In many ways, it's been a magic carpet ride for Stanley Steemer. The Dublin carpet-cleaning company has more than 300 franchises in 48 states -- and it all started with a one-person cleaning service in 1947.

In many ways, it's been a magic carpet ride for Stanley Steemer.

The Dublin carpet-cleaning company has more than 300 franchises in 48 states -- and it all started with a one-person cleaning service in 1947.

"It has been an interesting, entertaining journey," said Wesley Bates, chief executive officer and the second generation of the family to run the company started by his father, Jack A. Bates.

"Dad was tough. He was tough. I never knew what he was going to do. And those are the stories I can tell you," Wesley Bates said, chuckling.

When Jack Bates started out, indoor carpeting was just starting to become popular in American homes, thanks to a new process that cut the cost of making carpets in half. Its use would boom over the next several decades. The company also gained an extra gear about a quarter of a century later when it began building its own carpet-cleaning machines -- a development that led to franchising cleaning operations in other cities.

Today, Stanley Steemer is the biggest carpet-cleaning company in the nation, challenged only by Sears and a handful of others in a business that mainly consists of smaller players.

"My grandfather was the great entrepreneur," said Justin Bates, president and third generation to lead the company. "You know: 'Let's create something and see if it works. Then, let's make something else.' "

But the sheer determination of Jack and Wesley Bates to make the company successful was undoubtedly part of Stanley Steemer's secret, said Mary McCarthy, chapter chairwoman of SCORE Columbus, a nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs.

"It takes a lot of determination and perseverance to make a business work," she said. "Every enterprise has gone through patches of struggles and issues, but they have to keep plugging along. They have to be willing to rethink direction and be creative. Sometimes, you have to be willing to try new things."

In addition, Stanley Steemer "has great customer service," she said. "You can't knock that, especially today. It's really noticed and appreciated."

Go big

Early on, Jack Bates had been aware that he could make an honest living cleaning carpets. Historically, carpet cleaning had been dominated by small companies because it requires little capital investment and few employees.

Even today, more than 40,000 mostly small companies are active in the $5.3 billion industry, and the top nine franchise systems capture only 22 percent of industry receipts, according to studies by Marketdata Enterprises.

But after Wesley Bates graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield in 1970, he told his father, "I didn't go (to college) to drive around and sell carpet cleaning. My philosophy was really simple: Go big or go broke."

His father agreed.

What happened next, though, "was kind of nutty," Wesley Bates said.

"My dad always had big ideas. We just needed follow-through. We had bought some (carpet-cleaning) equipment, but it fell apart. So we said, 'Fine, we'll build it ourselves.' We went through a lot of trial, tribulation, arguments. It was unbelievable."

The carpet-cleaning machine they developed was "way overengineered," Wesley Bates said, but the bulk had its benefits. "To this day, everything we build is overengineered. We're using the stuff and want it to last."

While developing the first company-made carpet-cleaning machine, father and son coined what later became the company name.

"I get a call -- it was 9:30, 10 at night," Wesley Bates said. "Dad's been drinking and he says, 'I've got a name for the machine we built!' And he said, 'Either Jack Rabbit Cleaner' -- after my Dad's first name -- 'or Stanley Steemer,' " partly a bow to the old automobile Stanley Steamer and partly inspired by the machine's water-cleaning method.

"And I said, 'Dad, Jack Rabbit sucks.' So he said, 'OK, it's Stanley Steemer.' "

But it was the machine, not the company, that was initially so named.

"What happened was, we put 'Jack Bates' Stanley Steemer' on our two trucks, and when people would write a check, they would simply make it out to 'Stanley Steemer.' Finally, I said to my Dad, 'We need to make this simpler,' and it was relatively easy from then on to go with that as the company name."

Two years after the "steemer" was developed, the company sold its first franchise. One of the early franchisees came up with the eye-catching color and design of the company vans.

"When we first started, my dad and I thought we'd have all different color vans -- blue, green, brown. Then people would think we had a lot of trucks. Yeah, really a brilliant strategy," Wesley Bates said, laughing. "But you can do anything when you're in control of nothing.

"So a friend of mine whom I went to school with bought a franchise in Springfield, Ohio, and he came in with this safety yellow van, with windows all around and black 'Stanley Steemer' letters.

"I said, 'Well, that stands out. No one will miss it.'

