SeattleRugCleaning1

This is the first of a 4 part series I shot on Rug Cleaning at Emmanuel's Rug and Upholstery Cleaning in Seattle  Washington. 

Oriental Rug Lawsuits and Bogus Appraisals

I just got an interesting inquiry. A Carpet Cleaner is getting sued. One of his crews cleaned a rug in a client’s home and things went south. As expected the rug owner has an appraisal from the place they bought the rug for $10,000. In case you are not familiar with this scam that usually means that the consumer paid no more then $1,995 or 20 cents on the dollar. The cleaner is sharp enough to be looking for an appraiser. I do not know if I will be offered the job or if I will take it. I generally will not take a case if the other appraiser is a friend and I have a lot of friends.
I offer this as a lesson to our newer rug cleaners:

Don’t wash rugs in the home. Every once in a while things go bad and if it is in your shop you have a chance to fix it.

If you get sued check out the appraiser, there are a lot of bogus appraisals on the market.

You can wash in the home for 50 cents to $1.50 with huge risk or in your “shop” for $3 to $5 a squire foot with little risk.

You cannot do better than a mediocre job in the home.

I do not mean to insult any of you that do rugs in the home. In fact I am hoping to get your appraisal work if you get sued.

A few simple guidelines:

• The appraiser should not be the seller. That represents a conflict of interest.
• Appraisers do not have to be certified to appraise rugs. If an appraiser does not list his credentials then it is likely that he does not have any.
• The appraiser or his associate must actually examine the rug in person. An appraisal from photographs is of far less value.

The appraised value should be identified as 

• "Fair Market Value" (what it might actually sell for in the condition it was in when it was placed in your care.), 
• "Replacement Cost". Insurance companies will often pay for a new one at full retail. You are not an insurance company. 

Barry O'Connell

Senior Fellow Academy of Oriental Rugs

Cell 570-447-4395

Doug Heiferman 3 Day Rug Class in August

HANDS-ON RUG CLEANING SCHOOL & TOUR OF NYC RUG DISTRICT

Thank you for your inquiry regarding our Hands-On Rug Cleaning School in Medford, NY on August 18, 19, 20.  Here's the link for additional info on the class http://www.dhseminars.net/paypalclassreg.htm.

This is a FANTASTIC opportunity to develop your rug cleaning skills, learn how to identify rugs, rug pre-inspection, set up your own wash pit for little money and dramatically increase your bottom line.  In addition you will earntwo CEC credits for attending.  We have put together an exciting, action packed three days of hands-on rug cleaning which includes:

- guided tour of the rug district in NYC on Day 1 (transportation to NYC from Medford, NY included)

- rug construction

- rug identification

- machine woven versus hand woven

- Wilton, face-to-face, velvet, Axminster

- learn how to MASTER pre-inspections and limit your liability

- submersion cleaning

- low moisture cleaning

- cleaning Wool; introduction to the WoolSafe Organization

- Bridgepoint Systems Wool Cleaning Line

- cleaning bleeders; crocking

- cleaning "stinkers" and urine decontamination

- "Kick Down the Door" marketing

- technical aspects of setting up your own rug cleaning profit center

- cleaning fringe

- and lots more

Rug expert and international appraiser Barry O'Connell along with myselfDoug Heiferman will be the lead trainers for this class.   John Long, master textile cleaner and industry veteran will be presenting as well.  With over 30 years experience in the industry John has faced just about every cleaning challenge imaginable, he'll knock your socks off with his demonstrations and great sense of humor.  We are all PASSIONATE about rugs and sharing our knowledge and expertise with fellow rug enthusiasts!

Breakfast and lunch are included for all three days.  We have reserved a block of rooms at a reduced rate of $129 plus tax per night at the Hampton Inn Long Island/Brookhaven, 2000 North Ocean Avenue, Farmingville, NY 11738 phone (631) 732-7300.  To get this rate rooms must be booked no later than 7/18/14.  Just mention group code DH Seminars when booking your reservation.

