Truck mount proven to be second best

I offer TM HWE and Dryfoam/Shampoo to my clients. I prefer the TM HWE, you cant beat the noise that a TM/HWE will bring to a cleaning. By noise I mean excitement.  By excitement I mean interested clients who are already sold on the cleaning you offer.  Big equipment, impressive looking and sounding.  I often think that a good product is supposed to sell itself.  Truckmounted cleaning sells itself. 

I started in this industry having to sell Shampoo cleaning.  Sell Sell Sell.  You have to spend alot of time and effort getting most people to believe in your product.  The product does work, very well for that matter.  However the product does not sell itself.  Also I will say that I hate dragging in that buffer into a small house with tiny halls and lots of stairs. 

Nice Website by the way Bubble


Edited by FuzzSucker - 06/January/2009 at 11:59pm

Hi Fuzzsucker...

Sorry...Proven is a strong word, but I was hoping to get some discussion going.I agree totall with everything you said about the truck-mount,.I have been looking at them for a few months now, and customer perception was one of the things the tm scored well on.But we both know that its not the equiptment that cleans carpets, its the person, and there are lots of people using expensive equipment that do a horrible job, and there are guys with rugdoctors who care and are great.But, the ones who make the money, in the long run, are the ones that show their worth and their skill.I think I have decided on a king cobra 1200 pro, and a rotary drimaster.Hooked up to an on truck generator the pro should do a great job as a truck mount in disguise, and on apartments and offices, its mobility scores well.

As for the website, thanks, but thats a temporary site..the new one is looking like it will be tvery nice!!

Me too....seems perceptions are sacred...

I agree...guess I was just trying to stir things up a bit...will take my trouble elsewhere

While the set up and operation cost of a TM may be significantly higher than a bonnet, the TM will always be more profitable because it will result is referrals and repeat business. Plus you can do flood restoration.. which is BIG BUCKS and upholstery, drapery, tile etc. etc. etc.

So the equation is flawed.

Ok so I have just bought a king cobra 1200.

212 heat, 150-1200 psi, 3 stage vac dual hard surface/carpet cleaning machine.

I can clean ANYTHING a truck mount can.Carpets are dry as I am leaving, I can do car upholstery, furniture and a 30 story high rise apartment building.

I use no gas, as it runs on electricity, when it needs serviced I can swap it out for another machine without losing any work, and it makes LOADS of noise.

PLUS when I tell my customers that its not the song its the singer, when I tell them that my machine has the CRI Gold Standard, and when I tell them that truck mounts lose 1 degree of heat and one pound of pressure for every ft of hose,they usually get the picture.

AND, i still have my bonnet machine sitting ready for those quicky jobs.

No doubt the truck mount is handy, and powerful,and it makes lots of noise and uses lots of gas, but as I said before, its not the song, its the singer.

I have the same basic setup, except I'm using a Ninja with an RX-20. I have a dual speed buffer for enacap and pre-scrubbing tile&grout. In fact, the StoneTech guy I took a class from suggested pre-scrubbing with a buffer and then extracting at 500 psi. I still think I'd prefer 1000 psi, but the man said 500.

It's been 2.5 years, and I'm ready to upgrade to a tm. In the beginning, having to spend more time didn't bother me, because business was light enough that I could spare the extra time. As my time becomes more valuable, the tm looks better and better. We've been asking our regular customers if they would be more impressed if we used a truckmount. Most say they only care about results, but some have liked the idea of us upgrading to a more robust system. Recently, someone was extremely disappointed that we didn't have a truckmount--his wife was supposed to make sure we had one, but I guess she failed that task. We offered to clean a sample area with no obligation. He liked what he saw and told us to go ahead with the work. By the time we left, his mood was great and he was telling us he'd be using our services twice a year. So sure, you can dazzle customers with your portable system, but sometimes it takes extra convincing, and that gets a little old.