"He said, 'Yeah, it's Upper Arlington colors.' He was still in that high-school way of thinking. I guess it's a good thing I didn't go to DeSales -- then we'd have purple and white trucks."

The yellow van was different in another way, too: It had windows instead of being enclosed.

"I asked him why," Wesley Bates said, "and he said that he put the windows in because he had never driven a truck before, and he found that the windows made it easy to drive. I thought, 'Man, that's smart.' So that's why our vans have windows today: It is safer for employees."

Campaigning

With an easy-to-remember name, a distinctive-looking van that acted as a mobile billboard, proprietary equipment made by the company and a franchising structure in place, Wesley Bates looked for the next step to go bigger: "I said, 'Dad, we've got to advertise.' "

But when they bought space in a small suburban paper, the wrong phone number was printed in the ad.

"I think the ad cost $70 and Dad was so angry. He said, 'See? I advertised 10 years ago and it didn't work then, either.' I said, 'Dad, what are you talking about? Ten years ago?'

"Thank goodness I didn't quit advertising. That's partly how we became a well-known brand."

In recent years, Stanley Steemer has spent as much as $50 million on advertising. It's a big part of the franchising agreements, too.

Franchisees spend about 10 percent of sales on advertising, Wesley Bates said.

"We require that," he said. "We have national advertising, which they contribute to; then they do local advertising, which we have to approve."

One of the most successful early ads led to the company's longtime franchise presence in Florida.

"My grandpa ran an ad in The Dispatch one February in the '70s that said, 'Own your own business in Florida,' " Justin Bates said.

Coming on the heels of one of that decade's big snowstorms, the ad prompted its own blizzard of inquiries from potential franchisees, he said.

Another ad campaign -- the company's first with an advertising agency -- "got us on the map," Wesley Bates said. "The slogan was 'The carpet-cleaning company women recommend.'

"That's the biggest jump we ever had. I'll never forget. The ad campaign hit TV and it snowed, so we were worried. But then the next day all the phone lines lit up and we started scheduling work."

Recent distinctive ideas for promoting the company have included the Stanley Steemer Zamboni machine at Columbus Blue Jackets hockey games.

"I think it might have been a franchise owner's idea, actually," Wesley Bates said. "I would say at least half of our great ideas come from franchisees. Sometimes you listen and say, 'I don't need to hear your life story,' but somewhere in there, wow, there are brilliant ideas."

Covering the nation

Today, the company's 72 corporate and 230 individual franchises cover "about 97 percent of the population in 48 states," Justin Bates said. "We're not in North Dakota and Vermont" -- states lacking the population density that franchisees need to be successful.

Early this year, the company expanded into new corporate offices down the street from Stanley Steemer's manufacturing and training facility in Dublin. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 50 percent tax credit for six years for the $385,000 customer-service center project, which is expected to create 120 positions and retain 93 jobs.

The project is one of the key areas in which Stanley Steemer, with an estimated annual revenue of $187.6 million, plans to focus its energies in the coming years as it provides cleaning services for tile and grout; air ducts; and cars, boats and recreational vehicles, as well as restoring water-damaged homes.

"Service is the always-elusive part," Wesley Bates said. "You just don't do it once.

"Manufacturing is easy. You do the same thing over and over. But dealing with people? You take a labor-oriented guy and have him be polite, courteous, kind and then have a customer who's busy, maybe on her worst day -- she's got her own issues going. It's a moving target keeping everyone happy."

A key part of making that happen is training. And some of that happens inside the company's older building: a house equipped with sprinklers.

"We're able to use it for testing our own equipment, for training our people on how the drying equipment works," Justin Bates said. "We even soak the cabinets and drywall."

During a typical training session, the house is flooded and the trainees have three days to dry it and eliminate any mildew.

The company places such a high value on training that it kept workers on the payroll during the recent economic decline instead of cutting back.

"We told them that we'd find something for them to do," Justin Bates said. "We weren't going to lay them off. We believe it's (the economy) going to be OK."

That belief in the future has been part of the fabric of its past -- and has been noticed by a trade group.

"Stanley Steemer is a great example of how hard work and passion pay off in the long run," said Patrick Winters, president of the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification. "The company's dedication to moving the organization forward has positioned it as a leader in the residential-cleaning industry."

tferan@dispatch.com