Presidents Message Archive – Eric Bollman

By admin • May 5th, 2009

Eric Bollman
May 2006
President, CFI
“Treat each client like a prospect”
Let me for the purpose of full disclosure state that both the headlines as well as the following short story were swiped from a weekly, syndicated, column in the Orange County Register by Harvey Mackay.
“A man who had lived an exemplary life died and was given a preview of heaven and hell. In heaven, people were peaceful and serene and smiling. In hell, he was given a stretch lime, the best of food and drink and an endless list of parties. He chose hell. As soon as he walked through the gates, the devil began flogging him with a whip and he was thrown into a fiery chasm. “Wait!” he said. “Yesterday I was treated like a king, and now this. Why?” “Ah”, said the devil. “Yesterday you were a prospect. Today you’re a customer.”
It seems a lot of companies spend untold millions in marketing and wooing us to buy from them makes this critical mistake. They promise you the world, only to drop you like a rock once you’ve made the purchase. And adding insult to injury is the fact that you’re often locked into long-term contracts that will almost literally cost you an arm and a leg to break. (Phone companies come to mind).
Don’t make that same mistake in your business. In the start-up phase of your business you spend most of your time and money getting prospects to become clients. Don’t forget about them once they have become a client.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the 80/20 rule – 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your clients. Really dig into the numbers of your business and you’ll find that this universal principal also applies to you.
Once your business has matured and more and more of your jobs are coming from repeat clients look at ways to keep them coming back for more.

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Eric Bollman
March 2006
President, CFI
“You really only get one chance to make a good first impression”
I was having lunch today with Kurt, a carpet cleaning friend of mine, at Sarducci’s Café in San Juan Capistrano. It was a nice day, slightly overcast with the sun peeking trough every now and then. As we were seated at our table the server quickly came over and put a basket of bread in front of us with a separate bowl with butter. We both grabbed a piece of bread and were ready to butter it – no knives or any silverware, for that matter, on the table…..you already know the drill. It went downhill from there. Our server just never was able to recover from that bad first impression my friend and I received.
The same holds true in many other situations we face in our daily lives. Although we hate to admit it we often make snap decisions ourselves based on first impressions. A shopping center with overflowing waste baskets, a coffee shop with a messy counter, a restaurant with dirty carpets, a service technician with body piercings. Often without even realizing it we’ve used that first impression to make a negative judgment.
It’s good to realize that your clients are making the same snap judgments about your business. At every point of contact with your business there’s potential to make either a positive or negative impression with your client. Take a step back and honestly look at what first impression you are making.
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Eric Bollmann
February 2006
President, CFI
“A call for actions – becoming more involved with CFI” from San Juan Capistrano, CA
We’ve all done it. Complained about something, commented on how poorly something was executed or why don’t they do this or that or the other…..Government is often the target of such criticism. Voting in elections is one way to affect change there. Although I have to be honest with you – not much ever seems to change.
The CFI is also sometimes the recipient of such criticism. Voting in elections is one way to affect change there too. But a much quicker and more effective way to directly influence issues that you are passionate about is to get involved. And I can promise you one thing – things will change with your involvement.
You see, CFI’s leadership is made up of business owners just like you who volunteer their time on the board of directors. Besides planning meetings on the local level for your chapter they also serve on committees and other boards (IICRC and Connections). As you can imagine it’s a big commitment of time and energy, however it is also a very rewarding experience in both a business and personal growth sense.
On January 28th., at our last board meeting, we had an afternoon brainstorming session that yielded some great ideas on a myriad of topics. It also brought about the realization that our current board does not have the necessary manpower to bring a lot of these ideas to fruition. That’s where you come in. We want more members to become actively involved with making the CFI the best professional trade association period.
The easiest and quickest way to get involved is to volunteer to help out at your next chapter meeting. Pick up the phone and call your chapter director right now and ask him how you can help – he’ll really appreciate it.
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Eric Bollmann
January 2006
President, CFI
“Get Physical” from San Juan Capistrano, CA
Physical, physical….Olivia Newton Join circa early 80’s. Without dating myself too much, some of you may recall that song. Although I don’t remember very much about the lyrics or the video that went with it, I do remember that it had something to do with exercise.
In one of my recent presidents messages I made reference to the fact that I had a hard time finding time. Time to read, time to ride my bike (exercise), etc. Well as I re-red my published words in CFI Cares, I had a minor epiphany. Yes it sometimes is hard to find time, however with some creativity and discipline you can squeeze more out of day than you’d think.
In my case I’ve gotten creative with taking my bike somewhere instead of my car or truck. I now commute about 2-3 times per week the 10 miles from home to my office on my bike instead of taking my car. Also when a truck needs service, I won’t get upset if they can’t service it on the spot. I’ll brink my bike along and bike back to the office and reverse my route the following day to pick it up again.
Which brings me back to getting physical. As you all know an important part of being and staying healthy is exercise. As carpet cleaners we do get a fair amount of daily physical activity if we’re the one on the truck doing the actual carpet cleaning work. Pulling hoses, pushing the wand, going up and down stairs should count for something.
Cleanfax or ICS should commission a study on how much calories the average carpet cleaner burns during a day of carpet cleaning. I’d say we definitely burn more calories during a day of cleaning then a leisurely afternoon on the golf course. The point is though that we need to find time in our busy schedules to fit in some exercise that will keep you healthy.
If you’ve never been the sporty type and are ready for a challenge I have the solution for you. In 2003 I did my first sporting event for Team in Training. A century (100 mile) bike ride around Lake Tahoe. The neat thing about the Team in Training program is that they will get a complete novice, in a 6 month time frame, from being barely able to walk around the block to doing either a marathon, a bike ride century or a triathlon. They have chapters and events throughout the US. Check them out at www.teamintraining.org on the web or 1-800.955.4572 by phone.
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Eric Bollmann
April 2005
President, CFI

These days when you hear or read the word connections you automatically think of the twice yearly events that are put on in Florida and Las Vegas. (The upcoming event is in Orlando from April 18-20, 2005. Call 1-888-881-1001 or visit www.connectionsconvention.org. It looks like a very strong program and CFI members save $224 over the non-member rate). However that’s not the kind of connections I’m talking about.

