Home Depot buys Chem Dry

Ted you mean buzz words like "You got one of those machines that sits in the driveway and only the hoses come in the house" because after 28 years of advertising truckmounted extraction cleaning we still are asked  you got one of those things that sits in the driveway?

Mrs Housewife does not buy buzz words, she wants great, reliable service at a fair price, no hassle, no fuss, and no mess, just showup when you promise do it right,  Women are our market, men buy Beamers and they are the  Buzz words freaks.

Boy oh Boy.........All this excitement just because Home Depot got into the carpet cleaning industry.......SO WHAT........WHO CARES.

Seems to be that only Mr. Steamer & Cleanex have the self confidence and belief in their product and quality not to worry.

You should all hope and pray that Home Depot spends MILLIONS of DOLLARS on advertising to promote carpet cleaning. Don't forget they have only 1 method of cleaning to offer if they are going the Chem Dry route........on the other hand you have several methods and can educate your customer on the differences and they can make their own choice, combine this with a competitive price, service & a guarantee ( insurance ) for 3 months after cleaning that you will return FREE of CHARGE in case of accidential spills, and you'll be the wiser & your customer will be happier.

Whatever Home Depot offers, outdo them and beat them at their game.

By the way mimetic marketing does not apply in the service indusrty 95% of the time.

                               Nightrider

Edited by nightrider

I agree that consumers are pretty slow. Many don't care about RX-20 cleaning, because knowledge of the method hasn't filtered down yet. Here in San Diego, it seems only recently that people are getting away from "steam cleaning" and calling it "hot water extraction." Few know "bonnet cleaning" by that name; they usually associate the method with Chem-Dry only. They are also slow enough that they believe Chem-Dry is still a bonnet system. It's not. It's an RX-20 system. Some Chem-Dry franchises offer a bonnet option without hwe, but many do not. Eventually, they will all be tm/rx-20 systems.
 
Chem-Dry is still considered an alternative system around here. So, they have their following, but there also many would never use Chem-Dry (again). There are also many who hate Home Depot and would never use a service associated with them. Home Depot hasn't taken over our town, and I don't think this will be an exception. It's likely that the Chem-Dry image will remain mostly the same, with the major changes going into the business-side structure.

I don't know where you got that figure, Nightrider, but I would definitely agree that mimetic marketing is generally more product driven than most services, including carpet cleaning. I didn't intend to overstate the we-want-what-others-want argument, but I wanted to chime in as to its merit. Although San Diego doesn't have the same kind of "Mrs. Housewife" structure of many other cities--it's really too expensive here--the element isn't gone . . . and hey, women will be women. I don't have the years and years in the business that many of you have, but it's been my observation that people (esp. women) choose and stick with carpet cleaners the same way they do hair stylists. So what did I do? I cleaned my mother's hairdresser's house and left her a bunch of my cards. Her comment: "These ladies ask my advice for everything. If I tell them they have to use you, they will." I swear, some women treat their hairdressers like oracles.


Edit:

Quote from my girlfriend after reading this post over my shoulder: "Women care about the person they're dealing with. Even if the result isn't quite as good, they're concerned abou the overall experience."





Edited by Michael

Although we see a lot of hard surface flooring, carpet is still being produced at about the same total yardage as it was before the trend to hard surface so millions and millions of sq ft of carpet is being sold every year. The last time I talked to the people at Shaw they told me they where experiencing an increase in carpet production, so carpet is still out there and needs to be cleaned.

A turnover in this business will always provide plenty of work for all of us....

Fast dry times equate to half cleaned carpets, the faster you dry them the less likely you have done a good cleaning job. You can surface clean or remove the water before it even hits the carpet such as glides do and get fast drying, or you can clean properly and have 5 to 6 hour dry times----YOUR CHOICE!

When I use the RX-20, I agitate the prespray, do the rinse/neutralizing step, then buff afterwards. I usually get better drying times than I did when I was with Chem-Dry.