Business Spotlight: The Clean Connection

Craig Warren can’t tell you exactly why he has more than 25 years of carpet cleaning experience under his belt. His is a career born out of thin air during a late 1980s sales call in St. Louis.

The former sales manager of a family-owned beverage distributor in the city was talking shop with a customer when his mind became fixated on their carpets.

“I was in a Houlihan’s restaurant with the Heineken (representative) one day, and we were waiting on the manager to come out. I was talking to one of the assistant managers, and for some reason, out of the blue, I asked her how often they cleaned their carpet and who cleaned it,” Warren says. “I still don’t know why I asked her that. I guess it was meant to be.”

From there, he began researching cleaning companies, and in 1989, he took a leap of faith and launched the business, which at first strictly focused on carpet cleaning and largely served the restaurant and bar businesses he’d come to know. Warren ran it for a dozen years before deciding to move closer to friends and family living in the Ozarks in 2003. After a year operating remotely with the help of an employee, Warren says he introduced his company under the same name to Springfield following the sale of its book of business and company assets to a St. Louis competitor.

“Even though I didn’t graduate from high school here, I always kind of considered Springfield home,” says Warren, a Missouri State University graduate.

Intentional trimming
Today, the company covers carpet cleaning, stretching and stain removal, as well as installation of carpet, wood and vinyl flooring. Selling such flooring brands as American, Southwinds, Mohawk and Tarkett, Warren says 2014 revenue clocked in around $535,000. A typical cleaning job costs about $150, and installation averages around $20 per yard, or $2.25 per square foot.

Last year’s sales were down by over 10 percent from 2013, a drop he says was forecasted because he stopped pursuing some of the multifamily projects that had stretched his staff thin. He currently employs seven workers, down from a high of 10.

“We’re a small business, and that’s really not what we need to be doing,” he says. “We pushed the envelope a little too much there.”

Warren says sales are split fairly evenly between residential work and around 20 commercial clients, mostly property managers. About two-thirds of revenue comes from sales and installation and one-third from cleaning. Personal Touch’s commercial clients include Ben-Steele Properties LLC, Debco Management Inc. and property owner and commercial broker Eric Roberts.  

A key local vendor for Personal Touch Carpet Care is Cincinnati, Ohio-based CDC Distributors Inc., which operates a warehouse at 502 W. College St.

CDC Sales Associate Ray Dragoo says he’s worked with Warren for about five years, and Personal Touch orders flooring products weekly. Dragoo says CDC serves over a dozen flooring installers in the area, and Personal Touch is a midlevel client in terms of volume and revenue. “It is a fairly competitive market. I think a lot of companies are still trying to find their niche, but he stays pretty busy,” Dragoo says.

Area carpet cleaning competitors include Stanley Steemer, Buddy’s Carpet Care and SteamPro Carpet Cleaning. Installers include Midwest Rug Co., The Carpet Shoppe Inc. and Discount Daves LLC.

Dragoo says about 70 percent of Personal Touch’s business comes as needed from customer orders with the rest stocked in one of two warehouses at Warren’s 5,700-square-foot 1944 E. Grand St. store, which features three connected retail showrooms.

“Our bread and butter is the people who call up and they’ve been wanting to get their carpet stretched for quite awhile and didn’t know who to call but checked online or opened up the phone book and see that we do everything,” Warren says.  

Fixing frays
Ben-Steele Properties co-owner Judy Breeding says Personal Touch Carpet Cleaning’s prices are reasonable, but she’s leaned on the business for nearly 10 years because they feel like Warren will give an honest assessment when it comes to cleaning or replacing carpet. “If it needs to be stretched or refrayed, they’ll stretch and fix frays, and if there’s a burn spot or something, they can cut it out and replace that spot,” she says.  

Breeding says the property management firm leans on Personal Touch for service or installation about once a month.

“They keep us informed on what’s new. We have rentals, so it’s a different market than you might use for your house,” she says.

Warren says his business is a relationship business.

“I enjoy meeting people and the relationships that I have built over the years with my suppliers and my customers,” he says. “Every day is different. I have to go measure some jobs after we’re done talking. That’s what I spend most of my time doing, measuring jobs, giving quotes and talking on the phone.”