[robert meldrum]

Jamie

Unlike yourself who was introduced to this industry at 13 or 14 we have a relative newcomer to the industry who by nature is a highly motivated and enthusiastic individual with a STRONG SALES background who in a couple years has decided he can do better than the established organisations in getting carpet cleaners to work together and raise the profile of carpet cleaning and increase the volume of work for operators who join TACCA.

Like all walks of life there will always be " joiners " who join everything and anything they think might get them additional business. There are also many who are cursed with a " group " mentality who think they must be part of the " crowd" in case they miss out. There are of course others who genuinely think they will benefit by joining an association or organisation which looks like it will gain their business work over others.

Like others I've been a member of a number of associations / organisations over the years and all they provided at the end of the day was a personal feeling of " belonging " of " status " or " self importance ".
What they provided ( in addition to the above ) was BADGES and STICKERS for vehicles and LOGOS for advertising / promotion.

In no instance did such membership or the evidence of being a member make the slightest difference to the general public.

Today..................The trend is to have GRADINGS usually from 1-6 which theoretically allows the public to make informed decisions ..................THEY DON'T.

The Public buy on PRICE or by RECOMMENDATION or by finding the service in Local Newspapers / Magazines or the Internet.

What service providers see as DESIRABLE and ESSENTIAL is not what the PUBLIC look for and by marketing your product to your prospective customer's WANT'S and NEEDS is what will get you business.

Only my opinion of course but you're welcome to prove me wrong...............but this is all FACT. To kid yourself that prospective customers will be swayed by the criteria written about here is truly " PIE IN THE SKY "


 

[jasonl]

I agree with most of that Robert , BUT TACCA has got an aim to get TV advertising bought on a co-op basis ,  if it ever happens it will be worth  forming TACCA for this alone.

[Jamie Pearson]

Unlike yourself who was introduced to this industry at 13 or 14 we have a relative newcomer to the industry who by nature is a highly motivated and enthusiastic individual with a STRONG SALES background who in a couple years has decided he can do better than the established organisations in getting carpet cleaners to work together and raise the profile of carpet cleaning and increase the volume of work for operators who join TACCA.

Is this not a bad thing?

Surely someone "fresh" to the industry may be whats required.

"Introduced" is exactly the term my father would use as well.
Child labour is how I see it 
Has done me okay so far though thats for sure.

[Colin Day]

I know a carpet cleaner local to me who said almost the same as you Robert. There are a lot of things you've said in your thread that actually hits the nail on the head as far as I am concerned.... I'm a bugger for stickers and badges....

Seriously though, you are right in some of what you say. But I think a lot of us really want to see TACCA work, National advertising works for Rug Doctor, and I can't see why TACCA wouldn't work if they get the advertising right....

To join, you've got nothing to lose....

[Andrew Briscoe]

In my view it is all about customer awareness, and every little will help.

Some of you may remember the Richard and Judy interview with some guy who reccomended regular cleaning of domestic carpets, i think they had 2 studies, a mother and a daughter, 1 who had cleaned often and the other  not at all.

I remember getting inundated with calls, custies wanting there carpets cleaned after seeing it, i think i did over double that month and mostly due to new customers having viewed the programme.

We need Derek to get onto the One Show or something similar,
then he can get his oscar 

Andrew

[Gary Humphreys]

Aint nothing wrong with being a relative newcomer with a wealth of sales experience.
It often takes new people with "fresh legs" to see an opportunity or be tenacious enough to make a difference.
Would love to see this industry move forward and get the recognition good carpet cleaners deserve because lets face it good carpet cleaners make a fantastic difference to peoples homes whereby the bad ones only get create a bad reputation.
TV advertising ....if it can be done - bring it on.   Radio advertising......bring it on give the industry a kick up the bum with a bit of new thinking....bring it on.

If nobody tries we will just keep doing the same old thing wont we.

[Mark Lawrence]

The Public buy on PRICE or by RECOMMENDATION or by finding the service in Local Newspapers / Magazines or the Internet.

...............but this is all FACT. To kid yourself that prospective customers will be swayed by the criteria written about here is truly " PIE IN THE SKY "

It would be nice to see this 'FACT' - perhaps you could give details of the said report, so we can all have a read? Have you got a link?

Mark

[peter maybury]

To state that public buy on price is a very stupid comment if this was true there would only be one brand of everything in existence. The only people in our business would be charging £15 to clean a carpet. If you only have price in mind then I do not see a very promising or enjoyable future, if you have got to be the cheapest carpet cleaner.
People's buying decisions are quite complex things and to say that this is fact or that is fact is just not true.
A well presented case for the aims of the TACCA presented to the public can only be good for the members, the amount of good is does will depend on the amount of people it is actually put in front of.
The industry needs a minimum standard if like the NCCA you let everybody in then it becomes meaningless, you cannot keep lowering the bar.
I personally think that there are too many people in our industry that just want to give the minimum amount of effort for the maximum amount of gain and take no personal pride in the job that they do. I myself do not want to be associated with that type of person and if the TACCA can keep that type of person out then I have no problem being associated to it.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com 

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

To state that public buy on price is a very stupid comment if this was true there would only be one brand of everything in existence. The only people in our business would be charging £15 to clean a carpet. If you only have price in mind then I do not see a very promising or enjoyable future, if you have got to be the cheapest carpet cleaner.
People's buying decisions are quite complex things and to say that this is fact or that is fact is just not true.
A well presented case for the aims of the TACCA presented to the public can only be good for the members, the amount of good is does will depend on the amount of people it is actually put in front of.
The industry needs a minimum standard if like the NCCA you let everybody in then it becomes meaningless, you cannot keep lowering the bar.
I personally think that there are too many people in our industry that just want to give the minimum amount of effort for the maximum amount of gain and take no personal pride in the job that they do. I myself do not want to be associated with that type of person and if the TACCA can keep that type of person out then I have no problem being associated to it.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com 

Good post Pete

[Gary Humphreys]

If people only bought on price then companies like The AA would be out of business because you can buy breakdown cover for half the price of The AA, nobody would buy anything from Marks and Spencer and nobody would buy Mercedes Benz.

