Grrrrr.

A darn franchise company is becoming very active in my area.  We lost a long time client ( long story ), but found out they went with a franchise company.  ( I know..big mistake on their part & they will see ) , but that doesnt help my income.

Then I hear this same company is visiting a contract for multiple accts. that we work with another contractor on.

I think it is time to look up posts from Joe & Rob on franchises & send out email messages to clients or prospects.

 "Educating the customer"  ~ it can't hurt, I say go for it.... make up a nice looking newsletter and expound the benefits of an organization such as yours in comparison.

 Her you go Bri, hope this helps.

This is how franchises work. for Example: there are two companies, the family owned business and the franchiser both bidding on a typical 5 day a week 2.25 hr per day office cleaning account. The family owned company places a normal bid of $755.00 per month for the account. The franchiser sales person bids lower in order to win the account. He places $631.00 per month for it

educating the customers is good, if it is done right.

you have to be careful though you could actually direct

your customer to the competition, especially if there

looking to cut back on the cleaning finances.

for potential customers your bidding on I wouldn't say anything.

they could and most likely would take it to be just plain bashing the competition which

in a lot of times is a turn off.

The one thing i do like about Franchises, because there totally built on

low balling and just the basic cleaning. not all but at least 90% of them.

when a customer gets burnt by them and they switch.

They never forgot what happen and regardless if you

give your best, compared to them, your the best.

my goal when i get a customer is not to just to do basic cleaning, floor care, and carpets,

but to sell them different services and products.

we will sell them there paper supplies, like toilet paper, paper towels, napkins.

we sell them break room products, forks, knifes, spoons, water cups, coffee cups etc,etc.

restroom supplies, air freshener dispensers, of course air freshener, urinal blocks, hand soap.

for the first year it is usually billed monthly by what they use.

then the second year I know exactly how much products they use. so when we redo the contracts

all of the extra services, supplies and extra cost is added in. but i never put the amount of each product that is being used, just the product

and the total cost of ever thing put together. so if someone was to bid on the account and tried to use our contract as a guide line,

all they know is what is being supplied it is totally useless for using it to break it down.  so what happens is the customer

gets totally use to the fact they don't need to order or keep track of anything, they expect the cleaners to take care of everything.

 the franchise doesn't want to go down this road because its do complicated dealing with all the supplies.

and the newbie or one man show just does not have what it takes to bid it.

I'm not saying that we are not replaceable, I just try and make it a Little harder to replace us.

 First things first, Brian. FIRST: Don't fear these CLOWNS ! They are LOSERS and only insult cleaning professionals. They only make messes wherever they operate - then REAL cleaning pros have to clean up where they fail. You have much more to offer they they have.

Assuming you parted with the lost customer on friendly terms, Contact them as soon as possible and assure them that you want and need their business if and when the current arrangement doesn't work. Assure them that you understand their position and only hope to do business again with a fresh start and outlook. 

 Next - (TODAY) ...develop a strategy for disseminating anti-franchise information to ALL of your customers as well as including it in ALL your sales literature. Email, phone, postal, whatever it takes to get this stuff out.....

ALSO - cover the topic IN DETAIL on your web site.....so the info is standing long-term. Refer to your web site in any printed literature you pass out. Make sure the web site page has links to FTC info on findings against franchises and so forth. Rob has lots of this info now and Google can give you what he doesn't have.

 Make getting out the truth about franchises a CRUSADE from this point forward, and soon you will see, as I've seen - in our market, people are now asking cautiously, "you're NOT a franchise company, are you??"....(I LOVE it when that happens) Franchise companies' And when people mention the franchise names,  you can break out in a bold laugh and then cheerfully explain to them why those guys aren't even really in the cleaning business AT ALL and how you can save them months and years of hassle and disappointment !! In the end, you can turn this into a sales BOOM !!!!!!

here is some links to get some info and storys on Franchises

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/06/20/immigrants_cry_foul_over_cleaning_franchises/

heres one were the franchisee said he was only getting $4.50 an hour. he work 280 hours a month for $1,262.00

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/national/13franchising.html

Guzman v. Jan-Pro Cleaning Systems, Inc

http://www.assetprotectionbook.com/RI_Guzman-Jan-Pro_2003.htm

Dozens of lives ruined after answering job ad

that one is in Canada

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/240803

warning from the Federal Trade Commision

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/invest/inv15.shtm

more lawsuits 

. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/predawn/F95/coverall.htm

     http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1995/07/janiking.htm

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/janalrt.htm

Thanks Guys.  I knew you would put out some good info. to go over.  I will read it all & start putting something together ASAP.

Great links!  I appreciate them very much.

Torrey

heres another that the FTC warns about

Buying a Janitorial Services Franchise

explains everything on how they work

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/invest/inv15.shtm

 Franchise operations are a great threat to legitimate cleaning businesses (if not informed and prepared to deal with them head-on) and even worse, for customers.

 Customers should be asked these questions (among others) :

1. Did you know that most franchise operations require a 60 day notice to terminate service? 30 days notice to correct problems - then 30 MORE if they are still not happy, to cancel.

2) Did you know that most if not all franchises do NO BACKGROUND CHECK on their franchisees?

3) Since the franchisee has no control over pricing and ends up with -at MOST - 70-80% of what you pay the franchise company, THEN the franchisee has to pay taxes and such....do you REALLY want these people cleaning your building? Do you realize how FRUSTRATED and ANGRY these guys can be?  (Supply links and printed materials about the rip-offs and lawsuits.....)

