good evening everybody my name is Roby Harris and this is Success wisdom and tonight we have a great show two great panelists who are back for second and third time here we are again we're back it's been a while since we've been on we hav been dark for a while I think we have last time we were on here was over the summer in July we had a lot of things going on uh in September we had our annual uh dinner and awards banquet it was fantastic at the GRC at the icrc building in Las Vegas we had a good uh turnout really good turnout I was surprised to see some of the uh guests we had our tour bus was fantastic it was packed H everybody showed up who said they were going to show up we even had a few of our other shareholders we had a board member of the IICRC show up which was fantastic uh James toll Mr tol showed up that was great I've really been trying to get the word out about using the GRC building and uh everything they have there it belongs to us as as shareholders and that is a great facility for us if you haven't been to Las Vegas I suggest you go and check out the GRC building and take a tour which is fantastic uh also we have a new president Jessica James she'll be coming in and we have a great new year with her uh looking forward I'm now the chairman of the CFI and it has been a great summer and here we are we're back into the fall and the holiday seasons are here and we're going to be talking today about collecting payment and before we do that I want to introduce my guest we have Jason Henley Hensley from Pacific Care Pacific carpet care and we have Dave Nichols from rug renew and above and beyond Carpet Care Jason please tell us a little bit about yourself and we're gonna move on to you after that Dave thank you my name is Jason Hensley I'm the owner of Pacific carbet Care in Orange County California um I have been in California since 1990 uh when I joined the Marine Corps from came from Oklahoma and I'm here now uh we've had my wife and I started this company 26 years ago uh when we had a bunch of kids in Under One Roof and a new born it was a it was a great time to start a business but yeah so um we do a lot of services here and uh uh we try to take care of our clients the best we can and uh it's a pleasure to be here thank you my friend good to see you again Dave what say you tell us a little bit about yourself hey guys um thanks pleasure to be on um thanks for the invite being on the panel again it's privilege um so we uh were the I was the owner of above and beyond carpet care for 35 years um started in 1991 with the iic UC got certified um back then and then kept certifications became a certified Master textile cleaner in 2005 and then transitioned to be a rug washing expert um about 15 years ago and started studying with um cam maville Nathan coats uh Paul Lucas and the whole crew um on rug washing and expert area rug washing and then started um an additional company rug renew about 15 years ago um and uh we've been running that ever since and uh so uh last uh 2003 January we sold above and beyond Carpet Care to our top employee uh and I've been just running rug renew and doing the rug washing business only and he's uh he's doing the above and beyond Carpet Care and doing very well with that and keeping the Legacy going fantastic yeah great and didn't you have something special happen over the weekend last month oh uh you mean my daughter getting married there you go there yeah yeah that's awesome yeah that was great that's awesome good absolutely all right and I again I am Roby Harris I'm the owner and operator of twice as nights carpet and upholster cleaning uh chairman of the CFI and uh been cleaning uh carpets for 30 years Master textile cleaner myself and also started a rug cleaning and what got me going in rug cleaning was actually becoming a member of CFI and uh there's a lot of guys who are are members who actually put their foot in my behind and said go do it you can do this and uh I was cleaning rugs in my garage and uh it really has made a difference being a part of CFI it really has encouraged me and if you're considering being a part of us it there's a lot there's a lot here for you so tonight's tonight's questions what we going to be talking about is collecting the final uh payment your walk through with your client what are you doing to prepare your client you know you're putting your truck away you're you're you're getting ready for the payment you're G to be doing a final walkth through do you provide shoe covers to do the final walkth through what is it that you do so we're going to start with you Jason when you do the final walkth through you're getting ready to collect payment first of all do you do a final walkthrough with your clients every time every job um it alleviates any um potential problems down the road if you're looking at it with the same eye as they're looking at it and uh they point out things that where you tried your very best and maybe just still you still see a little bit of that spot there but uh it's now a stain and we'll we can continue to work on it for you or you know if that looks good I think it might look better once it's dry and if there's any problems we'll come back out but uh I start off right before all of that walk through as I were winding down and my helpers loading the truck I I grab a little bundle of booties and walk in and just say uh I've got some booties here for you so you can walk on the carpet after we're done How many pairs do you need and oh can you give me four well I've got five in that group so I just pull off a pair for myself and give her the other four sets and then I go about my business and then I come back and I use a I use an iPad with a third party program on there that before the jobs uh before as the job's getting out way I send them an estimate electronically and so um as I'm giving them the booties I'm converting that estimate to an invoice and I hit send and it comes right to their cell