National Clothesline

“I Can’t Get No S-a-t-i-s-f-a-c-t-i-o-n!” - The Rolling Stones

Just as the Rolling Stones sang “I can’t get no satisfaction,” some 40 years ago, many of your customers are singing the same tune today!

The advent of personal computers and the Internet has ushered in the age of the enlightened consumer. We now have more information at our fingertips than we ever dreamed possible and that information has made our customers more demanding and raised their expectations for satisfaction to new, higher levels.

At the same time, our ability to meet their needs and demands has not kept pace. Have any of you gone through an entire day without complaining or hearing a complaint about an irritating encounter, faulty product, or unmet expectation?

The key to long-term success in any business is customer satisfaction. Satisfy the needs of your customers and you can charge premium prices. Do a poor job with customer satisfaction and be prepared to have a fire sale. It’s that simple. Yet, so many drycleaners fail to see it.

Here a quote from a classic “Dilbert” cartoon comes to mind:

There are two essential rules to management:

The customer is always right.

They must be punished for their arrogance.

Despite what they say, most drycleaners have not made a sustained commitment to customer satisfaction. And, their lack of attention to customer satisfaction costs them money because there is a definite connection between high levels of customer satisfaction and increased profits.

Here are the ways that customer satisfaction affects your business:

Loyalty. Satisfied customers are significantly more likely to come back to do business with you in the future.

Word of mouth. Satisfied customers not only tell others to do business with you, but their opinions carry more weight than any advertising your company will ever do.

Premium prices. Customers will gladly pay more to do business with a drycleaner who has a reputation for high quality and great customer service.

Reduced operating costs. High-satisfaction drycleaners have fewer lost or damaged garments, which keeps expenses down.

Employee satisfaction. Employees who work for companies whose customers are well satisfied are more satisfied with their own jobs. They do better work, and stay with their jobs longer than other employees.

Customer retention. Dry-cleaners who have high levels of customer satisfaction retain a greater percentage of their customers for longer periods of time.

Your company is in business to make money. So, unless customer satisfaction pays off in the form of increased profits, it’s just another useless business theory. No company will want to make the commitment to improve until it sees the link between customer satisfaction and the bottom line.

I attended the Southwest Drycleaner’s Association’s convention in Ft. Worth, TX, this spring where we heard from a former drycleaner who had been sent out as a “secret shopper” to several cleaning plants in the Dallas–Ft. Worth area.

He purposely approached each store about 15 minutes after their posted cut-off time for same-day service. For instance, if the stated cut-off time was 9 a.m., he went to the counter at 9:15 a.m. and asked for same-day service.

Almost none of the drycleaners surveyed would bend their rules and provide the service being requested.

Would it have been impossible for these cleaners to give same-day service at 9:15? I doubt it. But their “company policies” were not flexible and, after all, rules are rules! The more accustomed you get to disappointing customers, the easier it gets.

How many first-time customers never return to your store a second time? The Golomb Group, among others, has researched this for many years. Our findings indicate that between 40 percent and 60 percent of first-time customers never return to the typical drycleaner a second time.

Why? The number one reason is that they didn’t like the way they were treated. Were they treated meanly? Not exactly. In most cases they were treated like a number. Usually their phone number.

The counter-person doesn’t say, “May I have your name?” They say, “Phone number?”

The same computer system that lets you see a customer’s name, address, birth date and cleaning history, if not used properly, can cause your counter-personnel to become impersonal robots, who enter phone numbers, demand and collect money, all before presenting a customer with their order (a la Burger King, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, etc.).

Let’s face it, we are all customers and we all want the same thing in our many daily encounters: courtesy, efficiency, empathy, and, if we’re lucky, a nice, genuine smile. It takes a real and serious commitment from management on down to make customer satisfaction the cornerstone of your business. This foundation has to be built on the true belief that customer satisfaction is a critical component to improving the bottom line.