[robert meldrum]

Unfortunately, no matter how good a rapport you have with your clients many will have no sense of loyalty to you and are likely to give someone else a try if their timing is right when an advert or leaflet catches their eye.

[Matt Seymour]

And another came to my attention today.
I'm keeping this very short.
My wifes hairdressers mother fell for the £8.99 scam. The low life wanted £139 to do the job properly (loose use of words there) and it had to be CASH
She dug her heels in for the £17.98 clean (loung diner) and all she got was wet carpets.
Have told her to report to trading standards etc particulary as they are demanding cash. Perhaps this will get the f-ckers closed down if it get's reported onto Inland Revenue etc

The Trading Standards file on these cowboys must be so thick by now that they would need a forklift to pick it up!

How they are still trading is beyond me. They really don't see anything wrong in what they are doing.

What will it take?

[wynne jones]

Matt

The best crims are not crims in the eyes of the law. The stupid crims are the ones that don't know the law. Moral standards are not set in stone by the law.

 

[MAX Carpets]

The boss was actually in tele-sales, not carpet cleaning...............suprise suprise!

Apparantly they work closley with trading standards so they stay within the law.

They are here to stay!

[robert meldrum]

Maybe Trading Standards need investigating  : :

[jasonl]

This is an Offce of Fair Trading  issue , not trading standards .  They are not trading fairly , I know the OFT are investigating   "A trading entity"  close to me  , it wont be Daryl, so it must be Enterprise.

[clinton]

How long does that take jason to be investigated

[derek west]

How long does that take jason to be investigated

long enough for them to make enough money to set up another exact company in a different name. theres no cure for cancer.

[calmore]

Unfortunately, these people will carry on trading until the public become educated.

They'll simply stop using the name 'Enterprise' and start using a new name, once work dries up. They'll then carry on with the Bait and switch scam as before.

[clinton]

Yes looks like it too and it will go on then.

I did aska few of my clients if they did see the watchdog programe and they had not seen it.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Enterprise's tactics might seem like a big deal to us in our little "carpet cleaning bubble".

But as the number of people who get their carpet cleaned in this country is probably only about 10% of the population, I doubt that Enterprise has registered much on the country's radar.

[robert meldrum]

Educating the public...........

Something that's been talked about for the past twenty years in c/c circles ............." educate your customers to pay more for using a professional service "  Great idea.............but how will your prospective clients know the difference ?

There are no National Standards
There are no recognised Qualifications

If c/'s want to be taken seriously I'm afraid you need that kind of stature and credibility otherwise the public will have no guidelines to judge you by, but won't get it until it's forced upon you as you won't join the two credible organisations that can give you that recognition and drive them forward.
One of the organisations has been around since 1961 and their logo can be found on almost every contract cleaners vans and adverts. They're recognised as the leading provider of training courses in the cleaning industry and have recently added carpet cleaning.

[Neil Williams]

Robert, your previous post was nearer the mark ie customers there is no loyalty.
One of my questions when quoting is
"Have these carpets been cleaned before and if so who by?"
I'm amazed when I hear "yes by x,y,z"
"So why are you choosing me"
"Right place at the right time" is the general answer.

Now today I was quoting on an estate and was equally amazed to see another carpet cleaner at a property that we have done several times before. Flip we never even got a phonecall for the regular pre xmas living room carpet clean.

You can have all the logo's, all the training, all the latest hyper suction truckmounts, fan-daby-doby websites and it all comes down to right place right time, hence why this crowd are getting it right, 'Flood the market with telemarketing and go in cheap.' Bit like fishing at a trout farm.

[robert meldrum]

I agree Neil, with the analogy and it can be disappointing when someone you thought was a loyal client goes elsewhere but I suppose it's swings and roundabouts.

Mike Halliday has illustrated this point several times on here when talking about constantly leafleting the same areas month after month so he is always in his existing or potential clients mind when they think about carpet cleaning.

[wynne jones]

I reckon they get about 1 in 40 calls, but... they know anyone stupid enough or old enough to let someone come round with the promise of a carpet clean for that price, is sure to be a soft touch. 

As for losing your own custies, yes, you have to keep in contact otherwise they will stray. Other than that the best way to keep custies is to get a glowing testimonial off them. After that they won't use anyone else unless you screw up big time.