Guide To Carpet Protector...

The NCCA's Guide To How Carpet Protector Really Works…

Carpet Protection applied correctly to freshly cleaned carpets, creates a great ‘win-win’ as it enables the cleaner to earn more money by providing an additional service and gives the consumer a cleaner, healthier and longer lasting carpet therefore protecting their investment.

It seems some carpet cleaners think no one is willing to pay for an additional service in today’s economic climate, but if you read this blog you’ll understand how carpet protector really would benefit the homeowner if sold correctly.  

I agree times are tough, people are not spending the same as they once did, but this doesn’t mean you should give up on your marketing or your selling … in fact its time to sell more, by stepping and up offering a bigger and improved service.

The carpet cleaning industry is not alone in taking a bashing with “crazy” low priced competition and increasing costs.  Yet I still believe our biggest challenge does not come from outside forces such as the recession, our competition … instead, our problems, as a rule are “internal” ... 

       ...as Henry Ford once said ...

 "Whether you think YOU CAN 

or whether you think YOU CAN'T, 

YOU'RE RIGHT"

Only last week I was talking with two carpet cleaners, both have been in the industry for 15+ years and both have seen their work volume drop and their job tickets plummet over few years.  After quizzing them I found they are marketing less than they once did as ‘marketing doesn’t work the same’ and both said ‘people are not willing to pay higher prices … so we offer basic service at lower prices’.  When I asked about carpet protection, they both just laughed and said no one wants that nowadays.

While I agree, in this uncertain time people are looking for better deals and yes they do want to spend less money… but if you give them the facts many are prepared spend a little more now to save them money in the long term.   

Allow me to explain, most people still want quality products and good old-fashioned customer service AND more importantly are willing to pay for it … don’t believe me? Then type in to Google “John Lewis Profits” and you’ll find the upmarket department store, John Lewis Partnership, announced in early March 2013 it made record profits of 15% and will pay all staff a 17% bonus (equalling almost 9-weeks of their current salary).

Just remember the famous quote (and 1985 song by Billy Ocean) "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" meaning "When the situation becomes difficult, the strong will work harder to meet the challenge."
 
If you think your customers would refuse to pay you extra money for carpet protection then you have one of two problems...

• You are not ‘selling’ protector to each customer by fully explaining it and demonstrating the long lasting benefits.   Get tough and make a commitment to start ‘selling’ protector correctly on every job from now on.

• Or your customers are not the ‘John Lewis type’ of customers … Get tough and move on.  Start marketing to the middle-class families that are shopping and spending money in John Lewis stores … they have nice home, they wish to keep keep clean, they have the money and will spend money with you if you market yourself correctly.

Of course asking someone if they would like to spend more money with you on something they can’t even see or more importantly don’t understand is tough… nor can you tell them about protector once and expect them to say yes there and then. You must explain it to them.

They say ‘Selling is Telling’ and that’s all you need to do.  What a difference it would make if you could show people how “Protecting your carpets will keep them looking beautiful, make them easier to keep clean and save money”.

Here is my seven steps to help you sell more carpet protector in the home.
 
7 Steps To Help Sell Protector To Your Clients.

1.  Always Package Your Prices.  Not all carpet cleaners are the same!  So why should you put yourself in the same group as the ‘price-by-room’ cleaners?   Think about it, you would not book an Electrician by "3-rooms rewired for £49"… do you?   If you give the consumers nothing else to judge your services by … they will think all cleaners are equal and pick the lowest price.   For example, why should someone buy from YOU? … What makes YOU so great?  If you were to say, “I’m the best local cleaner”, or “I’m the most professional cleaner in the area” … so what??  Every carpet cleaner can (and often does) make this type of claim too!  Be different and show them your are different.
  
   Why Package Works.  Most people don’t like the cheapest offer (if we did we’d all be driving the Russian ‘Lada Cars’). If you give three choices of “small, medium, large” or “good, better, best” and a short description of each one most people will pick the middle package…as it gives a higher perceived value, so the middle package should be your ‘clean and protect’ as it’s the one you want them to buy.   

