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Office Carpet Cleaning Options: Rug Doctor vs.. Professional Carpet Cleaners Introduction Professional carpet cleaning systems have been in use since the sass’s, not only cleaning the many spills and dirty footprints but also making the environment much healthier removing many different mite allergens from the carpet. Over time, two leading carpet cleaning techniques have dominated the market, professional carpet cleaners and rent do-it-yourself carpet cleaning equipment.
The leader in rent do-it- yourself carpet cleaning is Rug Doctor offering convenient, compact, and powerful hot eater extraction carpet cleaning machines that can be found in over 33,000 grocery, drug, hardware, and home center stores across the United States (Rent The Rug Doctor). The second leading carpet cleaning technique, professional carpet cleaners, offering highly-effective hot-water extraction method to remove ground-in dirt and debris that may or may not be visible to the naked eye using a truck mounted vacuum system.
Currently, at G-M Accounting Firm, the carpet looks extremely dirty lowering the customer’s image of the firm, possibly losing business. Considering that the firm’s alluding is new, as of a year ago, it is important to maintain the carpet so it will last longer as well. Studies have also shown that a dirty carpet creates a health concern for people. The purpose of this report is to understand what carpet cleaning technique, Rug Doctor or professional carpet cleaners, is the best choice for the firm.
It is important for the firm to select the right technique to maintain the current carpet, keep the carpet as clean as possible to ensure the health of the employees, and to keep the cost of the project down. Through secondary research and primary research using a river, this report will give the firm crucial information about carpet cleaning. The goals of this report are to (1) examine the consequences involved with dirty carpet (2) compare the rent do-it-yourself, Rug Doctor, and professional carpet cleaner’s performance, and (3) compare the costs of two techniques.
A survey from the employees will provide additional information to achieve the reports goals. Finally, the report will draw conclusions from the collected information and suggest a recommendation based on those conclusions. Secondary Research Using Professional and Scholarly Journals Consequences of Dirty Carpet A major consequence trot d arty carpet and poor maintenance in the workplace is a poor business image. In the business world it is important to have a good business image as it creates the customers’ perception of the business.
The first impression your business projects is when a client walk through the door is the physical image. In the article Image Is Everything Nikkei Swartz states, “Image is everything. It is a reflection of every plan your company executes service offerings, pricing, customer service, advertising, sales, network quality and you should cultivate it with care 1999). ” Often time businesses image go hand to hand with the quality of work produced, for example, if the company is well maintained and clean they are more likely to produce a superior product (Publish).
The second major consequence of dirty carpet is the health concerns it creates for the employees. Studies have shown that improperly maintained office carpets can contribute to absenteeism and decrease employee productivity. Dirty carpets can contribute to poor indoor air quality, which can be responsible for many health effects such as fatigue, headaches, nausea, dizziness, respiratory illnesses and the inability to concentrate.
Also people with weak immune systems, asthma or other respiratory conditions working on maintained carpet are at increased risk for illness leading to missing work. Office mold, dust mites, and other allergens in the carpet are the often responsible for the many health concerns (Lutz, Sham, Cast, Amended ; Buckley, 2010). Performance of Technique The cleaning performances of the different techniques are very similar as both Rug Doctor and Professional Carpet Cleaners are using a hot water extraction cleaning method.
In a study, by Lie-Mining Yin, it was found that using a hot water extraction leaning system when removing lead from carpet it reduced the amount of lead up to 40% compared to that of a normal everyday vacuum (2008). According to Consumer Reports article, The best way to really clean carpets, the Rug Doctor had a cleaning grade of good and a dryness grade of very good, but was inconvenient because you have to push the heavy machine around. In the same article they graded a professional carpet cleaning service, which got a cleaning grade of excellent.
Although the cleaning grade was excellent they could not Judge dryness. Dryness could more than likely have a poor grade as it routine for professional cleaners to raise all furniture on blocks because the carpet needs approximately one day to dry (2003). Cost of Technique The cost from professional cleaning service and Rug Doctor are drastically different. The Rug Doctor is the less expensive of the two options and can either be rented, which is about $20 per day, or purchased online between the price ranges from $400-$600.
The other cost that must be considered with the Rug Doctor is that someone NAS to operate the machine. Professional carpet cleaning is much more expensive and varies on the amount of carpet being cleaned. The national average per square foot cost for professional cleaning is $0. 30-$0. 40, which is usually about $40 a room. Additional cost may take place if being cleaned on the weekend for many companies (Consumer Reports). Primary Research Using Surveys Conducting the Survey For this report I had a survey filled out by 20 business professionals.
My goal was to discover what they believe the appearance of a dirty carpet at an office does for consumer satisfaction and if they believe any health concerns are related to a dirty repeat. The survey was five questions that asked the professionals to rate their level of agreement with the statements related to the effect that a dirty carpet has on overall image of the business, first impression of the business, effect on health problems, overall health, and how often carpets should be cleaned.
Results After reviewing all of the surveys all business professionals agreed that dirty carpet lowers the first impression and overall image of the business. Comments were made concerning how the maintenance of your company is related to how well the company is run. The majority of the professionals agreed that having dirty carpet could possibly cause health problems, which is also connected to lowering their overall health. In the last question concerning how often carpet should be cleaned a majority of the business professionals agreed that a cleaning should take place every 1-2 years.
Conclusions Based on the findings of my secondary research and my primary research involving a survey with the employees the following conclusions are drawn: 1 . Having dirty carpets in the workplace lowers the overall image of the firm, possibly losing customers. . Health concerns increase with dirty carpet, leading to employees being ill and having to call off work. 3. Both the Rug Doctor and professional cleaning service are effective in cleaning carpet, but the drying time with the professional cleaning service is much longer. . The overall cost of the Rug Doctor is much lower compared to a professional carpet cleaning service. 5 Business professionals agree that a business should years, in addition to the usual daily vacuum use. Recommendations clean there carpet every Supported by the findings and conclusions of this report, the following commendations are offered in an effort to provide G-M Accounting Firm with the best carpet cleaning technique: