About Us

My name is Matt Craine and I’m the owner and founder of Professor Pyle’s Five Step Carpet Care.  I started Professor Pyle after I’d had one too many bad experiences when I hired a service company.  The last of course was a carpet cleaner.  Over the years, just like most people,  I’ve hired plumbers, electricians, gardners, and  carpet cleaners.  I found that so many service companies these days leave a lot to be desired.  Four hour windows where they call you five minutes before the end of the window and tell you they’re running late.  How do you miss a four hour window?  That’s half a day.  Shoddy workmanship, poor communication, and scary looking technicians.  I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences too.  After the last bad experience with a carpet cleaning company,  I decided I could do it better and started Professor Pyle’s Five Step Carpet Care.  Here are some of the highlights from my original list of what’s wrong with the service industry and how Professor Pyle does it better.

Communication- You shouldn’t have to call three or four companies, leave a message, and then sit back and hope that you’ll get a call back in a day or two.  Professor Pyle’s Five Step Carpet Care answers the phone when it rings or returns your call fast.  Your time is valuable and you’ve got better things to do than to chase us down.  When you do call, you’re talking to the owner.  I can answer any questions you might have.  You’ll never hear things like “I just answer the phone, I’ll have to have the technician call you back to answer your question.”  We also have high standards of communication for our Field Staff.  When our team is in your home or office, they are friendly, knowledgeable, and personable but most important, they know how to listen.  They will find out exactly what you want, what your goals are, and then do everything they can to meet your needs.

The Staff- Have you ever had a service company’s employees show up at your door looking like they need a shower, haven’t shaved in three days, wearing an old dirty tee shirt, or maybe pants that should have been burned a year ago?  I’ve seen them too.  You’re afraid to let them in.  It doesn’t matter how good they are at their job, how can you trust them to take care of your home if they don’t care about themselves.  Who hires these people and what does it say about the company they work for?  You should never have to follow someone around your house making sure they don’t break something.  Nor should you have to worry that they’ll track in dirt or set their stuff on your antique table.  Our technicians will always arrive in a clean truck, dressed in their uniform, and be well groomed.  You’ll feel comfortable having them in your home or office and they’ll take great care to treat your home or office with the respect it deserves.

Quality of the Work- Most of the time you find that the work you wanted done doesn’t quite measure up to what you were expecting.  Sometimes the crew just isn’t prepared.  I remember once when I had a new window installed in my home, I had to loan the installer my drill because he forgot his back at the shop.  How can a business operate like this?  Professor Pyle’s Technicians will not leave your home or office until we’ve exceeded your expectations.  We won’t cut corners and will provide you with the most thorough cleaning you’ve ever seen.  Our technicians are IICRC certified and are trained in the most advanced and environmentally friendly ways to clean carpet, upholstery, and remove spots.  If we can’t get it out, no one can.  Have you ever seen a carpet cleaner clean the areas under your doors were they meet the door jamb or hand clean other areas where the cleaning machine doesn’t reach?  I never had either until I started Professor Pyle’s Five Step Carpet Care.  We clean all the edges and hard to reach areas by hand.  Maybe someday there will be a good tool that does this for us but until there is, we’ll keep doing it by hand because it’s the only thing that works.

Scheduling/Appointments- Do you dread scheduling work to be done in your home knowing that they are going to tell you to be home for a four hour window or even worse, an all day appointment?  It never fails that you then get a call five minutes before the end of the four hour window and they tell you they’re running late.  You’ve taken time off work or postponed important things just to waste four hours and the work still hasn’t started.  I know how precious your time is so Professor Pyle schedules your appointments with a half hour window.  Now it’s one thing to promote our half hour window appointments but the important thing is that we actually do arrive inside the window.  We also take scheduling a step further.  We’ll do our best to work around your hectic schedule whenever possible.  If your 9 month old son naps between 10am and 12pm, then we need to work around this.  Maybe your daughter has a ballet class at 4pm, then we need to be done and gone so you can pick her up on time.  Do you work from home; we’ll clean your office last so you can keep working while we do the rest of the house first.  Tell us what works best for you and we’ll do everything we can to meet your needs.