   How to ‘Package’, you will need to describe your services and package them into three groups.  To start with, can you tell me, off the top-of-your-head, how many ‘processes’ or ‘steps’ it takes for you to clean a carpet?  Many cleaners don’t know and will spend a few minutes counting them on their fingers … so how are the consumers expected to know? 
List out the 7 – 15 steps it takes for you to clean a carpet, then add all additional related services like carpet protector and package these into three sections.  You can call the packages anything you like, a common name is ‘Bronze, Silver and Gold, however I suggest you try using more descriptive names such as ‘Healthy Home Package’. 
   Here is an example of three packages...
•  ‘Clean Only Package’  Explain each step you do, like... move the furniture, dry-soil extraction, pre-condition and agitate, deep extraction clean, fresh conditioner rinse, rapid dry, etc...,etc... (do this using words they understand, like words used in a hairdressers).
•  Clean and Protect Package’  “Same clean as above, but a special application of our ‘Triple Action’ carpet protection” and you explain the benefits.  I recommend you also offer a short (3-months) ‘Stain-Free Warranty’ included in this price. (see step 6)
•  ‘Healthy Home Package’  This is the same as ‘Clean and Protect’, but with additional services, such as deodorisation. And a longer (6 or 12-months) warranty to really add value. 
  
2. Charge By The Square Foot (or 30cm2) NOT By The Room.  Although we are in this ‘metric world’ everyone still understands feet better for room sizes… most Estate Agents still list room sizes in feet first (and give the metric size in closed brackets).    You can list or give your prices when asked without putting you in the ‘price-by-room’ section.   To explain this to the customer you can say … “We only charge for the ‘cleanable’ area i.e. the carpet we can see, not what’s under the wall units.  We offer package prices depending on the service you would like and volume of carpet you require cleaning.  For example, the cost of our travelling and setting up is put on the first room, therefore each additional room becomes cheaper … our prices start at £0.57p per square foot for clean, £0.77p p/sqf for clean and protect and £0.99p p/sqf for our top 'Healthy Home Package' and as I said the price will come down by the more volume of carpet you have cleaned at one time”.   
Even if you wish to NOT carryout a separate ‘quote’ or ‘audit’ you can tell the customer you can give them a ‘quote and clean’ by offering a full quote prior to cleaning.   This will help you get in the home to measure up and demonstrate your professionalism and reassure them you are the best local cleaner by talking with them face-to-face.  You can offer the final price as a “small, medium, large” package as this has proven to give a much higher ‘job ticket’ because people will trust you and have more cleaning done.
3. Bring The Cost Of ‘Clean Only’ And ‘Clean & Protect’ Closer. What I mean is some people clean for a price then charge the same price again for protection … to the customer you’ve just doubled the price.  For example if you charge 35p per square foot now and charge the same again (or double it) for protection your clean and protect price would be 70p per square foot.   So with a clean and protect price at 70p per square foot you could keep it there (or increase it a little) and bring your clean only price up to say 50p so the gap between ‘clean only’ and ‘clean and protect’ is much closer.  This will make it easier for people to select your protector without thinking it really is too expensive.  If done correctly you will find this will help you sell protect between 5-8 times out of 10 quotes.
4. Don’t Pressure Sell. If you have explained your packages and your services correctly the customer should see the charges for your cleaning as great value.   In other words you have not blurted out one high figure, but explained in detail how… ‘We do this’, and ‘we do that’ and ‘then we do all of this’, finally you give the small, medium or large package prices.   
However, once you’ve offered the three prices and you don’t receive an immediate yes, tell the client its OK … they don’t need to decide which package they want now.  If they select the ‘Clean Only’ now they can decide on the other packages once they have seen how good the carpets looks after cleaning.  This takes the pressure off them and allows them time to think about the additional cost and if this service would give them value for money. 
5. The Best Time To Sell Is When They Have Just Bought.  (This goes with step 4…) If your client didn’t agree to protection before you started cleaning don’t worry.  Once you have cleaned the carpet your client will hopefully be delighted with the results.  Then you go into your new Protector Sales Pitch… “I am delighted with the way the carpet looks too Mrs......, however I do feel I’m only doing half the job.  Now I’ve cleaned your carpet by removing the soil and stains so it looks great…but the carpet will be even more susceptible to stains from little spills and damage from soil.  The reason for this is any protection treatment the carpet may have once had, has now been worn away with everyday wear and tear.  If there is one thing I’ve learnt, as a Professional Cleaner is you don’t leave a beautiful carpet, like this one, in a family environment without renewing the original carpet protector.  Almost daily I see stains on unprotected carpets, which I struggle to remove … and sometimes they are simply not removable, but as yet, I’ve always be successful in removing stains from carpets I’ve cleaned and protected within the last 12-months.   So as a professional I really do recommend you have the protection treatment re-applied to the carpet today, because you have (the children, pets etc..) using the carpet and the protection treatment will keep the carpet healthy for them and help preserve the great look is has today for a long time to come.    As we discussed on the pricing, protector will only cost you an additional 20p per square foot above the cleaning price… for this room that’s only £40 more for 12 months peace of mind.  Shall I go ahead and renew the protective coating today?” (The price must be calculated beforehand and it is the difference between the ‘clean only’ and the ‘clean and protect’ price).   
   
