Carpet and Upholstery Cleaners NAICS 561740

Nov 12, 2025 - Tight Margins, Customer Retention Top Concerns: Survey

• According to the 2025 Cleanfax Carpet and Floor Cleaning Benchmarking Survey, carpet and floor cleaning firms have identified their top challenges as customer retention, maintaining margins, cash flow/working capital, recruiting/retaining staff, and finding new customers. Respondents called inflation a major concern, with supplies, insurance, chemicals, and fuel all more expensive in 2025 than a year ago. One respondent stated it was a challenge to get customers to understand why price increases are necessary, while another said that national companies are operating on very small margins with margin pressure coming from every direction. About 54% of firms saw increased revenue this year, while half of the companies say three-quarters of customers are repeat customers. Half of the companies say they have not yet implemented AI technology in their company. Nearly 70% of respondents report spent less than $100,000 to start their carpet and floor cleaning business.
• Softening consumer sentiment and confidence in November and October 2025 reflects a growing weakness in discretionary spending, posing challenges for carpet and upholstery cleaners. The University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment dropped 6.2% month-over-month in November's preliminary results to 50.3, a 29.9% year-over-year decline. The Current Economic Conditions Index fell to 52.3, and the Expectations Index to 49, down 36.3% annually. Year-ahead inflation expectations rose to 4.7%, while long-run expectations declined to 3.6%, with increased uncertainty across both horizons. Meanwhile, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index edged down to 94.6 from 95.6 in October, as improved current conditions (Present Situation Index up to 129.3) were offset by weaker short-term expectations (Expectations Index down to 71.5). Inflation expectations rose to 5.9%, and over half of consumers anticipated higher interest rates. Holiday spending is projected to fall, with promotions driving purchasing decisions.

• Cleaning services providers – including residential and commercial cleaning, carpet cleaning, junk removal, and similar services - saw growth in revenue and invoice size while jobs scheduled decreased in Q2 2025, according to the Home Service Economic Report released by Jobber. New cleaning work scheduled fell 1.7% in Q2, while revenue and average invoice size grew 8.1% and 3.5%, respectively, compared to a year ago. The revenue growth is attributable in part to solid execution and loyal customer bases, while the higher invoice size is driven by upselling premium or bundled cleaning packages. The report noted, “The segment continues to benefit from low seasonality and reliable recurring demand. Businesses that make scheduling easy, adopt digital payments, and communicate proactively tend to fare better on retention, helping them stay resilient despite softer new bookings.” Digital payments were about 49% of total payments in Q2, up from 45% a year ago.
• Sales and transactions at small businesses, which make up a significant portion of carpet and upholstery cleaners, increased 1.5% and 1.1%, respectively, in October 2025 year over year, according to the Fiserv Small Business Index. Compared to September 2025, sales and transactions each saw small increases in October 2025. The Fiserv Small Business Index is compiled from point-of-sale transaction data across 2 million US small businesses.