phone they can open it up and see it and they go how do you want to be paid I said well we take credit card you can do it right on your phone but we also take cash uh we take uh uh checks we take zel and we take venmo so um however you want to pay us was fine with us just pay us no I don't say that no there but anyway we uh uh we uh it as when we do the walkthrough though that just makes sure that everybody's on the same page and uh they usually say it's better than I expected uh and they you know they thank us and they tip my helper and everything's fine so but the walkthrough is very important to cya so you know cover your a but anyway that's awesome awesome thank you Mr Nichols Yeah sir great Jason we do we do like the same thing with the shoe covers I'll tell you those shoe covers go such a long way and um it's we use the blue ones that are cheaper for the customers and we have the white ones that are more you know sturdy but um I'll tell you there's so many customers the best ones they actually hold on to them and the next time we come they got them and it's like the you know you can tell they they love that so much that that you know we just care about the the carpet staying clean and then we give them some instructions and um I actually did pull up our customer information guide so I'm going to share a screen right now um is that okay yeah I'm going to get I'm going to give it a whirl okay so here we go sharing screen so this is our customer information guide if you can see that so we've got a um pamphlet it's like a a folder kind of like I don't know I'm from the uh I'm I'm I'm a child from the 60s so we had peachy folders when I was in junior high and Elementary School you know those folders that you have we we bought some color of our business was bluish purple so we bought a bunch of purple blue folders and we put this logo above and beyond carpet care right on the front of it and I'll tell you this went miles let me see does that help can you see that whole thing here so that's fantastic yeah I I had a friend well it's actually a client first and a friend of a friend um who was an editor and she went went through our paperwork and she kind of created this for us and it was one of the best things we ever did and she organize it with the the guide topics right here and then we appreciate your business and then the risk-free guarantee just reassuring them of our guarantee and then the facts about our company you know servicing since 1992 and all this stuff so how to reach us and then the benefits we would go I mean this is over the top the best thing that clients loved about us and it kind of just proved we were like we we meant business and and we we wanted their continued business and we wanted them to be cheerleaders um and we wanted them to know the benefits to choosing above and beyond you know um and people read this stuff you know um and then this was a document we actually had in this for after you know like you're asking right now what we gave them after and this was part of it it was a four-page brochure um and I just printed these out inous I I've got a color LaserJet printer we printed these in house um you know it was cheap and expensive but this help us prepare before we arrive this is something they would get in their email before we even went to the job you know talking about removing breakables before we got there um you know what to expect we're going to be putting um um plastic chips and styrofoam blocks underneath their Furniture not to remove those for 24 hours um and then the seven steps we take to obtain beautiful carpets um we talked about the steps just to because technicians I mean we're busy we don't always tell the clients what we're doing we just want their carpet cleaned but just in case the husband comes home and he's the kind of personality that says hey what you know um what are you doing what are you doing for you know $700 or you're paying $1,000 for carpet cleaning um and and we have the they this helps give the um the spouse the tools to back up what we're doing um that's fantastic yeah and then during the cleaning uh make it look like new and then after we leave the dry time um you know just to remind them that it's 6:00 to 12 our dry time to you know be careful from slipping so yeah if anyone wants this just email me at Dave rug renew.com I'd be happy to share this document with anybody um that actually my employee who took over the business I don't think he actually uses this the young some of the younger generation they they they have their own way of doing things and uh I'm not putting it down at all I'm not saying if you don't use something like this it's you're you're blowing it but um you let me share unshare screen here how do I yeah stop share so I'm just saying you can do it many different ways um and uh you may not need this type of document but I'll tell you I queried every one of our clients because one I don't want to use any chemistry or do any process if it if it doesn't work and it doesn't mean anything and I I don't trust anybody in the industry unless I like test it myself like so somebody tells me it's the best chemical on Earth I'm going to make sure I test it and make sure there's you know it it really is working the way they say it does and um and I like to have backing behind things because I'm that type of person so maybe that's why I like to give this to the clients but you know some of them probably don't care but others really really do care and I'll tell you the cheerleaders they loved it and we also had our referral reward program in there and we would give them referral reward cards so if they referred a friend that friend would get $25 off their cleaning and they would get uh a $25 gift card and after they collect four of those we would send them uh either $100 or they could um actually we used to do 10% didn't we yeah they they love that even these multi-million doll Mansions I mean they've got you know