Winter Carpet Cleaning: How to maintain your carpet cleaning business

Man it's cold out there!

There was a recent discussion between carpet cleaners on how to operate their truck-mounts in cold weather. In fact this seems to be a yearly topic around this time of year. Carpet cleaning in the snow states can slow way down, like a hibernating bear, during the coldest weeks of winter.  

1. Offer low moisture cleaning, at least during the winter months. This approach seems like the shortest path to keep the wheels turning when the mercury plummets.    2. Use a Seal A Door. This is popular with truck-mount operators to try keep some of the the cold out while running hoses into the building.   3. Stay home and drink hot chocolate.    Option 3 sounds great! I mean, who doesn't love hot chocolate. Yet as much as sitting around in your pajamas sipping a steaming mug of hot chocolate sounds like fun, it won't pay the bills.   Option 2 is a practical approach for truck-mount operators. And although the Seal A Door won't keep the cold out entirely, at least it will help.    Option 1 is starting to look pretty good. Being able to clean carpet on the coldest and snowiest days of the year has its appeal. Bring the machine inside, close the door, and get to work. Cleaning carpet with low moisture portable equipment is much easier than running a truck-mount on a winter day. 

So how do you approach this with your residential customers? Here's an idea of what you might say...    "Yes, we can clean your carpet on Wednesday, even though the temperature will be below zero, and snow is predicted. And we won't need to leave your door open. We'll be using our low moisture system to clean your carpet. Your carpet will dry quickly and look great! In fact many customers actually prefer the low moisture method. Or if you happen to prefer the truck-mount system, we can still provide that for you (now or in the spring). Would you like to book our low moisture cleaning for Wednesday?"

Another strategy for winter-proofing your carpet cleaning business is to add more commercial carpet cleaning to the mix. The nice thing about commercial carpet care is that it's fairly weather resistant. You can set up your accounts on a service schedule that doesn't falter with cold weather. You can send out the truck with a Cimex, Orbital, or CRB machine. And you'll be able to successfully clean your commercial accounts, as long as the roads are passable.

One last tip for winter is to target ice melt residue. Ice melt residue can make a terrible mess in entry ways. But if you know how to treat the problem, you can be a carpet cleaning hero. Here's an easy method to fix snow and ice melt residue... Clean the carpet with Encap-HydrOx. HydrOx breaks through the soil residue and associated discoloration that comes from ice melt salt.    I hope these tips will help you get through the record setting cold days this winter — as profitably as possible. Stay warm!