MattVac has just recently become an Associate of TACCA which stands for The Approved Carpet Cleaners Association.  This is a fairly new trade association for UK carpet cleaners formed in March 2011.    They are committed to bringing together all the qualified, professional carpet and upholstery cleaners in the UK.  Their mission is to educate the public on the pitfalls of certain carpet cleaning methods, to present the problems and provide solutions for finding local carpet cleaning professionals trained and equipped for the job.  Customers can use their web site to search by postcode to easily find their nearest TACCA member.   To join TACCA, carpet cleaners must have full insurance, advanced training and an above average setup in terms of equipment.      TACCA hopes to make a positive difference in the carpet cleaning industry and we wish them every success.

You may have noticed a similar little black and white patterned box like the one here appearing in magazines and various publications you have been reading recently.   I did wonder myself what this was for.  Its called a QR code.   QR stands for Quick Response and its a type of bar code first used in the car design industry.    If you have a smart phone such as an iphone, the latest blackberry or a samsung galaxy, you can download a special app that allows you to scan and read the QR code.   Its a quick way to access information directly from your mobile phone.

Apparently the Japanese are already into QR codes in a big way, using them for all sorts of product advertising and even at McDonalds to find out the calorie content on meals.    Use a QR code on your van signage, your advertising leaflets, on promotional material like t-shirts, pens etc.    The possibilities are endless…!       Just point your phone at the symbol and it will take you directly to our website.

I created this code on qurify.com.  Try it for yourself, its free!

Dont get caught out this winter.    For hard packed snow, heavy snow, on icy or uneven surfaces, a snow thrower is just the job.  

This snow thrower collects the snow with its metal augers and the  powerful 4-stroke Snow Thorx petrol engine helps to  propel the snow up through the discharge chute.    The head of the chute is adjustable to control the direction of flow which has up to 8m throwing distance.   Lets not quibble how the snow gets dispersed from the chute.   Whether it gets blown or thrown doesn’t quite matter, just think, never having to shovel snow again!     Ideal for car parks, pedestrian walkways, private roads, paths, patios and driveways.

The Karcher Snow Thrower has a great price tag of just £849.00 (excl VAT), you save £350 from the RRP of £1199!   Grab yourself a bargain!    Free delivery on this item from the MattVac Shop.

If you’re not prepared to pay for a professional to clean your carpets, or you are just looking for a good carpet shampooer  that you can use to do the job yourself, this machine might just do the trick.   Its a Karcher Puzzi 100 spray extraction machine.   An exceptional all round carpet shampooer/extraction machine.    An affordable carpet cleaning machine for use around the home on your carpets and upholstery.    It can be used  for light commercial use and is actually a  favourite with car dealers for valeting vehicle interiors.    This machine is quick and easy to use, keeps your carpets looking good, and will easily suck up all those accidental spills!

This carpet shampooer is often the model available from hire shops.     Fill the machine with hot/warm water along with your detergent and you are ready to go.    It works by spraying a wide fine jet of water and detergent from a tank on the body via a nozzle into the carpet fibres or your upholstery fabric and then immediately extracting the water and dissolved dirt by a powerful vacuum into a separate dirty tank.   Available at £382.80 from the MattVac shop, this price includes VAT and FREE delivery!

Did I mention that MattVac offer a professional carpet cleaning service using top of the range machinery and solutions?      So whats the difference between using a professional carpet cleaner i.e. a person thats trained in the business or just hiring a machine from your local hire shop?    

Here is what happens when you hire a carpet cleaning machine ..   You will probably buy some cheap detergent which you will pour into the tank along with some warm water (you will probably use too much detergent..).    It will be one of those push along machines with a rotating brush which scrubs the carpet clean as you go.   You will see lots of soapy suds as you complete each section of the carpet.   You will be pleased to notice your carpet looking so much cleaner!   The water that comes out of the machine will be so mucky.   “How could my carpets be so dirty” you will think…    The suds that you seen earlier will gradually disappear as the carpet dries and you will wish you had done this before going on holiday for a week and not left yourself with a soggy wet carpet.    Eventually you will have a dry cleaner carpet.   However in less than a week your carpet looks  filthier than before.   How can this be?    Because you have left a ton of detergent in the carpet which is attracting new soil like a magnet!     Be warned!   Once you start using this method of cleaning you will have to clean your carpet every week.  

