[cleaning co]

hi folks ,as i am moving abroad in under 3 months i havnt been pushing the cleaning  just working of old custys and toms and yellow pages etc etc  but can say the last 2 months hav been slowest ever for me in over 10 years of cleaning  anyone esle the same ?  i only do domestic work
cheers gary

[dave401uk]

Gary, yes i agree with you........it is quite


Dave

[LTT Leathercare]

I have to say that on the leather side of things, cleaning, restoration and repair we have never been busier, we are contacted all the time by the public for people that can clean leather and don't know where to go.

Regards
Judy

[cleaning co]

just to reply to your comments judy, i put leather cleaning in my adds and can say i get asked to clean leather  once a year

[garyj]

Same here, I've quoted 3 leathers since I started and haven't got one of them. I think most people with leather sofa's will give it a go themselves because the products to do it are so readily available from supermarkets.

[LTT Leathercare]

The problem is that the products from supermarkets generally don't work (or at the worst do damage to the leather) When we put our product line on the market we were actually asked by the suppliers of the raw product whether we wanted it to do anything or not!  That is how the general products are done so cheaply, many of them are just water with a small amount of detergent in them.

When you are marketing leather cleaning you have to educate the public about why it needs doing and the importance of protecting it that way you will generate business.  Many of the shops tell customers when they purchase leather that it does not need cleaning, this is nonsense and done by the shops to prevent any comebacks, the truth is that if nothing is done the leather will deteriorate (very rapidly in some cases) and will become beyond cleaning or even repair.  When customers are made aware of this they are only too willing to look after their investment.  It is important that you can convey these messages to your customers in order to win the cleaning contracts.

When you are doing your carpet cleaning you must be seeing leather in peoples houses (over 50% of all furniture is leather and over 65% of all houses have an item of leather furniture in them) it is then that you need to sieze the opportunity to market your services to them.  Make it a prominent part of your business and not just a by line and you will soon see the difference.

Regards
Judy

[cleaning co]

judy no way is there a market for cleaning leather sofas like there is for carpet and say cotten sofas if this was the case i would get 50% of my calls say out of the thoms asking for thier leather sofa to be cleaned this would be the first heading in a thom  that someone wanting thier leather sofa cleaned would turn too , leather sofas take years to look dirty not like carpets and cotten sofas people pick up the phone and thom book when they can see they are dirty thats y 999 out 1000 calls out of the directoires are for carpets and cotten/draylon sofas etc  and not leather  when u spill something on leather u just wipe it off  , are u not just creating a market for leather cleaning training for a service very rarely used ?  just my opion
gary

[garyj]

To be honest Judy, is that the sort of company you want making your product 

Do you want it to work or not LMAO, you mean there are cleaning products out there that don't work  : What can you mean 

After we have paid for the leather training how much extra to use your logo to say we have been taught?

[benny d]

Ive been in businees for 14 months now and done one leather suite!
Its in my Yellow Pages, leaflets, and other advertising, but it's a no go for me 

[cleaning co]

it be nice to c some comments of this from guys who hav join up with this leather cleaning firm as long as they speak the truth lol mind, its intresting to see on judys site that they are selling thier prouducts to joe public and telling them how to use them etc dos this not make their cleaning tecs not used ?

[LTT Leathercare]

Hi

The products we supply do work but we were offered ones at a much cheaper price that don't  do anything, we would not even consider the cheaper products as we supply both to technical and domestic markets and need to prove to all our clients, furniture restorers, retailers, cleaners etc that our products do what they are supposed to.

Supplying the public directly does not detract from people using specialist cleaners it just means that we are able to educate the public properly about the products they should be using and why, it also allows the customer to treat their furniture correctly in between having it cleaned professionally which we recommend them to do once a year.

Maybe having a bit more confidence in the product you are cleaning will help with your marketing. 

I did not say that 50% of the cleaning market was for leather I said that 50% of the furniture market is leather therefore the leather must be out there somewhere.  Leather does not take longer to look dirty, there are many cream coloured suites on the market which need protecting as soon as they are bought and need regular cleaning to maintain them, people only end up asking for it to be cleaned when it is too late because they have not been educated.  Spills can be just wiped off some leathers and certainly those that have been protected but there are many leathers out there where spills will soak straight in and need to be dealt with.

