How one duct cleaning firm markets its ethics and credibility in an often shady industry

If you are a renovation contractor who is sick of hearing what con artists you and your colleagues probably are, take heart. At least you’re not a duct-cleaning firm. Now, THERE is an industry that has a public relations problem. No home services segment pumps out more irritating, pushy and frankly stupid dinner-hour telemarketing calls. While the quality of the cleaning offered by many duct-cleaning firms is even worse than their lousy sales techniques.

Not all duct-cleaning firms, however, are cut from the same shabby cloth.

Take Dave’s Duct Cleaning, a firm operating multiple crews in the Toronto area, who have built themselves up a stellar HomeStars rating, an almost flawless online reputation in general, and tons of business.

How are they doing it? Well, obviously they have top-notch equipment and caring, dedicated crews. But also, they are doing one hell of a job of marketing.

Take a look at their vehicles. Have you ever seen so many third-party affiliations as this?

This firm is a member of more associations and contractor-rating agencies than we have ever seen.

Brendan Ryan of Dave’s Duct Cleaning, pictured here being thanked by Habitat for Humanity for donating his crew’s services to a recent Habitat build, says that his firm takes great pride in its affiliation with such brands as NADCA, the National Air Duct Cleaners Association, which has a strict code of ethics and monitors the performance of its members.

“There are more than 300 duct cleaning firms in Ontario and only about 44 of them actually belong to NADCA,” Ryan says.

As far as the shady operators, Ryan says that some of them do almost nothing to effectively clean your ducts.

“Some of them are $99 and they are in and out of there in 15 minutes,” he says. “Sometimes they don’t even turn the furnace off. This is why duct cleaning has such a terrible name.”

Dave’s uses state-of-the-art equipment including Hypervac portable vacuums that pull at 6,000 CFM right at the furnace. Ryan says some firms advertise their 10,000 to 12,000 CFM truck-based equipment that pulls through 50-feet or 100-feet of hose. With the loss in suction through that much hose, the portable systems seems to be a better option, Ryan says.