National Clothesline

‘Our company policy is, there are no problems, there are only solutions.”

This statement was music to my ears when I heard it from a sub-contractor I am dealing with. He sold us the carpeting, floor tile, and baseboards we are using to give our new, 12-year-old house a facelift.

I thought, “What a wonderful philosophy.” How can you apply that philosophy to your business?

When an angry customer walks in the door, can you or your customer service representative face the customer and make the aforementioned statement? The angry customer will be completely disarmed.

Your next statement to the customer would be, “How can I help you”?

This subject can be a topic for your next sales meeting, if you are wise enough to have sales meetings.

Meeting with many cleaners in the Cleaner’s Supply booth was an interesting insight on the failure of many owners to measure the production of their finishers. I never heard so many terrible excuses about why pieces were not being counted.

The worst excuse I heard was, “I don’t want to get my employees angry.”

The inmates are running that cleaner’s asylum.

If you are going to control the productivity and quality of your plant, pieces produced must be counted. I mentioned this last month and, after meeting with so many different cleaners, the reality of the situation really struck home.

The poorly managed companies that are unwilling to count pieces need help because they have a huge problem. Remember, “There are no problems, there are only solutions.”

WesVic Systems manufactures the solution to this problem of not counting pieces. Check out their web site, www.wesvic.com.

The Boucher brothers founded WesVic. They are the sons of a California Cleaners Association past-president, Harry Boucher.

The Boucher brothers saw a problem in the drycleaning industry and developed a product that provides a solution to correct it.

You and your finisher establish an hourly production goal (you get employee buy-in that way), and the piece counter will give you the efficiency of the finisher.

There are no more excuses for not counting pieces. In fact, if you want to create an incentive system, this piece counter will simplify the operation.

Other than counting pieces, the most often asked questions were related to how many employees should be involved in production. I have discussed this subject before, so I will touch on it very lightly.

You are at optimum labor production if you have one support person for each finisher. The support personnel include the cleaner, spotter, inspector, assembler, and bagger. Markers are not included.

I had this discussion regarding finishers and support personnel with the Kloter family. Eric Kloter and his son, Bruce, own and operate Swiss Cleaners in Connecticut. I met Eric sometime in the last century when we served on the IFI (now DLI) board of directors.

Bruce and I were discussing production and I asked him about his presser piece counts and support personnel. Congratulations to Eric, Bruce, and Swiss Cleaners for operating their plant with one support person for each finisher. Their PPOH of 16.5 is outstanding.

This one-to-one formula is not right for everyone, particularly if you are a very high-end, high priced company like Hallak ’s Cleaners in New York, NY, or Margaret’s Cleaners in La Jolla, CA.

These two companies are so quality driven that it would be impossible for them to think about a one-to-one ratio of finishers to support personnel. That is why most rules cannot be written in stone. Every plant has its own unique operating situation.

I ran into an old Southern California acquaintance of mine, Ezra Schley. Ezra owns MEGS Enviro Tech Solutions. Ezra developed the products his company is selling.

He told me he has challenged all the major detergent manufacturers to a side-by-side comparison of his wetcleaning products with the competition ’s products. It sounds like a brave move on Ezra’s part, but he is in a no-lose position.

I will say this, the clothing Ezra had hanging at his booth was all wetcleaned and the garments looked great. You can visit the website www.megswetcleaning.com and see what Ezra has to say.

Another product that caught my eye was a hand guard for carrying clothing. You can buy it from Cleaner ’s Supply or visit the manufacturer’s web site, www.handguard.com. The manufacturer will put your company name on the product if you want to use it as a gift for your customers.

Missing in action was Spot Computer Systems leader Mike Wilde. I am sorry I did not get to touch base with him in Vegas. I bet he was on the beach in Hawaii gathering up some Oahu sunshine or was it the blackjack table at the Golden Nugget? Kidding aside, I hope to see him at the next show.

My friend Jim Gilligan, owner of Snedicor’s Cleaners, located in Howell, MI, has taken a leap forward in his use of the internet. Jim has a blog set up for his business through his web site at www.snedicors.com.

Are you brave enough to do that? Do you want honest commentary or, for that matter, criticism from your customers? Thinking out of the box like Jim did when he set up a blog will separate you from the competition.

Have you set up a web site? If you have not, your marketing is dragging behind the rest of the world.

Creating a blog at the same time you set up a web site might seem overwhelming at the start, but the future rewards will make it all pay off.

To get going, call Darcy Moen (306) 721-0124. He also has put together “Thank You” and “Miss You” postcards which you should ask him about.

Remember, you want at least three incentive gift certificates (gift certificates sounds better than coupons) on the “Thank You” post card.

A number of cleaners have approached me to start a cost group. Cost groups have also been known as management groups or cost bureaus. A cost group is a small group of six to eight companies of similar sales size that meets quarterly at a member ’s plant. The meeting usually is a two-night hotel stay near the host plant.

The purpose of the group is to compare operating costs and analyze each other’s company to improve operations. Every month your profit and loss statement is submitted to the group coordinator so that a combined spreadsheet can be developed for operating cost comparison.

If a cost group sounds interesting to you, contact me at consultme@msn.com or call my cell at (310) 261-2623.

When I owned Sterling Cleaners, my company was part of a cost group for over 25 years.

If belonging to a group does not help your business improve, nothing will. If you have problems, your cost group will have solutions, and so will I.