National Clothesline

The first day on the job is the most important day for your new employee. Stephen Covey said, “You can buy a person’s hands but you can’t buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is.”

Your attitude or the attitude of the person who is handling the paperwork and new employee orientation can create the mind-set the newly hired person will carry forward into the counter sales department. Your newly hired person is nervous and excited about starting the new job. For those reasons, the new hire is at the most impressionable stage of their employment.

As I pointed out last month, during the orientation you must explain the services you provide. The average person does not have a clue as to how drycleaning works.

I would take a new counter person through the entire drycleaning process, explaining solvents, detergents, filtration, and distillation. If your CSR does not understand the product sold, how can the CSR intelligently discuss drycleaning with a customer?

During the discussion of services offered, you might find that fluff-and-fold and finished flatwork are foreign terms to your inexperienced CSR.

In order to overcome these problems, a list of common words used in the drycleaning and laundry industry should be provided for the new hire. Even if you bring in an experienced person, you will find that terminology is not always the same in every company.

The first thing I like to do after orientation is show the CSR what I explained in the office. I would start at the counter, proceed to the marking department, then drycleaning, pointing out the filter and still, spotting, finishing, inspecting, assembly, packaging and finally racking.

Next, we would visit the shirt laundry, alteration and other departments. As I went through the various departments, I introduced the current employees to the new person.

Finally, I assigned an experienced CSR to the trainee. This trainer will spend the next two weeks teaching, answering questions, reviewing, and testing the new CSR.

Training materials that can be used are DLI (previously IFI) videos, self-study courses, and brochures. In the event the person that is hired has management potential, consider sending the person to the DLI for training.

A good CSR or manager trainee cannot be taught too much. There is an interesting statistic regarding training — for every dollar you spend, you will get three dollars in return.

The trainee will next receive copies of all the DLI brochures available to customers along with all the various forms we use at the counter. There is nothing wrong with having the new person sit down and read the material and watch a DLI training video.

The trainee should have a notebook to write questions and take notes in. It is impressive when a new hire walks in with a notebook, the first day on the job, without being told to bring one.

You should have a complete written training manual with a day-by-day schedule for the first two weeks of work. There must be tests at the end of each week to verify the trainer is doing his or her job and the trainee is learning what is needed.

Consider including the DLI self-study training courses “Customer Service in Drycleaning” and “Fibers and Fabrics.”

Besides teaching your CSR how to take in and hand out clothing and other items, the CSR ’s ability to answer and respond to customer questions is extremely important. Some of the most frequently asked questions are the following:

What time do you open and close?

Do you have pick up and delivery?

Is there an extra charge for pick up and delivery?

Do you have one-hour service?

What time do I have to have the clothes in the store to get them back the same day?

Do you have any other locations?

How much do you charge? Can I have a price list?

Do you charge more for women’s clothes than for men’s clothes?

Do you take coupons or, can I have a coupon?

If you are smart, you will have a prepared list of potential customer questions and what the correct answers should be. These questions should be reviewed at training sessions and with new hires.

Let’s talk about some of the really tough questions your CSR might have to answer. The most difficult question to respond to, in my opinion, is “Why are your prices so high?”

My favorite answer to that one is, “I am sorry you feel that way, however, our prices are not high. Our customers expect the finest garment care and service. To provide the level of care and service our customers demand, we must charges these prices. ”

Another tough question is, “Since I am such a good customer, can I get a discount?”

I had an easy answer for this one. “It is not our policy to give a discount; however, we reward our customers with American Airline ’s Air Miles. For every dollar you spend with us, you will receive one air mile. If you pay with your credit card, it ’s like getting double miles.”

My best customers loved the air miles program. People with money like to travel and air miles are what they look for.

This next question always appears to be a customer looking for free cleaning: “Do you guarantee to get the stains out?”

My response was, “It is impossible to guarantee every stain is removable. We do guarantee that if we cannot remove a stain, nobody else will. ”

Your production department has to be informed of that guarantee. Isn’t it embarrassing to have a client return a stain-free garment that you sent out with a stain ticket.

The final question, “Do I have to pay if you don’t get the stains out?” brings to mind a discussion I had with a client who is a doctor.

The doctor brought in a beautiful cashmere sport coat for cleaning. After reprocessing the garment, the doctor asked to speak to the owner. I walked up front, checked the paperwork, and saw the garment had been done over twice.

The doctor proceeded to tell me he should not be charged because the stain didn’t come out. I asked the doctor if he ever had a patient get sick and die.

The doctor replied, “Of course I have had sick patients and some have died!”

Next I asked if the decedent’s family had to pay the medical bills and he said, “Yes, of course the families had to pay the bills.”

I then said to the doctor, “Your sport coat is our patient and it has died!”

At that point he started laughing, took out his credit card, paid the bill and we parted as friends.

To some other customers my response was, “Yes we do charge for our services, even if the stain does not come out. However, we do guarantee satisfaction, so if you are unhappy, I will be happy to remove the charge. ”

Is it worth fighting over a $5 or $10 bill? Of course not, considering what the cost is to get a new customer.

Instead of a question, how about this accusatory statement by your customer, “You put this stain in. It was not in the garment when I brought it in.”

A good response might be, “I am sorry you believe we put the stain in. Many stains are colorless or transparent before cleaning. During the cleaning process, heat is used to dry the garment. There is also some heat during the finishing of the garment. This heat changes the transparent stain ’s color. Usually these are the most difficult stains to remove, but I will be happy to reprocess your garment. ”

Happy CSRs equal happy customers. Think about that statement and let’s go back to last month’s article about finding a CSR.

What are you doing to keep your CSRs happy? Are you paying as little as possible or do you offer bonuses for doing a good job?

CSRs are told they are important but often times they do not get the respect or money they deserve.

Remember, your CSR is the face of your company. Make it a happy face!