Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
With Fire Prevention top of mind, and Kitchen Fire Safety Day coming up this Saturday, we are interested to hear your thoughts. This is a great ‘Extra’ – let us know your input!
Tags: building code changes, Cleaning, codes, extra, Fire, fire clean up, fire department, fire prevention, KARE 11, kitchen fire prevention, news, servicemaster, smoke, smoke alarm, smoke detectors, sprinkler, sprinkler systems
Posted in Community Events, Disaster Restoration | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2012
It was Thursday March 1st, 2012 at 10:23 a.m. and the call came in as most losses do….”We have water everywhere…..I need your help NOW!”, proclaimed Terry Correll, General Manager at the Minnesota Horse & Hunt Club. There was some uniqueness to this call, however, as Terry is a personal friend Danny Ayotte (my business partner and father) and it was almost 9 years earlier that my husband, Hans Naumann, and I said “I Do” at this very same venue.
By 11:30 a.m., Danny and I were onsite to inspect the damage. A piece on their Fire Compression System gave way and 55,000 gallons of water poured into the basement of the club – the area where all storage, office and gun club check in is located – a hub for all avid hunters! If it were not for the quick response of an exterior contractor and the endless work of the club’s staff, damage could have been worse. But Terry knew who to call and with all of the staff’s help, our team at SMbA had the lower level mitigation underway within 2 hours of Terry’s initial call. Although the circumstances were unique (the club stayed open during the entire mitigation and repairs process), the job could not have gone smoother. But don’t take my word for it, here is what Terry and his staff had to say….
Tags: clay pigeons, clean, dci, deutsche contracting, gun club, guns, horse, hunting, minnesota horse & hunt club, Northfield, outdoors, preservation, prior lake, remodel, servicemaster, shooting, southern minnesota venues, sporting clubs, Water, water damage
Posted in Community Events, Construction, Disaster Planning, Disaster Restoration, Fun Stuff!, General, Promotions | No Comments »
Monday, March 12th, 2012
March is here and with the record setting warm weather, we are all more than ready for winter to be gone for good and spring to be ever-present! At ServiceMaster by Ayotte we couldn’t agree more! This year we are so excited to celebrate spring, our team has put together a Spring Incentive package so we can welcome spring (and summer) with our top referral partners. Hold on to your seats because this is not just a one-time deal either! We are excited to announce our First Annual Ayotte Adventure that will continue on for what I hope will be many years to come (is forever too long?).
So what’s the catch? There is none. It is simple – we value you and your business. It is our job to take care of your customers, who too, are our customers. We want to make your job easier and ultimately, we want to ease the pain to a client who suffers a disaster of any nature – big or small. We (both ServiceMaster by Ayotte and DCI) are standing by 24/7 to help you out. The catch I guess is this – you need to utilize our on line ‘Assign a Claim’ form via our website (www.smbyayotte.com) or thru our soon-to-come QR Code. That is it! A customer of yours needs help (water or fire mitigation, restoration repairs, mold, trauma or specialty cleaning, or even just a ladder assist or inspection) – you electronically ‘Assign’ the work request to us. Just log on to www.smbyayotte.com or www.deutschecontracting.com and click on the ‘Assign a Claim’ tab in the upper right hand corner and you are done. We guarantee a response within 1 hour! Of course you can always call us direct at 877.945.0993, reference the ‘Assign a Claim’ and we will enter it in for you.
We appreciate the trust you are putting in us to help you and your clients!

Tags: Adjuster, Agent, www.smbyayotte.com
Posted in Business Services, Community Events, Construction, Disaster Planning, Disaster Restoration, Fire Damage, Fun Stuff!, General, Mold, Promotions, Residential, Water Damage | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
When is the last time you went a day, an hour, perhaps even a sentence without using one acronym? Especially now with the amount of texting that people do these days, actual words are going more and more by wayside. In light of this, I do think it’s timely that we do a little acronym review.
Long before texting, and maybe shortly after the popularity of asking that tasks be completed “ASAP,” ServiceMaster Clean developed “QRV”. In case the text messages that you share include more “lol’s” and “brb’s” than “QRV’s”, we’ll get you up to speed.
QRV is an “ASAP” program of sorts to provide renters, homeowners, and business owners with both quality and rapid response in time of water, smoke, fire, flood, tornado, and vandalism. QRV stands for Quality Restoration Vendor.
