National Clothesline

Sales need a boost? Competitors breathing down your neck in growing numbers? Want to stand out from the crowd?

Several speakers at the California Cleaners Association’s Fabricare 2006 convention offered advice for cleaners who want to break out of the doldrums.

At the Friday morning program, IFI CEO Bill Fisher encouraged cleaners to go for the Award of Excellence as a way of differentiating themselves from the pack.

One problem cleaners face, he said, is the perception by consumers that all cleaners are alike. They go to the cleaners with low expectations and too often those expectations are met. They either settle for inferior quality or go from one cleaner to another in search of a good one. Unfortunately, the bad far outnumber the good, Fisher said, so the chance of finding a good one is diminished.

IFI started the Award of Excellence last summer to help guide consumers to the good cleaners. Plants that qualify for the award are entitled to display a large wall plaque and window stickers that proclaim the cleaner among the good ones, having passed tests and proven abilities to handle tough stains and get garments cleaner. Fisher added that many cleaners have received favorable publicity in local media after attaining the award and in some cases that has led to immediate new business.

Passing the stain removal test required of all Award of Excellence applicants has proven difficult for many cleaners. Fisher said that about 35 percent fail on their first try at removing six different stains from white silk. Most, however, are able to pass on the second or third try.

Cleaners also have to pass a Cleaning Performance Test, be a member of either IFI or NCA and accrue points based on attending courses and seminars and having community service programs.

Once you have established yourself as an ideal cleaner, you’ll want to go after the ideal customers. That was the topic of Howard Kaschyk of The Marketing Shop who was the first presenter at Saturday morning’s program.

The problem, Kaschyk said, is that everybody is going after the same customers. For a marketing program to be successful, a cleaner must first decide what type of customers to add.

“Do you want more average customers, more high-value customers or just more?” Kaschyk asked. “Different methods yield different results.”

“Target the customers who will like you the way you are,” he advised.

Once that is decided, it’s a matter of careful analysis of potential customers so marketing efforts can be concentrated on those the cleaner wants to acquire.

The next step is to analyze the database of existing customers and “clone” the high-value ones. Actual cloning is impossible, of course, but by understanding the characteristics of your best customers you’ll know where to look to find more like them.

“Every cleaner can build business,” Kaschyk said.

Finally, after all the hard work of differentiating your cleaners and building up the customer base, all can be lost if the customer’s experience is unsatisfactory. This comes down totraining and personality of the people working at the counter.

IFI’s Chris Allsbrooks followed Kaschyk with a presentation on “The Confessions of a Secret Shopper.” IFI interviewed a number of dissatisfied drycleaning customers and came up with what Allsbrooks called “The Seven Deadly Sins of Customer Service.”

None of the complaints had anything to do with the quality of the cleaning. They all had to do with how counter staff interacted with customers.

Sin #1 was no greeting of the customer when she came into the store. The counter person simply asked for her phone number and did not even offer a smile.

Sin #2 was a lack of promptness in dealing with the customer. Nobody was at the counter and he was just left standing, wondering whether anyone cared whether or not he was there.

Sin #3 was a lack of knowledge on the part of the counter person. The customer complained that she couldn’t get a straight answer, or even a simple yes or no, when she inquired about whether the cleaner handled wedding gowns or household items like drapes.

Sin #4 was the poor appearance of the counter person. The customer complained that she was disgusted by what she saw, including stain on the clothes the counter person was wearing.

Sin #5 was disinterest on the part of the counter person toward the customer, who said she felt her time was not important. Counter staff who seem to have something — anything — more important to do than tending to the customer, including chatting with friends on a cell phone, are a sure way to drive customers away.

Sin #6 was a communications problem. The customer was baffled when the counter person spoke to her using industry jargon. “I just didn’t understand,” she said.

Sin #7 was simply not offering the customer a “thank you” for their business. This left the customer feeling unappreciated.