Most customers have very high expectations when they hire you to do professional carpet or upholstery cleaning. They often believe that you’ll be able to restore their items to “brand new” condition, no matter how much traffic, dirt and spills their carpet or upholstery has endured.
Your job is to manage their expectations up front – to make sure they understand that you can take their old (i.e., not brand new) and dirty furnishings or floor coverings and return them to a still old but cleaner condition – but definitely not brand new.
Too often we fail to talk frankly about the realistic results they should expect, thus creating a dissatisfied customer. Your goal should be to align expectations with the limitations of the process and the condition of their goods.
Ask the Right Questions
Before starting the job, pose these questions to the customer to help them understand the limitations involved in the cleaning process.
Has the item ever been professionally cleaned?
Most do-it-yourself cleaning will void the manufacturer warranty as well as leaving a high amount of detergent residue in the fiber.
If so, by whom?
This will tell you a lot about whether they choose a cleaner based on quality or based on low price alone
How often do you have them cleaned?
Most warranties state that carpets must be professionally cleaned every 12 to 18 months.
What products do you use on spots and stains?
Off-the-shelf stain removers are especially problematic, as they leave behind high pH product residue that usually just attracts more soils.
Inspect to Protect
Do a careful inspection of the carpet or furniture, looking for any unusual wear or stains. You should discuss any existing carpet traffic patterns, damage and problem spots or stains before starting the job. Most customers expect the traffic patterns to disappear in the cleaning process, so that’s an expectation to manage along with all the others
Set the Stage
After obtaining answers to your questions and inspecting the item, you are ready to manage your customer’s expections, for example:
[Customer], due to the fact you have not had the carpets professionally cleaned in over 3 years, I can return the carpets to a clean state but they will not look brand new because of the abrasive damage caused by normal foot traffic
While these conversations aren’t easy to have with a customer, it’s important, as it influences your customer’s satisfaction with the end result.
Setting realistic expectations ensures that the customer accepts and is satisfied with the results of your hard work – and potentially refers friends and neighbors.
See our other cleaning chemistry Tips & Tricks.