Sign up TODAY, this class is filling up quickly ------ you can call Mary at(845) 291-7104 or simply click on the link to register and pay onlinehttp://www.dhseminars.net/paypalclassreg.htm.  The cost of this class is $685 and $585 for the 2nd person from the same company. This is going to an awesome class you don't want to miss ------ make a move to improve!  Look forward to seeing you in August! 

Best regards, 

Doug Heiferman

IICRC Approved Instructor - Carpet, Upholstery, Odor Removal

WoolSafe Approved Wool Fiber Care Specialist

IICRC Master Textile Cleaner

IICRC Odor Removal Tech

FCITS Carpet Inspector

DH Seminars

phone 845.291.7104

fax 845.291.7104
dcuc10@aol.com

www.dhseminars.net

What can I do with E-Mail?

As I write this Hanukah starts in 13 days, Thanksgiving is in 15 days and Christmas is in 41 days. So what does that have to do with Oriental Rugs and Rug Washing? I will tell you what, it is about money. Holidays are a time of parties, family meals, visiting loved ones and company. Think to yourself if you have friends and family coming over for Thanksgiving Dinner what do you want them to smell when they walk into your home the turkey or the cat?

Pet odor is a major problem especially since over 80% of all rugs coming in to be cleaned have some pet contamination. It is also a wonderfully profitable problem. Customers bring you problems, you provide solutions and they give you money.

But unless you take action some of your customers will forget to get the rugs done. Unless you take action some of them will wish they had gotten their problem rugs cleaned. Unless you take action some of them will even roll up the problem and stick it in the basement or garage until their company leaves. You customer faces shame, embarrassment, or inconvenience but you have a worse problem; you lose the opportunity to have your customer give you money.

One solution is email marketing. By collecting emails it gives us an easy inexpensive way to remind or customers that as of today there are only 40 days left to get their rugs cleaned.  Actually it would have been better if you had done that a month ago but there is always next year.

There are all the major holidays but there are other events you could email your customers. In most of the country moths lay their eggs in May or June that would be a perfect reason to send out a warning message. A spring cleaning message reminding people that rug wear is primarily from dry particulate soil abrasion in the foundation. Summer vacation is a great time to take rugs out for cleaning. Fall is the annual start of the rug season. The list goes on and is as big as your imagination.

USPS Mail is so expensive and even post cards for rug washers are so 1995. I mean really Postcards are as old fashioned as Bronze Silver Gold pricing packages. It is time to focus on email and get set for text messages as well.

Business Image and Brand

Does your business agree with your vision and is either in line with your mission statement. If your goal as a Rug Washer is to be a Hack or a Second-Rater then stop reading this article. Anything you do or don’t do does not really matter. But if you want to run a high end Rug Washing Boutique then you need to take a serious look at everything you are doing.

Do you have a location where customers can pick up and drop off their rugs? Take a critical look does your business has curb appeal? Now obviously we are not trying to flip houses but what does your customer see when they pull up? Here are some basic questions:

Is your property clean, orderly, and in good repair?

Do you have that rusty car you mean to get running one of these days?

Is their scrap, junk, or clutter in the view of customers when they bring their rugs to you?

Are their weeds growing up between the sidewalk or drive and the building?

Is the building painted and in good repair?

Luv-A-Rug Services 250-590-6210

I think you get the idea. You are selling cleaning and your services to put things in their proper order. I know you are swamped and you are meaning to get to it but your building is where you say who you are and a junky cluttered mess in need of care is the wrong message. The better it looks the better you look and if you are building your high end Rug Washing Boutique you need every edge that you can get. Clean it, fix it, paint it, and get it done.

Now my eyes are not that good any more so how easy it to find your place? We are not dealing with maps and pictures on the web here I am speaking about signage. Can I see your business easily driving by? Maybe you have good eyes and you can see that 1 by 2 foot sign in the window from a block away but ask yourself are customers over 50 important to your business and your future? Make it easy to find you. Also you need to keep your exterior display changing. Sign boards work well for many people. Can you dry or dust rugs where it is visible from the street? Any sort of activity draws attention. If you can keep some aspect of your signage changing every 10 days it will be far more effective.

