1. Charging for Deodorizer

This may not seen like a big deal, however, you must ask yourself a question first.  If someone walked all over your clothes, the dog or cat laid on them, etc would you throw your clothes in the wash with hot water and never add soap?  No, of course you wouldn’t…why?  Because you and I both know that you need soap to get it clean and looking it’s best!  When a carpet cleaning company provides carpet cleaning and does not include what they call a “deodorizer” they reality is they are not using soap! The industry term to ask, is if they use a “pre-treatment solution” which has a basic deodorizer and spot remover.  If they do not, than all you are packing for is hot water!

So you are concerned about using harsh chemicals, we understand that!  However, many of the leading & quality pre-treatment solutions used in the industry today are bio-degradable and safe for your family & pets.  So, the other question is to ask if their pretreatment solution is bio-degradable.  If it is not, than often their chemicals are cheap and it won’t do a good job cleaning & also leave your carpet with a heavy soap residue that often times makes the carpet feel sticky.

2. Prices for Larger Rooms Not Outlined

This is a huge question to ask when shopping & comparing prices with carpet cleaning companies!  Just because you receive an upfront price over the phone doesn’t make the lowest price the best.  When receiving a quote if you are not asked about the size of the rooms or total number of areas, expect sticker shock when they service you!  Don’t forget to mention things like stairs & closets as most franchise company’s charge these areas considerably more than their room rates or charge for an entire additional room just for a closet. Receiving a quote upfront & in writing is important with comparison shopping so you can compare correctly with the cost & the services you are receiving.

3. Franchise with Hands OFF Owners

When shopping for a company it is important to consider if the owners are hands on and actively participating in the daily operations of the business.  No one will care about your experience as a customer more than an owner will!!  This is one of the many reasons why franchise & large corporations do not provide the level of quality or customer service that a local business will.  Ask questions about where the company is based from, if the owner lives locally or is available, etc.  Most often you won’t be able to speak with owner but if there response is “he is in the field today” or something similar than at least you know you have someone who is hands on!  Yes, they may think you are nosy but this is a huge key to knowing if you will receive quality work!

4. Franchises Total Cost is Often More

Even with special promotions and deals, by the time you add up the price for “deodorizer or pre-treatment”, extra rooms, stairs, and things you are paying more for the big corporation…most often close to 30% more!  A locally owned company knows that price is vital to being competitive in a world of major chains.  However, you also have to remember you are getting what you are paying for!  Going with the cheapest does have it’s major downfalls and if you are getting 5 rooms of carpet cleaned for $75 expect them to fly in and out and not care about giving you good service.  That is why we recommend using companies that prices are mid range, as they will give you better services than the cheapest, but will also give you a better value than a franchise will.

At Fetz We Strive to Exceed Your Expectations!

1) Proving the highest quality pre-treatment solutions that are bio-degrable and that are always FREE

2) Provide up front written quotes to our customers, asking detailed questions, to insure you don’t have any sticker shock when our technicians arrive

3) We have hands on, local & family owners who are involved in the daily operations of the business & personally train their employees and even staff within their own family.

4) Providing a high quality service with a great price!  We don’t claim to be the cheapest in town and we don’t want to be.  We know the corners that have to be cut to do so and we don’t believe in providing such sub-par quality & services.  We most often will priced mid range, approx. 30% less than major franchises, but still more than lower end companies.

Call 816-298-9292 or 913-543-3923

or email service@fetzcleaning.com

to receive your custom written estimate

(within the Kansas City & Overland Park metro area)

Isn’t absolutely amazing what a great carpet cleaning can do?!  Sometimes we can hardly believe the end results ourselves!  Take this unit for example.  An apartment complex called us in to clean and try to restore the carpet into “new” conditions.  The guys definitely had a task ahead of them but with top of the line products and a little elbow grease, they had it restored back in no time at all!

Carpet cleaning for apartment complexes is a total different ball game than commercial or residential carpet cleaning.  The filthy conditions that our technicians have to bring back clean many times are absolutely jaw dropping amazing!  This before & after picture is a great example of the results our technicians are able to obtain in some of the worst tenant wrecked units!  With using hot water steam extraction with water over 230+ degrees we are able to sanitize and clean the carpet with bio-degradable cleaning agents that remove all the filth that you see embedded into this carpet.

This is one of our guys prepping the carpet for cleaning in an apartment complex we service regularly.  We use an extremely high quality pre-solution that includes a basic deodorizer and spot remover that will remove approximately 90% of all your stains.  The reason we say 90% instead of 100% is because there is always a chance of a red or grease stain that has been set in and would require further measures.

