Chem-Dry Customer Review: Tom Hieb of Louisville, Ky.

Chem-Dry carpet cleaning franchise won where competitors lost ? and this customer never looked back

Julie and Tom Hieb

We asked Tom Hieb for a Chem-Dry customer review. Tom struggled to find a carpet cleaner to remove some difficult pet stains.

The culprit was a Bichon Frisé named Katie. Tom Hieb of Louisville, Ky., and his wife, Julie, loved the dog, an eighth-grade graduation present for Tom?s son.

But Katie, sadly, had an incontinence problem that worsened with age. She would exercise her bodily functions on the carpet in, of all places, the family room. Even on a brown carpet, the consequences were visible, smellable and cumulative. The Hiebs tried cleaning it themselves and hired cleaners to do it, but their efforts succeeded only to a point. After a few years, the carpet reeked horribly.

?It was a bad thing all around. Nobody could get the stains or odors out,? says Tom, 61. ?They tried every method in the book: steam cleaning, dry cleaning, one company that used some powdery-type thing they scrubbed into the floor with a brush. It?d disguise the odor but do nothing for stains.?

Ditching the dog wasn?t an option. ?We had another dog before Katie who had accidents. Maybe it?s just us and dogs,? Tom says. ?We?re soft-hearted.?

Mark and Gary Schoenbeck of Chem-Dry of Louisville

Some friends recommended Chem-Dry of Louisville and the father-son team of Gary and Mike Schoenbeck, whom Tom and Julie turned to in 2004. Tom recognized the Chem-Dry difference immediately.

?When they came in, they were super-professionally dressed, unlike any of the others, and they had a nice, clean truck,? Tom says. ?The impression we had was, ?Hey, this is a clean-cut company.? They gave the right image you should project.?

And that was before the techs did the first lick of work. It didn?t take long. The team used Chem-Dry?s patented P.U.R.T. (Pet Urine & Odor Removal Treatment), using enzymes to neutralize the dried urine crystals that had collected all the way to the carpet backing. Treatment with deodorizer and a high-powered vacuum followed, and then Chem-Dry?s signature hot carbonated water treatment, which uses the natural cleaning power of carbonation to shake stains loose at the molecular level.

?The main thing was getting that stinking odor out. We were flabbergasted. It looked almost like new carpet. That made us very happy,? Tom says. ?Actually a little happier than happy. We were almost beside ourselves after having had so many failures for so many years.?

The late Katie, the incontinent Bichon Frisé who cut Chem-Dry of Louisville’s work out for it

He and Julie have never looked back. They remain among Gary and Mike?s loyal customers, members of a devoted and consistent client base the Schoenbecks have built since their opening in 1990. ?We’ve been doing this for 22 years,? Gary says, ?so we know our way around the block.?

The Hiebs ended up replacing the carpet around 2000, and Katie died six years later. Throughout, Tom and Julie relied on Chem-Dry of Louisville to keep their carpet in good shape by coming out at least a couple of times per year. They don?t have pets anymore, and with Tom retired and Julie working part-time as a nurse, they travel a lot, reducing the need for more frequent cleanings.

But they still call Chem-Dry every time they need their carpet cleaned ? which is no burden. Atop everything else, the treatment is reasonably priced.

?We thought it was a super-excellent value. I almost wanted to give them some more money. Almost,? Tom says with a chuckle. ?We?ve recommended them a dozen times, at least. Anybody we hear needs their carpet cleaned, we tell them about Chem-Dry. It was such a pain in the butt to find somebody who could do a good job, once we did, we wanted to share it with all our friends.?

For 35 years, our great service, products and affordability have led thousands of people around the world to raving Chem-Dry fanhood. If you think you might want to create a few more fans with your own Chem-Dry franchise business, fill out the form on this site and download our free franchise report, with detailed information about our value proposition, people, systems, earnings potential, financing and more!