   
   
   
6. Offer A ‘Stain-Free Warranty’.  To many the alarm bells may be ringing now.  Don’t worry… read on and see what I have to say first, and remember ‘when the going gets tough...’.   One of the best ways to really get tough and win over a customer is to show them how confident you are about the protection you supply by offering a Warranty with your stain protector.  This is NOT an additional sale on top of your protector …for example don’t you just hate it when you purchase any new electrical item and immediately the salesperson will try to sell you an ‘extended warranty’?   Well I suggest you offer the Stain-Free Warranty for FREE … (or built in your new higher price!)   You could offer a FREE 3-months warranty with your middle package and a FREE 12-months warranty with your top package.    This will give the customer Unlimited free ‘spot and stain removals’ and if you can’t remove the stain you will write a free report for their insurance company.  One of the best ways to sell the protector with the ‘free warranty’ is telling the customer… “Almost daily I see stains on unprotected carpets, which I struggle to remove … and sometimes they are simply not removable, but as yet, I’ve always been successful of removing a stain from a carpet I’ve cleaned and protected".  Remember the warranty is to help you sell at a higher price … this is not a rip-off price, but a price that allows you to make a profit and the customer to have a great service and product that will benefit them financially and health wise long-term. You should NOT worry about all the extra “free” spotting ‘call outs’ when you include an unlimited spot and spill warranty with all of your protector applications and here’s why:
• Less than two percent will ever call you. Give them a FREE bottle of your spotter and a stain removal guide and most will be able to treat any spills themselves, yet all of them will view this free bonus as a very valuable, and desirable service.
• Do not put a number on the free call outs … if you say they have TWO call outs worth £75 each there is more chance of them using one or both the calling outs.  It’s the strange thing about people, but weirdly when you limit your numbers to just one or two call outs, you will get higher call outs than ‘unlimited callouts’.
• Use the warranty to raise your protector prices. If you are so confident about the protector that you’d offer a FREE warranty it must be good – right?   If you raise protector pricing your net profits will soar which will more than cover your few extra free service calls over the course of a year.
• If you do get called out for a warranty (and lets face it how hard is it to remove a stain from a carpet YOU have recently cleaned and protected?) you will become the hero.  They will tell more friends and you may also sell more services while you are performing these “free” spot and stain call outs.
• Before you think I’m completely mad … there are several NCCA members that have been offering this type of warranty service with protection sales in the UK since 1999.  They hardly have a call out, but what I can tell you is their protector sales range between 50%-80% of all the carpets they clean.  Not such a mad idea after all is it?
  
  
7. Finally to help educate the customer use my new “Guide To How Carpet Protector Really Works…” leaflet, (which you can see below).  This will explain to the client how carpet protector works.  This is not a flashy printed leaflet … it is in Microsoft Word (.docx 2007) so you can change the wording if required to fit your business and add your contact details.    You can even print this on the back of your quotes or survey form so the clients will always have it.  This leaflet could also be sent out to your current clients now, just add a piece of patterned kitchen roll (shows its domestic not factory treated), which you have sprayed protection on one half (the pattern can help explain which way/side up).  You can ask them to pour a few drops of cold coffee on the unprotected half, then on the protected half.   They should see the coffee 'bead' on the surface protected half and the untreated section it soak in. 
   On the covering letter make a strong OFFER like half priced protection or even FREE protection if they have three or more rooms cleaned…and you’ll have a lot more work coming in. 

