Have you ever wondered why some carpet cleaners always have the latest and greatest tools, and seem to be in demand all the time from wealthier, higher-end clients … while other cleaners are struggling to find enough jobs to keep the bills paid??

 

To me the difference is clear … KNOWLEDGE.

NCCA Carpet Cleaning Course

You can be the best carpet cleaner in the world, but without the knowledge to keep the jobs coming in you will not be paid, likewise you could be the best marketer, but if you can’t remove the stains and give outstanding customer service you will not get paid.  

The best way to move forward is by education.  You must educate your staff, you must educate our clients and above all you must educate your biggest resource --YOU.

As the late Dr Stephen Covey, wrote in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we all need to ‘Sharpen the Saw’.  This means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have--you.  He explains we can only do this by stopping every now and again to 'sharpen your saw' … or taking the time to build a balanced programme for self-renewal in the four key areas of your life: 

1. Physical:   Beneficial eating, exercising, and resting
2. Social/Emotional:   Making social and meaningful connections with others
3. Mental:  Learning, reading, writing, and teaching
4. Spiritual:  Expanding through meditation, music, art, prayer, or service

It’s true a few people do stumble upon wealth and will make it in business, however for most of us this isn't true.  Of all the self-made and successful people I know, without exception, have achieved this by taking the time to educate themselves and the people around them and discover new ideas and strategies to helped them grow. 

I would like to ask when was the last time you…

• Attended a training course on carpet or hardfloor cleaning?
• Attended a specialist course like Spot and Stain Removal?  
• OR purchased some new cleaning products and spent time testing them on stains in your own workshop?

There is no right or wrong answer here, however, the cleaners that seem to be the most successful are the ones I often see at different seminars and courses around the country and on a wide area of subjects and by a wide range of suppliers or instructors.

More and more these days we see cleaners attending seminars for ‘business building’ or ‘marketing’ and even ‘social media’ – these are great, just don’t forget the fundamentals of cleaning and educate yourself with all the latest knowledge.

Sharing Your Knowledge

One of the best ways to grow your own education is to keep searching and sharing your knowledge.  By this we can refer to a number of opportunities to share with your fellow cleaners and peers, like writing articles for the trade and the NCCA Newslink.  Helping to arrange or attending regional meetings for the NCCA.

To help attract more people to your business write 'articles' for the local press, (you maybe able to become a columnist for them, like writing something for 'Spring Cleaning', 'Back to School' and of course 'Pre-Christmas Clean).  The article, published or not can become a new blog post for you, and you drive people to read it by using Social Media.   Finally your 'press article', becomes your 'new blog', which transforms into a new 'free report'.

The simplest way of sharing your knowledge is by educating your clients.  Think of all the ‘FREE Reports’ you could produce and start using them on your website to attract new customers to you.  Google loves new and relevant information, (that's why they love blogs) so the more free reports and free information you upload to the internet the higher it will rank you on the Google search engine.

How many people will type into Google ‘Carpet Stain Removal’ or ‘Pet Urine Removal’ looking for a way of dealing with this for themselves … if you become the local resource of cleaning knowledge they are more likely to come to you when they need a carpet cleaner next time, or indeed if they can't remove the carpet stain themselves.

Not sure what to write…?

Again search the internet for ‘FREE Carpet Cleaning Guides’ or ‘FREE Carpet Stain Removal Guides’ and rewrite them in your words, adding your local area and of course your contact details.   Remember not to copy any one guide directly for two reasons...

1. The information maybe under copyright to someone else, and you don't want to upset anyone.  
2. Google likes new and relevant information.  It will know if it's already on the internet and it has to be connected to you, your site, your local area and what you do to really make it work. 

Care Flyer. One of the tools in the NCCA members section

The easiest guide is the “Emergency Tips for Spills and Stains” …why?  Well, the NCCA has already written this for you, the image on the right is an A4 flyer, (3rd folded) ... if you are an NCCA member you'll find it ready to go in the members section, if not you'll find all the words on their website (a link AND the full version is below) its free for you to use and amend.  Please remember to give the NCCA some credit for it too. 