three4 million house you'd think they wouldn't really care about getting these these so after we got a referral we made sure we sent the um uh the person that referred them a thank you card um and a note saying thank you for it's all pre-printed and I have all this stuff anybody needs this just email me Dave rug renew.com I'd be happy to share it and this referral reward program is what really spearheaded so much of our referrals and our Network and getting the network from inside um and so we would give them a gift certificate towards 10% off their cleaning um and uh that was part of the referral reward program but they had referral gift cards in the in the uh pamphlet um and they could give those to a friend and it explained our referral reward program you know the good ones um would give those out to friends awesome but speaking about rewards do you guys reward your clients by freshening up before you do your final walkthrough at everybody do you guys keep a garment bag do you flip on a new shirt or whatever do you freshen up do I don't know put some more deodorant on what what is it that you guys do differently um before you go do that walkth through that that's just goes to anyone you guys can answer that um I never have really done much except uh of course maybe adjust my hair because it went all crazy during the job you know that's about it uh there's um I do didn't make sure that my shirt's tucked in correctly and that I'm looking you know as professional as possible when I go up and ask him for that 700 or $1,000 whatever their whatever the bill is that day you know so yeah it's you've you can never uh not look professional so yeah so if I had hair I'd be adjust I'd be ping my hair too me too it wasn't a years ago really wasn't that wasn't that was years ago that's great I look I look like side show Bob at the end of the job so I mean what about what what say you Dave well I always thought I I've heard that at some of the seminars we went to you know or the vast program johnon it the changing shirts I've heard of this before having a fresh shirt at the end of the job great idea we never did it um and we just made sure the guys mandatory uh just be clean shaving and and uh proper hygiene before you leave the job and probably uh probably could have done better there that's not a bad idea having a fresh shirt I mean I've heard this many times all of those things go go far well one thing that uh I do have is a it's a apron that has my logo on the front really big and when I'm doing granite counter tops or doing some other kind of stone workor where I'm using the Makita and it just slings everywhere it's it we bag the whole room but I use an apron to bag myself so that when the job finished I just take that thing off and I'm good to go you know and uh so that that works good and the apron is great advertising you know it's just brand you know more branding out there your logo or whatever you have and uh it's on the shirt it's on the apron you know it's on the invoice that we send to them it's you know everywhere they look so yeah we give them a brochure at the end that they can it's just a leave behind thing that uh it's not a as I'm gonna steal that from uh Dave that uh that leave behind there that's pretty cool uh the you know the little document you had there so that was you know that's very comprehensive yeah and then the other thing we left them was a a bottle of spot cleaner so we had we had sample bottles that were 8 O that I would make up and we put proon in there so we make gallons of proon um and we you know we buy the proon powder and it used to be oh man you guys will love this at the beginning when proon was first selling they had uh they sent me this documentation that said they um they clean the White House Air Force 1 the Tennesse aquarium Disneyland Disney World all these real famous places the Pentagon was actually using proon way back and this is back in like the 80s oh um and so we c i I had this box that they sent me of the powder and a brochure um sitting my garage and I had a bunch of white towels that were dirty and I'm like well I'm not going to waste my laundry I'll just use that stuff and put the towels in there and I couldn't believe how clean they came out and then I'm reading their brochure this is where brochures really work you know you you I think Joe polish says nobody reads in between nobody reads the blanks part of the marketing they always read the copy you know nobody so the more information you have the better sometimes um because the people who will read that are it's important they will and I I read this whole document I couldn't believe believe it I was overwhelmed um with the um support they had from cleaning I mean that's pretty big the EPA had used cion allergenic clinics the Pentagon when they said the Pentagon in the white house I was like okay I'm good I I I got to try this stuff so in the beginning they would send us the powder and we would make um we'd make up our own bottles and they actually would ship out uh like we'd buy I don't know 50 bottles at a time and they had the quart bottles that were empty so they would send us the court empty bottles and we would put in the solution and you're supposed to use distilled water and 140° it breaks up something in the powder chemical at 100 over 140 degrees I don't know if this is true but I got on the phone with one of the top guys and they were telling me that there's a chemical that breaks that that opens up uh at 140° and so when you're making it use distilled water in 140 degree water and make sure all the powder's dissolved and then fill up your your bottles so we used to have quart bottles for the clients and then we'd make up our own 8 O bottles proon stopped doing that and we were so upset so it went from a175 for a quart bottle um to they started charging like eight seven eight N9 dollar for a court and then it was hard to make a profit off of selling that so um that was a