What I am talking about is the kind of connections you make as an active member of CFI. I want to stress the “active member” part. You see, it never fails that the members who get the greatest benefit out of their membership to the Carpet & FabriCare Institute, are also the ones who get the most involved. But I digress. What I am talking about is the connections or relationships that one can make through the CFI. I’ll use myself as an example. Back in 1996, I was a very novice carpet cleaner, working out of the back of a Jeep Cherokee. I did not know what CFI was, who the IICRC represented, or that there was such a thing as a magazine for carpet cleaners – I still, to this day, remember the excitement I felt reading that first issue of Cleanfax. I didn’t even know what the pH scale represented or for that matter, that 7 was neutral. 0 as neutral made sense to me at the time of my first, half-day class, put on by High Desert Chemical, at a local janitorial supply company in Laguna Hills.

All that began to change once I was introduced to the Carpet & FabriCare Institute. That happened on 3/14/97 in San Clemente. Mike Perras, who at that time was the Orange/Inland Chapter Director for the CFI, stopped by at a job I was doing for a client in San Clemente. He introduced himself as the local representative for the Carpet & FabriCare Institute and handed me his card. We chatted a little bit and he left. The card he had handed me stated that he was an IICRC Certified Master Restoration and Cleaning Technician. I figured I better hang on to his card – you never know. About 12 months later I knew. My first employee was on a job by himself and called me to tell me that the carpet he was cleaning was turning pink. “Pink!”, I said, “are you sure”? Indeed, the carpet was a bright shade of white before we started. Illuminating the room, a huge skylight was filtering the sunlight just enough that the optical brighteners in our cleaning agent came out to play, and play hard. You literally had to put on sunglasses before entering the home. The pinkish hue was overwhelming. I couldn’t find Mike’s business card quick enough. Long story short – he was able to correct the situation and save my butt. At that point I realized that I had a lot to learn, and I better learn it fast. Since then, I’ve made dozens of solid connections with fellow CFI members. Both as personal friends and business associates. Looking back on my 6 years of active involvement in CFI, the benefits are almost too numerous to count.

One of the biggest benefits I’ve found, is the fact that you can short-cut your learning curve. A few years back I was looking to add rug cleaning to our repertoire of services. Instead of learning by trail and error, (and buying a couple of client’s rugs in the process) I turned to Lisa Wagner of Blatchford’s Rug Cleaning in San Diego.

Her expertise and willingness to share her knowledge, have allowed me to add an additional revenue stream and to have an expert to turn to – another solid connection. It’s also great to be able to tell my client, who’s moving from San Juan Capistrano to Chatsworth, that they can call Gabriel Peretti of CleanCrafters, another CFI member. Or to tell my client, whose aunt has just moved from Tacoma to Moreno Valley, that she can call Gary Mills at Arrowhead Cleaning Systems. It’s great to know that they’ll be taken care of with the excellence, and integrity of a fellow CFI member, that I personally know and with whom have made a connection. Thank you for reading. If you have any story you would like to share in CFI Cares or have any questions, don’t hesitate to e-mail them to pr@carpet9.org

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Eric Bollmann
November 2004
President, CFI

11/11/2004 – San Juan Capistrano, CA. I’ve got some big shoes to fill. (No offense Lisa, I did not mean that literally). My name is Eric Bollmann and I’m going to be your President for the next 2 years. As I mentioned I’m following Lisa Wagner who’s been CFI’s President for the last 2 years. During her tenure she and her Board of Directors got great things done. She, Mike Perras and Dennis Iverson with the help of their respective board members, have been instrumental in bringing the Connections Convention to life. And judging from the success the events have enjoyed over the last 2 years more great things are in Connections future.

Another visionary move was to bring advanced mold training in the form of CMR and AMRT classes to the CFI region. Although the “mold mania” seems to have cooled off somewhat, many remediation contractors were able to get their AIQ and IICRC certified training locally.

I fondly remember my first ever carpet cleaners convention I attended, which happens to be the first Connections event; the true original in 1999. At that time the CFI, CCINW and the PCUCA got together for their first joint convention and trade show. By all accounts it was an overwhelming success and I was hooked on CFI. Trade organization membership has helped me short circuit my learning curve in a lot of subjects and has allowed me to network and glean information from people much smarter and sharper than me. It had taken me several years of contemplating membership to finally becoming a member. Why you ask? Well $300 seemed like a lot of money. Had I known then what I know now, I would have joined right away.

With so many people praising the benefits of membership, I’m constantly amazed at how few take full advantage of it. In a BNI networking group I belong to the concept of “givers gain” is very prevalent. What it means in a nutshell is that the benefits (gain) will come to those who are willing to give first. I’ve found that concept to be true in most situations you face in life.

Are you a member of your local trade association? If not, what are you waiting for? Now is the time to join and see what you have been missing. Call Mike Perras at 1-800-227-7389 for your application and you to will experience the benefits of membership. However be willing to get involved. If your attitude is one of “what have you done for me lately” CFI membership may not be for you.

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