CarpetBossPro Blog — Upholstery, Rugs & Tile

Pet Odor Treatment Jobs: Quoting, Noting and Setting Expectations in Your Software

Pet odor calls are some of the most common calls a carpet cleaner gets, and some of the most emotional. The customer is embarrassed about the smell, worried about guests, or getting a house ready to sell. They want it handled. Your job is to quote it fairly, do the work, and be honest about what cleaning can and can't do. Good records make all three easier.

Pet Odor Is an Add-On With Its Own Step

The general flow of add-on steps on the tech app is in Add-On Steps in the Tech Checklist: Making Sure Paid Add-Ons Actually Get Done. Pet odor treatment is the add-on where that step matters most, because it's usually the reason the customer called.

In CarpetBossPro, Pet Odor Treatment is a checkbox on every job and estimate. When it's checked, the pet odor treatment step appears on the tech's carpet cleaning checklist. When it isn't, the step stays off, so it's never done by accident or skipped by mistake.

Questions to Ask on the Phone

A few questions turn a vague “the house smells like the dog” into a quote you can stand behind:

• Which rooms or areas are affected?
• Is it one spot, a few spots, or a whole room?
• How long has the pet been in the home?
• Is the upholstery affected too, or just the carpet?
• Is this for living in the home or for a sale or move-out?

Write the answers into the job notes when you build the estimate. Estimate details carry onto the job when the customer approves, so the tech walks in knowing it's the back bedroom and the corner by the sliding door, not the whole house.

Quoting Pet Odor Work

Most companies price pet odor treatment per room or per area, as a line item on top of the carpet cleaning. A quote might read:

• Carpet cleaning, 3 rooms
• Pet odor treatment, back bedroom
• Pet odor treatment, living room corner
• Deodorizer, whole job

Itemizing the treatment by area helps the customer choose and helps the tech know exactly where to work. The pricing side is covered in more detail in Pricing Pet Odor Treatment Per Room or Per Area Without Undercharging.

Setting Honest Expectations

The most important part of a pet odor job happens before any work starts: the conversation about expectations. Some odors respond well to treatment. Some are deeper than a cleaning can reach. You don't want the customer to hear that for the first time after they've paid.

Keep the language simple and honest, on the quote and at the door:

• “We'll treat the areas you showed us and do our best on the odor.”
• “Some odors can be stubborn. If any remain, we'll tell you what we found.”

Avoid promises about complete removal, health effects or how long results will last. The software helps here by giving you a place to record what you said and what you found.

On Site: The Walk-Through and the Note

The checklist starts with a walk-through with the customer. On a pet odor job, that walk-through should confirm each area on the job. If the customer points out another spot, the tech notes it or texts the office so it can be added as a line item from the service list.

After the work, the checklist records stains that did not come out, a job condition (Good, Needs attention or Repair recommended) and a note for the customer. On pet jobs, that note is where the tech writes what was treated and anything that may still need attention, in plain language. Before-and-after photos are saved with the job and the customer sees them in their app.

Leave the specific treatment methods to your trained techs. The software's job is to make sure the right areas are known, treated and documented.

Tagging Pet Homes and Following Up

Homes with pets tend to need regular cleaning. Tag them in CarpetBossPro so the office knows to offer pet odor treatment on future quotes and on yearly or every-six-months plans. Repeat cleanings are set by minimum days between visits and come due on the Waiting List when it's time.

Because new jobs at a home fill in from the last job, next visit's quote already has the pet odor areas on it. Two-way texting is handy for a quick check a few days after the job: “How's the back bedroom?” A follow-up like that tells the customer you care about the result, not just the invoice.

When the tech taps Complete, the invoice is created with each pet odor area on its own line and the card on file can be charged. For how pet work fits with upholstery, rugs and other add-ons, go back to the CarpetBossPro upholstery cleaning software page.