bummer and they blamed it on somebody putting bleach like a a housekeeper um put bleach in the court bottle at the customer's house and the customer was using the product and it bleached out their carpet and they sued proon so they stopped selling the empty bottles and allowing us to fill them and uh you know so we always told customers hold on to your bottles and then we just refill them yeah so that it's a it's a great it's a great spotter um and you should definitely have whatever spotter you use have one and then refill the clients and give them a spotting guide yeah because spot you know the Aftercare spotters are great we do the same um what it do you do the same thing Jason do you use an Aftercare spotter um cents I have in the past um at this point in my career I'm 62 um and I ever since I started this little H third-party invoicing program I've like in 2020 I have over a thousand clients now in that database and I'm I'm just I'm busy and I I do some things that uh that some other cleaners might not do like I carry two air movers on my van and they're the first thing to come off and they just kind of sit behind the van and when we finish the first room we put both fans in that room and then we clean the next room and we move the fans and as we go through the house the fans get on these rooms for 20 minutes a pop or you know 30 depending on how involved you are in the Next Room but by the time we get to loading up the truck the fans are on the last room blowing on that and the customers are usually seeing that because it's the you know it's the last room downstairs on your way out and they're right there and little things like that um the booties and stuff like that has kind of solidified in their minds that we' take a few extra steps that maybe the last guys that were here didn't and um if we can just separate if any of us can just separate ourselves from the crowd as CFI members you know go out there and just proudly represent uh and do the best we can and bring some things that maybe the last guys didn't like the fans or or spotter bottles or Leave Behind brochures and stuff those are all just winners you know and uh uh it's sometimes especially for me as an owner operator I have a hard time finding enough hours in the day to implement a lot of those things when I'm just cleaning all the time but um it's um uh it's always the challenge and it's always uh it's there if I want to participate but being able to come together like we did as a CFI member and share like that document you did with everybody here they can just email you you'll send it to them and they can print it up on their end Dave that's huge you know and uh that's the kind of uh teamwork kind of stuff as colleagues we're not competitors here we're all colleagues and we can uh make each other shine and do a little bit better you know next time so I I appreciate being here and all the things that I'm learning here tonight so Jason I did the same thing with the blowers that's a amazing thing that customers love we um we had package pricing so we had bronze silver and gold and um to get them out of the bronze um anytime as soon as they needed furniture moving um that they automatically have to go to the silver so it was a big jump up probably 20% higher um so one of the things that included in the silver cleaning is they can have two rooms of their choice dried while we're there so we brought the blowers and uh dried two rooms um the first we'd ask them what first two rooms do you want done and we would also tell them you know hopefully it's like the bedroom room towards the back too if you want that done and then if you want the family room dry or whatever room you're going to use this evening you know we'll do those two rooms um you know we can't we can't always dry the front hallway by the front door because it's the last thing getting clean we clean our way out but um yeah we would do we would do that for them and they just absolutely love that and that would get them up to uh that 55 to 65 cents a square foot kind of pricing mhm yeah yeah and and another thing when it comes to blowers I go in between I have the studio Baker air path and that is just it's pretty loud but man it it will two of those on the box yeah yeah right now and um then you have the small dry pods I like them and and I don't like them but the the C the consumer the customer the consumer really likes like oh you know and you know Jason you're talking about making yourself look different when the one thing that makes a a true cleaner look different is so simple it's just to have a simple back and cleaner most cleaners don't have one on their truck it takes 10 10 minutes to vacuum a carpet and a lot of times the client El they'll they'll vacuum prior because they're kind of used to that but they never vacuum or do the things that we do as a professional they're hiring us we need to be professional and we need to have the the the correct steps of cleaning uh in regards to making sure the the job comes out fantastic yeah so here here's another question I have for you guys what happens when we have that cleaning problem them um do you Pro provide any type of a warranty 30-day warranty uh a 10day warranty if a spot comes back within 90 days do you include in that warranty do you guys include well if you get a protector we're going to come back for at least four times or is it just we provide a 30-day warranty Jason what say you sir okay um when I was with kemry many years ago um they had a 15-day guarantee that uh basically said most spots will reappear within that period And so that was kind of a when I did printed invoices I had a 15-day thing at the bottom um a lot of times when you're doing urine removal like I do osr uh I've gone back behind if I was in a hurry and I didn't claw it good enough it would present as a little kind of a yellow ring on their carpet everything else looks perfect and so it was just a little bit of staining material