Simply read through and add any spotting product names you already give away (or use), add your logo and contact details try a little rewording to make it your own and finally save it as a PDF.  Now you have created a ‘FREE Guide’ to add to your site as a download or print and laminate to give to every client.

Below is the link to the NCCA’s guide and I’ve added the full guide below for you to see.

http://www.ncca.co.uk/firstaidforyourcarpet.php

Hope you found this interesting and I look forward to ‘Sharing’ more with you soon.
 
Regards

 







Paul Pearce
NCCA President
 
PS.  We have a number of training courses coming up, please take a look. NCCA Training Course Details & Dates

Emergency Tips for Spills and Stains

First and foremost, Don't Panic!

Accidents will happen and most can be resolved, sometimes not without the help of a professional, but the NCCA is here to assist no matter what the circumstances.

If something gets spilled on to your carpet, prompt action is required to prevent staining.

Be Prepared

It is the recommendation of the National Carpet Cleaners Association to have the following items and solutions to hand for dealing with spillages as soon as possible:

• Clean white absorbent cloth or towel
• Dry Cleaning Solution - Surgical Spirit (usually available from local Chemists)
• Detergent Solution - One teaspoonful of gentle detergent for washing woollens, to half a pint (0.3 litres) of warm water
• Detergent Vinegar Solution - Add one teaspoonful of white (not malt) vinegar to the Detergent Solution
• Ammonia Solution - One teaspoonful of branded household Ammonia (available from hardware stores) to one cup of warm water

General Tips

• Do not over wet into backing materials
• Always test any solution/detergent on an inconspicuous area of carpet prior to treating a stain
• Use detergents at recommended dilution ratios
• Scrape up or blot up any excess prior to treatment
• Blot, never rub or scrub
• Do not use inappropriate detergents on carpets or upholstery i.e. (washing up liquid, wash powders, household bleach, disinfectants)
• Always work from the outside of the stain inward to avoid spreading
• Always apply the cleaning fluid to the absorbent spotting material not directly onto the carpet or fabric
• Encourage quick drying (carefully use a hairdryer on mild heat to assist)
• Deal with stains as quickly as possible for increased chances of success
• Keep the fabric or carpet as dry as possible.

Alcohol, Coffee, Tea, Liquid Foods, Urine

• Blot up surplus spillage
• Use Detergent Vinegar Solution, a little at a time
• Work from the outer edge of the stain inwards
• Frequently blot with dry cloths
• See below for final rinse procedure

Chocolate, Sweets, Blood, Glue, Egg, Ice Cream, Milk, Soft Drinks, Vomit

• Scrape up excess with a blunt knife
• Use a Detergent Solution starting at the outer edge
• Blot dry
• Follow up with Ammonia Solution
• Blot dry
• See below for final rinse procedure

Solids, Fats, Tar, Chewing Gum, Oil, Ointment, Shoe Polish

• Scrape up excess with a blunt knife
• Use a Dry Cleaning Solution followed by Detergent Vinegar Solution
• Blot dry
• See below for final rinse procedure

Unknown Stains

• Scrape up or blot surplus spillage
• Use a Dry Cleaning Solution followed by clean luke warm water
• Blot dry
• If further treatment is needed, use either Detergent or Detergent Vinegar Solution
• Blot dry
• See below for final rinse procedure

Final Rinse Procedure (applicable to all above methods of stain removal)

• Mix one-part white vinegar and four-parts water
• Pour mixture into a spray bottle and spray over the stained area
• Blot dampened area (do not rub) to remove excess moisture
• Spread white kitchen towel (stacked 6-8 sheets deep) or absorbent cloth over the affected area and place a weight, such as a telephone directory, on top
• Leave overnight and repeat if necessary

Whilst the stain removal guide may be basic, it should help prevent some quite common and expensive DIY stain removal damage. Unfortunately, there can never be a guarantee of complete removal of a stain, but the correct routine will give your professional cleaner, when called in, the best possible chance of success.