Pricing and Quotes- I’m sure you’ve been down this road before…   You get an estimate to have work done that sounds reasonable so you take the plunge and say yes.  Then as the work progresses, the price seem to change and you suddenly need this or that to finish the job.  Only this or that was never mentioned when you got the estimate.  Many carpet cleaners use this technique to get you scheduled, then when they arrive at your home or office, you end up paying way more than you expected.  I’m sure you’ve seen the ads like 3 rooms for $39.00.  Then it turns out that that doesn’t include cleaning solution or spot removals.  Professor Pyle will never do that to you.  We offer free quotes on all the work we do.  This means you get an exact price with a complete description of what we’re going to do before we schedule the work to be done.  No hidden charges, no surprises.  We’ll arrange a convenient time to visit your home or office and evaluate your carpet.  Then we’ll calculate a price that includes everything you want done.  This price will not change and you’ll know exactly what to expect.  But what if you want to get an idea over the phone before you schedule an appointment?  We’ll do our best to give you a general idea of the cost over the phone.  We consider a lot of things like the age and type of carpet, how long since the last cleaning, has protectant been applied, etc.  We also need to know the size of the area to be cleaned so we know the exact amount of carpet.  There is no better way.  We don’t like pricing by the number of rooms because you often end up paying more than you should.  One thing to keep in mind- If price is your only concern, we may not be the best choice for you.  There are hundreds of carpet cleaners out there and most are competing on the lowest price.  The price may be attractive but you’ll probably see the guy with the dirty tee shirt who’s going to tell you it costs extra for cleaning solution.  Professor Pyle’s Five Step Carpet Care really focuses on the value we provide.  We’re certainly not the cheapest, nor are we the most expensive but we definitely provide the best value.

Some additional things to expect from us-

We recommend that you clean your carpet every 6 to 12 months.  We’re going to tell you this a lot because it’s the best thing you can do for your carpet.  Carpet isn’t cheap; it can be thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to replace it depending on the size of your home or office.  Cleaning it regularly BEFORE you start to notice the spots and traffic lanes is the only way to keep it looking like new and to have it last a long time.  Regular cleaning can also have many health benefits.  Your carpet works very much like the filter in your heating/AC system.  It traps all kinds of bacteria, allergens, dust, pollens, and other nasty things that are in the air.  And just like your furnace filter, it gets filled up over time.  The best way to keep the air you and your family breathe clean and safe is to regularly clean your carpet.

We going to recommend applying carpet protectant like ScotchGuard ever time we clean your carpet.  We’re going to tell you over and over again.  We do this for two reasons; carpet protectant applied at the factory when your carpet was manufactured wears off.  In the heavy traffic areas this can be as fast as 6 months.  (We see this every day.) Once the protectant is gone, spots and stains become permanent and traffic lanes start to show.  A good rule of thumb is that once you see a traffic lane, it may already be too late to completely restore it.    The second reason we constantly talk about protectant is that it just plain works.  And works well!  Whether its carpet or upholstered furniture, you’re adding years to the life of your carpet or furniture that is protected regularly.  You might be thinking that for your particular carpet or upholstery, the guarantee you got when you bought it says guaranteed for 10 years, maybe even 15 years.  That’s probably true; it may say that but read the fine print.  You’ll find that the guarantee doesn’t say you won’t get dull traffic lanes or that the arms of your favorite chair won’t collect oils and soil from your hands and then oxidize and change color over time.  Regular professionally applied protectant is the only way to really be sure your getting the most from your carpet and upholstery.

Don’t be surprised if we ask you for a referral.  But we promise not to ask until we’re sure you’re absolutely thrilled with the work we’ve done for you.  We don’t spend a lot of money on advertising; we prefer to invest in training for our technicians and in providing the best possible service to you, our clients.  Because we don’t spend a lot on advertising we rely heavily on our clients telling others about our services.  We’ll tell you all about the benefits of our referral program after we’ve completed your first cleaning.

Some things we are going to expect from you-

We expect you to call us if you need help or advice.  We’re always happy to assist with any carpet or upholstery related guidance.  Thinking about buying new carpet, call us, we can arm you with the right information and questions to ask when you start shopping.  Have a nasty spill on your favorite chair, call us.  If your part of our free spot removal program, don’t hesitate to take advantage of this great benefit.  Maybe you’re not a client but have a question, call us anyway, we’re glad to help.

Our clients tell us they are really happy with the work we do, many of you have sent in testimonials and pictures as well.  We love hearing positive things about the work we do and it really motivates us to maintain the highest of standards.  With that said, we’re not perfect.  We have missed a half hour window or two, not very often but we have.  Or it’s possible we’ve overlooked a spot when we were cleaning for some reason or another.  If for any reason we haven’t exceeded your expectations or if we’ve missed something, please, please call us and let us know.  We’ll fix it as fast as we can.

Thanks for taking the time to read about Professor Pyle’s Five Step Carpet Care and how we got started.  Please give us a call if we can be of service in any way.

Sincerely,

Matt Craine
Owner

My First Job!

Not many carpet cleaners can tell you they started cleaning carpet when they were one and a half years old.  The proof is in the picture.  That’s actually me.  A lot has changed since then.  We use state of the art equipment, cleaning solutions, and spot removal products.  All of which do an amazing job of keeping your carpet beautiful and are much better for the environment.  Since the picture was taken, I’ve personally cleaned almost three quarters of a million square feet of carpet.  I know, I know, you noticed that I wasn’t wearing pants in the picture.  In addition to the best guarantee in the carpet cleaning business, I also guarantee that while cleaning every single square foot of carpet since that picture was taken, I am wearing pants.