Orignally posted – Sep 28, 2012
Every small business – including your self-service laundry – reflects the personal ethics, values and specific work habits of its owner. Your “business aura” is an exact mirror image of you, the owner. And the people who patronize your business (or are thinking of doing so) perceive that very clearly in your advertising and in the personality of your store when they visit it.
For example, if you appear in television commercials for your coin laundry, the viewers will develop a perception of you and form an opinion of your business before they even decide to wash and dry their clothes there. I do a lot of TV advertising for my laundry, and I appear in every commercial. I write my television ad copy so that it reflects my humorous side, and I am perceived as friendly, likable and approachable. As a result, when people see me in the store or elsewhere, they don’t hesitate to come over and strike up a conversation about how much they enjoy my commercials.
A very wise and successful advertising agency owner once said to me: “If people like your advertising, then they like you – and, if they like you, they will buy what you have to sell.”
Your business, down to the smallest detail, is a reflection of you. For example, if you go to a restaurant and are treated badly by the wait staff, it is a reflection of the attitude of the owner. If a person is treated poorly by your attendant in your laundry, it is a reflection of you, the owner. Employees quickly develop a sense of the owner’s attitude toward customers and naturally play out that role as a direct extension of you.
Have you taken a trip on Southwest Airlines lately? If so, you will no doubt remember the humorous, extremely friendly attitude of the flight crew during your flight.
This is done with the full endorsement of the company’s top management so that passengers will relax and remember just how great the crew (including the pilots) made them feel. Other airlines don’t do this, so Southwest stands out and gets remembered. Therefore, it’s no surprise to me that Southwest holds the best cumulative customer satisfaction record for the past 18 years and is profitable every year, while numerous other airlines have declared bankruptcy or have merged for safety. Hmmm…
So, the attitude of your coin laundry business is about your attitude, work ethic and habits that recruit and retain customers. You likely have employees, but it all starts at the top and spreads out from there.
I recently met an interesting small-business owner. I had a persistent water leak around an upstairs window in my home. Every time it rained water leaked into the house. So my brother suggested I call a guy by the name of “Michael the Handyman” to see if he could remedy the situation.
When Michael arrived, I told him about the leak around the window that I couldn’t seem to get repaired, despite having had numerous “experts” try and fail over many months. He listened carefully to my description, and then his questions started – he asked every question imaginable about the window and the house.
In fact, several times I showed my impatience with his incessant questioning by telling him, “I don’t want to rebuild the entire house, just fix the window leak,” but he never reacted. He patiently listened to me and then continued to ask even more detailed questions. When he was done, he politely said he would think about the solution and get back to me.
As it turns out, he went home and thoroughly researched my type of construction and windows on the internet and determined what he thought was the underlying problem, which nobody in the past had been able to identify. When he returned to tell me what he felt was the solution, I had some doubts as to the amount of work involved, but something told me to let him proceed anyway.
In the end, he diagnosed the problem perfectly and fixed the leak. My wife and I were amazed. Now, I was a believer in Michael’s skills. And when he returned to pick up his payment, he began pointing out other potential problem areas with my house that I had never thought of. I listened intently to what he had to say, but this time without a doubting attitude. Michael had earned his credibility with me, and there was no hesitation in having him tackle additional projects. He was genuinely interested in providing a great service.
Michael is an excellent example of a great businessman. He showed a sincere interest in my problem; he had a terrific attitude; he focused on my needs; he studied my problem in detail; and he fixed my problem. He talked the talk – and then he walked the walk. And his positive attitude and extraordinary work ethic were impressive.
Will I use Michael’s services again? Absolutely! And your goal should be to become another Michael.
You can run your coin laundry business in a similar way. When you advertise, do so in a manner that the recipient views as credible, interesting and beneficial. Focus on your customers’ problems. Feature solutions to common laundry problems, and convey the message that you are truly interested in your customers and potential customers. Talk less about yourself and the features of your business and more about customer satisfaction.
People are saturated with advertising messages these days. In fact, most have developed somewhat of an aversion to them, so you must stand out by focusing your advertising on satisfying their emotional need to be genuinely cared about in today’s often very impersonal world.
Within your laundry operation, take the Southwest Airlines approach. Train your attendants to be friendly and perhaps somewhat humorous with your customers. Find ways to amuse your customers while in the laundry. This can be done, for example, with clever signage, amusing attendant uniforms and different types of video game offerings. Most people view doing laundry as a mindless task, so to avoid that stereotype, you have a great opportunity to stand out by creating a dynamic environment in your coin laundry.
One of the best ways to do so is to simply stop viewing your coin laundry as just a coin laundry. View it as a place where people come on a regular basis to do their laundry and, while they are doing so, you have a huge opportunity to amuse them, impress them and make their “stay” more enjoyable. In other words, change your perception of your business – away from being just a coin laundry – and you will attract more customers. You’ll also very likely sell more ancillary products.
Theater owners have done this quite successfully. Rather than viewing their businesses merely as places where people watch movies (on which they usually make very little profit these days), they view them as places where people buy all kinds of snacks. Gasoline station owners have done this for years as well. As you no doubt have noticed, you can now buy almost anything at a “gas station,” including gas, of course, on which they generally make a very small markup.
Often, we are too close to our businesses to view them with a high degree of flexibility. If you change your perspective a bit, your success will increase exponentially. Also, remember that your personal work ethic can fall into a repetitive, comfortable, unproductive pattern. As a result, successful people constantly monitor these two factors.
As a small-business owner, every time you compromise your values; every time you are impatient with a customer; every time you allow your coin laundry to be less than clean or machines out of order; and every time you give less than 100 percent – you make it that much easier for your competitors to create an advantage over you and your store.
By the way, “Michael the Handyman” doesn’t even advertise his small business. He doesn’t need to.
As you can see, his satisfied customers gladly do his advertising for him.
#PlanetLaundry #CustomerService #BusinessManagement #Public #TheBusinessMind #Article
