Hood Cleaning Success Story
If you have been to my “Gear” page, you’ve probably seen a link to the Bidslot Program. This cold calling sales program WORKS! Here is some proof:
As Josh and April’s 1st KEC customer (I think), I wanted to give some honest feedback to any of you who are interested in their BidSlot program. I bought a 10 slot package in January, and April made her calls and set up many, many appointments through the latter half of February through the middle of March. I did not realize this, as you may not also, but a 10 slot package will actually get you 30 bids to do.
April will go to bat for you like nobody else, and get you into many places that you wouldn’t even know about or be getting into to give them a bid. I was very surprised with all the new locations she found for me. 99% of the time they were good places to bid. The few that didn’t work out were not April’s fault, but rather, an owner who canceled our appointment for one reason or another. Whenever that happened, I would call April and explain what happened. She always replaced those bid slots that crapped out on us, and I’m sure she would do the same for any of you as well.
I took so long to share this information with you all because I wanted enough time to go by for more of my bids to go through and be accepted. A lot of times, when you give a bid, the restaurant isn’t ready to make a switch at that moment and you need to touch base with them every so often or just wait until they become due again for a cleaning to remind them about your bid. So far, many of my bids are still out. Some places said we were “too high”, some places want to use us but don’t have the money, and some places have hired us to take over and care for their cleanings. I have been working with a new pizza chain that is growing here in Portland, which I never heard of until April got me the bid slot with them. I also now have my foot in the door with a large grocery store chain here, due to April’s hard work calling in our behalf and tracking down the right person who makes the decisions to put me in contact with. And lastly, I have a verbal agreement with a pretty cool historic location that April found for us. They want to replace their current cleaning company with us.
Bottom line… if you need to pick up accounts, Josh and April’s BidSlot program is the best thing out there, waaaaaay better than Service Magic or any other one of those “warm lead” companies, because BidSlot is tailored for the KEC industry in particular and I know that April will give you 110% effort to get you into locations to bid. All you have to do is show up on time and give them your price. If you only picked up just one account out of the 30 you will bid, you will have made your money back from your initial BidSlot purchase.
Much thanks to April for all the hard work she did for Silver Lining and helping us to succeed!
Letter from Scott with Silver Lining Hood Cleaning, Portland OR
Scott is just one of the many people that BidSlot has helped since opening just a few short months ago. If you have a problem getting accounts for your business, or you’re just too busy to cold call, give them a shot.
Ant
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Kitchen Exhaust Fan Hinge Kit Survey
The Great Sell-Out And How It Affects You As A Hood Cleaner
This article gives me great pain to write. I believe that there has been a great injustice committed against hood cleaners every where and one of the parties involved, I would consider my friend. I have done videos about their products because I love them. I have sat on the board of directors of the Grease Police with this guy and know that he is an honest, hard-working, smart, cream-of-the-crop kind of guy. That’s why it makes it so hard to believe that he has sold out all hood cleaners in a big way. He’s probably going to hate me after this, but I can’t help it, for the sake of the industry, I feel that you guys – my readers- need to know what’s going on!
What am I talking about?
In case you haven’t heard yet, Driploc has sold out to BELFOR Holdings, Inc., The parent company of HOODZ. Now, I have nothing against HOODZ as a company, but they are selling franchise opportunities in YOUR backyard. Here is a press release from their website:
HOODZ, Nation’s Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Leader, Grows to 50 Locations in 4 Months of Existance
Ann Arbor, MI – HOODZ, the nation’s largest and most reputable kitchen exhaust hood cleaning franchise, has quickly become the nation’s largest and most reputable franchise in the industry by growing to more than 50 franchise locations in 26 states in just four months.
Having launched the franchise in July 2009, HOODZ has already opened locations in markets such as Atlanta, Tampa, Raleigh and Houston. With more than 50 HOODZ locations now in development as part of its strategic expansion, the company is anticipating even more explosive growth in 2010, and is poised to reach 150 total franchise locations by 2011.
They are planning on having 150 locations by 2011? If you thought you had competition before, just wait.
