Don’t forget for whom you work
When I first went into business, my friends would exclaim how lucky I was to be
my own boss.
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As we all know, in the drycleaning business — or any service business — your customers, each and all of them, are your true boss. And that’s as it should be. They should be the ones you are pleasing.
I can assure you that any raise in pay, vacation, bonus or fringe benefit will
come from them and their faith in you and how good a job you’re doing.
It’s rather simple — more business means more profit if you’re doing most things right.
No matter how we operate, the customer will always be King. Let us never forget
it!. How can we keep them happy?
This sounds rather trite, but the best way is to ask them. How we go about it
should be the same way that hotels, restaurants, airlines do it. Ask them to
fill out a card.
Here the drycleaner is at an advantage. He simply has a series of pre-addressed,
no postage necessary (pay only for what is mailed) cards printed up and
attaches one card to each outgoing order. A small gift of a ballpoint pen with
your name imprinted should be attached. The cost is minimal.
The card can have the opening line, in large bold type:
“Because we care, please let us know how we are doing. No one is more important,
than you, our customer.”
Then ask for yes or no answers to five simple questions:
1. Were your clothes ready as promised?
2. Were the colors bright as new and all stains removed?
3. Were all buttons or minor repairs replaced and corrected?
4. Do you feel our prices and services are fair?
5. Were you treated efficiently and with courtesy?
You may want to leave space for addition comments at the bottom of the card.
Rent an inexpensive post office box so that your replies can be monitored in
complete confidence. This process should be repeated at least four times a
year.
There is no better direct way of reaching your customer than by utilizing the
finished garments on your racks. You know for certain it will enter your
customer’s hand and will not be immediately discarded as obvious junk mail.
How do you know if the program was effective?
You might think, “No one responded, so I must be doing a good job.” That’s the worst fallacy because your customers, like you, prefer not to complain, or
are too complacent to take the time to answer an inquiry.
A 10 percent response would give you a good indicator of your performance.Of
course, you would want to act on it and and let your team know the results and
what everyone can improve upon.
It seems that whenever we’re concerned about any part or segment of our business, we tend to look into
everything such as cost, labor, technical conditions, etc., but we leave out
the most important aspect, that is, the customer. Do we ever inquire how they
like our service, hours, packaging — anything?
Who’s the boss? It’s our customers and it’s time we started including them.
