Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Mike Halliday on October 07, 2009, 08:28:53 pm
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done 2 jobs so far this week were all I've had to do was take in the vac & envirodry, both carpets were like new but the home owner had had some building work done so wanted them cleaning.
I could have set up the T/M and given them the full mounty, but they didn't need it.
so we moved all the furniture wiped down the skirting boards( like we all do) then vacced them..... then ran over them with the envirodry..... then vacced them again,
We charged the customer the full price.
was this ethical?
considering the customer engaged our services to clean the carpet ( meaning removing all the dirt) which we did .......in our professional opinion we did exactly what was needed to to remove any dirt. the carpets would have looked no different if we had done a full wet extraction but with what we did the carpet were ready to use immediately.
I will admit we do this about twice a month
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If you could only do that with every job :) :).............Yes Martin I know you've cracked it and good for you.
If I could do that I might get another 10 years in the biz !
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If it had been a real minger would you have charged extra over and above your "norm"?
or said .. well its swings and roundabouts - today its a minger, tomorrow its a vac and envirodri
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just asking the question means you feel unethical.
if everyones answer was youve ripped them off, would you defend your self or hold your hands up and not do it again?
derek
ps... my answer is, if she's happy and your happy then everybody's happy,
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Derek
What about these con artists that charge £400 a suite, if the customers happy does that make it all right then?
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Derek
What about these con artists that charge £400 a suite, if the customers happy does that make it all right then?
mike o
what about just answering the question for mike h.
its his question and his thread afterall.
derek
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God you really are slippery aren't you? ;D
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God you really are slippery aren't you? ;D
is that your answer?, bit below the belt that mike ;D
derek
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Not if you were a politician it would be a compliment. ;D
Here's another question, not aimed at you Derek. ::)
If someone invites you to 'clean' a brand new carpet, what would you do?
Do you say I'll do it, charge and do nothing but hoover it, after all it is clean.
Do you refuse because you can't clean it?
Or do you find out why it's important to her to have it 'cleaned' ? First.
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the last option.
derek
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Or do you find out why it's important to her to have it 'cleaned' ? First.
This is a Good Point, i've often been out on a survey and thought i doesnt really need cleaning but when you ask the customer its because its smelling.
Mike H
I think your in the wrong, Look at it from the customers point of view they have paid you for a deep clean and might have even picked you for your equipment, now they feel short changed.
I did an 80/20 lounge carpet on friday that didnt really need cleaning but beacuse she had cats thought it was smelling, i still hoovered it, Didnt Pre spray as it didnt need it only in the doorway, i still cleaned it with the T.M but put very little water down, she was delighted as it was dry when leaving as i turbo dried it
Paul
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That's what I would say Derek and it always surprises me how many people don't ask. They would either get on with it or refuse. When you ask it gives you the opportunity to use your expertise and give them what they REALLY want.
I find this particularly with ECO cleans which also raise ethical and moral twangs of conscience but asking the right questions makes you sit easier with your decision because you have clarified what the client is really after.
I know this reads as a load of b******s but I think it goes some way to answering the question. :)
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Guys surely if you give a woman what she wants then life is much easier in my opinion.Dont argue the merits if she is satisfied.Regards Alan(swindon)
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what prompted the question was I did a womans daughter and she told me I had given her mum a quote in July and I told her the carpets didn't need cleaning and it would be better to wait another year then she would see a difference. Her mum 2 week later had them cleaned by another company.
I was trying to do the right thing but the woman was'nt interested in what was the right thing she had the idea in her head that the carpets needed cleaning. so I decided then I would no longer turn away clean carpet & upholstery, I would give the level of clean that was appropriate to the condition of the carpet.
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We charged the customer the full price.
was this ethical?
What you have just said Mike seems ok - give the customer what they want, after all you lost a clean last time.
But in your original post you added the above words, and then said you do this twice a month.
What is your concern? cleaning a "clean" carpet, or charging for a dirty carpet clean?
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You would be suprised how many new carpeta are dirty before they get into a customers house.
I used to be in cpt sales, and have visited many massive cpt warehouses, 1000's of rolls
stacked to the rafters in dusty atmospheres, stacker trucks running round consantly creating more dust and fumes.
Unwrapped on cutting tables, before being re wrapped and back into racking.
Done many callouts for a friend who has a shop, with marks from fitters glue, and stacker poles etc.
Andrew
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Mike,
If you had told the customer what you were proposing to do, then that would have made what you did ok. To do what you did without putting it to her and seeking her approval wasn't very professional.
As has been pointed out, the customer may have their own reasons for wanting the carpet cleaned and because you didn't clean it she may well not have got what she wanted, but you marched off with the money in your pocket. Naughty boy! :o
Simon
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mike Until I read your second post on this i thought Robin hood wore a mask!!! 8)
But as you say another customer got their carpets cleaned, So If it was me well id have to think about it! But yeah Its a bit UN-ETHICAL........but i dont think you worry about what the big man upstairs thinks!!! ;D ;D ;D
But on the other hand you can never slag off a splash n dash guy again ever!!!!! :-*
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Ethics really don't come into this scenario............someone asks for a service to be supplied as THEY feel the NEED for the service.
