I was reading an article this morning that was posted by a cleaning company in northern VA (Link Below). The article’s title caught my attention as it stated in bold “Your Carpet Cleaning Company Is Making Your Carpets Get Dirtier!” I thought to myself that it would be interesting to see what they had to say and found a great article educating the general audience about who to hire for cleaning carpets. My thoughts today are along those same lines of being careful to not just hire any cheap carpet cleaner but to understand why professional cleaning can be such a higher rate. Most customers will call a cleaning company and ask, “What do you charge per square foot?” or “What are your rates?” Often times customers ask this because they do not know what else to ask. Others may ask these questions because they running through the phone book to get the best price. My caution to them is “If you get the best price, are you really getting what you want.” Value is composed of three ingredients-price, quality, and service. If you want the best service, then you will have to sacrifice either quality or price. If you want the best price, you will have to sacrifice one of the other two or in some cases even both of them. But why the huge price difference? Here are a couple of things to look at when considering the price of a professional carpet cleaner.
First, a certified cleaning company looks to hire on men and women who are able, responsible, and trustworthy to enter into the homes of their customers. Hiring employees like these does not come easy or cheap. Many times employers battle trying to find one good person they can depend on and keep for the long haul. Finding them is half the battle. Employers must also continually increase their pay rates and offer more training and education to keep them. This raises the cost of doing business because now it is more expensive to send out an employee when they are earning more and have additional overhead costs (training, education, etc..). So a professional cleaning company charges more per square foot because of the expense they are incurring on finding good people.
Secondly, professional cleaning companies are more expensive because they are wisely accounting for the depreciation of their equipment and the cost of their chemicals. In many cases the cheap companies that under-cut everyone else are not charging enough to cover for the expense of their equipment. So they make just enough to buy chemicals and then put a few bucks in their pockets, but when their truck mount breaks down in 3-4 years they are flat broke and close the business. They have no other option! A good company will make sure that the cost for equipment and chemicals is accounted for in the price per square foot.
When all the math is done, it looks like the professional cleaning companies our jacking the price, but it really depends on what the customer wants-price, quality, or service? At the end of the day, the customer is the one deciding who they want in their home and what they want to pay. “Something is only worth what you are willing to spend on it.”
Any further input would be appreciated.
David Pollard (First Choice Cleaning & Restorations)