National Clothesline

Are you interested in a 100 percent sales increase?

After 1-800-Flowers.com created a loyalty program, Aaron Cano, vice president of customer knowledge stated, “Since starting our rewards program 18 months ago, we have 100 percent better order frequency than non-rewards customers and 50 percent better retention rates. ”

Cano further stated, “The foundation of the rewards program is knowing who our customers are, understanding what they want (by studying collected data), and providing relevant communications, offers, and products back to them. ”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is very powerful information coming from a company with over one million customers.

Stop and consider what you just read and ask yourself, “Does my company have a rewards program?”

When I owned Sterling Cleaners, I instituted an air miles program with American Airlines. The cost was minimal when you compare it with discounting. As a pioneer in the use of air miles rewards in the drycleaning industry, I was happy to learn that you can now reward your customers with just about every airline out there.

Thanks Again (www.
ThanksAgain.com) will set up an entire air miles reward program for your company that will separate you from the rest of the generic drycleaners. All you have to do is let your customers know it is available and Thanks Again will handle the rest. To receive a special gift call Eric Gilkesson, (877) 633-5434, and tell Eric that Harvey sent you.

There are other kinds of rewards. Some companies will give their top customers a discount. Others will send out boxes of candy, other kinds of merchandise, gift certificates, or donate to a charity in the customer ’s name. Air miles have worked best for me because the big spenders love to travel and they enjoy using those air miles to upgrade their seats.

The bottom line is, create a rewards program for your customers. Saying thank you at the counter is not enough in today ’s competitive drycleaning market. The drycleaning pie keeps getting smaller and you need product differentiation. Having an American Airlines logo on my marketing material really looked good and kept me from being the usual drycleaner.

Finally, use your customer database for marketing. Extract data and use that information to market to your current customers. Create a customer profile based on your best customers and go after new customers who fit that profile. If you have not done that, you are living in the last century. There are people who specialize in data extrapolation. Find one and data mine your business.

How much marketing can you honestly say is free? Free internet marketing is available to you through the largest drycleaners directory online. Dan L. Gray, Sr., a longtime drycleaning employee now located in Minnesota, put together a national directory of all the drycleaners in the USA.

Is your business listed? You can have your company listed in this national internet directory, at no cost to you. Go to the website, www.drycleanersdirectory.us and add your free business listings. Dan also does websites and just recently created one for the Minnesota Drycleaners Association. Give Dan a call at (651) 336-5897. Darcy Moen, an ex-drycleaner turned computer guru, also does websites and can be contacted at (306) 721-0124.

I am contacting drycleaners throughout the USA by telephone. Before I call, the first thing I look for is a web site for that company. I find it incredible that a large percentage of drycleaners do not have a website. Drycleaners (wetcleaners too), wake up and smell the coffee brewing. The world you live in is an internet world. I just purchased a 52-inch TV and there is a computer connection in the back of it. Now I can watch the NFL and surf the internet on the same screen.

Last month I wrote the following: “Happy CSRs equal happy customers. What are you doing to keep your CSRs happy?”

If you have ineffective employee incentive programs, start thinking outside of the box.

Instead of an “employee of the month program,” I used a WOW the customer program. I rewarded my CSRs when they did something unusual to help a customer. This was done as a contest a few times during the year.

Wowing a customer could be delivering the customer’s clothing after closing, removing a spot or doing an alteration when the regular production people have gone home.

Money was the tool I used to motivate my CSRs. I also used money as a tool to motivate my route sales people (more about that next month).

Be certain to include monetary rewards in your annual budget. Remember, these rewards are not regular pay, they are marketing expenses.

Paid time off is another motivator that really works well. Employees love to get a day off with pay. I instituted a workers ’ compensation incentive program to reduce the number of claims we were having. Besides money, a paid trip for two to Hawaii was used as a reward. One of the other rewards was a paid trip to Las Vegas.

By giving the employee the choice of selecting a trip or money, the employees make the decision of going somewhere special or paying bills.

Other motivators might be restaurant gift certificates, spa gift certificates, or perhaps a round or two of golf if they like to do that. Motivating staff members with incentives that match what they enjoy really works well.

There is no end to what you can come up with if you really care. Knowing an employee has a relative in a city thousands of miles away might give you the idea of buying that person a round-trip airline ticket.

Another motivator I used was rewarding my counter staff with lunch when everyone came to work on time for one or two consecutive weeks. I would have the counter sales manager call their favorite pizza place to deliver lunch.

Small things that show you care are important. Pizza does not cost a fortune, but the happy employee will keep your customers happy.

A straightforward “Thank you for doing a great job” also works as a motivator. I remember one evening a young man by the name of Tinzy, who worked for me part time, stayed hours beyond his schedule because we were short handed.

As I was leaving, I walked up to Tinzy, shook his hand, and thanked him for doing an outstanding job. Tinzy looked at me in disbelief and said, “I have been working four years and you are the first employer who has ever said thank you. ”

No amount of money could buy the loyalty that simple handshake produced.

Now that 2007 is ending, I want to wish all of you happy holidays, and a healthy and prosperous 2008. I also want to thank my loyal readers for their comments in numerous emails and phone calls that I have received.

I left my heart in San Francisco

For those of you who chose not to attend the International Drycleaners Congress convention in San Francisco, you missed a wonderful group of speakers. Lynnette Watterson of Crystal Cleaners in San Mateo, CA, kicked things off with an update of California problems.

Dave Dawson, vice present of R.R. Street, followed Lynette, at the podium. He gave further information concerning California laws and the problems they could be generating. The biggest problem is other states and countries might be following California ’s lead. According to Dave, some of the California laws were created without scientific evidence to support them.

The blonde bombshell from Cleaners Supply, Trudy Adams, stepped up to bat next. Trudy is truly a motivational and motivated speaker. When Trudy completed her talk about customer service, you had to take a deep breath and say wow!

Following Trudy is extremely difficult. Her personality is so strong that John Jordan, president of Fabritec, could only sigh and then commence talking. The extended sigh by John was very funny and gave him the ability to grab the audience ’s attention before he discussed “Differentiating Your Brand.”

Last to speak, but not least on Friday, was Becca Anderson. Becca’s personality carried the day. Becca discussed marketing a service. She also talked about web sites and their importance to your marketing program.

On Saturday, Milt Chortkoff, Doris Easley and yours truly imparted over 150 years of experience and knowledge on the audience. You cannot beat Milt when you talk about customer relations and Doris is incredible when it comes to garment restoration. My talk about routes was sandwiched between the two of them like a piece of ham between two slices of rye.