the company had been in the night before, although the carpets were dry the chewing gum was still there and the branch stunk of "fish" when they complained they were told it would be a week before they could get back and re-clean it. Thought it was only a matter of time before i got that work back, but despite many complaints nationally they kept the contract with the Abbey.
Sounds familiar. On paper good on the ground poop.
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I think JK's idea is a good one too, if we all start a group in our area called
Scruffy Dirty Places Wherever, it might push things along a bit.
Customers wouldnt know who was behind group either, and you could post advice and get your info over in a way that isnt pushy.
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Unfortunately a sympton of couldn't care less Britain. Bet this doesn't happen in Germany.
Or the US - I was in Vegas recently and saw three truckmount systems working on Caesars Palace (where we were staying) - all were direct drive systems and all vans were locked up and humming away with long hose runs going up into upper stories of the buildings - no-one in sight on the street level! I am sure the prices were keen but they were at least doing it properly - there are acres of lush carpet in the hotels and casinos there. Also when we were there there was a flash flood and water poured into one part of the main casino - it was roped off at midnight and ankle deep - by 7 the next morning it was extracted and drying with turbos - actually it was back in operation by 9 but I noticed there was a bad smell from wet carpet there for several days afterwards.
Wynne you are a cynic - but I like your thought process there
dave
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Unfortunately a sympton of couldn't care less Britain. Bet this doesn't happen in Germany.
Oh yes it does!! ;D The market here is wide open for carpet cleaning for the simple reason that cleaning firms here cover all sorts of cleaning. Maintenance cleaning is regulated here. You must have a sort of City & Guilds sort of set up before you're allowed to offer that sort of contract work.
Anyway, to explain it simply, all these firms do all sorts of cleaning, and that includes carpet and upholstery cleaning. A firm where I once worked as a foreman, would send whoever was in the building to a carpet job with a selection of detergents and a Kärcher 100 to go and clean some hotel reception area or some old biddy's livingroom.
No proper training or any idea about the job and methods at all.
Seen loads of really funny cleaning methods here!
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Yea but Chris are the places clean. Ive been to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Leverkusen and Cologne over the last few years and I can't recall seeing seats or carpets in the state you see them over here.
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lol, yeah, you're probably right there mate. I've not been back to UK for years, so don't know really. ;D I just know that there aren't many, if any, experts here with the knowledge and experience that you blokes seem to have.
We've had real vehicle problems here this year and the costs of these have put our carpet and upholstery plans back 12 months. We're getting ready for spring 2014 to swap all our business over to the German market and away from the army customers over here because they will all be gone in a few short years.