Your or any potential customer is calling you and exploring the options you offer because they have a problem they need you to solve it. So that customer has a dirty carpet, rug or piece of furniture or all of the above. Encapsulation gives you another option to satisfy that person’s need and possibly turn them into a repeat customer and another source of income for your company.

If you or the customer is only familiar with hot water extraction, you have a real opportunity to offer them something new that can help them with their soiling problem and possibly separate you and make you stand out from the rest of the carpet cleaners in your area. Now notice that I have not mentioned residential or commercial, as encapsulation used with low moisture cleaning can serve both.

Encapsulation only refers to the way the chemistry dries and is not in and of itself a method. Many of our customers use our encap products for both hot water extraction and with multiple low moisture machines like bonnet, op and crb. Encapsulation can also be used as a pre-spray with hot water extraction finished with a clear water rinse.

Now on to how to sell it. Your customer not only wants a beautiful, fresh smelling carpet, but they want a fair price that comes with the least amount of inconvenience to them. That, with on-time service that delivers polite knowledgeable and well-groomed techs. Not much, right? Some of that is up to you but selling the encap and low moisture part of it is pretty easy. They want the carpet clean, fresh and dry as quick as possible. Low moisture can deliver consistent dry times under two hours and sometimes as little as 30 minutes depending on humidity, air temperature and air flow and how soiled the carpet was to begin with.

So not only will the carpet dry quicker, it is also much less likely to resoil with encapsulation, giving your customer another reason to consider its use in their commercial or residential location. As your bonnet in this example runs over the carpet, the chemistry inside that water molecule is introduced to the soil on the face of the carpet’s fiber. The chemistry reacts and loosens the soil particles and detaches them from the face fiber. This is enhanced by the mechanical action of the bonnet fibers contacting and scrubbing the carpet fibers, assisting the chemical reaction of the encapsulation cleaning detergent. The mechanical action can also reduce the soil’s particle size into nano-sized particles that will be held in the encapsulation polymer after you have finished your cleaning process. These smaller particles are vacuumed out over the next several vacuum cycles and this polymer “shell” is also what helps reduce or eliminate rapid resoiling, not to mention the cleaner carpet fibers that have had the oily binders removed from the face fibers.

Remember, with most any sale, the customer is buying you. Your service is just included in the deal, so be confident in the service and products you offer as this will directly relate to your close rate. Do you use a before and after picture book to sell your services? You should! Is your van clean and well lettered? Are you neat and clean? All these things add up to sales and low moisture used with encapsulation is just one more great way to increase your income with a much lower investment than many of the extraction equipment options. Your customers will love the fast dry times, great cleaning results and lower incidents of returning spots and general soiling. That gets you referrals and keeps your momentum rolling in a positive direction.

by John H. Klucznik, Founder of Bonnet Pro and Key Floor Care