Get a GPS

Are you still driving around without a GPS?  Fumbling with maps or Mapquest print outs?  For out a couple hundred bucks and get a GPS for you van.  Why?

A.  It will save you time.  Time is money and getting lost is wasting time

B.  You have a better chance of getting to your clients house on time.  And getting there on time makes a happy customers.  We’ve all had to make that call to a client asking for directions because their street is not on the map or you are lost.  Embarrassing, right?  Won’t happen with a GPS

C.  Getting lost costs money in gas.  Gas is expensive.  A few bucks saved here and there adds up.

D.  If you have techs driving your van, A, B and C above are even more important.

Sealing Grout

The Basics of Sealing Grout

Newly installed grout will need about 72 hours to completely cure before applying a sealer.  On freshly cleaned floors, make sure grout is completely dry.  You can use air movers to quickly dry floors after cleaning.

Application:
Apply grout sealer using either a grout applicator or grout sponge.  Completely saturate grout lines with sealer to insure a thorough seal.  Try to stay within the grout lines, but do not  be too concerned about getting sealer on tile. Read more

Colorsealing Tip

After comleting a colorseal job, depending on the size of the job, we do one or both of the following.

We make up a small bottle of the colorseal and give it to the client.  This way, if there are ever any issues, areas that may get scuffed up, or whatever, they can touch up the area by themselves and it saves us from making a trip out to the customer.  Obviously, we show them the proper way to apply it and we do not give them too much that they can redo the whole floor and cause more issues.  Just an ounce or two.

Also, we will take an extra bottle of the colorant, label it with the clients name and stock it away.  If, for some reasone we need to go back and touch up an area, or when we do a maintenance cleaning and we need to touch up an area, we grab that extra bottle and bring it with us.  This way we know we have an EXACT match of what we put down.  This saves us from having to possibly order another bottle for a touch up or worse case scenario a different bottle of the same color, may not have been mixed exactly right and end up with two slightly different colors on the floor.

Racatac Tip

If you have a Racatac (and you all should), here is a neat little tip that will save you time and keep your jobsite clean.

Wrap blue tape around all the wheels.  Many times, after using it on a colorseal job, the colorseal will get on the wheels and on the next job, that colorant may come off on the floor and you will end up spending extra time cleaning this off the floor.  And trying to clean off all the wheels after each job is a pain.

A little blue tape wrapped around the wheels will easily peel off after the job and new tape can be put on before the next job.

Scott Rendall

SCI-CLEAN and BRC Systems Solutions
Howell, MI

Tell us a little about you personally (family, hobbies, history/backround)
I’m 40 yrs old and married to the best woman in the world - Sunny. We recently celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. (July 06) We’ve got 2 wonderful kids - Mike: 18 and Jackie: 15. I spent the first 10 years of my adult life (age 18-28) in the US Air Force and since the age of 28 have been in the cleaning/restoration business. Read more

Business Card Marketing

Business cards are cheap… REAL CHEAP these days.  And most people only use them to hand out to customers.  Next time you reorder your business cards, don’t get just 500 of them, get 5000.

They are not bringing in and business sitting in your drawer.

• When you hand them out to customers, give them two.
• When you send out letters, put 2 or 3 in the envelope.
• Put them in with all your bills or anything that goes in the mail.
• Leave them where ever you go.  At the movies, at a restaurant, at the bank, at the nail or hair salon.
• Drop a stack at your local deli or bagel store or pizza parlor.
• Leave them on the seat on the bus.
• If your at the mall, drop a few on some tables in the eating area.
• Lay a few around when you grab a coffee at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.
• Drop a few in random places where people have a chance to pick them up.

Did I mention they are CHEAP, don’t be afraid to get them out there.  Set a goal to get rid of 200 a week

Hand them out, leave them out, but most important is GET THEM OUT.  Let someone else throw them out.

Close the sale faster

If you are going to offer a discount to customers, make it so they need to act on it or lose it.  We often offered 10% off it they book the job on the spot or get the job done within 2 weeks of an estimate.  If they don’t act now, they lose the discount….

Send before and after pics to your clients of their job

Get into the habit of taking before and after pics on every job.  First off, they are great for future marketing.  Second, they can save your butt if something goes wrong or there is a complaint.

But most of all, print them out, send them to your client with a short Thank You letter and to remind them of what there floor looked like before.  They will often times show there friends and family the pics as well.

You can also send them the pics 6 or 12 months down the road when it is time to remind them they need a maintenance cleaning.

If you use a service such as Send Out Cards, you can easily upload the before and after pic on the front of a postcard with a short message on the back which makes things real easy.

Carry a short 5′ hose

Ever try to fill a bucket of water out of a slop sink or even a regular sink but the bucket or mop-wringer wont fit under the spigot?  Carry a short 5′ hose that you can connect to the end to easily fill your bucket with while it is on the floor.

Keeping your prespray and mop together

When workin with alkaline and acid cleaners, you want to try and avoid mixing your mops in with each.  What I always did was mix up a 5 gallon pail of each cleaner and what ever is left over, I would put a cover on the pail but remove the spout and feed the mop handle through it while it is in the bucket, secure it then you can reuse that left over mix and have the mop ready to go in the bucket.

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