Look at all the steam!  Unlike many other companies, we use top of the line truck mount steam cleaning system, which will offer you the highest quality clean available.  The water is heated to 230F and we use a pressure of 400-500 PSI.  This method is the only method recommended by the EPA to assist in reducing allergens and sanitize your home.  I’m sure the new tenants of this apartment will love coming home to their beautifully cleaned carpets!

With apartments we also had to become experts at pet urine removal. Ranging from treatment of a topical deodorizer to full blown pad removal with restoration measures to carpet & sealing of sub floor. The ranges of pet urine removal vary greatly depending on the size of the dog & frequency of urination.  Our technicians have become experts at resolving these horrible odors and finding the source of the problem all the while saving our customers thousands of dollars in carpet replacement.

Not to mention the are carpet patches, stretching, seam repairs, carpet dye & carpet repairs of all types!  Fetz technicians are the best at what they do!

We did our first out of town tour with theater cleaning, when my husband and I were the sole employees, with our single tuck mount carpet cleaning van.  We would set out for weeks at a time cleaning theaters across the Midwest. On average, we would clean approx. 10,000 square feet in a night and I have a feeling that I may not been as much help to my husband as he had hoped! I quickly learned through these early days, that carpet cleaning is really hard work and truly is a man’s job!  Everything was tight and heavy, I never felt like such a weakling in all of my life.  On top of all of this, our first truck mount was used and liked to break down frequently, thus one of the many reasons why we now purchase new equipment and buy the top of the line. It seemed like everything would go wrong on these out of town trips, with equipment break downs, getting sick, speeding tickets, Oklahoma thunder storms that would scare the living day lights out of you, etc.  We laugh at it now, but during the moment we didn’t feel like it was a great marriage bonding moment.  Every start-up company has these stories and it is what makes their success so grand!  Large commercial carpet cleaning like this was a great start for Fetz, and it was just the beginning of so much more.

Upon removing the ceiling, the roof truces & deck required mold remediation treatments & thorough drying with professional equipment prior to any rebuild process.  Though the mold had not aged to black mold, the mold was still dangerous due to the type of mold and thereby risking the health of the renters who were residing in the premises.  Therefore, full containment barriers & hazmat suits were required for the removal of the ceiling, to follow EPA and IICRC standards for proper remediation and to insure the health of the renters.  The mistake most home owners and general contractors make is removing mold without proper handling and causing occupants to become sick.  Everyone’s response to mold is unique, some people are so allergic to mold it causes hospitalization and others just have cold or flu like symptoms and don’t realize the correlation of the mold and their sickness.   Mold removal should be done by a certified professional, and DYI removal is never recommended for any areas over 10 sq. feet.  Mold removal without a professional absolutely is a high risk, and should never be considered with high risk residents such as elderly, young children, people with immune disorders, asthma or allergies.  This landlord made the best long term solution to remove the wet & mold contaminates properly and not risks the health of her renters.

Upon completion of the roof’s structure being thoroughly dried and treated for mold, than the process of rebuilding began. We brought in our contractors to re-install the ceiling, paint & put the house back into like new condition.  At Fetz, our partnership with quality general contractors & vendors is vital to providing the best services possible to our customers.  Our customers enjoy the benefits of an A-Z process to resolve their water damage & mold problems.

After going thru & organizing our pictures on our hard drive the other day, I realized how many advanced and incredible jobs our crews have completed in the last 4 years!  It is amazing to see where we started and where we have come.  The jobs that seemed impossible & far to advance 4 years ago, are now old hat and our crews conquer them like pros, probably because they are!  It is amazing to see our crews and technicians continue to grow & become professionals of the carpet cleaning & restoration trade!  Over the next several weeks, we are going to share with you stories about some of these amazing jobs!

Water Damaged Basement

One of the water damage jobs that stand out first was a job we did for one of our commercial customers, that manages high rise lofts in downtown Kansas City.  Due to a city construction project on their street, this high rise commercial building’s basement flooded with approximately 2” of water throughout 10,000 square feet!  We received the emergency call after business hours and we dispatched several of our crews with water extraction trucks & loads of commercial structural drying equipment.  Upon arrival, our crews were wading in water 2” deep and began immediately moving furniture to prevent damage to the contents. You could see people with Fetz shirts swarming around that basement well into the late hours of the night.  What most people don’t realize about the working conditions of water damaged buildings is that the vast amount of water causes the humidity and temperatures to rise rapidly, making it feel like you are working in a sauna.  Our crews are all hard workers with great attitudes so, they rise to the occasion in these emergency water damage jobs and get the job done as quickly as possible.  With a water extraction truck going at each end of the building, we extracted nearly 150,000 gallons of water that night!