on the tips that when I go back if if they call me say hey it's still there's something wrong can you come over oh yeah that's easy I get out toide missed it on there it disappears like within a second and then I do a little dry bonnet rake it and see you later it takes me about 5 10 minutes and if just the fact that you showed back up to do it for them they're they're really impressed you know and because most a lot of other companies out there would just blow them off and keep moving on and getting that next customer and pay in some kind of exorbitant marketing price to get that next customer when they're not taking care of the ones they have in their ped and so you know it's just uh I just really believe that uh you know first of all you have to find the time to schedule that stuff in the in the midst of all your other things that you're doing during the day and a lot of times this end of the day stuff but by that time the husband's home and he's already talked to his wife about it and paid all this money and look at this ring in the carpet and then I show up Johnny on the spot and fix it for him in five 10 minutes and he's like oh oh that was cool you know um so I um I don't mind guaranteeing it longer if they call me up a couple months later but it's real easy as professionals to spot a recurring stain versus a new stain and so yeah you can go in there and say you know yeah I see this is a recurring thinging but this one over here is new she yeah right can you do you mind I said well well we need to maybe rean and uh sometimes you know they tip me I don't expect you know I don't recharge I don't charge them again I don't there's people out there that do that they charge for every little thing and I just you got list some things slide people remember that stuff you know and then yeah uh you know and as long as they know that you care about them and they're and the job that you did then that's that's almost 100% of the you know obstacle that you've cleared so anyway yep fantastic for our business we give a 30-day warranty uh it works out fantastic even though I'll I'll put that on the invoice at emails to them they still miss it I have to remind them don't forget about your 30-day warranty and it it is outstanding and even I tell them even if the dog throws up even if your kid spills something dog potties whatever within 30 days I will come back out and I will take care of that for you wow that's cool and what ends up happening is that they go ah yeah the dog threw up and I feel I feel I'll pay you for it I go no it's what happens within 30 days and even if it was you know 40 you know a month and a half later I take care of those clients they take care of us they remember that I I I'm out there anyway I might be close by anywhere in my area takes 20 minutes to get to you I will go over there and oh that that's it and a lot of times you just take your your your spotter you know and you just spot it up real quick and they're like oh thanks R and you're on your way yeah I always get called back I always get referred 99% of our business is from referral so it it does work giving a somewhat of a guarant all right Mr uh Dave what say you what about you this is why I love these kind of uh associations and the uh hearing from other cleaners is um it's the step it up you know like you think you're doing a great job and then you hear from somebody else what they're doing and it's like man wow I you know I I I'll never forget like listening to a group of carpet cleaners around a round table and you'll hear us and we'll all start talking it's like I don't do this I don't do that I'm not you know I'm not moving that furniture and then you they start talking about how how many corners can you cut and still get paid and isn't that amazing yeah and you're not thinking like the client at all I mean you put your glass is on backwards the you know how's the client viewing you and when you start looking at things like that you go oh man Rob's going back for even a spot that the dog made after for 30 days um that's that's next level bro um well I appreciate that it's I have to put myself I mean living where I live unless they live in Egypt sure now if they lived in Egypt then we got to put that on the schedule and they'll come out and I'll come out there and um sometimes I'll I'll try to talk him through it you know and once I hear what they say then it's like okay then it's it's worth the drive to to go to Whitmore and take care of that spot for him because I know I'm GNA get a for one I'm gonna get a cup of coffee for two I'm going to probably take some cookies home or something and I get to have that conversation and that building that that relationship with people is fantastic you're locking them in they're they're never gonna go to anybody else they're never gonna go to anyone and and and here's here's something else for that and we're gonna go on to another little little tidbit here about asking for referrals so when we're all done with everything for me I that's a hard thing to ask for can you leave me review or can you know I love I you know thank you for what how do those real estate agents say you know we appreciate your referrals whatever you know I kind of have that in in in print form that goes into an email but do you guys ever ask for referrals from your clients oh oh yeah go ahead Dave let me hear it let me hear it oh yeah we we would always always ask for referrals um and uh you know let them know hey wouldn't you love to take some money off the price of the next job all you have to do is refer us a client your friends are going to love us you're going to look good and um we're always going to treat your your friends just like family and then you know you'll be you'll be receiving a 10% um discount card off of your next cleaning um you know of whatever the the cost of that job was so if your your friends have us clean you know those um you know three or four rooms just like you and