From the front door to the counter or whatever apply the same sort of examination inside that we just covered for outside. But clean and orderly is just the beginning; Does your interior say “Rug Expert” or Hack. What about your interior says Rugs to the newcomer? Do you have any rugs on display? Some display rugs, tribal trappings, maps of the weaving areas and novelties like a miniature Navajo loom helps create an image that draws your customer in. Rug book and a magazine such as "Carpet Collector" attract customer interest and these things build your image as a Rug Expert. Dirty, smelly soiled rugs don’t look good or smell good. Don’t keep piles of rugs in your display and selling area. Keep moving them to the back. I think it is best keep the display and selling area separate from the cleaning area but I do believe in welcoming customers to visit your cleaning area anytime they want. Now that I think about it why not invite everyone to see you clean. Getting the local 5^th grade class to stop by and see a display of chemistry in action could send 20 or 30 little sales people home to tell their parents about what they saw.  

These is just the start but take what I have given you and see how it applies to your business. To some of you this is old hat but to some of you the ideas here can make your business far more profitable. 

MORE by Barry O'Connell

My new Wednesday Night video talk show is called “MORE”. It is dedicated to the concept of MORE. More on rugs, More on top quality rug cleaning, More on building your business and More on Authority Marketing. For our target audience it is about the Three Ms; MAKEING MORE MONEY!

I loved the old Wednesday night program that Dusty, Paul, Nathan and others had fashioned. But in many ways it had its limitations. There were too many rules.  Dan Dahlion saw the program as a profit making opportunity for him. That is fine since PCN is his, but we missed many guests because Danno wanted $175 to $300 from guests to be on the show. But I wanted something MORE. My goal is to put the Rugs and the Rug washers first. I want to be able to pick topics and invite guests solely on the basis of what is best for the audience.

With that in mind I created my own show where I can do what I want when I want. Reaching back to the early days on PCN I was excited to get D. Scott Kentfield to come on and help get the show started. Because the Google platform is much more richly featured and stable we can much more with videos. With PCN we had to save videos at the lowest possible resolution just to play on PCN and even then it was hit or miss. Now we can play any video on YouTube or just about anywhere else.  We will also have much better slide presentations. With PCN we could only use less than half of the screen so resolution was a big problem and the speaker running the slides could only see parts of his own presentation. By going to a two hour show we can split things up and cover a wider range of guests and topics.

Las Vegas RugLover Tour a big Success

The Tour was the best so far. The turnout was very good and we really made a great group of participants. I don’t have a list of attendees but some of them were: Michael Mull, Amador Padron, Brian Jesperson, John Restivo, Joe Roberts, Timothy Kilman, Ruth Durot, Ruth Travis, Michael Flynn, Paul Lucas, Nathan Koets, Kirk Siddens, Ivan Turner, David Bennion, Scott Warrington, Tom Forsythe, Brian and Kelly Ritchie, Brian S. Ritchie, Brian K. Ritchie, Rocio Ritchie, Mario DiGiovanni, Thomas King, Brandon Padron, Cory McCook, Randal Halvorson, Larry and Cathy Snyder, Joe Bartz. Cameron Mayville, Mark Baldwin, Scott Arkon, Con Schultz, Rod and Jackie McGeorge, Michael Brummett, Alex Flores, James Takacs, Dave Gerke, Paul and Linda Schleuniger, Debbie Penny. Jan Sandler, Doug and Amanda Moerschbacher, Howard Partridge, Dusty Roberts, Clark and Linda Lancaster, Ike Maddox, Scott Powell, Bill and Jean Pinckard and family, Mark Ehrlich, Khosrow Noury and Azita Aghanoury, Shawn Bisailion Rob Decker, Cynthia, Michael Schmitt, Stephen Esau, Johnny Sheridan, Brian Simpson, Todd Almer Jr., Michael Flynn, Doug Heiferman, Steve Moran as well as a number of others.