Stanley Steemer.

**Pat Carroll** · 10-20-2008, 08:12 PM

They are busy here in the Minneapolis area. I think that they have some pretty crappy workers because their customers end up calling me to fix what they messed up or didn't do. They are doing duct cleaning here too. Their tile cleaning special for $99 is 200 sq. ft.

**Rob Allen** · 11-10-2008, 07:49 AM

Stanley is notorious for the 99.00 special ad campaigns. However the apparantly work. I've just never thought of running one for tile and grout too.

**Bill Yeadon** · 11-10-2008, 08:47 AM

Rob,
It really doesn't matter what they are cleaning. They are selling the brand. The brand is about trust and my goodness is that in short supply now.
As mentioned in earlier posts do you really want to compete in Stanleys ballpark?

**johntalley** · 11-10-2008, 10:21 AM

There big !! ....

But My Tm is BIGGER ..... !!:AddEmoticons08047:

**Frank DiGi** · 11-10-2008, 01:05 PM

Its all about marketing with them and that 99.00 special ..

**Rob Lyon** · 11-10-2008, 05:30 PM

I am amazed this post is still going LOL!!

**B&BGaryC** · 01-05-2009, 02:44 AM

Stanley Steemer is a franchise. If a ninny buys a SS it will suck. If an ethical cleaner buys a SS it will do OK.

Not all franchise owners are bad guys, a lot of them just made a mistake of thinking paying dues was a good idea.

**Matt Strader** · 02-07-2009, 09:11 PM

I think you need to take in all the factors. Most importantly, what's your profit margin. SS seems to be everywhere but at what "COST" (pun intended). They spend truckloads of money on advertising and have very few return customers, comparatively speaking. They surly have branded themselves as a result but they will never make profit margins like some of the smaller,well thought out, companies have. So to me success is not about how many trucks are on the road but what kind of profit the trucks on the road are making.

**floorguy_724** · 02-07-2009, 11:58 PM

Originally Posted by 561Cleaner

I think you need to take in all the factors. Most importantly, what's your profit margin. SS seems to be everywhere but at what "COST" (pun intended). They spend truckloads of money on advertising and have very few return customers, comparatively speaking. They surly have branded themselves as a result but they will never make profit margins like some of the smaller,well thought out, companies have. So to me success is not about how many trucks are on the road but what kind of profit the trucks on the road are making.

Well said Matthew! I've heard of some pretty bad SS stories in my area, then again I have heard a lot of good things about them a little further north. I guess its all in what the owner (SS) expects from his techs.

**c_adkins** · 02-09-2009, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by Rob Lyon

I think after 10 years with them, I can honestly say Billy Yeadon is DEAD ON!
And the Compensation plan does depend on how motivated you are!

And some of you guys would be surprised. If any of you get a chance, ask Ken Snow of Hagopian what his techs make!

**TheEyeball** · 02-09-2009, 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by c_adkins

And some of you guys would be surprised. If any of you get a chance, ask Ken Snow of Hagopian what his techs make!

I'm sure they make great money. As commissioned salespeople they generate the most revenue from peripherals, much like a gas station does with cigarettes and lottery tickets.

**admin** · 06-23-2009, 09:15 AM

bumping this stanley steemer thread up

**rjfdube** · 06-23-2009, 01:19 PM

I worked for SS for about 3 yrs part time; they definently got everyone licked when it comes to price, advertising, and equipment. But their techs are pushed to the point of ridiculous. Their customers always call me to accomplish what they tried to do.

Quality definently isn't their strong point. I have gone to a job where the tech was still their loading up the truck and cursing me because of his incompitence.

The biggest difference is quality and pride of ownership.

**Ara Klujian** · 06-23-2009, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by Rob Allen

Ya'll make some good points but I see SS in many a nice areas. I rarely see them in low class neighborhoods. Also I'm not saying I want to be the largest but there success cannot be disputed. Just curious to how they we're able to reach such a dominant state. They must be doing something right!
Rob.

Rob, come to Chicago. I see them in the ghetto and really bad neighborhoods. I think they try to tackle every class of consumer.

What ever happened to Service Master? Weren't they bigger than SS at one time?

**CoastalCleaning** · 06-24-2009, 11:55 AM

I worked for them for 7 years. I started off as an assistant and moved up to running dispatch and ended my time with them as a full time commercial sales rep doing about 600-800k of commercial cleaning and water restoration. Some jobs we charged an arm and leg and other jobs we didn't but I was always honest and up front with our pricing and expectations.

