My husband and I have a hood cleaning business, but it was not doing as well as we had expected. We contacted our friends in Nashville, Tennessee who have had a successful hood cleaning business for twenty years.
They were delighted to hear from us and invited us to come to Nashville to visit their company, Nashville Hood Cleaning Pros. So, we packed our bags and headed to Nashville for a few days to get an education.
We rented a small cottage at the edge of town, unpacked our bags and went to sleep. The next day we headed to Nashville Hood Cleaning Pros to see our friends.
We were amazed so see their facility was so efficient. They had a small office with a large attached warehouse and three trucks outfitted with hood cleaning equipment. The warehouse stores the chemicals and extra parts needed to keep the trucks fully inventoried. They made a decision years ago to keep at least three of everything in stock because there were a couple of times the trucks needed something, and they had to wait days for shipping or worse yet weeks if the items were back ordered.
We reviewed the hood cleaning equipment they used as well as the accessories and made notes on where we could upgrade and improve our hood cleaning equipment and accessories. Believe it or not, this took pretty much the majority of the day.
That evening we just wanted to go to dinner at a place that was casual and served an amazing hamburger. We chose The Stillery in their downtown location as it was closet to our friends’ business and we were pretty burned out. We were happy to find the place was exactly what we wanted. I tried pickle chips for the first time and they were delightful!
Day two found us back at our friends at Nashville Hood Cleaning Pros. Today they wanted to review our website and recommend some changes. We could not believe how much time they put into their website. They had separate pages describing the different types of commercial kitchen cleaning they performed. They showed us how many times “hood cleaning” is typed into the search engines and how it was an important phrase to include many times in our website.
They had some amazing pictures of the hood cleaning jobs they have done. I was surprised to see that they not only clean restaurants, they also have contracts with senior living facilities, seasonal camps, schools and many other places that have commercial kitchens.
We discussed how they work with their clients to have an ongoing relationship. Once they have done the initial hood cleaning, they recommend to the owner or manager they schedule regular cleanings. They will give a certificate after each cleaning along with pictures of before and after the hood cleaning. This enables the restaurant to then post they are keeping the kitchen professionally clean and, in many cases, it has lowered their insurance. This also helps when health inspectors come into the restaurant. They see the restaurant is maintain their equipment and reducing the chance of a fire.
That evening we dined at The Southern Steak and Oyster in SoBro district. Using influences from the Caribbean to the Gulf Coast and from North Carolina to Nova Scotia, they serve up an amazing array of meals. The shuck-to-order oysters were amazingly delicious, and I could hardly stop eating them. They use locally sourced beef and locally grown produce so they can support the ranchers and farmers.
The third day we met our friends for breakfast downtown in The Gulch at Biscuit Love. We were so warmly and enjoyed the Southern hospitality. We learned they originally started in an Airstream food truck and have grown to three restaurants.
Our friends explained that they encourage their crews to go out to breakfast before they go home after work. This has become a successful way to pick up new clients. Here you have a crew of three or four people who have worked all night and are now enjoying a great breakfast. The conversation of what they do for a living becomes natural to the employees of the restaurant and most of the time they get the name of the person to talk to about cleaning their commercial kitchen.
As we headed home, we felt we had a much better handle on how we could grow our business. Thanks to our friends at Nashville Hood Cleaning Pros we believe we can now retire from hood cleaning in only a few years.