"Maintenance is an important part of consumer satisfaction and the cleaner is the last one in the carpet chain to see the 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, President CRI®.
That's part of a memo he sent to me in 1995, when he asked that I form a committee to explore a program for recognizing and promoting responsible carpet cleaners. Representatives of CRI members, Duraclean, Host®/Racine, ServiceMaster®, VonSchrader®, Windsor® Industries and Bane-Clene® quickly came to agreement that education should be our top priority.
As a courtesy, invitations went to major industry players. ChemDry® joined us later but Stanley Steemer® and ASCR declined to participate. Unfortunately, non-members of CRI, with their own agenda, outnumbered our committee and parochial interests dominated our meetings. Surprisingly, the most resistance to focusing on education came from IICRC and ISCT.
Cleaning carpet is not a particularly difficult chore, and it is certainly not rocket science. But CRI and some in the education business want to make it seem far more complicated than it really is. Their motive is to profit by tethering carpet cleaners and their suppliers to a never ending litany of fees under the guise of education and approved products.
J & J Industries was the only major carpet maker to support the original program so it was terminated in 2003. It was doomed from its inception by apathy and selfish interests. Mr. VanGelderen's profound and simple goal could have profited everyone in the carpet industry had it been promoted and allowed to mature. Instead, SOA profits only a select few.
©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2010 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.