Supplying the most appropriate service and charging as you normally charge is a straightforward business transaction SUPPLYING a WANT or a NEED.
As already pointed out by Mike H ............If he refused the customer would probably get someone else to do it. It's happened to me before and probably to a few others on here.
As Mike O asks.............Is it less ethical to carry out a task to achieve the best result by using your knowledge and methods, than to grossly overcharge the gullible ?
We all know that the service carried out on this occasion has removed at least 80% of the soiling within the carpet fibers and improved the touch and appearance of the item
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The aim of the game is to remove the soil. We all have equipment that is capable of doing this. Isnt it up to the PROFESSIONAL to decide which piece of equipment is required to carry out each job efficiently.
It is I guess a natural assumption to a CC whose main equipment is HWE, to use it on each and every job, however obviously, this is not the case.
I did one of those horrible synthetic suade suites the other week. It wasnt heavily soiled and I didnt want to wet it too much, so I pre vacced, pre sprayed with Pure Clean, agitated, wiped over with cloth moistened with the same and then with a cloth dampened with plain water, and finally with a clean dry cloth. The result was as good as it could have been with any method, and the customer was happy.
I can see customers being confused even suspicious when they have called you after seeing your advertsing, raving on about how powerful your machinery is and how by using it, they are going to get the best clean, and then you do the job - you use something else.
As for the original question, was what Mike did 'Ethical', its easy to reply, yes or no. I'd say its down to the Professional at the time to decide which method to use and if he s a true Professional, which Mike is, he will come to the correct decision.
Dave.
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I would have done the job because thats what the customer asked for and it is well within my scope to do it.
What I would have charged?
Depends on how long it took me.
If it is quicker then getting the full gear out I would have charged lower accordingly, subject to minimum charge of course..
Likewise I go and its a minger and it takes longer then I charge higher.
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Joe
Would you reduce an agreed charge if it took nearly as long to carry out the task as any other method of cleaning?
Remember.......we occasionally end up spending twice as long as expected on some jobs and most of us will do little add ons for FREE on many occasions, so it's a bonus when an " easy " job comes along, which isn't too often!
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Robert
I give estimates over the phone. I glean as much info as I can to be able to give that estimate.
The estimate could alter depending what I see when I get to the job.
If the area is subsantially different to what was portrayed over the phone or the condition of the area was different then I alter accordingly.
Having said that, very occassionally I have had to raise the price and very occassionally I have lowered the price.
And yes, like you, I do little freebies - and lt the client know what I done. Hopefully they will tell their friends etc of the good service with a little extra so I benefit some other time.
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in the end we decide how we clean the carpets because we know whats needed to make that carpet clean.
some carpet we prespray-scrub-extract.... then scrub the bad areas again with more prespray and scrub them again.
some carpets we just go in with the wand and extract.
we can do this because we tailor our cleaning to suit the individual carpet, just because the second carpet didn't get scrubbed or pre-sprayed doesn't mean we have given an inferior service.
if this was the case then all Host user are unethical, because they are not using a deep HWE
the customer is usually paying for our expertise not the machinery we use. its up to us to give the appropriate service. if we give the same uniform service to everyone then we could decide that all customer will have protector applied to the carpet, then it becomes unethical even though we are giving everyone the exact same level of service
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Surely it is only unethical if you didnt do what it was you were paid to do...IE clean the carpet?
if a customer asked for it to be cleaned this way but you cleaned it that way, then yes, i can see the problem.
But as it stands, they asked you to do a job and you did it. It's not your fault that the carpet wasnt that bad to begin with and its not your fault that the customer liked your price and your service. If anything, that is to your credit.
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Last week a lady asked for a price to clean a lounge.
She gave me the size and we agreed on a price.
As it turned out the size she had given me was about twice the actual size.
She would have been happy to pay the agreed price but I only charged the correct price for 2 reasons:
I would have felt bad overcharging her ( probably why I will never be rich ).
The goodwill this may generate will pay off in the long run as hopefully she will tell her friends and family what a nice chap I am.
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I suppose that at the end of the day one of the luxuries of being our own boss is that we can charge what we like. One of the luxuries of being in a free country is that we can pay what we like.
For all we know, the custy in question may well have had dearer quotes for the work that was done.
For all we know, they may not be the ones paying for the work.
Point is (to me) that the job was done and the custy was happy. In my experience people have had no qualms about using people who they pervcieved to be expensive IF that person was reliable and did a good job. I doubt for a second that the customers who are mentioned in this thread had any preferences for the style of cleaning done. As mentioned in another thread, they probably thought the guy used "a great big vax" ;D
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after watching the aerial guys on watchdog tonight, i think you can safely say your 110% ethical mike.
derek
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Funny they didn't manage to track down the guy with the GBH convictions who threatens to kill people. ;D
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Locksmiths charge a decent whack for a few mins work in some cases ! Might be worth getting some training,can get the tools of e bay !
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Mark
You are already sitting on a pot of gold already. Do you want to be on call night and day? Hope you never been in trouble with the law and the kit for your van (a proper one) will be far more than a portable. Ebay. ::) ;D
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Is the customer not always right. If she was delighted, then jobs a good un. Clean and Green.
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Indeed it was just an example ;D Had a very good day today !