Has there ever been more bewilderment in the carpet industry? A recent press release by the CRI (Carpet and Rug Institute) boasts: "With the addition of four vacuums, six cleaning solutions, and one extractor, the Seal of Approval program has grown to a total of 928 products." That's nice! But in the same week this announcement was made, the number of approved professional CSPs (Certified Service Providers) plunged from 1,031 to 838. Ten years into the program, this number hardly shows industry support.
There are more than 40,000 professional carpet cleaning firms and about 60,000 janitorial type businesses that may be involved in cleaning carpets and rugs. A large number of commercial properties have their own in-house carpet cleaning operations. With fewer than 1,000 CSPs approved by the CRI, that means there's very little chance a consumer will have an approved service and some mills are tethering their warranties to the Seal of Approval program.
According to CRI’s press release and their list of CSPs, there are nearly one hundred more "approved" products than there are "approved" service providers. Pretty soon those "approved" products won't have enough "approved" service providers to apply all of them. Ah well! There's always the DIY market. They'll believe anything.
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