National Clothesline

The drycleaning business has always been and continues to be:

• Customer service intense.

• Employee intense.

• A locally owned and operated business.

These relationships (customers, employees, the community as a whole) are the foundations that keep this industry so unique.

From region to region, state to state, town to town, you will not find two independently owned and operated cleaners who run identical operations.

What you will find is that each cleaning business has its own personality. Also, more often than not, that personality is an extension of the owner’s personality.

Because this industry is customer intense at the local level, I am curious about the interest in trying to create a “brand” for your company by joining with drycleaners from across the country and even internationally.

I cannot understand how there is any value to a drycleaner in having a national or international press release. Your business is local, so who’s zooming who? All efforts at branding your business should concentrate on your local market.

For a reality check, let’s look at the facts.

Ninety-eight percent of drycleaning customers have no idea how their clothes are cleaned and pressed.

Furthermore, they don’t care. They just want you to do it! Go to the grocery store. Half the people there are reading the labels. Why? Because they care about their health.

It is documented that more than 70 percent of the customers who just left a cleaners (to drop off, pick up, or both) did not know the name of the cleaners.

Once again, the name of the cleaners is not important to the customer.

What is important to the customer? Over the years, my management groups and clients have conducted thousands of customer surveys.

The two things that are most important to customers? The quality of the work and the quality of the service they receive.

By the way, price has never been the number-one issue. Price always ranks fourth or fifth.

Why? Because your customers understand they are not buying a commodity — they are paying for a service. The vast majority of consumers understand that, when it comes to services, you get what you pay for.

Another unique aspect of the drycleaning business is that your customers see you as local entrepreneurs in a sea of franchises.

It is a curious thing that your customers don’t know how you clean their clothes, often don’t know the name of your company and yet they know that you are locally owned and operated.

The most important thing to remember about your customers is that they look at you differently as their drycleaner than they do any other business.

Your customers are passionate about their clothes. They want to give their clothes to someone they trust.

Work at wrapping your brain around the customer service experience from your customers’ point of view. To you, their garments are just another piece of dirty clothes. To them, they are garments that make them feel good, even special, when they put them on.

The sooner you demonstrate to your customers that you understand this, the closer you will come to “branding” your business.

When we talk about branding we always focus our attention on the customers. We seldom think about our employees’ role in branding. What role do employees have in branding?

Remember, branding is local. Employees are local. How they feel about the company where they work filters back into the community.

This is particularly true in smaller communities. When I conduct a business survey for a client I personally give each employee a confidential questionnaire, which I have available in both English and Spanish. I collect and analyze each one.

One of the questions is, “Would you recommend working here to a friend?”

When 50 percent or more of the respondents answer “no” I always dig deeper with personal interviews, which always reveal some underlying management issues that exist in the company. The majority of these issues involve managers, not owners.

Now, the question is how do these employee attitudes affect the company’s ability to create a positive image or to brand itself? Your employees’ attitudes, positive or negative, are reflected in the work they do — every day.

Over the years, companies build a reputation with their customers and with the workforce in the community.

I have been in plants where ownership paid fair and competitive wages and did not expect an unreasonably high level of productivity. In most cases the employees work hard, have a good attitude and make a positive contribution to the bottom line.

But then there are the other companies where employee attitudes are terrible and this is reflected in their work.

To find out the truth about your operation, have someone who will be brutally honest with you secret shop your location(s). Have them evaluate the quality of your service and of your work.

If the reviews are not great, it is time for you to begin interviewing your employees one-on-one.

Tell each employee that you want to improve the quality of the service and the quality of the work you are delivering to your customers. Let them know that you need their input and ideas.

If you want to improve your image and brand your company, you must start with your employees. You cannot solve an employee problem without including them in the solution. Without your employees on your side, you are dead in the water.

Your high opinion of yourself is not important to your customers. What you deliver back to them is what counts!

Believe me, your customers know smoke and mirrors. Everyone knows that all politics are local and, for drycleaners, all name branding and image building is local.