My problem with this is every time you purchase a Driploc product now, you will be feeding your competition. In my opinion, there is a HUGE conflict of interest in this setup. Every grease containment pad you get from Driploc, every magnet you buy, every hinge you put on will put money in the pockets of your competition. Unless of course you have a HOODZ franchise.
So what do you do?
Well, there are solutions. There are other grease containment systems out there that work well. I am in the process of setting up an interview for you all to hear with Jason Wellman, owner of The Grease Box. I believe that his systems are a GREAT alternative to Driploc’s. If you would like to send in questions for me to ask him, feel free to do so. That covers our grease containment needs.
What about magnets? Well, you can always go with the big square Harbor Freight magnets that I show in my first hood cleaning weekly tip. They’re $5 and strong.
Hinges: Good luck with that one. Driploc’s hinges are bombsheezy. They are so awesome, that the owner of the hood cleaning school I went to tried to claim credit for inventing them and was selling them as his. Captive Air hinges are good, but conditions have to be perfect for them to work. They’re fairly easy to install, but again, conditions have to be pretty much perfect. So, the jury is still out on hinges. If you have a suggestion, pass it along.
Unfortunately, Driploc didn’t ask my opinion before selling out. They are smart guys over there and they are good guys that is why this is so surprising and disturbing. I’m sure they made a wise financial decision for their company, but at what cost to the industry, did they do it? I, for one, feel betrayed.
Are You Tired Of Decision Makers Not Returning Your Calls? Here’s What You Can Do About It…
I’ve been reading a great book by Jeffrey Gitomer called The Sales Bible. It’s full of good information but one idea that really piqued my interest was what to do when you finally get through to the decision maker of an account you are trying to get and you leave voice mail after voice mail only to leave you wondering if they will ever call you back.
It’s not an easy task to get in touch with busy people and when you finally do, you want it to count. This is your chance!
So, you have the number in front of you. Your palms are a little sweaty.
You have in the back of your mind that all you are trying to sell on this first call is an appointment to meet with this person, nothing more. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? You pump yourself up a little and make the call.
Ring…Ring…
“Hi, You’ve reached Mr. Johnson and I’m out of the office right now, please leave your name and number and I will return your call as soon as possible”
Beep…
Crap… What do you say now? You didn’t really plan for this.. “Uh.. Uh.. Hi, Mr. Johnson, this is Anthony from Hood Cleaning Helper and I wanted to see if I could swing by to give you a proposal on your kitchen exhaust system”, you say.
BIG MISTAKE!
Mr. Johnson will probably never return that call and you have just blown a great opportunity. So, what is the right thing to say?
We all know that technology has it’s glitches, right? Let’s use this to our advantage. If Mr. Johnson is screening our calls, he will probably pick up instantly. If your message is in fact going to his voice mail, chances are he will get back to you ASAP.
Let’s try this:
Ring… Ring…
“Hi, this is Mr. Johnson…”
Beep…
Hi, Mr. Johnson, My name is Anthony and it’s important you return my call at 555-5555. I just got out of a meeting with the fire marshal and – Then just hang up!
As a restaurant owner or manager what thoughts will be racing through his mind? Of course, you will need a great presentation or some educational info that he will be asking about when he does call you back. Of course, you don’t want to lie either. If you haven’t met with your local fire marshal, go meet them. Ask them questions, get to know them. Do your research. Gather all kinds of market data that will impress or wow Mr. Johnson.
Hope this helps, please leave comments below of how you’ve used this technique and if it worked for you or not.
Ant
Minneapolis Fire KEC Picture Requirements
The city of Minneapolis is really cracking down on their requirements on kitchen exhaust cleaners. I’m not really sure if I like it or not. I like the idea, but not sure how it will work out.
They are asking for a lot of pictures from each cleaning, by each company. These will take hours to go through. If the inspectors would do their jobs in the first place and actually inspect the work, this would not be needed.
They all complain that they don’t have the time to inspect that many systems. Well, how in the world are they going to sit and look through hundreds and hundreds of pictures every week?
