Quality Cleaning Council tries Ipura
The Quality Cleaning Council, a group of cleaners from the New York metropolitan
area who get together for monthly brainstorming sessions, were the guests of
Richard Garland of South Bay Cleaners in Bayport, Long Island at a recent
meeting where he demonstrated his new Columbia Ipura cleaning machine.
Garland told the group that the recently installed machine had, so far, been “everything promised and more.”
The free-standing machine needs no cement base since it has no extraction cycle.
It does not need steam for drying and has almost no waste at all. The lint
filter is cleaned after each load.
At the Saturday meeting, Ed Roth, one of the group’s founding members, brought four pieces that were not drycleanable. These
included a white dress with black vinyl plastic trim, drapes with a rubberized
backing that specified
“Do not dryclean,” a very fancy dress with thousands of feathers, and a gown with flowers that
would have been ruined in a normal cleaning process.
When the cycle was finished, Roth and the group were amazed. “It was like magic,” Roth said. “Normally I would give these back to the customer or try to spot clean them. The
Ipura cleaned them beautifully with no problem.
”
Andrew Briller, another group member, had been mulling the idea of getting a new
machine to replace his present perc unit and came away thinking the Ipura would
be a good choice for him in his demographic area of Northern Long Island.
Garland, who comes from a drycleaning family, called the machine, “The technology of the future, here for my customers today.”
For over two years the Quality Cleaning Council has been meeting every month. In
between meetings, they pitch in to help each other out. Recently, one member
was in need of pressing help, so the next day two pressers appeared at his door
to assist.
Another member had a shirt unit go down while he was away. The manager called
the council and one of the members made sure that the problem was taken care
of.
“We’ve worked hard at creating a group of dedicated owners who are willing to help
each other out in any emergency. It
’s comforting to know that we all have a built-in safety net,” said Frank Whitehouse, one of the original members.
It’s a two-way street of give and take among the members. Garland, for example, got
some ideas from the group during the store visit, including a critique of a new
mailing he was planning for his market area.
“Today, less is more,” Briller explained in looking over the mailing plan. “If you try to put every service and statement about your business on one small
mailer, people will just throw it away without reading it. Make it simple and
catch their attention. You literally have only a second or two before they
decide whether to read it, or toss it.
”
Briller also pointed out that a master plan is needed. Sometimes it takes six
months to see the fruits of advertising. One shot at a
“Val Pak” type mailer is not enough to get things rolling. Commit to a program, and stick
to it, he urged.
Each year the group plans some kind of holiday promotion for its best customers.
The discussion this year centered on an owner who had hired a man in a tuxedo
to deliver bottles of wine to its
“big tunas.”
The brainstorming session brought out several ways that the group could
incorporate some type of similar promotion. One of the owners had a store on a
busy plaza. How about a tuxedo man giving out flyers or promotional VIP bags to
the passers-by?
Anyone interested in The Quality Cleaning Council can contact Roth at (718)
969-0207 or e-mail him at uncleaners@aol.com.