I think you guys have pretty well grossly exaggerated how they run things. Never once and I mean never once have I seen any one in management including myself preach or plan the premise of bait and switch. The 99 dollar special is typically a 4 room clean only. Prespray, pretreat attention to detail was always included. They don't price things by the sq.ft like most of you guys do. They price per room with a limit of 300 sq.ft per room. The pricing is probably more down the middle or average than you think.

Everyone "upsells" you do it we did it and its how you make money. It was always about educating the customer on protection and so forth never about cheating anyone out of their hard earned money. We all want to do a 140 dollar job and add on enough extra work or spray on's to get up to 300 bucks. Just like you guys we gave up front pricing before anything additional was cleaned or protected...

"maim (scotchgard sales pitch) it'll be 25 a room and we can do that right now". If you were ever found to have added to a ticket without the customers approval you'd have been pulled off a truck in no time. A full time guy running a truck can make up to 16% if he consistently adds on protection, deo or furniture yada yada.

We did a ton of volume. 40-60 jobs a day and sometimes as much as 100 a day. Divided up between 10-16 trucks. Quality, despite what you guys think, was a huge issue. You cannot have a customer call back rate or "redo" rate above 3% or you're back down to an assistant.

As far as advertising goes its not a third of what you guys think it its. Nationally they do TV which is nice but thats the larger extent of what they do. The largest branch I worked for which was Dallas, didn't advertise over 2k a month total above that national TV advert. Once they cross promoted with the Cowboys but that only lasted one year.

We cleaned tile and grout with the same bonnet and gecko as you guys use. Most of us took the same IICRC water restoration and structural drying classes as you guys did.

At 35k a year with full health insurance and paid vacation you don't end up with that many bad seeds. Usually there are a good solid 10 or so guys who make up and above 35k a year and they do decent work. Then there is a revolving door of another 10 or so guys who just don't get it but thats a result of having a big business not how management runs things. The bigger you are the bigger your revolving door is but the longer you stayed the more money you would make on requests. Being requested by name is something they really concentrated on.

One of the real advantages you guys have is the diversity in chemicals and how you tackle a job. We were always limited in what we could do or offer because the size of the company was always a legal liability.

**Bobby** · 06-24-2009, 04:02 PM

I also doubt if there is a franchise owner who bought one so he could clean carpets himself. I would imagine it is like buying a McDonalds you probably learn to flip burgers but theat isn't what the owners job is. Just like MDs sells a $1.00 dbl cheeseburger and they sell a ton of them but there are always lines out the door of the mom & pop place that has a great product with a loyal customer base even though they charge 3 or 4 times that for their burgers.

**CoastalCleaning** · 06-24-2009, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by Bobby

I also doubt if there is a franchise owner who bought one so he could clean carpets himself. I would imagine it is like buying a McDonalds you probably learn to flip burgers but theat isn't what the owners job is. Just like MDs sells a $1.00 dbl cheeseburger and they sell a ton of them but there are always lines out the door of the mom & pop place that has a great product with a loyal customer base even though they charge 3 or 4 times that for their burgers.

Just FYI over 60% of their franchise owners started off at techs in their regular branches.

BTW I'm not trying to sound like a Stanley Steemer apologist but its not as bad as organization as some make it out to be. They've helped the industry more than they've hurt it.

**JStafford** · 06-24-2009, 08:14 PM

I love that SS cleans tile and grout. I picked up 4 new customers this week because SS cleaned their neighbor's house and they didn't want the same results their neighbor's received. I am making good money off of their advertising. I just hope they keep advertising T&G in my area...

**Bobby** · 06-24-2009, 08:51 PM

Ryan you missed my point I don't think he wanted to continue to push a wand. He wanted to own a business, but with their business model I don't think that includes him still on the truck every day. I was just trying to make a comparrison thats all. Oh and BTW most McDonalds owners started out working in one too.

**TechnicRay** · 06-24-2009, 11:19 PM

I live at the hub of Stanley. I never bash them to my clients because just like anywhere else, they have good techs and they have bad ones. Being here I can tell you I probably get more business because of some of their practices. They seem to send a lot of salesmen instead of well trained techs. Im glad they are here.