Like I said, I do like the idea, just don’t know how it will actually play out. The bad guys will figure out ways around it and the little guys or the not so computer savvy guys will be S.O.L.
Provide the following:
1. Clear digital photo of the work order # and building address and tenant.
2. Before and after photos of all hood components.
3. Before and after photos of the roof area around exhaust fans (including fans) from at least 2
adjacent sides, identify all pre-existing conditions.
4. Provide horizontal and vertical photos of building duct system and entire building trunk
system.
5. Provide before and after intake photos of fans.
6. Provide before and after photos of the back-side of fan blades.
7. Roof mounted system must provide a digital view of the vertical rise looking-up and a view
looking-down). one before and after photo of hinged roof-mounted fan opened and closed.
8. Provide before and after photos of horizontal and vertical access plates.
9. Provide photos that clearly identify all sides of vertical & horizontal runs & rises
10. Provide before and after photos of the back of the filter rails top and bottom.
11. Provide photos for the completed hoods with filters out and another with the filters properly in
place
I also wonder how it will effect the restaurant owners that already complain about the prices when they find that their price will probably go up to account for the extra time the hood cleaner will need to do this extra work?
I think companies should be doing this anyway, don’t get me wrong. I think I will try to put together a video for my readers to teach them how to take the pics, upload them, and email them or host them and send the link to the Fire Marshal.
Would that help you guys?
Note: Cleaning of commercial hood systems shall encompass the entire building’s
vertical and horizontal trunk systems. Cleaning only the commercial hood, plenum
and duct collar is not acceptable and the system will not be approved. The City of
Minneapolis doesn’t issue confined space entry permits; contractors must comply
with OSHA Standards.
This will hopefully work out for the good in the long run…
Here is the page for the requirements.
Cleaning Hood Filters – Weekly Tip
Anthony here from Hood Cleaning Helper.com 
This week’s hood cleaning tip I want to deal with filters. If you do clean the filters for your customer, I hope his tip helps you get those filters sparkling so your customer will think you are the greatest thing sense sliced bread.
The first thing you want to do is pull the filters out of the hood before you get it wrapped.
I use an 18 gallon Rubbermaid tub that I got from Walmart for like $4. I actually have a couple of them in case there are a lot of filters. What you want to do is put about a cup – 8 oz – of dry caustic in the bottom of the tub. Using a hose, start filling the tub with COLD water until it’s about 3/4 of the way full. I sometimes put a little bit of Dawn or other surfactant in just before I turn off the hose. It will help separate the grease from the surface a little better.
Note: Your mixture for this does NOT have to be strong. Dwell time will be on your side, so you don’t have to have really strong chemicals for this.
Next, put in the filters all the same way. Now, leave them sitting for at least 10-15 minutes before their first rotation. Then every time you walk by them, just rotate them a quarter turn until you have gotten all sides. When you take them out to rinse, the grease should come off easily and save you tons of time with a pressure washer.
Now, be sure to neutralize your dirty water before you dispose of it properly. Another thing to consider for this is if the filters are galvanized, the chems will turn them black. If the filters are aluminum, there may not be filters left when you go to take them out of the tub. Caustic eats aluminum!!! Be careful.
Hope this tip helps, be on the lookout for next week’s tip. If you have any suggestions for tips, feel free to email or just post them in the comments below.
Restaurant Grease Fire in Owensboro, Indiana
There have been a lot of restaurant grease fires lately. I have been linking them on twitter and here and some other places and to be honest, it’s hard to keep up with them all.
I wonder if it is because of the extreme winter weather this time of year and hood cleaners aren’t taking the time to go on the roofs of these places and clean the exhaust fans and ducts. With snow and ice up there, it’s easy to skip it.
This article says that there was creosote buildup in the ventilation system. Who knows when it was cleaned last? Owners and managers of restaurants sometimes give their cleaning duties to the lowest bidder and usually that lowest bid is low for a reason; they don’t clean the entire kitchen exhaust system!