   
       Over 5-steps it shows…

• How most carpets are protected from new 

• How carpets get dirty with both soil and pollutants

• How the lack of cleaning with cause long-term damage to the fibre

• How you need regular professional cleaning

• How the long-term solution is to reapply carpet protection after cleaning.  

As I said at the beginning the biggest problem with selling protector is YOU!  Most customers will love the product and the benefits it gives them.  Get behind a product and a supplier, test it yourself and go out and ASK FOR THE SALE.

To help you 'get tough' my recommendation is for you to set yourself selling targets or goals and give them deadlines.  Your long-term target should be protecting 75% of all the carpets you clean within the next 18-months.  To start out you'll need to set smaller goals while you are perfecting your sales pitch (which is really just telling) so set your first goal to make protector sales on 25% of every carpet cleaning job you do within 6-months.   

When you reach 25% in sales you should give yourself a small treat … a reward for doing well.  Then move the sales target up to 50%. Just imagine what you could do with the extra money you’d make if you could protect half of everything you clean as you don't need more marketing or equipment or even staff.


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I hope this has given you some ideas and some encouragement to go out and offer carpet protection on every carpet cleaning job... good luck. 

Regards

 
Keith Robertson
NCCA Marketing Director

PS.  Don’t worry about the ‘FREE Warranty’ … if you do your cleaning and treatment work correctly … give a free spotter and explain how to blot and spot any spills, most people will never call you out for spot clean, BUT it will help sell lots more protection.
 
PPS. If you are a current NCCA Member the ‘Protection Leaflet’ below and the 'Warranty Certificates' with hi-res images are in the members’ section http://www.ncca.co.uk/members/carpet_protector_marketing_tools.php to be downloads in  a MS Word format for you to add your details to and start selling … ALL FOR FREE.


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NCCA Guide To How Carpet Protector
Really Works…

New carpet with Protector applied

New Carpets – Protected

Most new carpets have a ‘protective treatment’ applied to them at manufacture or by the store. Although this invisible coating is NOT ‘bulletproof’ you will benefit from a special ‘Triple-action’ that…

•  Repels liquid spills
•  Resists damage to the fibres
•  Releases dirt and grit from the carpet

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Soil, Pollens and Allergens make a dirty carpet

Dirty Carpets. 

Your carpets are under a constant attack by soil, pollens and allergens in the home.  These are trapped and held in the carpet as if it were a filter for your home.  Unfortunately grit in the soil will rub against the fibres when you walk on the carpet and scratch the protector.  Luckily this damage is only to the protective coating. So, with cleaning, the carpet can be restored to a ‘like new’ condition.

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Non-Protected carpet after cleaning - Damaged

Damaged Carpets – After Cleaning.

Without regular professional cleaning and renewing the protective treatment, the dirt & grit starts to cut like knives directly into the fibres, deteriorating their appearance and causing irreversible damage, so even with the best cleaning system possible the harm can not be removed. In addition without regular cleaning the spills, ‘airborne’ pollens and allergens penetrate deep into the carpet.

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Protected carpet after cleaning - Not Damaged

Regular Cleaning.

It is recommended, for both the health and appearance of the carpet, that the average family, have their carpets professionally cleaned every 12-months … although you may not see the soil you’ll be amazed at the build-up of harmful dirt and grit in the base of the carpet.  This will stop the grit from removing the entire protective coating and preventing, long-term damage to the fibres.

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Carpet after cleaning and protector renewed

THE LONG-TERM SOLUTION Re-protection

Re-protecting your freshly cleaned carpet will reinforce your carpets original ‘Triple-action’ protection shield by…

1.     Repelling liquid spills, allowing you time to mop them up to keep the carpet looking great longer.

2.    Resists damage to the fibres giving you longer lasting carpets, which saves you time and money replacing them.

3.    Releases dirt and grit from the carpet making it easier to vacuum clean and keep healthy.

Protect, your carpets and you’ll protect your investment, saving you time and money from not having to replace the carpet and make your home healthy and the carpets beautiful for years.

NCCA current members you can download both the 'Guide To Carpet Protector' leaflet and the 'Warranty Certificates' for free from the members section, by clicking here:
http://www.ncca.co.uk/members/carpet_protector_marketing_tools.php  

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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.