you're going to be you know you can expect to get 50 to 100 bucks off your next job so yeah they we we always ask for referrals and always leave the referral reward cards with everybody that's cool that's that's really good that's something I'm kind of Scar fearful love but I don't know I've never done that all right Jason how about you sir well uh back in the kind of the middle part of the business uh at the 10 to 15 year mark I was doing cards I had a referral program where um I would give them a card I like a punch card and uh for every referral they sent me they could write that customer's last name down and then if they got me 10 and they present it to me at their next cleaning that was a free cleaning for them because they sent me 10 clients and uh that was worth it to me and um the thing is um you would have some people who might just give you one or two for the next uh between now and then it two would be a 20% discount one would be a 10% but um it helped me kind of jump start the business a little you know to the next level uh as I was Raising some prices and trying to kind of get into another Echelon of clients that I weren't that I wasn't currently servicing and so um what has worked for me exceptionally well is next door because on next door we have 190 recommendations we have been Nextdoor favorites for five years in a row and it's so funny when so I see a post on next door I'm looking for a carpet cleaner all my all my cheerleaders come in all at once and say give them a call give them a call and and it's so funny because some of these things that'll just be flooded with people promote me in my neighborhood which is right around you know or nearby neighborhoods and um I would encourage every carpet cleaner that's listening to this uh broadcast right now to start yourself a business page on next door and people use that app like you wouldn't believe and um uh you can in five years have five Nextdoor favorite Awards it's it's just how much you kind of get as you pop up on their Pro on their their platform you know and then they he they just cross this threshold with recommendations and so Yelp is great uh Google's cool but uh next door is where it's at when it when you have people referring their neighbors the guy across the street you know that that's going to be a good recommendation because they've known each other for 40 years or whatever and so you're going to go in there and whatever you do at the referrals house they're going to say yes to because my friend across the street that just used you must have you done all this stuff too so yeah whatever you need to do just get it done and they pay you more money the referrals if you do it right your referral jobs will pay you more than the original client that referred you not because you went in there to look for that it's just you make these recommendations and they say yes to all of them because they don't want to be outdone by the Joneses next door you know and so thanks Jason yeah did did you answer that one already Dave did uh about the referrals yeah yeah yeah I I need to eat something I just toally like so let's talk about let's talk about the nightmare referral so not everything is great so I'll give myself an as an example I did a a job for a Restoration company picked up some drugs from a lady that was just she was a nightmare absolute nightmare over some inexpensive Art Deco uh synthetic rugs she was just a nightmare so I I guess what I'm I'm getting at is sometimes you have to say no or you have to work something out and I kind of understand where she's coming from her house flooded her floor is Warped she had to have all these air movers in her house she was everything was disrupted and I'm the guy she got to take it out on and my goodness my goodness and I I I yeah tell me tell me tell me how you can deal with or have you dealt with that referral that you really don't want and that that's just that's a round table question go ahead anyone any of you can answer that I okay usually you can size a person up like that within the first five minutes yeah and if you haven't already let the cat out of the bag on what you normally charge um you can say well add 10 cents to that for the hassle of dealing with him you know uh and you know at least you at that 10 s War you're putting the uh accountability on yourself to I'm charging more I better do the best job I've ever done because that person's really watching Every Move I Make and if if I do anything outside of the norm if I don't do every step that I've ever done for anybody and then maybe a little bit more on that this is going to be a problem they're gonna they're going to be calling me back every you know few days oh God you missed this or you did this or whatever and we all make mistakes in the house I gosh man after 35 years you you have the experience to kind of sidestep a lot of those mistakes that a rookie would make but they still happen you know and and a good a good or mediocre client can become a nightmare client just because of a mistake you made or they're already wired that way and you've just walked into the lion's den and you've got to try to figure out how to make them happy and uh if you just if you just make sure that I'm G to be the best cleaner they've ever seen you know and that's my attitude so that I'm watching everything I do and my helper does and we just uh we we we just wow them as best we can and if um sometimes that that extra 10 cents is worth it yeah for your s yeah Dave what say you um well uh boy you just never want to have to deal with those clients but everyone's got them it's and and you're right you know you just get a feel for it and you know The Crazy Ones when you see them um I I I charge double Jason not 10% no I'm kidding I I wouldn't I I mean I I treat him just like you where you you do the best you can and you you just use honesty and integrity and and move on um and you can fire them after the job you can you can