Since this particular job had commercial grade carpet with no padding, there was no need to worry about drying or removing carpet pad; and therefore there was not a need to “float” to properly dry carpet & pad underneath.  However, do the extensive wet drywall & structure of the building, we did remove baseboards & finishes throughout, to access wall cavities and hidden areas.  This allowed us to place specialized drying equipment throughout the building and properly dry all wet materials & contents to prevent the development of mold.  If this we had only extracted the visible water and not professionally dried hidden areas & wall cavities, than this 10,000 square foot water damage job would have turned into a mold remediation job, costing high double digits within a matter of a few short months.  In our experience, we see lots of individuals and even corporations try to cut expenses by only extracting visible water and not completing proper drying, only to end up with mold problems that cost 3-4 times what the proper water damage restoration job would have cost in the beginning, if it had been done correctly.  This is why at Fetz we take a strong stance on proper drying methods and not skimping on this vitally important process.  In this situation of the basement water damage being caused by road construction, than the water damage restoration was paid for by insurance in full at no cost to the customer.

In the last 4 years, since our business started from scratch, it has been incredible to see the journey we have been on.  Yes, it has had plenty of its shares of challenges and there are still days you ask yourself, “Why are we doing this?”  Then you remember, the whole reason we started this company in the first place.  We wanted a business of our own, so we could see our kids everyday and spend time with them and have them apart of our daily lives. We wanted a family atmosphere and one of encouragement.  We wanted a place where people loved to work and that we could minimize our stress and theirs to enjoy life.  And though there are times that the stress is a lot, it is still not as great as the amount that my husband and I had every day at our old jobs.  The challenges of growing a small business in the state of our economy and nation are harder now than they ever have been.  However, I am hopeful that this journey that we are on is a good one.  I am hopeful that there are still people out there who want to do business with the local guy and don’t care about the major franchise, because they know they will receive personal and genuine customer service from us.  We care about our customers because our customers are our lives.  Our customers give us the greatest gift every day, they choose to business with us, so we can do business different than the status quot.   This is not only good for us, it is good for our customers in the level of quality services and customer service they receive, but it is also good for our employees, which in turns is good for our local economy.   At Fetz, we are about more than the bottom line.  At Fetz, we are about people!

More to come as our Journey Continues….

Click Here to Read Part 1

Click Here to Read Part 2

Click Here to Read Part 3

To our surprise, in the summer of 2011, we began doing mold remediation jobs around the Kansas City metro area for local apartment complexes, at an unprecedented rate.  We had 5 straight non-stop months of extensive mold removal jobs back to back.  As soon as my husband would un-suit from one job, he would head to the next job and suit back up for sometimes 18 hour days.  It seemed like the mold was never ending and our phone began ringing off the wall for this service.  We had no idea mold removal services would take off like it did.  With the growth of mold removal services, we also began offering rebuild services to our customers.  Providing an A to Z restoration service for every job from small to large. We have partnered with a local general contractor to even provide consultation and repair for building or mechanical issues that are causing the water damage or mold in the first place.  We are excited about the team we have assembled and our ability to handle ongoing mold removal jobs of all types and sizes.

As we approached the end of 2011, for our annual employee “Excellence in Service” festivities, we realized our company had grown another 2 fold in just 12 short months.  In 2011, we were able to handle an insurance job of a large commercial flood, from a pipe break that started at the top of a 12 story high rise building and flooded all 12 stories down and over 4 units wide.  This was the largest water damage restoration job that we had ever completed and it lasted almost 6 weeks, from the moment our technicians responded to that emergency call.  We were floored with the progress that this little company had made and we were bursting at the seams!

Check Back tomorrow for more of the story…

Click Here to Read Part 1 

Click Here to Read Part 2

By the spring of 2010, our company was experiencing growing pains and we did not have enough help to handle the demand of new customers. So, my sister and brother-in-law left their lives in Texas and moved up here to in the middle of nowhere Kansas City, to help us grow our company.  Danny began a series of intense training & certification courses to begin as a lead technician and run our 2^nd truck in only 3 short months.  Kara, my sister, was initially going to find employment with another company in Kansas City and was being highly considered for a corporate job in Overland Park, KS.  However, she saw that our little baby was now a growing and a curious toddler.  Thereby, my ability to be a full time stay at home mom and continue to answer phones and run the intricacies of the office was being strained and reduced by the day.   My sister became our full time office manager and I jumped in during the baby’s naps.