I use this line in my advertising often, because it is so true, “Sometimes the cheapest price isn’t the least expensive choice”. Now, I’m not blaming the hood cleaner for this fire because to be honest, they can happen even if the system has been cleaned properly, but for arguments sake, lets say that the restaurant owner saved a few bucks on choosing this contractor.
They may save a couple of hundred dollars, even a thousand or so over the life of their contract. But, how much money did they lose from being closed and now having to repair their restaurant by choosing that lowest price?
For all of you hood cleaners out there, stick to your guns on prices! We know how much our insurance is. We know how much money it takes to run our businesses, it ain’t cheap! So when that restaurant owner says the last guy was cleaning it for $200 and you look down the duct and see months/years of build-up, you’ll know why they were only charging $200. They were simply cleaning where the owner could see and that was it.
FREE Direct Mail Marketing Tool
Hey Guys,
I just found this FREE little tool that I think we could use when setting appointments for cleanings or even marketing new business. It’s always nice to stand out from the crowd when sending marketing materials through the mail.
It’s called Map Envelope. What happens is you type in the location to the place of business or residential address that you are marketing to and it pulls up the pinpointed location through Google Maps. Then, below the address it gives you the opportunity to type in what you can use for a headline! It’s great.
For instance: Say you wanted to clean a restaurant and you had the address. Just type it in the first box. Now, in the second box, type in your small headline that will grab their attention and call them to action. Something like “Call Now To Schedule Your Hood Cleaning” always works great for things like this.
Next, you hit “Preview” and it opens another tab showing you what it will look like on the piece of regular paper.
Hit Print.
It prints it out on a regular sheet of paper. Cut out the map leaving no white areas on the edges.
Then, simply fold on the dotted lines that they provide and BAM, you have yourself an envelope. Pretty cool.
Unless you are using some pretty heavy card stock to print with, I don’t know if I would trust sending this through the mail, as is. Dropping it into an envelope might be the better choice so it doesn’t get lost in the mix. I think they would be great for scheduling cleanings and things of that sort. Below is the link, check it out for yourself and post in the comments section below what other uses might be helpful.
Bad News For Restaurants: Eating Out On The Decline
There was an interesting article Published in the Media Post News by Karlene Lukovitz today that really should concern restaurant owners. A study done says that people aren’t eating out as much as they use to and it’s not necessarily because of the poor economy.
The evening meal is the restaurant industry’s largest sales driver, but it’s been the weakest-performing daypart for the past decade, according to “Getting a Grip on the Supper Market.”
It goes on to say that young adults are the leading population for business, but they are not eating out as much as older folks.
“Younger people indicate that they’ve come to enjoy the benefits of staying at home and cooking and eating with their families,” Riggs says. “In addition to the family time, they cite benefits such as portion control and generally feeling that cooked-at-home meals are healthier and more nutritious.”
Meanwhile, those 62 and older are a bit more inclined to eat dinner out these days, in part because some of the already-retired have been relatively less affected by the recent economic troubles, but also because they relish the convenience of eating out, says Riggs.
So in conclusion, I think that restaurants need to consider this and start looking for ways to cater to young adults. As hood cleaning contractors, we rely on restaurants staying in business for our survival. Print the full article out and share it with your customers. Get them to thinking about the future. You will show that you are interested in their success and hopefully create some loyalty when it comes time to needing your services and there is somebody cheaper knocking on their door.
Weekly Hood Cleaning Tip #1
Alrighty guys, I’m going to try something for you: Weekly hood cleaning tips!
It will be very hard because I’m extremely busy most of the time, but I will try my best to give a weekly tip to help you become better hood cleaning contractors. Feel free to submit your own via email and I will feature yours and give you the credit and link juice from this site if it’s a good one.
On the video below, I’m going to show you how to use magnets to hang your plastic even when the hood is stainless steel and the magnets don’t stick. It’s kind of a common sense tip, but if you’re new, you will appreciate it.
The magnets that I recommend to everyone are the magnets sold my Driploc. They are a bit pricey, but they are well worth the money. They are light, and strong. I hope you enjoyed the video, please leave comments below.