I've had to fire a couple customers one lady kept cancelling because of nail appointments or just random like I got to cancel the day of and she did this to me three times and the third time she cancelled and I asked why and she said because I've got a nail appointment and the only day she can do it is today and so I did go and do the job I showed up that fourth appointment and then um I cleaned her carpet and then I let her know this is the last time I'm ever going to do your carpet because you canceled on me that many times she was so upset she's like why did she she wanted she wanted the argument beforehand like this lady's crazy so she she wanted she wanted me to you know cause a big problem tell her I'm never going to service her again and then so she could yell at me well I did a great job for her I finished the job and then I fired her and then she just didn't know what to do with that she she was so mad and I just I I I escaped you know um out of all of her friends and all of the nightmares behind that those people people are hurt people hurt people life used to that's a crazy lady yeah that's a crazy lady I had the crazy lady man she she sent me like she was she this lady was I was in I was in Dalton Georgia at a speaking engagement and the job restoration job was going to be done on the 27th she called on the 23rd I told her the rugs will be will be ready uh I'll try to have them ready before I leave if not then they'll be done ready for you guys on the 27th perfect not a problem Roby sure enough man that lady called sicker than a dog had the rest Restoration company call can my husband come to your shop and pick up my my rugs no no no you can't do that so just the long story short I it's like here's the money these are inexpensive rugs it is not worth it and it taught me that when I'm dealing with these type of customers from another company a Restoration company whatsoever the restoration company's gonna deal with these people I will pick those rugs up from the Restoration company that was the biggest lesson I've learned this year so so far because she is not a a client and we have to be picking our clients you know just just just like Jason said you know you can hear them you can see them you can smell them coming and you might want to charge them a little more and I wasn't just working for her I was working for the other company so I'm representing not just myself I want to make sure I'm representing that other company too so I had to call the other company excuse me I had to call that other company and tell them what was going on and I told him I don't even want her money I'll clean her rugs for her just like they were a Persian rug or whatever I don't care I I don't care just as long as you leave me alone and when you need your R clean you call the carpet cleaner is gonna pull them out on that driveway and clean them that way so anyway start dealing with the The Crazy Ones it never gets better it just never does it's never like oh they start they always have a lot of business too and um and and so it's it's tempting and we've taken on a lot of work and and it just never gets better yeah for every one of them though there's 10 others out there that are Pleasant to deal with and yeah yeah make your day yeah yeah and and and speaking about that is there a special way with our good clients do that you say goodbye to them what about you uh Dave is there a way that when your everything's done you got the money you're you're getting ready to walk out the door is there something that you do Dave to say thank you and goodbye and we'll see you again that's a great question um I don't know uh this is night not the right answer but maybe somebody else can can um you know commiserate with me on this I um I I always we do great customer service and great to the end of the job but um I'd say I don't know I don't have the right thing to say uh like um hey we like to you know call us back in in six months to a year you know or whatever I mean no I I don't really have the right thing to say sorry I don't know n that's good that's good that's that's honest all right Mr Hensley what's you I always say we'll see you next time because that makes him you know not think about the guy last guy but think about me next time and um I try to program them to um get it done at least once a year you know and some I see if you have pets and kids and whatever maybe twice a year and a lot of them uh pick up on that um and it's I think that's just another important thing that uh we all could learn to do and and do well to you know just make sure that uh uh that they're bottom line is that they're happy so yeah 100% there's another thing that uh at the end of the job that I know this a lot of carpet cleaners have different philosophies on this whether they're great carbet cleaners like the CFI has or the ones that sit around that round table figureing out how they can cut Corners uh but um speaking to one of those guys one time uh he was the one that um I let me say start off by saying I groom every carpet with a rake now if you were to see my w wand work you would think wow why do you even need to do that because I've I've come to a point where after all these years of just trying to do those perfect one Strokes where it just looks like the carpet was raak and uh but then I go back and I rake it and you a lot of times the fans are blowing on it and when you're raking it you're pulling a lot of that moisture away from the carpet and it's going airborne and uh it's you know help helps dry it faster and aate it but this uh this one guy who used to do the zigzag you know whenever I'd have a helper I'd always say take the zig out of the zag you know we need nice straight line here maybe a beautiful fan at the doorway you know but it the room looks like it was professionally cleaned in case you left your rake at the last job but with that being said rake every job and uh we do that just it's an added service