[fitz2kleen]

To state that public buy on price is a very stupid comment if this was true there would only be one brand of everything in existence. The only people in our business would be charging £15 to clean a carpet. If you only have price in mind then I do not see a very promising or enjoyable future, if you have got to be the cheapest carpet cleaner.
People's buying decisions are quite complex things and to say that this is fact or that is fact is just not true.
A well presented case for the aims of the TACCA presented to the public can only be good for the members, the amount of good is does will depend on the amount of people it is actually put in front of.
The industry needs a minimum standard if like the NCCA you let everybody in then it becomes meaningless, you cannot keep lowering the bar.
I personally think that there are too many people in our industry that just want to give the minimum amount of effort for the maximum amount of gain and take no personal pride in the job that they do. I myself do not want to be associated with that type of person and if the TACCA can keep that type of person out then I have no problem being associated to it.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com 

Well said that man, couldnt have put it better myself

[robert meldrum]

Joe ......You're taking comments literally. It's a fact and it's being demonstrated on here regularly that literally thousands are buying on price ......witness the huge success of Groupon and Enterprise type organisations.

Of course there will continue to be people who will buy from the people they know or have been recommended to them but that situation is reducing and will continue to do so just as the High Street is losing shops daily and companies like M&S ARE struggling against the tide of the Aldis and Lidls.

If you really imagine TV or Radio advertising will gain business against the quality of advertising put out by giants like Bissell..... DREAM ON.

What will determine the success or otherwise of any independent will be the MARKETING bearing in mind that MARKETING includes offering VALUE as perceived by the buyer of the service.

Attempting to EDUCATE the buying public is just an IDEAL. How many times have you bought a product or service having been " educated " by the seller rather than looking for the best price

This forum is full of PRICE SHOPPERS who are constantly looking for the LOWEST PRICE. Why should your customers be any different

[Ferenc G.]

You CAN educate them. You can make them aware of a quality service.
You can show them the difference between a cheap hire machine and a pro carpet cleaners results in seconds. That alone can make a HUGE difference. I think it is a good idea.

BUT, different cleaners use different methods. IMHO should not be so strict on the equipment.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Robert it's a cleaning forum we talk about the same old cleaning products and awkward customers and price shoppers, marketing wisely can get you the customers that will pay the higher prices. Mass marketing like Groupon with a scatter gun approach finds alsorts of customers but not niche ones it's done on mass so you get a managery also you could say it's a lazy way of advertising but with a single operators like us cleaner we can afford not look for 1000's of 'units' to sell to anyone but with time and effort you can find the right customers.

As said before there are those that shop at Asda and those at Waitrose, my mother invited me (family) for dinner and we had a chicken from Waitrose is was beautiful really tasty far better than the one I had a week earlier when my mrs bought one from Morrisons but that was more than half the price, I think there's room for everyone IMO.

Shaun

[Gary Humphreys]

Thats the crux of this.

Find the customers who only want to get quality service and dont mind paying a small premium because they really couldnt give a toss if they shopped around they could find it cheaper.
It might be a little bit harder to find these people and you may be forced to think outside the box to get them but that is surely better than giving your services away to the lowest bidder.

I used to train salesman who would have great difficulty selling against price and if they had a bad few days their confidence would collapse and it was always because someone was offering a cheaper price. Get their confidence back up and they would start selling despite the fact that prices remained the same.
Giving products/services away at a cheap price is not a neccesity as most of the time its only a lack of confidence and if yoy havnt got confidence in your abilities and business your customers will sense this.

[wynne jones]

When is the TV ad coming out?

[Jim_77]

Soon as you've got your hair and make-up done, Wynne

[wynne jones]

Soon as you've got your hair and make-up done, Wynne

I never mix business with pleasure. 

[Paul Heath]

Had a nasty accident myself using a rotary once


Taught me a lesson it did.



































DON'T USE THEM ON THE ROOF FOR CLEANING SOLAR PANELS :

You've gone up in the world then Steve 

[elliott cleaning]

Question for Derek

I've not followed the issue of the TCCA in detail as it doesn't feature greatly on the Truckmounters forum.  But having some basic inkling & having read through this thread, can you clarify:
The association has been on the go for four or five months now. Not a long time for anything new like this.  As far as I understood it's main aim was to educate the public to 'professional' carpet cleaning and the benefits thereof.  In order to get this message to the public it obviously requires a fair amount of PR as well as advertising.
This clearly doesn't come FOC.  Has any work been done on putting an effective campaign together and consequentially a relevant costing?

 note that currently joining  is free of charge and I guess that' a good way of enticing a required interest.
Assuming that the association has already looked into it's main aim and say has reached 100 members - would an annual fee of £500 - giving a fighting fund of £50,000 - be adequate to launch an effective campaign - and what would it get for this?

I can see that you have already put a lot into this association (hopefully not to the detriment of your core business) and I hope that it will have a successful outcome