So, we began hitting the sales field to inform more commercial customers about our services and let them know we even existed.  To our surprise there was such a need by property managers to have good quality vendors, that offered great customer service at an affordable price, that our business began to explode and we grew by more than 3 fold in less than 12 months.  Ben and Danny began cranking with our 2 vans, running them many times 15 hours a day, just to keep up with the growth and peak needs of our customers.  It was exciting times and we knew that we were one of the very few and blessed companies to be growing in such a down economy.

We began growing also in residential market with the aids of advertising like Groupon and with continued hard work on our website, we have steadily and aggressively grown in home carpet cleaning services. Our 5-Star reviews for our customers for 4+ years show that the hard work and emphasis on quality and value that each member of our team have given to every single job they do. We are excited to say that our residential services have grown to approx. 40% of our total overall business.  We plan to continue to grow with our residential customers and provide them not only with the best carpet cleaning services in Kansas City but also to provide water damage restoration and mold removal services when the need arises.  Building strong and ongoing long term relationships with our customers is important to us and we value each and every one of them.

Check Back tomorrow for more of the story…

Click Here to Read Part 1

We began targeting property management companies, due to my background as a senior property manager, and knowing first hand their need for reliable and quality vendors.  To our surprise, we began getting accounts all over Kansas City with property management companies, which specialized in residential real estate and rental properties, to large corporations owning multiple apartment complexes and multifamily housing units.  My husband and his faithful employee of 1, would load up in our single carpet cleaning truck and head out for another day of hard work.  As I stayed home and juggled being a full time new mom and running the office by myself.  Most of our customers don’t know that in those early years, I was bouncing our bundle of joy on my knee as I scheduled appointments over the phone.  There were many times during these first 12 months, we considered giving it up.  And honestly it still crosses our mind now and then.  However, we stay the course because we have seen the Hand of mercy working in our lives each step of the way.

Check Back tomorrow for more of the story…

The day started innocently, as all of our staff strolled into the office for their morning meeting & donuts.  Than the day progressed with nothing big at first, just little things, like trying to fill the bottomless stomach of a fast growing 3 year old, to the neighbors dog breaking out  and attacking my dog for the 2^nd day in row and causing me to have one of those not so neighborly conversations.  Not to mention that for some reason the php code for our website decided to go haywire and we all of sudden started providing photography in our services menu! All of this on top of trying to navigate the launch of our upcoming holiday campaigns and all of the tactical required to get this ball rolling.  I have looked at stock images until I am cross eyed, knowing that there has to be that perfect image that can portray the awesomeness of our holiday promo.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I know that there must be an image out there that is so filled with eye candy that it will cause every viewer to want to schedule for carpet cleaning services by the greatest company in Kansas City.  Knowing that every woman preparing for the holidays, will know that nothing will make the house look cleaner or smell fresher to the picky noses of her mother and/or mother-in-law, than freshly cleaned carpets.

So in the midst of my website editing, marketing directive & blog creator roles, I am also chasing kids, running off the local mean dogs and consoling my own, planting my cuttings of Japanese spurge, throwing dinner in the crock pot and then squeezing in the time to go have lunch with our wonderful office staff at the local Grandview wing stop.  All of this before 2pm, at which time I was expecting a sigh of relief during the afternoon naps, so I could get some much needed work done.  When my husband came in with a new marketing idea from his recent meet and greet at one of our carpet cleaning suppliers.  After taking over an hour of my precious time, we came to the conclusion that this exciting and new carpet cleaning warranty program was not worth it, for more reasons than I have time to mention.  By the time I was finally ready to start hitting the keys of my keyboard and get down to business, my office manager called with a never ending amount of questions and random discussions.

Now it is late and I am still working and I have nothing else I can think to blog about other than my hectic day. So, grace to you for listening to my wondering ramblings of “Today in the Life of an Ordinary Mom” blog post.  Now that my post is coming to close, I am going to go out and work in the garden for a few minutes to decompress and then dish up dinner from the old faithful crock pot and sit down to watch our latest Netflix movie.  All in the life of this busy mom!