Why a great price may not be a great value

Especially in the carpet cleaning industry.

Right from the start, let me say that there are several other high quality carpet cleaning companies in Marin. Their rates are similar to ours (some a little higher, some a little lower). They may use different methods to come up with those rates. There is even one high quality carpet cleaning company that, in my opinion, is outrageously high!

These companies know that it takes time to do a good job. They know that they cannot do a great job on five rooms and be done in 30 minutes (this does go on).

These higher standard companies compete by quality of work. However, there are many other companies out there that compete by price alone (a great deal----or is it?). These attractively priced competitors are the carpet cleaning companies that I will be referring to.

You’ve seen fantastic deals on many different coupons. Many consumers get teased by these great come-ons thinking that they are going to get a good job done for a great price. For most of the time, these consumers are disappointed. Either they didn’t get a good job done for that great price OR the price, after add ons, wasn’t that great after all.

You see, these great deals are there so a company can get into your home. Once in your living room, they will want to up sell you on other products or services. They may want to charge you more for cleaning your carpets because the deal did not include heavy soils, lots of spots, or many stains AND they weren’t upfront about those extra costs at the time of scheduling.

Generally, if one of these companies cannot up sell you or charge you more, they will be in and out of your house in a jiffy. The price was great. The feeling, the experience, and the result was disappointing and on top of that, the carpet will probably have to be cleaned much sooner than expected OR in many cases, the carpet does not look good in two to three weeks.

It is human nature to short cut if you don’t get the appropriate compensation for your services. It takes discipline not to short cut in that situation.

Short cutting is prevalent in every industry, especially, the carpet cleaning industry. In just the cleaning industry, carpet cleaners can get away with more things than other types of cleaning work. For instance, we also do window cleaning and you can’t get away with anything. Every detail shows. Yet, with carpet cleaning, you can! Let me give you an example. When cleaning a fairly clean room, a carpet cleaner could lightly spray the room with just water then vacuum it very fast. It looks like it’s clean! It’s still damp! It has the vacuum look! Do you like the fact that that person spent only two minutes in that room? Our company and all quality carpet cleaning businesses will always give a clean room a respectful cleaning.

Carpet cleaners can create illusions of all this work that they did and yet, it really wasn’t that valuable. For instance, they can move most of the furniture in your house, clean under it (for two seconds), and put protector pads under all the legs. That’s a lot of work! Yet, there is not a lot of value in it. With some exceptions, there is only dust under furniture that only needs a vacuuming from time to time. You would have either paid extra money for very little value or if the carpet cleaner wasn’t getting paid for this extra work for some reason, there would definitely be a shortcut in another area.

We like to spend most of our time and energy on the open areas, the soiled areas, the spotted areas, and the stained areas.

 (There are situations in which furniture moving is necessary.) 

When you want to have a cheeseburger and you're on a tight budget and you ARE NOT concerned about the quality and experience, a McDonald’s quarter-pound cheeseburger may do the trick. If you aren’t on a budget and ARE concerned about the quality and experience, a Phyllis’s Cheeseburger could be your choice. It’s very clear that with an inexpensive McDonald’s quarter-pound cheeseburger, you are getting a product that is made very fast, with low quality products. You don’t even have a choice of rare, medium rare, or well done. It is only made well done. With the choice of a Phyllis’s Cheeseburger (which has a good reputation and a higher price), it is clear that you are getting a product that is made with care and with better products than McDonald’s. You, also, DO have a choice of rare to well done. The point is ALL cheeseburgers are not equal. 

All carpet cleaners are not equal. If you hire a low priced carpet cleaner, there’s a very good chance that the job is going to be low quality and fast. This definitely can be an appropriate choice sometimes. You just have to know that you will be getting McDonald’s quality, not Phyllis’s quality. If you choose to pay a low price and if you know that you are going to have a passable job that hopefully improves the look of your carpet for a short time, than you should be happy. If you know that the carpet cleaner can’t do a great job, cannot take EXTRA time to work on spots and stains, and that the job will be done very fast, than you will not be disappointed. 

On the other hand, if want to have a good job, or a great job, and want the carpet to look as best as it can, you need to hire a high quality carpet cleaner. If you know that it’ll take extra time to work on the many challenges such as heavy soil, many spots and stains, very difficult stains, and difficult odors, than hire a quality carpet cleaner. If you like the job done right and are willing to pay for it, than hire a quality carpet cleaner.
A good price does not mean a good value.

We all like a good price.

We LOVE a good value.