We are not just creating a market for the courses, we have done our research and know that there is a need for it and know from the contact we have from cleaners who have done the course that they are very busy once they have got their marketing right.

The use of our logo costs £15.00 once you have completed the course.

We now have a large network of cleaners on our books who we are beginning to pass regular work to.

Regards
Judy

[John Rimmer Marshall & Rimmer Ltd]

Hi Judy please dont take this the wrong way but i have been in this business
on my own for about 12 yrs now. In that time i have cleaned a number of leather suites, so farr and i know i am tempting fate by saying this i have not come accross any problems. My question to you is if i came on one of your courses what good would it do me, you say you pass work on, could you tell us
how much for example, and how these members of the general puplic know about youreselves in the first place. My reason for asking these questions is not to try and put you down but to simply assertane as to weather spending money coming on one of your courses would benefit me, ie would i in the long run be able to make more money over and above what i do at the moment.

                                              Take Care John

[garyj]

Ok, I have a few questions.

Why would I want a leather cleaner  to come and clean my sofa when I have maintained it myself all year!! That really doesn't make sense at all to me, sorry.

I would also strongly refute that supplying the public doesn't detract from your commercial sales. It simply must do, and with the information on your site and the educating you have done to the general public, again they just do not need an extra clean from a qualified leather person.

All replies so far have stated that we just aren't asked to clean leather often enough to warrant the extra cost of a course. I don't think that has anything to do with the confidence in the products they are using. I have a couple  of bottles of Alltec leather cream, I have only used it on my car seats, it worked very well and was simply 'rub on, rub off', it is very easy but time consuming.

I am not trying to be hostile, just pointing out what I think are obvious discrepancies.

[Ian Gourlay]

As I have said previously my training in Leather Cleaning  lasted about 30 minutes at  Ashby's as part of their three day course.

I know that Alltec do a half day course, and believe The leather training centres course is two days.




Is there any where else.?


Regarding Judys comment about marketing Leather Cleaning when Auditing or cleaning carpet or doing the ironing etc

Yes we should all be looking for additional opportunities.

Perhaps Judy or someone could give us the Key benefits to the customer in having a technician clean their leather suite.

[garyj]

During a phone call last week someone mentioned to me that microsplitters work very well cleaning leather. As I was sat on a leather chair at the time I got a micro fibre cloth and cleaned it. It looked clean and I was surprised at how much muck came off using just Zap-it. It was very quick and easy and there appears to be no damage to the chair. It was also recommended I conditioned the chair afterwards, but I haven't again it appears OK. I cleaned the whole chair in about 5 minutes

I'm not endorsing this method and I only used it on an office chair, but it worked.

[craigp]

judy,

from the customers point of view, they can buy your products, or use a techicion to do the work USING THE SAME PRODUCTS

targetting domestic and commercial seems to me to conflict, ie. i would be interested how many calls your techicions get from your website surly potential customers will think they'll save some money and do it them selfs.

also since there are instructions to encourage them to do exactly that.

imo there is very very little demand for leather cleaning techicions, any customers of mine with leather upholstery (and theres lots) when i've discussed cleaning with them always tell me they have bought a cleaner to do it themselfs.

i note on your 'find a techicion' you point out your no part of the service they provide and cannot endorse the service they recieve, i think that is unneccasary and does the techicion no favours, and does not protect you in a legal sense anyway, work carried out by another company you cannot be held responseable for just because you have listed there services.

maybe you should just target the public, you maybe better off heading in one direction, thats not intented as critism. but targetting more specifically the market were the main demand is may be a better approuch.

regards craig

[LTT Leathercare]

Hi

Thank you for all your comments I will try and answer tham one by one

Leather should be maintained on a regular basis throughout the year.  If you use our consumer products which consist of a Soft Cleaner and Protector you are a) adding moisture back into the leather and b) cleaning surface dirt off which eventually would soak in and do damage then you are protecting the leather to inhibit staining and dirt soaking into the leather.

The idea of then having a professional clean is because the cleaners we sell to technicians are a stronger detergent which we sell to technicians because they can be more aware of the effects it is having and resolve any problems that there might be.  Our consumer products would not deal with things like dye transfer which could then be dealt with by the professional cleaner.  This is how many of our cleaners operate and find it very successful.

