[justin brown]

i have called a few suppliers and have been offered anyhing between 5-20% of prochem list price for chemicals, is this a good deal or should i shop around even more? as you can tell i am new to this! :

[John Kelly]

You are doing exactly what you don't want your customers to do, shop around for the cheapest carpet cleaner.
Find a decent supplier who looks after you and is there for you. Don't just go to the cheapest.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

I agree completely.

Carpet cleaning chemicals are the cheapest thing we have to buy anyway, in comparison to equipment and marketing costs.

Find a dealer who is consistent, reliable and who gives good advice. Where they are based is not important.

[Graeme@Access]

Hi,

You never know when your gonna need an extra bottle of woodglaze or proshine or splitter or vac brush or gasket. The list goes on.

We get a good discount from our local prochem supplier, but that really doesn't matter as he is prepared to deliver same day or next day no probs.  Many a time he has dug us out of a hole.

Like previous comments it not about price, it about service. I think the closer the supplier the better as they can react faster and don't have to rely on couriers. Its especially nice when they take apart a machine to give you a part they don't have in stock!

Graeme
Access Cleaning Solutions

[justin brown]

thanks all, good advice. i had a cleaner tell me he got 35% of list price but would not tell me supplier, but i totally agree about service being most important

[Craig Trevain]

thanks all, good advice. i had a cleaner tell me he got 35% of list price but would not tell me supplier, but i totally agree about service being most important

Prob Olympic, thats why they are no more!

[Neil Williams]

You are doing exactly what you don't want your customers to do, shop around for the cheapest carpet cleaner.

I don't agree here.
Unlike different standards and services of carpet cleaners we are talking about a product. The same exact product to do the same exact job that you can either pay full cost price or 25% cheaper. It's a no brainer really.
Granted there's a difference between Prochem and Ali Barbers own brand and you get what you pay for, but I'm not paying £20 for a tub of prochem cleaner when I can pay £15 for the same thing from somewhere else. 

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

I agree in part Neil, but it's still all down to service.

I'm in Surrey, John is in Northumberland - I placed an order at 9am on monday, it arrived on tuesday !

Plus he's on the end of the phone only to pleased to share his wealth of knowledge.

I couldn't even tell you if I could buy my chemicals cheaper because I haven't checked, but I can only be paying a couple of quid more either way.

[markpowell]

I have tried the cheap suppliers, olympic etc, i have been dealing with John & Lynn now for sometime and there service is second to none, you order before 2pm and it arrives the morning after, no out of stock issues or damaged containers. Its not all about price.
Mark

[Jason Ryan]

I think what some are trying to say is, yes buying a product is slighlty different to buying a service. But at the same time you are still buying a service as well as the product.

You may get chems thats £5-£8 cheaper or a product 30% cheaper, but it may arrive 3-5 days later, when you ring to see where it is or email for help there is no reply or answer for hours or even days. When the item arrives it could be wrong one, damaged or some of the order missing. 

OR

Pay £5-8 (or 30% more) and get a much better service, quicker delivery and the items thats you want.

Personaly i dont go on price alone, reccondmendatios count also.

J

[elliott cleaning]

I agree completely.

Carpet cleaning chemicals are the cheapest thing we have to buy anyway, in comparison to equipment and marketing costs.

Find a dealer who is consistent, reliable and who gives good advice. Where they are based is not important.

Have to agree with Steve  -  Accepted, we all aim to maximise our profit margins  - but if you have to spend your time scrabbling around trying to find which supplier can save you a few pence per litre on a low cost item such as your chemicals - then I reckon that time is better spent looking at your overall business model

[Adam P]

what about a compromise then. find a cheap supplier so when you aren't in a rush you can order from them, but then also a decent supplier so when you need a product fast you also have someone to go to? seems like the wisest idea to me.

[Craig Trevain]

From my experiance as a distributor, i find that my customer base of carpet cleaners is growing as our stock levels are always high, they hate walking into a shop for a product and being told its out of stock.

one customer even told me his last supplier said we cant get any in soon because we have to spend over 300.00 to get free delivery from prochem and cannot afford it at the moment!!!(that distributor is 8 miles away, so hence why our customer base is growing).