Nine cleaners gain
“excellence” status
Nine cleaners are among the first group
to attain the Award of Excellence, IFI’s new program that
recognizes cleaners who demonstrate ability in cleaning,
continuing education, community service and general
professionalism.
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IFI’s stated goal is to have at
least 300 cleaners in the program by the end of year. The
ultimate goal of the program is to give consumers an answer to
the perennial question, “Where can I find a good
drycleaner?” In so doing, IFI hopes to shift customers
into plants that provide quality in cleaning and customer
service and to help build up the better cleaners in the
industry.
The program was developed by a committee
of about 20 people that included cleaners with small plants,
medium plants and large plants, along with trade association
executives, non-IFI instructors, a representative from the
allied trades and a professional in the field of accreditation.
Cleaners who qualify for the award will
display a 20" x 28" Award of Excellence framed poster
that proclaims the cleaner’s technical competence,
commitment to customer service and environmental
responsibility. They’ll also receive advertising and
public relations materials to help promote their status as
Award of Excellence cleaners.
The Clothing Care Council, which is still
in the formation stage, will serve as an advisory board. It
will be composed of eight to ten representatives from textile
producers, garment makers, customer service, the media and
related education areas.
IFI will seek recognition of the program
in national and local media. Press releases will be sent to
local media outlets to announce the Award of Excellence
cleaners in the area and cleaners will receive Award of
Excellence material to use in their advertising.
IFI also plans to get media attention for
the program, perhaps by challenging television stations and
newspapers that have done drycleaner “stings” to
test the proficiency of Award of Excellence cleaners. This
would publicize the fact that Award of Excellence cleaners get
get out the stains that many other cleaners leave in. IFI will
also place stories promoting the program on the national PR
Newswire.
Only those cleaners who meet the
qualifications will benefit from the program. There are three
mandatory qualifying criteria that all cleaners must meet:
membership in a national drycleaning association (IFI or NCA);
completion of a stain removal proficiency test; and completion
of the IFI Cleaning Performance Test. Those three mandatory
requirements comprise 10 of the required 30 points that a
cleaner must receive to qualify.
Cleaners in the program are also required
to offer a “money-back service guarantee” to
customers, adherence to non-gender-based pricing and free
cleaning of the American flag. Those elements are included in
the customer service pledge that cleaners display on the Award
of Excellence poster.
For the additional 20 points needed to
qualify, a cleaner can choose from menus of items that offer
103 possible points.
Of those, 32 points are available in the
Professionalism and Community Service category. These include
one point each for membership in a Better Business Bureau,
Chamber of Commerce or merchants’ association or
participation in a qualified management group; two points for
having a community service program such as Coats for Kids;
three or five points for having additional Cleaning Performance
Tests in the course of a year; and 20 points for having a plant
evaluation by an IFI or NCA evaluator.
The Continuing Education and Training
category offers an additional 24 points which can be earned by
using approved training videos, attending approved seminars, or
having in-plant training with an approved self-study course.
Each of these could be worth one or two points depending on the
program.
In the Extended Education or Certified
Testing category, five points can be earned for earning
certification as a professional drycleaner, professional
wetcleaner or environmental drycleaner or attaining the New
York Department of Environmental Conservation award. Attending
resident courses at IFI or the Southwest Drycleaning
Association School would earn 10 or 20 points, depending on the
length of the course.
The initial cost to cleaners during the
first year of the program is $400. There is a $240 application
fee which includes the stain removal test and the cleaning
performance test. Applicants also need to provide photographs
of the call office, production areas and outside of the store
along with materials that verify the points they have earned.
Once accepted into the program, another payment of $160 is due.
The fees cover the testing, posters, frames, decals advertising
materials and public relations at the local and national level.
Cleaners who get in on the ground floor
will do so at a lower cost since the price of initial
certification will increase in subsequent years.
Recertification would cost about half of the initial fee.
For more information on the program, call
IFI, (301) 622-1900. A video explaining the program is
available on IFI’s web site: www.ifi.org.
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