A walkthrough, for carpet cleaning companies, prepares clients and contractors for the all-important bid. Thousands of walkthroughs are performed every year by carpet cleaning service providers, but few processes - whether done on paper or through an app - are designed to enhance your service with efficiency.
The traditional approach of pen and paper might lead you to believe that walkthroughs (and supporting bids) are a complicated, mysterious process. The truth? Anyone with drive, common sense, and modern tools can perform a walkthrough well. This guide gives you everything you need to know to get the job done.
Our guide on how to perform a carpet cleaning walkthrough is organized into three parts. You begin by preparing for the walkthrough through the right attire, questions, and supplies. Then, you complete a carpet cleaning walkthrough checklist. Lastly, use tools to turn walkthrough insights into working bids.
Preparing for the Carpet Cleaning Service Walkthrough
What to Wear at a Carpet Cleaning Walkthrough
The choice of attire at a walkthrough can be confusing and there are mixed approaches. Some carpet cleaning providers feel comfortable in jeans and shorts. Others prefer business formal. We recommend a middle-of-the-road approach of proper business casual.
Business casual means that a carpet cleaning provider might find themselves in a sport coat and tie for an important client. For women, this might be a skirt and blouse. In general, a good rule-of-thumb is to ask yourself whether you look like you’re on business in the clothing you choose. If the answer is yes, you can probably relax and carry on.
If your business has strong branding, wearing your company’s top quality merchandise can be equally as impressive to the prospective client.
What to Ask in a Walkthrough for Commercial Carpet Cleaning
During a walkthrough, you will complete a site inspection and have the chance to gain insight from the client through great questions. This will help you get to know your potential client and build rapport.
Some topics of interest to many carpet service providers are how things went with previous contractors, what their highest concerns are for future contractors, and whether they have a clear and ample budget for services. You might also ask for important documents like a list of cleaning specifications and information about cleanable, carpeted square feet.
Feel free to ask anything that will make your job (and bid) easier. Clients will appreciate your interest and may share critical information about the daily operation of the job such as recycling practices, allowed cleaning hours, and alarm systems.
What to Bring on a Carpet Cleaning Walkthrough
What to bring on a carpet cleaning walkthrough largely depends on the size of the commercial space as well as the specifics required by your bid. If you already know the dimensions of the building and carpeted spaces, you may not need to bring a measuring tool, and a camera will do. But, no matter the size of the space or what you already know, you will need to bring something to record your findings (and answers to your client’s questions). It is recommended that for an initial walkthrough you should always bring a few basic tools:
- Measuring device (a laser measurement tool is the most efficient)
- Smartphone or tablet (for recording client notes and taking photos of the client’s space)
Completing a Carpet Cleaning Walkthrough Checklist
Now that you have prepared for your walkthrough, you can follow a checklist for completing the carpet cleaning walkthrough. Assuming you arrive on time, properly dressed, and prepared, you are ready to follow some basic steps.
Carpet Cleaning Walkthrough Checklist
Greet your client and ask to see the relevant spaces.
Knowing how to start a walkthrough and initiate a space inspection is critical. Remember to smile while you work your way through the space in order to put your client at ease about introducing their space and project.
As you tour, ask the questions you have prepared.
Noting responses, ask any follow-up questions that come to mind or surrounding topics that require clarification. Your client will thank you for your interest in the project as well as for your thorough approach.
Explain how you will care for the spaces.
The walkthrough is not just about the client and their project. Part of the process of a walkthrough will require you to explain how you are a good fit for the project. So, be prepared to pitch your services.
Set realistic work expectations by communicating your practices.
If the client knows what to expect from your carpet cleaning services, you will avoid misunderstandings, confusion, and miscommunication in the future. It’s also a good time to point out the unique services you offer.
Review the findings of your walkthrough with the client.
Go over your notes and findings with the client including the insights you gathered from their responses to your questions. This gives the client the opportunity to clarify as well as provide closure to your walkthrough.
Thank the client and leave a card with the promise of follow-up.
If you promise the client to return a bid or reestablish contact in a certain amount of time, ensure that you can keep that promise. Otherwise, thanking the client for their time and advising them to expect a bid is enough.
Using Tools for Carpet Cleaning Walkthroughs
The tools you use to prepare and record your walkthrough will greatly impact the efficiency of your walkthrough, bid, and the likelihood of its success. It may even communicate something about your preparedness for the job if you use outdated or substandard tools for noting answers and recording measurements.
Traditional Tools For Walkthroughs and Bids
Pen and paper remain the most common approach to documenting walkthroughs and preparing notes for bids. These traditional tools have their challenges. They can be messy and communicate messiness. They require hours of interpretation and preparation to become working bids, and they are not backed up to the cloud and can be lost.
It’s important to recognize that the building services industry still relies on outdated methods for conducting walkthroughs, creating proposals, and managing projects. Contractors lose time, money, and resources by having to translate handwritten notes into perfected proposals every time they seek a new client. Since many of them use paper-and-pen for managing teams, they lose even more efficiency and accuracy on their projects.
For these (and many other) reasons, we recommend using a modern tool for mastering walkthroughs and for giving a modern face to your services. For those that go for quality and hold themselves to a higher standard, Route transforms your business and helps you master every aspect of building management.
A Field Tool for Carpet Cleaning Walkthroughs
A modern tool for mastering walkthroughs and the entire bidding process, Route offers a business management platform for carpet cleaning providers.
This platform is built for the unique needs of building service contractors and field technicians to increase profitability. The app comes with a walkthrough builder™ designed to transform how you discover, inspect and bid building services.
Walkthrough Builder™, Estimator & Proposal Generator
How It Works
Route’s Walkthrough Builder™ manages clients, schedules walkthrough appointments, and records all your walkthrough data. It replaces messy notes and disorganized, traditional paper methods. You can take crystal clear notes on-the-go, record every detail of a client’s space, capture dimensions, floor types, photos for every area, and more.
In short, it helps you exceed your client’s expectations by taking a quick and accurate portrait of their project for easy bidding. You can then share your notes with your team or access your notes from any computer to create custom proposals.
Use the Proposal Generator to create and preview a proposal in real time. Through simple dropdown menus and checkboxes, you can create a custom proposal in minutes with proposal templates that import your walkthrough data instantly.
How You Benefit
Route was designed for carpet cleaning professionals and providers who want to spend more of their time on giving great service and impressing their clients.
Allowing you to import your notes, images, and space dimensions with a click, Route’sWalkthrough Builder™, Estimator, and Proposal Generator streamlines the tedious work of translating handwritten notes into polished proposals. You’ll find that you can bid on more projects, present a professional image, and close more deals by using Route.
Why It Was Created
By digitizing the process, Route wants to create an opportunity for company owners and managers to increase efficiency, maximize profits, and get data-driven insights about their business. You can now close more deals with future clients and track your progress with current clients more efficiently.
From client walkthrough to bid proposals to team scheduling, Route was designed to save you time by cutting out paper notes and offering templates. Save time from translating messy scribbles into professional bids, remove obstacles to providing outstanding service, and focus more on what matters to you by choosing Route carpet cleaning software for your next job.