» Contact an NCCA member in your area.

REMEMBER: Act Quickly. Scrape up solids, blot up liquids. Take plenty of time, it is worth the effort. Mix the solution accurately and test it on an out of the way piece of carpet. Always work from the outer edge of the stain to the centre. Dab or blot rather than scrub or rub. And, most importantly, NEVER OVER-WET.

NOTE: We are aware that some new carpets have been subjected to anti-static and soil-resistant treatments. Even when these have been applied, it is wise to follow the stain removal procedures suggested.

Increase Your Leads with TrustMark

“How Would You Like A 43% Increase
In Your Internet SEO Leads
Within 12-Months?”

43% Increase In Leads!  This is really what happened to one ‘service industry’ after they joined TrustMark and they started to encourage all their TrustMark approved contractors to adopt the tagline...

“Working to Industry & Government Endorsed Standards”.

They took five different companies within their industry and monitored their current on-line leads, then monitored their leads once they became TrustMark approved and using the tagline “Working to Industry & Government Endorsed Standards” on all their marketing, Quotes, Letterheads, vans … in fact everywhere.

Overall an average increase of 61% in leads was found across all five companies with an amazing 43% increase from the FREE SEO (or getting to the top of Google) boosted by their trade bodies ‘consumer facing’ website.

Did these results happen over night?  NO

Did they come from just the TrustMark website alone?  NO

BUT COULD CARPET CLEANERS GET THIS RESULT?  YES

“Also, How Would You Like Leads From Over 18 Different Government And Consumer Groups?”

As TrustMark is a consumer facing Government programme to help stop rogue traders by endorsing approved contractors, they have over 18 ‘Government’ and ‘Consumer Protection’ groups supporting and driving leads to the TrustMark site.   

Here are a few you may recognise… 

2012 was a record year for the TrustMark website and people searching for ‘Approved Trades’.  In fact there were 3,890,526 searches form the public last year … that’s an average of 324,210 consumers per month looking for new trade service.  (These numbers are available for download from the TrustMark site).

Yes, we agree TrustMark and their website was originally set-up for the ‘Building Trades’ and these will always receive the lion’s share of the leads, however, there are more of the smaller ‘home service’ category’s being added and searches for other services are growing in number. 

For example, below I have listed three trades that are close to carpet cleaning and the actual number of searches for each of them in 2012.

Flood Recovery Specialists……..204,363

Floor Covering Installers………….43,999

Garden Landscapers………………..86,253

While the ‘Flood Recovery’ does include damp proofing, and therefore may be higher as more of a building trade, we suggest ‘Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning’ would receive more hits than ‘Floor Covering Installers’ who are not really a service provider in the same way (ie installers are not used as frequently as cleaners).  

Garden Landscapers maybe ‘closer’ to carpet cleaning, not for what they do, but as a ‘service provider’ and therefore we’d estimate the number of searches for ‘Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning’ to between 43,999 per year and 86,253 … around 65,126 per year and growing.

Now does being TrustMark Approved sound more interesting??

Getting Work Direct From The NCCA

The NCCA has never set out to provide its members with work, if you look on the website it states…

"The principal objective of the NCCA is the establishment and maintenance of minimum standards within the carpet and upholstery cleaning industry, with the dual aim of safeguarding the reputation of the industry and protecting its customers, whether in the domestic or commercial sphere.”

As a trade body we hear all the time of people expecting the NCCA to find members work.  An average of 70 enquiries per month come in to the office by phone or via the internet. These are fairly distributed to members on the basis of locality and are not, as has been suggested in the past, given to directors.

Regardless of this, more and more cleaners are demanding the NCCA do something to help.

We are listening and want to help.

With the number of new ‘multi-trade associations’, and on-line ‘approved-trader’ directories most of whom have no standards relating to our industry, it was decided that we need to find some way for our members to stand out from the rest and build consumer confidence.  

