National Clothesline

Hey Rex Carrigan, we’re still talking routes. I bet Rex is looking down on us and smiling.

Speaking of Rex, if anyone has any stories regarding Rex please e-mail the story to me (consultme@msn.com). We can share your “Rex” experience with the readers. One little reminder: while considering developing routes remember this statement by Arthur Brisbane, “The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.”

Direct mail can be used but it must be targeted mailings. Think about that top 20 percent as the ideal consumer. Depending on your marketing plan, you can go after existing customers and move them to routes or, by using a merge purge of your database, eliminate your customers from a local mailing list and mail to non-customers. The key words are “targeted mailings.”

Current counter customers are natural for route conversion. You might ask, “Why take a good customer off the counter?” The answer is, a good customer will spend more on the route and become a great customer.

Some companies are resistant to converting counter customers so they only market outside of their one- to two-mile radius. There is nothing wrong with either method as long as you are able to add customers and sales dollars to your company.

If your new route employee is a true route salesperson, part of the compensation could be charged off to marketing, assuming selling is involved.

Another method of acquiring customers is hiring an outside sales person or an outside sales force. Do you have the time, experience and money to find, pay and direct an outside sales person?

A good door-to-door salesperson can sell anything, so keeping that individual happy with a great compensation package is important.

At the Golomb seminar there were two companies, Happy Valet and 1-800 Dry-clean, and an individual, James Peuster, with outside salespersonnel. Both companies offered franchises to people in the drycleaning industry or outside of the industry. Peuster will bring his talent to your route drivers and teach them how to sell, or he can bring salespeople to do the selling.

You have to investigate all your options and decide whether you want to pay a franchise fee and an ongoing percentage of your route sales. There are benefits provided by paying those fees so everything has to be weighed very carefully. Hiring someone to build routes can be expensive, but the pressure is off of you and on the route builder.

Your vehicle is a moving billboard, so be sure you have allocated marketing dollars to wrap that vehicle with some interesting graphics. There is a company that used a graphic on the back of their van that looked as though the van door was open and clothing was about to fall out. This drycleaner receives telephone calls from concerned consumers about the van doors being left open.

Whatever graphics you use, be consistent with their use, be it on a truck, bus benches, printed media or other advertising.

In summation, I must repeat what I stated last month; the direction you choose to take, regarding marketing, is fundamental to the financial commitment to your new route business.

Computer technology is changing so fast it is difficult to keep up with the capabilities of the newest hardware and software. Visit the web sites of the different drycleaning software companies and look at the offerings.

The challenge will be how to integrate these software changes and improvements to make your business a more effective operation. I have found many drycleaning business owners do not really understand the tools available within the software package and they need help using them.

I looked at one software package that will assign a new customer to a route based on the person’s address and then place that new stop, geographically, in the route schedule. There is software that can call your customer today and announce your pick up or delivery tomorrow. We are getting closer to our computer friend HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

How about a scanner on your route? You can now handle credit cards and scan bar codes with various Nextel AirClic cell phones. Symbol sells a Pocket PC, using Microsoft Mobile Suite 4.3 technology. It will handle labels, printers, bar codes and many other functions that you would not expect.

Your route driver will be better equipped than you can imagine if you stay on top of new technology. Nothing impresses a customer more than seeing your employee use up-to-the-minute equipment. Check out the web site www.newestech.com for some interesting developments in mobile computer progress.

Do you have a policy and procedures manual for your counter sales staff? Chances are you have never even considered writing one. Everything is passed on verbally without written instructions. One employee says the procedure for handling a missing garment is done one way and a co-worker will contradict that employee and say “No, it is done this way”. Unless you have the method on paper, nobody knows for sure what is right or wrong.

Think of your route or counter policy and procedures manual as a company handbook specific to those sales areas. Your route manual will handle employee questions and discuss customer issues. Your route driver will know what time to report to work and what the proper uniform is. It will tell the driver the company vehicle is not to be driven home for helping the neighbor move the furniture. Other topics covered could be how to take in and deliver clothing, claims, do-over garments, and using the computer system.

Your customer service schedule will also be discussed. Speaking of customer service schedules, there are a couple of schools of thought regarding that subject. When I learned about routes from Widmers in Cincinnati, the thinking was you are in the neighborhood six days per week with scheduled pick up and delivery days. Wednesday and Saturday were half days used for selling. The idea being, you are a store at the customer’s door six days per week.

Another school of thought is you set up the client with scheduled pick up and delivery days, Monday/Thursday, and Tuesday/Friday, and those are the days you are in the neighborhood. I personally prefer the Widmers’ six-day method because it provides marketing differential. There is not a right or wrong way. It is a personal decision that should be made when you write your business plan.

If you have written a business plan you have already decided whether you want a truck driver or a driver/sales representative. There will be a written job description defining the person’s duties. You will have contacted a local employment attorney to discuss non-compete, confidentiality and trade secrets agreements. In some states a non-compete agreement is not legal and even if it is legal it can be difficult to enforce.

Finding the right person can be a major task. Hiring a driver is a lot easier than finding a driver/sales person. Locating a combination sales and service person is much different than finding a counter sales representative. Speaking of CSRs you might consider moving one into the position of route sales or route driver. Your CSR knows your customers and has a working knowledge of the drycleaning industry.

If you look for a trainee, the profiles of a driver and a driver/salesperson will vary greatly. A driver can be paid hourly but a person selling will want some kind of commission or bonus incentive. You can be as creative as you wish but you must remain consistent. An example of creativity is a bonus for the hourly driver, paid for each new customer who comes onto the route.

Sales compensation for a driver/salesperson has so many permutations that I will not attempt to discuss each one. The bottom line is the system must be simple and understandable. The employee must have buy-in no matter what system is used. Once you have a system that works, meaning you are experiencing customer and sales growth, don’t change it!

There are aptitude and personnel tests that can be given. You will want to run a background check on the applicant. After running a background check on one individual , a criminal record popped up. When I sat the man down to terminate him he said, “I only stole from my mother.” He neglected to disclose his criminal record on the employment application. Once a sales person is hired, the hardest thing to do is keep the individual motivated. Sales people, upon reaching a certain level of earnings, become complacent, no matter what they are selling.

Next month I will wrap up routes and move in another direction. Have a wonderful holiday season.