"Maintenance is an important part of consumer satisfaction and the cleaner is the last one in the chain to see the carpet customer. If the consumer is not satisfied, the retailer who sold the carpet suffers, the mill that made it suffers and indeed the whole industry suffers if carpet is not their future floor covering choice. Cleaning firms that provide responsible service must be recognized and promoted by the CRI for everyone's sake." Ron VanGelderen, CRI™ President
In 1995, Ron asked me to form a committee to work toward his goal. Duraclean®, Host® / Racine Industries, ServiceMaster® Von Schrader® and Windsor® Industries were invited and joined Bane-Clene® on the committee. Chem-Dry® joined CRI and our committee a few meetings later. This group represented the most diverse in cleaning methods and was a good cross section of the entire cleaning industry. The Council of Better Business Bureaus, Stanley Steemer®, ASCR and a dozen equipment and chemical manufacturers were invited, but all declined to participate.
Six years of hard work and many expensive meetings in Atlanta lead to the original CRI/SOA program. But the current SOA doesn't even resemble the one that was established by the committee in 2001 over the objections of the IICRC®. That program was unceremoniously discontinued by CRI in 2002. Look in here Wednesday morning for some of the reasons.
©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2009 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.