You really do have to understand the nature of leather (it is totally different to fabric) to be able to clean it confidently and understand what all the different products do (Strong Cleaner, Maxi Cleaner, Alcohol Cleaner, Removers and Finishes).  Without the knowledge of leather and leather products you cannot speak or sell your services confidently to your customer or understand the results you will get on the different finishes.

Cream cleaners can build up a residue on leather and do long term damage so generally are not recommended.

The key benefits of having a trained cleaner to clean leather are that they will understand the type of leather (finish) they are dealing with and clean or restore it accordingly.They will be able to spot any potential problems that the customer may be facing (fading, cuts, scratches, colour loss, dye transfer etc) all of which can then be dealt with.  They will be able to converse with the customer about the type of leather they have purchased and about its on going care, and will be able to deal with all the types of finish that are on the market of which there are hundreds. 

Microsplitters may work but as yet have not been tested and until this has happened we would not recommend their use.  We tested a micro fibre sponge at Carpex and yes it did appear that it pulled out lots of dirt, what in fact was happening is that it was removing finish and pigment from the leather and leaving the leather open to dirt.  This is exactly the reason you have to understand how to recognise what is going on and that people should use cleaners who know and understand leather.  As you say it 'appears' to have done no damage but in fact it probably has.  Again the need to understand how to recognise what is going on.  Conditioning again is something that is debatable, please see our article on 'To feed or Protect' which I think was posted a while ago.

The products we sell consumers are a milder form and they cannot do any harm with them but it does do the leather good, the protector they should always be using on a regular basis anyway. 

Leather cleaning is hard work but straightforward once you understand the principles but we would expect it to take between 2-4 hours depending on the size.  This is why we sell products to consumers, they will not spend this sort of time doing a really good clean but can use our products to give it a general wipe down between your visits.

As leather specialists we target all aspects of the market as we are trying to educate everyone, there is little or no good advice given to the public when they buy their suite for many reasons.

Our leather cleaners are very busy as our leather technicians and specialists who we now have all over the country.  The directory part of our site is about to be revamped and dealt with in a different format but at the moment anyone can advertise on it which is why we put a disclaimer, anyone who has done our course has our logo added to their details so that people can see that they have been trained.

Hope this answers all your questions and thanks for all the phone calls today from people enquiring about courses.

[stevegunn]

Hi Judy please dont take this the wrong way but i have been in this business
on my own for about 12 yrs now. In that time i have cleaned a number of leather suites, so farr and i know i am tempting fate by saying this i have not come accross any problems. My question to you is if i came on one of your courses what good would it do me, you say you pass work on, could you tell us
how much for example, and how these members of the general puplic know about youreselves in the first place. My reason for asking these questions is not to try and put you down but to simply assertane as to weather spending money coming on one of your courses would benefit me, ie would i in the long run be able to make more money over and above what i do at the moment.

                                              Take Care John

John the course is defiantly worth going on I cleaned leather for a while but learnt so much on the course eg,repairing cigarette burns, repairing scratches/cuts and how to restore aniline leather Knowledge is a great thing I collected a rug today and the lady had a leather suite,I asked what she used to clean it "baby wipes" came the reply going back next week to clean plus sold her a leather cleaning kit. I was more confident talking about the cleaning process and it instilled confidence in the customer.

[garyj]

Hampshire, Berks, Middlesex, Herts, Bedfordshire, Essex, Suffolk and London seem to be taken by just one company, and so many areas remain unfilled.

Looks like you pay to go into the directory and anyone can join, what is there to  stop me adding my name? The only difference would be I don't get a logo, but until you pointed that out I had no idea, I just presumed they were recommended by the LTT because they had trained them.

You do sell repair kits to the general public, that is not obvious from your reply, that states they would need a trained leather professional.

You also say that cream cleaners build up residue, but who knows that!! I didn't and neither would any potential customers. Are you saying my Alltec cream cleaner is actually damaging to leather sofa's?

Do the general public who buy your products know they are getting sn inferior cleaner, again  that is not obvious from  the website where it looks like there is only the one product, it doesn't mention different strengths.

[stevegunn]

It does mention different strengths soft and strong cleaner

http://www.lttsolutions.net/products.asp