National Clothesline

The first time I met Rex Carrigan was at a drycleaning seminar. Rex got up in front of the audience and if I closed my eyes, the thought of Tennessee Ernie Ford permeated my brain.

He asked how many people in the audience were growing routes at $100,000 or more per year and my hand immediately went up. Rex had a startled look on his face but it quickly changed to a smile of recognition.

No matter what the customer’s objection was during Rex’s sales presentation, Rex had an answer for it. Rex Carrigan was a real country boy who had a wonderful gift of gab. His selling style really worked well for a lot of people.

Why routes? Why would close to 100 plant owners come to a Golomb Group seminar to learn about routes? The answer to the question, “Why routes?” is very simple, you want to increase your sales or, to put it succinctly, more money, more money, more money. You want to make more money and take a cruise to the Caribbean or visit some other far off place. Maybe you can retire early like Rex’s previous employer, Wade Elam.

Besides the geographical, one- to two-mile marketing limitation of your brick and mortar location, there are other reasons routes have found favor within the drycleaning industry.

Route customers spend more than counter customers. On a route, you visit your customer one or more times per week and the customer puts everything in a bag or bags. It becomes a non-decision making process for the consumer.

Your customer doesn’t have to decide which garments go to the “good” cleaner or the “cheap” cleaner. Bedspreads and other household items don’t have to be schlepped to the car to be driven to the cleaner. You are the pinnacle of convenience for the consumer. No more lines and one fewer place to visit when running errands.

Talking about lines, wouldn’t it be nice if banks could come to our door? Internet banking does help take us in that direction. Is that a clue about how you might want to work with your clientele?

Many companies think that all you have to do is buy a truck, hire a driver and you have a route. If it was that simple, everyone would be successful operating routes. But that is not the case. There are failures in drycleaning route operations. You never hear about them because nobody likes to talk about their mistakes.

Routes need to be driven by ownership (no pun intended). Think of routes as starting a separate new business.

Take off your drycleaning hat, put on a businessman’s hat and write a business plan. You probably have never written a business plan in your life, so I have to tell you that the first time I wrote one, it was an enlightening experience. It gave me focus and direction on planning my route business.

Please remember, failing to plan is planning to fail. You can purchase business plan software or, if you look hard enough, download a freebie off the internet.

The business plan will include, but not be limited to, finances, market strategy, who your competitors are, what they do, and a marketing plan.

Is your computer system up to date? Do you know the route capabilities of your current software?

The new software currently available provides many options, thus the necessity of a software analysis.

As I said, the route is considered a new start up business, and the possible purchase of new software is an investment for your new business. The software will not only help with route management, it will enhance your counter sales and marketing.

Next, you get to look at new hardware. There are lots of toys out there, such as mobile scanners and more.

Finally, in order to expand and remain consistent in your operation, you will need a written policy and procedures manual.

If you do not already have a manual, consider writing one yourself or getting help doing so. Think about having two manuals, one for your counter sales staff and another for your routes. The main thing is consistency of operation in your route and counter sales departments.

The final part of your business plan, your marketing plan, is the most fun for me. Customer acquisition and route growth is a challenge. Your routes are built on customer relationships, just like your counter sales, only more so. In the finance section of your business plan you allotted a certain amount of money for marketing routes. Whatever amount you chose, it is too low. The larger the marketing budget the better it will work.

Do you know your customer’s demographics? Using the 80-20 rule, 20 percent of your customers provide 80 percent of your sales. You can create a database of those special customers to create a 20 percent profile. This 20 percent profile will help you target the people you want to go after. What area do they live in? What is the family income? Do you want to move those customers off the counter and onto the routes? Now that you have a truck, what other areas of the city match the profile of your top 20 percent?

How about a unique selling proposition? What makes your company different than Gene and Eric’s Cleaners (Generic Cleaners)? You have to separate yourself from the rest of the crowd. Would a “money-back guarantee” work as a starter? The IFI Award of Excellence program is a great way to enhance your company’s image and you can provide your customer with that guarantee.

If you are in a large market area, you might consider a toll-free number. Of course you want a web site. Don’t have second thoughts about it. You will be amazed at the number of customers who shop on the internet to find a drycleaner. All of this is part of that marketing budget.

Shop your competition. It isn’t necessary to have them pick up and deliver clothing; you can go to one of their stores and see what their product is after they process the work. How is the packaging? Were all the stains removed and buttons sewn on, or did you get a stain tag? Did you get a thank-you card for the first visit? Was it a simple thank-you card or did the thank-you card include offers for you to return for one or more visits? Was a miss-you card sent to you weeks later when you did not return? If yes, what kind of enticement was used?

Speaking of packaging, this reminds me of the time I was driving cross country with my family. Our sons were nine and five and a driving trip was what young families did. We visited Yellowstone on the way to visit my grandfather in Chicago. While driving through South Dakota we visited a town named Wall. Located in this town is Wall Drug Store, the proverbial tourist trap.

What intrigued me was the variety of products sold to tourists. How about buffalo chips painted gold, and wrapped in shrink wrap? Tourists were buying buffalo chips because they were painted gold. Can you paint your drycleaning gold? Of course not, but you can do a better job of packaging than the competition.

In a small market area, you can use TV and radio effectively, assuming you budgeted for that kind of upscale marketing. The use of those kinds of media gives you instant credibility within the community. In a large city it can be a waste of time because the area covered is far greater than your driving area. In some large markets you can target by zip code with cable TV. It is expensive, but you are hitting the areas you choose and advertising on the shows your demographics’ database indicates that are watched by your top 20 percent.

Print media, such as Yellow Pages, newspapers and magazines, may or may not work. Again it depends on your community and which end of the market you are going after.

I changed a Yellow Pages ad to focus on routes instead of our brick and mortar location. The route in that area grew 13 percent the first year the ad was printed. A friend put the same ad in his community Yellow Pages and got three calls from the ad during the whole year.

Different communities present different challenges. You need to try various ways of marketing and measure the response.

Of course there are many other ways to market routes and those methods will be discussed next month along with other issues. Direct mail, your current counter customers, and an outside sales force, be it a route driver or a professional sales person, are all topics of discussion, and methods of route development. The direction you choose to take, regarding marketing, is integral to your financial commitment to your new route business.