Clean Informer Magazine Summer 2013 | Page 31

My DC Rug Lovers Tour Review W here do I start? Rugs are so fascinating and yet so misunderstood. I know I need additional training and understanding. When I heard about the Rug Lovers Tour being held in my backyard I could not pass it up. Chris (my nephew) and I made reservations and headed up last weekend. They made claims of a “500% club”. What is that? A club where cleaners have increased their rug business 500%. I thought to myself, yeah right. I had to meet these people first hand. They also offered a tour of a facility that they helped get into the 500% club, they cleaned over 200 rugs a week. That is a lot of rugs! I know we get about 10-15 rugs/week and that seems like a lot. How could we ever keep up with 200? But I’m game, that was just one day of the event. The other 2 days we were able to tour a huge rug warehouse and learn rug ID. On the last day there was going to be a “round table” event where marketing and experiences would be given to show us what we need to do to get into the “500% club”. Interesting? Indeed! Now you may be wondering,was it worth it? I have to say yes. Down to every last dime and time involved. We quickly learned how to ID natural and synthetic rugs on day one. We got to mingle with people who have been in the rug business for generations. I was thoroughly impressed and came away with a greater understanding and appreciation for fine rugs. On the second day we took a bus ride to Lord Glyndon-Baltimore rug cleaning facility where they clean 200 rugs a week. This was a real eye opener. How can you turn that many rugs I wondered. Wonder no more. They had set up a nice systematic approach that we quickly implemented in our new rug studio. We now feel confident that we can not only pump out more rugs but with better cleaning quality too. Watch for pictures and videos coming soon in future TMF Clean Informer articles. Now onto the last day. I have to admit I had by Rob Allen - TruckMountForums my reservations and quickly thought oh well here comes the sales presentation. I am going to be forced to sit through a hard sale. I was pleasantly surprised when they focused on how to help cleaners be better recog