The following guidelines have to be upheld by a ServiceMaster Clean franchise to be designated a Quality Restoration Vendor, or QRV:
Should you see QRV included in a future text message you will know exactly what it stands for. If someone you knows experiences a disaster, help get them QRV, ASAP!
Tags: Disaster Restoration
Posted in Disaster Restoration, Fire Damage, Mold, Water Damage | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Montoya Crashes into ServiceMaster Clean Safety Truck
If you haven’t already seen or heard about this, check out the above link. This is one crash that will go down in history!
Posted in Disaster Restoration, Fire Damage, Fun Stuff!, General, Water Damage | No Comments »
Monday, February 27th, 2012
Today, ServiceMaster is a trusted industry leader, serving more than 10.5 million customers with locations in the United States, Canada and 15 countries around the world. We operate several well-known and respected brands with a network of more than 5,000 company-owned locations and franchise licenses. Not only do we have a wide reaching wing-span, we also have a buffet of services to offer.
ServiceMaster Clean is known for the obvious – cleaning. To name a few, our services include:
Carpet Cleaning – Your carpet is often the first impression you make when someone walks in your home or business. Make sure you look your best and maximize your carpet investment with ServiceMaster Clean® carpet cleaning.
Daytime Cleaning - With daytime cleaning, you’ll cut costs, conserve our planet’s resources and increase building security. All while enjoying the extraordinary service you’ve come to expect from ServiceMaster Clean. You can also benefit from lower energy costs, heightened security, exceptional service, flexible scheduling and a service much friendlier to the environment.
Fire & Smoke Recovery – Our fire and smoke recovery process includes, emergency pre-cleaning, content cleaning, content packout, wall and ceiling cleaning, deodorization and full restoration repair.
Green Cleaning – In our commitment to doing business the right way and turning ordinary tasks into extraordinary service, ServiceMaster Clean® makes it easy to switch to environmentally conscious, green cleaning options. Green cleaning isn’t just associated with corporate responsibility and environmental protection. It’s linked to healthier buildings as well as reduced sick day absences.
Hard Surface Floors – Beautiful hard-surface floors can be one of the most impressive features of your facility. When regularly and correctly maintained, they can do more than create good impressions on your employees and guests. Attractive, well-maintained floors can help enhance your professional image, while providing a clean, safe working environment.
Odor Mitigation – At ServiceMaster Clean, we know that odors stemming from fire and smoke damage, water damage,and biological concerns can greatly disrupt yourpolicyholders’ lives. Removal of severe odors requires a variety of professional products, systems and specialty equipment. Often multiple treatments are necessary during the restoration process. We have the capabilities to remove a wide range of odors like protein, trauma and sewage based odors, as well as fire, smoke and water odors.The odor removal process includes:
Step 1: Identify odor source
Step 2: Select deodorization process
Step 3: Proper cleaning of affected areas to remove the odor residue
Step 4: Final odor removal process
Packout Service – Some restoration projects require that your contents and furnishings be inventoried, packed and safely transported to our climate-controlled warehouse for cleaning, restoration, deodorization, re-packing and storage until the structural restoration is complete. Our automated inventory control system (MSM) tracks the status of your belongings from move out to move back.
Trauma Services – In the aftermath of a traumatic event, two things matter most: response time and level of experience. It takes a high level of dedication and professionalism to handle the rigors of violent crime and accident scenes on a daily basis. That’s why ServiceMaster Clean offers specialized, trauma cleanup services—to provide a partner you can trust with restoration when it’s needed most.
Water Mitigation – Pipe bursts, leaking water heaters and other plumbing mishaps can occur when least expected. Our experts understand that experiencing water damage can be difficult. That is why as the leader in our industry, we are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year!
If all of this is not enough, keep in mind that ServiceMaster Clean leads the service industry in customer satisfaction and value. That’s because we’re dedicated to doing business the right way, consistently delivering on ordinary tasks and exceeding your service expectations. It’s a commitment that is reflected in our ongoing development of advanced materials, methods, training and quality assurance programs. As a result, no other vendor can offer the caliber of extraordinary service we maintain.
Posted in Business Services, Construction, Disaster Restoration, Fire Damage, General, Mold, Residential, Trauma, Water Damage | No Comments »
Thursday, June 16th, 2011



Posted in Business Services, Disaster Restoration, Fire Damage, Residential, Water Damage | No Comments »
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Ozone is used to deodorize and restore customer’s belongings after a loss. Ozone is created by passing a powerful electrical charge through ordinary air, bonding an extra oxygen atom to the normal O2 molecule. The extra atom will break off to bond with airborne particles, chemically neutralizing odors. This O3 formation is naturally unstable and will eventually break down without contacting any particles, but until it does the properties of the air have been altered. The creation of the O3 molecule makes the oxygen even more corrosive than usual, causing rapid breakdown in rubber products and oxidation of metals. Too high a concentration will irritate eyes and lungs, and can actually poison pets and humans over time. Ozone is a very effective odor neutralizer, but it must be used in a carefully controlled environment.