4) Do you know that when you express dissatisfaction with the franchise company's performance and they give the job to another franchisee, they make MONEY from BOTH franchisees in the process? The old franchisee pays a termination fee and the new franchisee pays a "new business" fee?!! ....

5) (for current customers of franchises ) Have you talked to your franchisee about their relationship with the company? Ask them about 1) Fairness of fees 2) Are they satisfied with the income they derive from their work? 3) Are they satisfied with the support and help they receive from the franchise company? 4) What help does the company give them to get up and running on a new account? 5) Did the company charge you for your background check before starting work? (Trick question!) 6) DO you know what we pay your franchise company for service? (You don't have to tell them, but it'd be good to know if they actually know the total arrangement...often they do NOT know)  

 Be creative with more questions....there's a MILLION of 'em..!!!

We are doing steady sales right now & as most of you know that is when you get to see & hear alot.  A good client for us is getting bids as our contract is up for renewel & low & behold Coverall is visiting the locations.  I forwarded info to the decision makers about them & we will see how it all plays out.

I bid a building that looks like hell recently that is being cleaned by Jani-King.  My bid came in a good $300 per month more than they are charging. The client contact says she really want to change but "budget is tight" .  I told her exactly how we cam up with the numbers & if things change please give us a call. ( example of getting what you pay for )

I called on a single location credit union that is having their new building built & currently in a temp location.  The first question she asked was do we sub out the work or do it ourselves.  I said we are NOT a franchise & we keep all work in house.  This promted her to tell me that is good to hear because she is currently using Coverall, & it is a nightmare! ( I wish she could tell my good acct what she is going through)

People learn the hard way!

Brian

when i bid on a building not to long ago, I was bididng against a franchise.

What I did was I gave the potential customer the name

of a company  who use to use that franchise and had an extreme bad experiance.

its kinda like, hey heres the name of one of there customers you might want to

check out so you will see what to expect.

it worked and I got the account, even when my bid was alomost duoble than the franchise.

Bri:

We are doing steady sales right now & as most of you know that is when you get to see & hear alot.  A good client for us is getting bids as our contract is up for renewel & low & behold Coverall is visiting the locations.  I forwarded info to the decision makers about them & we will see how it all plays out.

I bid a building that looks like hell recently that is being cleaned by Jani-King.  My bid came in a good $300 per month more than they are charging. The client contact says she really want to change but "budget is tight" .  I told her exactly how we cam up with the numbers & if things change please give us a call. ( example of getting what you pay for )

I called on a single location credit union that is having their new building built & currently in a temp location.  The first question she asked was do we sub out the work or do it ourselves.  I said we are NOT a franchise & we keep all work in house.  This promted her to tell me that is good to hear because she is currently using Coverall, & it is a nightmare! ( I wish she could tell my good acct what she is going through)

People learn the hard way!

Even Donald Trump said it's ok to sabotage other companies in order to get ahead.  DO IT!!!  LOL.  I never liked him until I heard him say that every day of his life is a fight.  It takes hard work to get ahead, and part of that is doing whatever you need to including throwing stumbling blocks in someone else's way.  Granted, my heart hates to hear it, but my mind knows it's true.  You do what you need to do in business.

 One of my favorite topics.  Especially since I can't lie...I would love to sell my company image to others to use around the world.  What a great thing.  You know it works.  You know it is perfected as best you can do...why not share it with others.  However, my philosophy is WAY different than the normal franchise.  Quickly (as if anything I type is short and to the point..lol) don't charge a ton for the rights to buy more stuff from you..  THAT is what franchises do. Period.  Sell the rights to your name.  And I mean like for 500-1000.00.  Then, add-on the complete training and business plan for another 500-1000.  Next, add-in one or two weeks training for the new owner for another 500-1000.  Ok, someone just bought a franchise for 1500-3000.00 Do that anywhere!!!!!!  And you no longer have anything to do with it.  The only problem, is what if they suck!!!!  your name could be ruined.  That's the catch.  I have not worked that out yet...cause you don't really want to ever revoke their ownership...but...then again.. I'm still working on that part.. hehe

When I owned my janitorial company in New Hampshire, in the 90's, I had some GREAT clients.  Some very big ones, and some small 1-2 room ones.  A few restaurants that  let us have full access to the bar and the kitchen, as long as we cleaned up our mess if we made one.  I had 11 employees and we all worked 5 nights a week from usually 11pm til 3 or 4.  The least paid person made 10 bucks an hour (that was normal in NH in the early 90's) and we all had a great time.  In comes some big and I mean BIG janitorial company from Maine.  If anyone can ever explain what happened next, please, I have tried to figure it out for 18 years!!!!

My clients started to drop off one by one.  After a few weeks, it was getting to alarming status.  I knew a few of the clients very well, and just went to them, and asked, "What have I done wrong to make you wish to leave?  Do we not do enough? Are we too expensive?  What are they doing and at what price that we can't touch?"  Here is where it gets really interesting...  This answer blew my mind!  The same company took over all but 5 of my accounts. I then moved back to Ohio and said screw it.  The answer:  They didn't do as much as we did...they charged more.... and they did what they did, less often!!!!!!  People left my service, so they could get less and pay more.  I never figured it out.  And none could actually give me the reason they left.  

I now at least make sure business's that I court know why I am better than a big franchise.  I don't hold back.  I will slam any business that does crappy work and I will also provide names and numbers of people that are unhappy with a franchise.  They are not hard to find.

- Greg