National Clothesline

About 50 affiliates turned up for the GreenEarth Fall Workshop in Kansas City to exchange ideas and learn how to be more successful operators.

Held at GreenEarth’s headquarters, the two-day conference covered a lot of ground, ranging from cleaning and production tips to marketing methods.

“That’s what this group and this get-together is all about... exchanging information with some vendor partners as well as other operators,” GreenEarth President Tim Maxwell noted in his opening remarks. “Sharing that information becomes beneficial to you as you go back to your businesses.”

On the technical side, Jim Douglas, owner of Prestige Cleaners in Sacramento, CA, and technical director for GreenEarth, discussed how activated clay filtration can reduce waste streams while generating more utility savings and greater solvent mileage, as well as brighter whites and more vivid pastels.

He also explored some of the positive results that have been found with a new cleaning technique that has been gaining traction in the industry… solvent heating.

Additionally, Matt Lipman from Columbia/ILSA demonstrated a new Ipura machine. Other representatives from A.L. Wilson, Seitz, Adco, Tonsil Filtration, R.R. Streets and Fabritec International/Sanitone were also present to offer advice and information on their various cleaning products compatible with GreenEarth systems.

While buying the right detergents and stain removal agents is essential, so is knowing how to properly use them. To that end, Roland Dobbins from Seitz was tapped to demonstrate various spotting agents and tools that can easily cause more harm than good if not properly applied to stained garments.

As the production-related sessions occurred in GreenEarth’s warehouse area, marketing roundtables were held inside the company’s main foyer.

First, GreenEarth Marketing Director Stacy Sopcich examined numerous marketing avenues available for cleaners such as web sites, email marketing, every door direct mail, QR codes and the ever-popular social media.

“The goal in social media is to offer people who are following you valuable content,” she explained. “Invite them to particate in the content.”

After those sessions, GreenEarth invited an open conversation with its own affiliates during a Network Power Hour where everybody gathered in smaller groups and shared some of their most and least successful marketing ideas in the past.

Some effective methods mentioned during the talks included personal door-to-door sales, randomly handing out appreciation gifts to the first 100 customers of the day once a month and offering to clean flags to be used at funerals for free. Such personal approaches often surprise and delight customers, thus creating an indelible impression.