ServiceMaster by Ayotte does have portable ozone units that we can place in homes or businesses after a fire or a place suffering from some other environmental contaminant. We will only use them under the right circumstances and when we can be sure that no one will be in the area and in contact with the ozone material.
ServiceMaster by Ayotte also has a dedicated ozone chamber in our warehouse which we use to deodorize furniture and personal items. After vacuuming and cleaning, they are locked in the chamber for 24-48 hours and exposed to heavy ozone concentrations. This method is highly successful even for difficult items such as mattresses, armchairs, sofas, and regular wood furniture and household items which might otherwise be unsalvageable.
Our warehouse and ozone chamber can be visited at any time if you are interested in more information our would like a tour of our facility. Contact us at anytime for details.
ServiceMaster by Ayotte – (877)945-0993
Posted in Disaster Restoration, Fire Damage | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 14th, 2011
ServiceMaster by Ayotte hosted a training on February 23rd, 2011 certifying all technicians, in accordance with the EPA Requirements, to become certified renovators.
Common renovation activities like sanding, cutting, and demolition can create hazardous lead dust and chips by disturbing lead-based paint, which can be harmful to adults and children.
To protect against this risk, on April 22, 2008, EPA issued a rule required the use of lead-safe practices and other actions aimed at preventing lead poisoning. Under the rule, beginning April 22, 2010, contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and must follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.
EPA requires that firms performing renovation, repair, and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in pre-1978 homes, child care facilities and schools be certified by EPA and that they use certified renovators who are trained by EPA-approved training providers to follow lead-safe work practices. Individuals can become certified renovators by taking an eight-hour training course from an EPA-approved training provider.
Prior to February 23rd, 2011 we had 3 staff members that were certified renovators; Beth Naumann, Blair Quinnell and Misty Larson. We feel that it is important to have all technicians available 24/7/365 to provide our customers with the same level of service.
If you have questions regarding lead safe practices or would like some more information please don’t hesitate to call us at 877-945-0993.
Posted in Disaster Restoration | No Comments »
Monday, March 7th, 2011
Industry acronyms can be overwhelming for anyone not dealing with them on a day to day basis. I know I was a little lost in conversation once the professionals around me started using acronyms such as QRV, IICRC and MSM. Here is an explanation on these specific acronyms. If you have questions concerning these or any other acronyms you have heard tossed around in our industry let us know! I hope we can clear it all up for you!
Quality Restoration Vendor Program (QRV):
The ServiceMaster Clean Quality Restoration Vendor Program is our premier group of franchisees who are committed to meeting the insurance industry standards for providing restoration services to the marketplace. The QRV network has been a solution for insurance industry professionals in identifying franchisees committed to providing superior, consistent disaster mitigation services. ServiceMaster by Ayotte is the Quality Restoration Vendor for our area!
IICRC:
The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) has served as the Industry Guardian for the cleaning, inspection and restoration service industries for more than 30 years. As a non-profit certification organization, the IICRC helps ensure that you have access to trusted and trained cleaning professionals by establishing and monitoring certification programs and standards for these industries. The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) has served as the Industry Guardian for the cleaning, inspection and restoration service industries for more than 30 years. As a non-profit certification organization, the IICRC helps ensure that you have access to trusted and trained cleaning professionals by establishing and monitoring certification programs and standards for these industries. ServiceMaster by Ayotte is IICRC certified!
Mobile Service Manager (MSM):
The Mobile Service Manager (MSM) is a handheld computer designed to be used by technicians in the field with software that automates Packout and Water Mitigation services. It provides state of the art processes, training and streamlines the administrative and production capabilities of the business. The MSM comes with both software packages and the ability to perform both services on the same device or you can specialize the devices for the particular service. ServiceMaster by Ayotte continually trains our technicians to use the MSM to quarantee quality service to our customers!
And remember, if you or someone you know suffers a loss call ServiceMaster by Ayotte. Our certified, trained technicians are available for emergency clean-up services 24/day at 877-945-0993.
Posted in Disaster Restoration, Residential | 2 Comments »