Was it already damaged?

Our many years of experience working with carpet cleaners have given us an insight into some of the most common problems they experience in and around potential claims.

By far the most contentious area of discussion is with regards to work carried out on already stained and potentially damaged carpets.

As you would imagine our customers get asked to clean all sorts of carpets in all sorts of conditions and whilst some of these cleans and nice and straightforward others can become a bit of a nightmare.

When you attend a customer's premises to clean a stain on a carpet, do you take any preventative action before you start work? Do you take photographs of the damaged area? Do you get the customer to sign a disclaimer to acknowledge the pre-existing state of their carpet?

The reality of the matter is whilst most cleaners will obviously discuss the matter, very few will document it and further down the line this can prove a costly error.

If a carpet has had something left on it for a long time and is also dirty, then the cleaner will come along, do a fantastic job and clean the carpet and restore all its original features, then the area where the stain was is quite often lighter/darker and shows up - but has the cleaner acted negligently? Has the cleaner caused that damage?

This is where it gets tricky - the customer will blame the carpet cleaner, but they haven't actually done anything wrong - it can get quite messy without the right kind of evidence and paperwork in place.

If you are undertaking a clean of a carpet where there has been a spill or stain and you know there might be issues, then take photos and get your client to sign their acceptance of the potential outcome.

Just 5 minutes doing that at the start of the job could help prevent a claim, which stays on your experience for five years, so it is worth taking that little bit extra time to protect your business.