It was suggested by some members that we fight for government recognition but the truth is carpet and upholstery cleaning isn’t regarded as a ‘dangerous actively’ like fitting a gas appliance in a home.   Therefore it is highly unlikely the government will ever award us a scheme like ‘Gas Safe’.

Nevertheless, we looked for something we can use and for 18 months the NCCA directors, led by the Membership Director Glyn Charnock, have been worked incredibly hard behind the scenes to enable the NCCA to build an exclusive arrangement with TrustMark.

In October 2012, Glyn announced he has managed to agree an outstanding deal for the NCCA members with TrustMark.

Instead of the mandatory independent inspection (costing between £250 and £500 every 3 years) of your full company, including financial checks, equipment and cleaning procedures inspections, TrustMark have agreed to waive this normal requirement in favour of cleaners who are …

• Fully paid members of the NCCA  
• Abide by the NCCA’s ‘Code of Practice’ 
• All work to comply with PAS 86:2008 standards 
• Minimum of two years industry experience   
• Signed Health and Safety policy 
• Fully insured to a minimum of £2m and ‘Treatment Risk’ cover 
• Have attended an Advanced Spot & Stain Removal course.  

All you need is to attend at just one approved training event every three years to maintain TrustMark accreditation.

So The deal is done…   

The NCCA have arranged an exclusive deal with TrustMark so your company can become endorsed by the Government and consumers will be able to find you under our a category of ‘Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning’ on the TrustMark website.  

Now It’s Your Turn…

All we need to do to open this category, is offer ‘national coverage’ of approved cleaners.  The government sets this at a minimum of 60 companies (unless a specialised section).

And here lies our problem…

A little like which comes first … the chicken or the egg?

To get the category open, we need 60 approved cleaners...

To get 60 approved cleaners, we need the category open!

You would think it would be easy for us as a trade body with almost 600 members, to reach 60 cleaners within a few weeks, but as yet only 10 members have signed up, and although some others have come forward and requested information, if they if they don’t sign up and soon we may lose this opportunity.

TrustMark is not a chequebook organisation… the NCCA can’t just pay the fees for 60 members, we need 60 members to come forward and agree to become TrustMark approved.

If you are ‘sitting on the fence’ and waiting to see when (or if) the category will appear DON’T, YOU MAY BE TOO LATE!

New NCCA Web Search 

Once we have the category up and running the NCCA will have the option to change the way people search for a member.

Part of our restructure in 2012 was to add the new-tiered membership, which has been designed to recognise continued and long-term support of the Association and reward additional training beyond the basic criteria for joining, the aim being to raise standards within the industry. 

Therefore our search may no longer just offer the nearest members… it could show TrustMark members and the tiered membership so consumers can select which level of member they want rather than just which member is closest.

In addition we could help with your SEO.  At this moment, if you was to type ‘carpet cleaning’ and ‘your town’ name (for example ‘carpet cleaning Leicester’) into Google, a NCCA listing will not be on page one.  The NCCA website and directory was never designed that way.   However, with SEO the new search directory will come up, and although we can’t guarantee it we are told this should be on page one for towns we have NCCA members.

The new search capability on the website is only in the pipeline and isn’t going to be set-up until we have at least 60 members in TrustMark.

Should Having ‘No Category’ Stop You
From Joining TrustMark Now?

The answer is NO!  Without a doubt, using TrustMark now in your own marketing, both on-line and off-line could give you the jump on your competition.   

The cost of TrustMark is currently only £150+vat.   In total £180, which works out to £15 per month or only £3.50 per week.  So for less than 50p per day you could be using the tagline “Working to industry Standards and Government Approved”.

As a NCCA Member, if you have attended the NCCA’s (or other recognised course) on Advanced Spot & Stain Removal recently your entry training requirements are complete. 

If you haven’t attended an Advanced Spot & Stain Removal Course, the NCCA with give you a voucher for £100 off the TrustMark fee (the NCCA will pay this to TrustMark directly) if you attend one of the next two NCCA spotting courses.

Then you can start marketing yourself as being ‘Government Approved’ or ‘Government Endorsed’.

We recommend you use a tagline like this …

“Working to industry Standards and Government Approved”

One area you can use TrustMark approval with immediate effect is in a ‘Google Pay Per Click’ (PPC) campaign.  If you look at the image below this ‘sample’ advert uses almost all the allowed number of letters you can have in one Google PPC advert.

This is a sample of a Google advert … so you can see it works.

The FIVE steps to follow for a great PPC advert are…

1. First line, give the subject ie ‘carpet cleaner’ and your local town name. If you have other services like upholstery or additional towns make additional adverts. We also recommend you also make additional adverts for different uses of words like ‘cleaner’ or ‘cleaning’.
2. Use the ‘Display URL’ … this does not need to be your website home page so can add more information.  Shorten your URL and add something like www.YourWebAddress.com/TrustMarkApproved.   Remember to keep the words together (no spaces) and to make it readable by adding a capital letter to the start of each word.
3. Use a strong ‘Tagline’ like Working to industry Standards and Government Approved this fits in.
4. Use the ‘local’ STD phone number to match the town in the top line of the advert.  This way people will know you are local and often don’t need to click the advert saving them time and you money.   
5. The actual URL (not the display URL) should direct people a ‘LANDING PAGE’ on ‘YOUR WEBSITE’ which explains about your company working to NCCA and industry standards and being approved be the Governments TrustMark scheme.

 

I ‘Trust’ you can now see the benefit of your company becoming a TrustMark approved cleaner, and look forward to seeing you make the change.

I hope you liked this information and if you have any questions please call the office on 0116 271 9550.

Regards

Keith Robertson
NCCA Vice President and Marketing Director

PS. If you haven’t ready signed up please do so now, and start gaining more leads … it will only cost you £180 for 12 months, less than 50p per day and you can use the TrustMark name and logo in all your marketing.

Moving The Free Line

“Moving The Free Line” is a great marketing tool, which can bring you more new customers, and the great thing is many of them may have never even thought of having their carpets cleaned before. 

Would you like to know how to do it?  It’s very simple, just state in your adverts you offer…

“One FREE Room of Carpet Cleaning”

OK, so there is a little more to it than that, and before you click away, please bear with me and allow me explain.  By implementing the ‘Moving The Free Line’ strategy it can really help to bring in a lot of new customers…even for your local carpet cleaning business.

Although “Moving The Free Line” may be a relatively new marketing concept, offering a ‘Free Room Of Cleaning’ is not new, in fact it was first introduced to the UK in 1997, by a one-time carpet cleaner-turned marketing guru from America.

Over the years a number of UK cleaners have been taught to understand the true concept of offering a high valued service for free enabling them to build massive perceived value… and in return have gained many new clients and massively increased their profits.   You can knock it, but it has been working in the UK for over 15 years.

What Are You Already Giving Away FREE?

I know this may seem a bit counter intuitive, giving stuff or services away for FREE.   I understand many people would never dream of offering ‘Something for nothing'…as it goes against everything we believe.   However, most of us are already doing it in one way or another.  

• If you have a website, you’re giving away information about you and your services for free. 

• If you use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google etc… again you’re giving information away free! 

• If you offer ‘Free Quotes’ you are giving your most valuable asset … your TIME and it’s free.

All we have to do is learn how to ‘Move’ that free line across a little. 

More Proof FREE Works

If you really think giving your services away for FREE would fail … you couldn’t be more WRONG.

Take a look around you… or more importantly some of the tools you are using already… Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google … all these offer FREE tools, and if you’re not using them you should.

So how can these companies turnover ‘$BILLIONS’ if their main service is given away for FREE?  Once they have attracted larger numbers of people to use their FREE services, they offer additional higher-end services and charge for them.

Why Moving The Free Line Works

The phrase ‘Moving The Free Line’ comes from a young man called Eben Pagan (below).  

