By Anu Varna Panchal
Farrell Carpet Cleaning combines excellence in both customer service and the latest technology to keep your floors — whether carpeted or tile — and upholstery in pristine condition.
When Jill Persinger graduated from Florida State University in Tallahassee in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Marketing, she was excited about looking for a job in sales. The first company that took a chance on the young graduate was a commercial janitorial company that was looking for a salesperson.
“I got into the industry and never got out,” says Jill, who, along with Tina Farrell, is now one of the owners of Farrell Carpet Cleaning, a firm that provides professional floor and upholstery cleaning services to customers all over the Tampa Bay area. Jill also serves as the company’s CEO.
Located on Commerce Ave. in Port Richey (about 40 miles from most of Wesley Chapel), the company has at least 60 vehicles on the road each day, ensuring that each customer’s needs will be met, regardless of their location. The licensed and insured company can do everything —from a one-time visit to remove a red wine stain from a carpet to regular floor cleanings for the expansive offices of large companies. Trained and certified by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC, an international organization that develops techniques and sets the standards for the industry worldwide), Farrell technicians target stains and dirt on carpets, upholstery, tile and grout and can eliminate pet urine odor and provide long- lasting solutions for floor care.
Cutting-edge technology and stellar customer service are key to the company’s success, says Tom Persinger, Jill’s husband and COO at Farrell Carpet Cleaning. When you pull up FarrellCarpetCleaning.com, you can use an online tool that lets you choose from a menu of services to generate a quote and set up an appointment for a technician to visit your home or office.
Farrell Carpet Cleaning’s technicians are certified in carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, water and flood restoration, odor control and stone and tile cleaning. Tom explains that their technicians attend a five-day training session at IICRC, culminating in a test in order to obtain their certification. Tom believes it’s an investment well worth making in his staff. The company prides itself on being a IICRC-Certified Master Textile Cleaner.
“We pay them well and want them to look at this as a career,” Tom says of the technicians, who also undergo drug and background checks.
The Farrell team also brings state-of-the-art equipment to their sites. Technicians use truck-mounted cleaning equipment (rather than small ,portable cleaning units) and Tom explains that this allows the cleaning to occur at higher temperatures and pressure, resulting in a deeper, more thorough service. He notes that carpet cleaning consists of 11 steps, including inspections, and homeowners also can ask for protective sealants to be applied to carpets and furniture. Oriental rugs are transported off site, where they undergo an extensive process of inspection, dusting, hand-washing, drying and grooming before being wrapped and delivered back to you.
Port Richey resident Lori Childs hired the company to come and clean out an old carpet in her house. When the technicians arrived, she admitted a little concern about how young they looked, but said they quickly put her mind at ease with their professional and knowledgeable demeanor and the way they answered all of her questions. She was also pleased that the equipment stayed outside; only the hose came into her house, and it sucked the dirt back to the truck outside.
“It’s not like the old days when they were dragging everything in and flushing it down your sink,” Childs says. “They knew what they were doing. I was ready to rip out that carpet, but I ended up keeping it. They made it look like new.”
Jill brings extensive expertise in the cleaning industry to the table. By the end of her 13 years with a national cleaning company, she was the senior vice president, managing all administrative finances for the company’s accounts, covering half of the country. Meanwhile, Tom had moved up from management positions at the Memphis, TN-based Service Master Corporation — where he was VP of operations for 38 school districts in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana — to becoming the COO of Atlanta-based One Source Facility Services, a publicly traded company with more than $1 billion in annual revenues.
More Than Just Floors!
It was shortly after he moved to his new community (Hidden Lake) that Tom met his new neighbors — Steve and Tina Farrell. The Farrells had moved down from New York (where Steve had remodeled several multimillion-dollar homes in The Hamptons) 21 years ago to be near family here in Florida. They had started their own roofing company in 2006 after working for another one, and over subsequent years, added a partner, Rich Allen, and begun adding home improvement services. Soon, under the auspices of the name “Team Farrell,” the trio started offering customers remodeling, building, flooring, commercial work, landscaping and rescue services.
“The reason we’ve grown is because of the quality of the work we do,” says Tina. “Customers come to us wanting us to do more for them. You can trust our name for service. We stand by everything we do.”
The Persingers (Tom married Jill in 2012) joined the Farrells’ carpet cleaning business (and the growing group of 150 employees) and since then, Farrell Air and Ms. Twister, a home cleaning company, have been added to the mix.
“Farrell started as a roofing company, but it has morphed into a corporation with multiple service sectors,” Tom explains. “We want to be the sole source provider for our customers in the tri-county area. With one phone call, you should be able to get your roof done, your grass cut, your A/C fixed and your carpets and floors cleaned.”
“I had a huge front yard,” Tom recalls, “and I was [wondering], what am I going to do with this? But then, Steve told me, ‘I’ve got a team of people.’ Twelve weekends later, my yard had a lake, fountains and a stone bridge — and from there, it was friends forever.”
The company also contributes to 42 charitable causes in their area. Recently, Steve was named Honorary Governor of West Pasco by the West Pasco Chamber of Commerce for raising the most money for charity. And, a portion of the profits from Ms. Twister, the house cleaning arm of the company, will support community breast cancer programs in honor of Tom’s late sister, and the company even plans to offer free house cleaning for breast cancer patients while they are undergoing treatment.
“We’re nothing without the community,” says Tom. “We truly believe we have to do our part in giving back.”
Farrell Carpet Cleaning is located at 6840-B Commerce Ave., in Port Richey. For more information, visit FarrellCarpetCleaning.com, call (727) 772-7553 (SPARKLE), email FarrellCarpetCleaning@gmail.com
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