Office Buildings

That would depend on their lease agreement. They can be structured either way

Alot of times it depends who's PAYING FOR THE CLEANING..!!

Most often carpet cleaning is not included in the lease agreement. Don't buy into the fact that the Janitorial company will do it cheap, if they think no one else is looking for the work they will soak the tennent and the carpet. Does not hurt to approach the Property Manager as the tennent may well ask the manager as to who they use for carpet cleaning.  A good opportunity to market your services

Pick me!! Pick me!!  Good time for a demo. Show them just what they are now getting and what is available to them?

Some good points were made in this thread. For the past few weeks I've been calling and knocking on doors trying to get my foot in the door to get some commercial work. If I couldn't speak with whoever was in charge, I mailed them a flier, personal letter, and business card. One thing I emphasized in the letter is that my company is not a janitorial service. We only specialize in carpet and upholstery cleaning. Then I went on to explain why this is a benefit and why they should choose me over the janitorial service for their carpet/upholstery cleaning.

I'm sure I will encounter a lot of people who will still take the janitorial service over me, simply because of convenience and price. I'm hoping the janitorial service messes something up or does an unsatisfactory job and that the customer remembers me and gives me a call. Then I can really show why they need someone other than a janitorial service to clean their carpets and upholstery.

I had a guy call for a quote to get some apartments cleaned. He kept trying to haggle me lower on my price, but my price was in line with all the other local carpet cleaners in terms of what they charge for a vacated apartment. I explained to him he was already quoted at my discount rate. I'm not going to do work for nothing, so I stuck to my prices and he never called me back to book an appointment.

Two weeks later I get a call from him asking if I can go clean the apartments. Apparently he used a janitorial service because they low balled me. Unfortunately for him they made the carpets they cleaned worse. Once I got there it was obvious they never vacuumed before they cleaned  the carpets. To top it off he says it took days for the carpets to dry and I could tell they were moving the wand too fast because most of the chemicals were left in the carpet. I guess after this he realized he should stick to a company that cleans carpets everyday. I now have this guys business for all of his apartments. 

My point exactly, most Janitorial companies may do carpet cleaning but they have no clue when it comes to REAL carpet cleaning. All they do is give our industry a abd name.

Don, I don't disagree that the customer is better off with us cleaning their carpets.  But I do want to make it clear that the customer makes up his or her mind based on bottom line and convenience usually, not on what is best.  I emphasize USUALLY.