Eben Pagan, talking about the 'Moving The FREE Line'

Eben, is a true marketing genius who has generated over $100million in the last few years from his own businesses.  

Eben teaches what he has learnt in the real world and says when you ‘move the Free Line’, your lead funnel opens up.   By this he means you appeal to a wider audience and you’ll attract more people.  It even works by enticing those ‘not looking’ for carpet cleaning to take you up on the offer.   In fact you’ll find a lot more people are going to be interested in getting something for free IF it is very valuable. 

Once you’ve got someone in your lead funnel you can nurture and convert them by upselling, and often you’ll be able to increase your service and move what Eben calls the ‘Depth line’ (or increase your top price by offering a higher-end package with more profit for you).

I strongly recommend you visit Eben’s YouTube video and watch him explain ‘moving the FREE line’ himself.   Link is below.

Eben Pagan, Extending the 'Depth Line'

Figuring out The “Free Line”

You may be wondering to yourself, “Why would I give away something of value for free, when I can sell it and make a profit?” The idea behind ‘Moving the Free Line’ is to take your smaller services and products and move it over and offer them for FREE. So, something that used to cost you a few pounds, like £5-£50, is now FREE to attract more people.

In the cleaning industry its well known people spend time trying to sell the little spotters … crazy.  Just think about this…you spend 5-10 mins in selling a £5 product and make £2.50 profit … compared to the great feeling your customer has when you GIVE THEM A FREE GIFT OF A SPOTTER, just for inviting you for a free quote (and of course you add the cost of the spotter in the clean).

Just move the Free Line right over, from the beginning. Market the fact YOU give away a massive amount of value… AND give it away to as many people as you can.

If the free room or even the spotter is too big for you, create downloadable PDF reports, or shoot a ‘FREE how-to video’ on ‘Coffee Stain Removal’, or 'Pet Odour Removal', add a value of £5-£20 and give them away on your website in return for their email. These are strategies that are being used by people to generate clients on a small budget. They move the Free Line.

Are You Using Other Companies FREE Lines?

There are many tools out there you can use in your business FOR FREE.  Of course one of the main tool providers you should be using is Google.  Google offer many tools which are FREE, like...

• Google Places -  Want your local business to show up before organic search results? For some keywords, it now can thanks to Google Places.  Be sure that you add your listing on Google Places, complete your profile, add photos & videos, and encourage reviews so that your business will make it to the first page of search results.

• Google Analytics - is probably one of the most powerful (yet FREE) Google tools that you can use as business owner. You can learn so much about your website’s visitors and what is and what isn’t working.

• Google Blogger - If you want to start a blog, but you’re not ready to commit to a self-hosted blogging platform such as WordPress, then you might want to consider Blogger. If it’s been a while since you last took a look at it, you might be interested in some of the latest improvements. There have been rumours in the past that getting links on Google-owned sites can help with the indexing of your website, so don’t overlook the power of Blogger!

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool - Need keyword ideas for your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) campaign or paid search advertising? Try the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. When you enter a term that offers a wide range of ideas, like ‘cleaning’, you will get groupings of keyword ideas that you can dig deeper into.

• YOU TUBE (Google-Owned) - Last, but not least, if you want to dominate the video market, then start with YouTube. Not only will your video be available to YouTube’s millions upon millions of visitors, but it will also be on prime real estate for showing up in search results. Even if you can’t get your website on the first page of search results through traditional SEO, you might be able to get there with video.

I hope you liked my little Marketing Insight.  I really recommend you take a look at Eben’s FREE YouTube video, which explains the FREE Line in more detail. 

Watch Eben's Video Here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3MrwYPRB-I

Regards

Keith Robertson,

NCCA Vice President and Marketing Director

PS. I'd really need your help.  If you would like more 'marketing blogs' articles please give me 2 minutes of your time and answer my THREE questions on marketing.  Click the link below.  

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Watch Eben's Video Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3MrwYPRB-I