RM Online - What you need to know about carpet cleaning

The market for carpet cleaning equipment has been evolving in the past couple of years due to the fact that more and more supermarkets and hardware stores are carrying Rug Doctor-like cleaning systems. But it's an evolution that rental stores can turn into dollars, because they are in a position to serve both the homeowner and professional markets.

"The rental industry has been moving toward self-contained units like you see in supermarkets, so these kinds of machines are being more accepted in the commercial markets that rental has traditionally served," said Gary Dozier, product manager for Powr-Flite Commercial Floor Care Equipment, Fort Worth, Texas.

Chuck Shipp, president of Shipp Rental Cleaning Systems, Conyers, Ga., also is seeing a trend toward self-contained models in the rental industry.

"In the recent past, we've seen the industry move away from box-and-wand units to a one-piece model that allows users to stand up straight without having to bend over a wand. We're also seeing the rental industry move toward lighter, more portable machines," he said.

The self-contained rental units offered by rental stores also are much more powerful and are more rugged than supermarket models, Dozier said.

Shipp agreed. "The rental marketplace comes from the professional industry, but manufacturers have been scaling back their inventories of professional units. Instead we're seeing smaller machines that still have a strong psi and vacuum."

Another advantage that rental stores have is that they can purchase equipment that typically has large back orders, thus being able to offer incentives to customers.

Price is an excellent example, Shipp said. "Rental rates typically range from $19.95 to $29.95, because the Rug Doctor rentals are usually around $19.95, but rental store machines are more powerful," Shipp said.

But what rental stores are not doing is taking advantage of the ability to offer a four-hour rental on carpet cleaning systems. Now think about this for a moment. Supermarkets typically rent these units for the day, period. If rental stores offered a four-hour rental to homeowners, they could rent the same machine three times on a Saturday.

"Homeowners would love to be able to just get the machine, clean their carpeting and turn the machine back in," Shipp said. "They don't usually need it for the whole day. This is a way rental stores can really get a faster return on investment. What you do is offer a $5 discount on weekends. Believe me, you'll get the traffic, because people will want to save that $5."

"That's all very well, but you still have to get potential customers into your store to rent these units. Supermarkets have a captive audience because they get constant repeat traffic. Manufacturers agree that rental store owners need to emphasize both their in-store display and educating customers through 'system selling,'" Shipp said.

"It's not just about renting the equipment. You have to be able to show your customers what they can do with it, and find out from them what they need cleaned," Shipp said.

But first, the POP and window displays. "There really needs to be a carpet-cleaning POP rack near the register and in the window, emphasizing that you have a complete system for cleaning specific stains, such as dog/cat urine, coffee, tar, etc.," Shipp added.

Dozier agreed. "One thing the rental industry has not done in the past is emphasize the education of consumers. Counter help does not have a lot of time to talk to customers sometimes, so it's important to have a POP display with brochures and quick-reference charts that can help educate [consumers] about different applications."

The education needs to focus on a "how to" method depending on the application. For example, most carpet maintenance manufacturers offer what are called fifth-generation nylon products. This chemical is an all-in-one product in that the defoamer and deodorizer are built in.

Customers also need to know about the array of spotting chemicals available to tackle specific stains - an excellent opportunity for add-on sales for the rental store.

"One of my big pet peeves with the rental industry is that we're not asking enough questions of our customers," Shipp said. "If someone comes in to rent a cleaner, you need to ask first what the stain is. Normally, the stains involve dog or cat urine or someone has tracked mud or tar into the house.

"In the spotting industry, like dissolves like, so water-based stains [coffee, soda, tea] are treated with a separate product from solvent-based stains [paint, lipstick, tar]. You have to tell customers these things as well as how to pre-spot," he said. "The tendency is to pre-spot every stain and then later run the cleaner. But you really should pre-spot and then immediately run the machine after it has worked in."

Another spotting-related trend is that there is now food dye stain-remover chemicals available for stains like Kool-Aid or other punches. This spotter used to only be available to professionals. "Carbohydrate sugar stains have to be vaporized with steam into a terry cloth. It's exciting because we have not been able to get pink and red food stains out before," Shipp said.

Urine stains need a spotter with a bacteria culture and enzymes. "You just have to be able to explain these differences to customers and have the different spotters available at your POP counter display," Shipp said. "They really generate a lot of interest, and we've had people actually contact us, the manufacturer, if their rental store is out of it."

Another thing for counter and, especially, yard personnel to keep in mind is proper maintenance of the cleaning equipment. "It's important that carpet cleaning systems have clean water run through them when they come back to the rental store," Dozier said.

"The spray tips also need to be inspected but never cleaned with something hard. And if there's hard water in the area, de-liming products should be used to clean," he said.

Shipp agreed that the spray tip is very important. "If there's a grain of sand or grit in the tips, you'll get a really uneven spray, which will cause a carpet to streak."