that's included it doesn't take us any time to do it um we did that too because you get into the higher-end homes they don't want it to look like a back am board I see all these photos online on Facebook and stuff and people are all you know in the advertisements of the back gamon boards like I'm a carpet cleaner and here and people do not want to see that when you get into the multi-million dollar homes they want it to look like their their guests are coming tomorrow and they just have their home is clean that's it well my point is this the guy's answer was this I've trained all my clients to like you know I do it this way and I've trained all my clients to expect this yes I'm like oh my gosh what a what a what a he miss missing it missing the ball yeah what a thought well goes for that goes for uphol stre too don't don't leave the lines the everything out yeah so anyway enough of that I just wonder look should look clean and like we were never there yeah y exactly so for me what I do with all our clients like tonight I went out and gave an estimate I I love ranchers I just love ranchers I I I have ranchers in the Red Bluff area and the Cottonwood area Anderson and um they're just cut from a Different Cloth they're they're just cool people man and these this older couple and they just gave an estimate I always ask when I fill people out my last thing I say to everybody is what's for dinner because theyve just well you know what we're gonna have blah blah blah blah the lady tonight she goes we're having spaghetti didn't don't you smell it and I was like actually no she goes well I just just turned it on but now we're having spaghetti tonight and and uh some people go you know what I haven't thought about that you know little old ladies are like well I'm going to have a bowl of cereal and this and you know what do you guys have I don't know you know we made a crock poot or we go then it just broadens the spectrum of hey you're a normal person I'm not just here to clean for you but you're a normal person I always ask that question it's the pet answer question I ask everybody before I leave the house and and I said what's for dinner and a lot of times they're like well I made like I home some lasagna today man lasagna and some bread I go that smells so good she goes oh okay thanks for then before I left here you go I love that I love that well you have those clients I I love this time of year going into the holidays because everybody's feeling generous and this time of year it's if you're doing a great job your clients are going to tip you well they're going to send you home with cookies or cake or yeah or have you sit down I've had him invite me and my helpers sit down to dinner with him before and it the it was dinner time it was we were done and gosh man what a great experience that is you know it's just it's off the cuff and it's just spontaneous but it's it's a great way to end up a job you know J Jason can I that report Jason can I ask you something really quick yes at the beginning of this you said um something that that really caught my attention you said something about your um database and you had invoices that were electronic um and we've been doing that uh since 2015 I think um what took it from the paper invoices to the the computer and when I sold my business that was the best thing I ever did in order sell my business because he had all the history um at that time in 2015 we entered in I think five years at least some from 2010 to 2015 we entered all the invoices so he has a whole history of every client oh yeah and my I know so many carpet cleaners that are still doing the paper invoices and stuff and they don't have the documentation of the computer and um it's it's huge so if you're if you're new in the industry and you haven't got a CRM yet um in a program get with something right because just having these paper invoices it's fine but when when you comes the day you want to sell your business that's how you're going to sell it that's how you're going to prove that these are the clients I have and you have a way to contact them like you're collecting their data your information that email phone number landline cell phone I mean absolutely yeah all right well that's it guys it is 7 o'clock and I know it's okay to go a little bit over but my stomach is talking to me and I just wanted to say thank you it's great great great information um come back again Jason Dave we appreciate you guys learned a lot we always do and I'm so grateful that uh I was been able to be here and uh he are the things that you guys have to offer and and uh yes sir Dave I will be sending you an email so I can get th that documentation so I can make it of my make it my own and that's the thing you know Dave you get some you may get some things from other people but you can make it your own and uh you can take things out doesn't have to be verbatim but you can make it your own uh same thing goes with our association you know the newer cleaner today it's it's hard to reach that guy it's hard to reach them you know just like uh Dave was saying you know uh his is his the person who bought his business doesn't really follow through in certain things that he did before you know and it's hard to get those young guys to to see it but you know how they run their business is how they run their business be being a part of CFI is one of the best things I ever did when it comes to business one of the other things I did was join a networking group and and and having that group of people as my cheerleaders learning about their business learning about them I suggest and recommend that to all you guys who are listening get involved not just with the CFI not just yeah yeah but that's a fine that's a dollar way guys thank you so much I appreciate it come back again and uh we'll talk to you guys again that's the end of our show guys apprciate it good see you Roby thanks Jason see you guys all right bye bye bye bye