So in what way is a professional carpet clean different from a DIY one?   The solutions professionals use are most often detergent free, certainly the ones that we use are.    The cleaning solution is sprayed like a fine mist over the carpet, which is then worked into the carpet fibres using a rotary brush machine like this Truvox Orbis or a machine with contra rotating brushes like a sebo duo or host machine.     Using a good top of the range carpet cleaning extraction machine like the Prochem Steempro Powermax, or its big brother the  Prochem Steempro Powerplus your professional carpet cleaner uses a wand which applies high powered jets of hot water (with the heat n run add on) through the carpet fibres which easily releases the deeply embedded grime and dirt and removes this with intense suction leaving your carpet squeaky clean.   Your carpets are usually dry in less than an hour!   Pure wool carpets do usually take slightly longer to dry.   However opening your windows and turning on your gas central heating will assist the drying process and your carpets should be ready to walk on in no time at all.   

Your carpets will stay cleaner far longer, unless of course you have  a few dogs and cats, some kids with muddy trainers  and a partner who never removes his boots before he steps into the living room.

When your customer sits in front of Google and is looking to find a carpet cleaning business in your area, what do you think they type in?     According to the Google keyword tool, for the key phrase “carpet cleaning glasgow” there is approximately 1300 local searches per month.     Everybody thinks differently, so what exactly is everyone typing into the search engines to find you?   The Google keyword tool is ideal to help you find out.     It will also give you a list of alternative keywords that you may not have thought about.    For the keywords and phrases with high competition you need to be prepared to work hard to get results.   However using the keyword tool can highlight some popular keyphrases with fairly low competition that could bring some much needed additional traffic to your site.    For example the keyphrase “virtual offices” has high competition with 246,000 global searches per month and 60,500 local searches.   On the subject of cleaning, the phrase “carpet stain remove” has 5400 local searches per month and low competition so may be worth optimising your site for.   Find the Google keyword tool in your Google Adwords control panel under Reporting and Tools.   A very useful research tool and worth spending some time on.

So you want to drive traffic to your small business website.    There are so many different marketing channels to choose from.   SEO, email marketing, PPC, social media, Blogs to name a few.     Most importantly, a good SEO campaign is required, both onpage and offpage.    Pay per Click can be utilised in the meantime whilst your SEO efforts gradually push your website up the Google rankings.     Think about your customer and where they will look to find you.    Some customers will type some keywords into Google and hope to find you.   Some will go local and search in directories like Yell or Yelp.   Some may turn to Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

What you need to ensure is that your website is listed where your customer is looking so put yourself in their shoes for a moment.   Get your site listed on those local directories, set yourself up in Google Places so that you will appear when customers carry out a local Google search.    Get yourself a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter account.   Facebook performs well in the search engines so build your fan page and it will naturally drive traffic to your website.    Most importantly do it the right way and dont be tempted to use unethical SEO techniques.   You will reap the rewards.

A quick note to report our MattVac fan page is now active on Facebook.    Social media now plays a huge role when promoting your services or products and definitely adds credibility to your business.    As well as giving you a base to engage with your consumers,  Facebook fan pages normally rank fairly well in the search engines so can increase traffic to your website.    You can link your Facebook fan page to your twitter account which is really cool too.

Here is a link to the MattVac fan page, can you    it? 

This month has been busy but at times frustrating….   On three occasions at least, I have turned up to a scheduled job to find no one at home.   I knock the door, no one appears.    To have at least the decency to call and cancel would have been something.    Maybe just give me a few hours warning so that I could have re-arranged my schedule.    Have a thought for the poor  chap that has turned up knocking on a door never to be opened.    What can I do?    Its too late to re-arrange my schedule, too late to slot something else in, a few hours of my day down the swanny.     Some folk just dont give a monkeys!   Well, thats my moan for the day…   Onwards and upwards!

When a build up of grease or oil on your leather sofa forms an unsightly mark, its tempting to try and clean it with everyday leather cleaning products.    You will find that even good quality leather cleaning products will have no effect on this type of stain.     When its aniline leather you are dealing with, which has very little or no protective coating , a different approach is therefore necessary.     

Here, you can see a nasty greasy mark which has developed at the head portion of the back cushion.  This can be caused purely by sweat, natural bodily oils or hair products.     Over a period of time the oil has gradually soaked through the leather, building up, eventually making its way to the surface forming the stained area.     The good news is that all is not lost.   The grease can be drawn out of the leather in stages magically bringing the oil to the surface where it can be wiped clean.   There is however a down side to the process…      

With many applications of degreaser the colour of the leather can be adversely affected leaving the leather with a washed out look.   The next step therefore is to re-inject the colour back into the leather to restore it back to its former glory.   So how do you put the colour back into the leather?

By applying an aniline dye to restore the colour followed by a protector for a more permanent finish.    Why not even apply some extra richness and give your sofa a completely new look?      Have a look at the final result …