Originally posted – Aug 10, 2012
As coin laundry owners, sometimes we’re simply too close to our businesses to actually see what we are doing wrong or the mistakes we are repeatedly making. Because most people are creatures of habit, we can easily get into the habit of doing or looking at things in specific, repetitive ways – and, by doing so, this actually prevents or hinders our business growth and ultimate success.
You know… it’s the old “forest for the trees”axiom.
Small-business owners frequently face this problem because they usually make their own operating and marketing decisions solo, without the benefit of “committee”input. They are the sole judge and jury. In larger companies, decisions about marketing, management and other issues are nearly always made by a group so that intrinsic errors are more easily spotted before things get out of hand.
With this in mind, I’ve outlined my top seven tips for making your “committee of one”more objective and for taking any errors out of your marketing and management premises, thereby making you much more successful. In other words, if your fundamentals are right, then all the rest is simply a matter of putting the details together in the proper order.
SAVVY laundry owners, if I may use a radio analogy, understand the signal-to-background-noise ratio communication model, which is a measurement of the relationship between the things you want and need to hear and the things you don’t get to hear because they are buried in the noise but need to hear. Yes, the “signals”come through loud and clear like, for example, how many people visit your self-service laundry and when, but the “background noise”does not get through, such as your customers’ detailed opinions of your business and how it does or doesn’t satisfy their needs.
I recently had a reason to call my satellite radio provider about my bill. A few days later, I received an e-mail request to fill out an online questionnaire about my experience in talking with them.
The questionnaire was very well constructed, took little time, was actually amusing and asked the right questions. So, I suggest that you do the same. On a regular basis, have your laundry customers fill out an opinion questionnaire regarding all aspects of your laundry. Hey, doing laundry takes time, so they likely will welcome the intellectual exercise. You might even offer them a free drink for doing so.
Now you can know what the customers really think about you and your business by receiving the actual “background noise”that you definitely need to hear.
UNDERSTAND that we live in a culturally diverse America. Your customers come in all varieties, and they must not all be viewed or treated the same. Your advertising, internal signage, ancillary vended products and so on must be done by taking into consideration the distinct and unique individual differences of your patrons. One size definitely does not fit all anymore.
If you do this, you will make more friends of your customers because they will feel respected, appreciated and acknowledged. Customers may forget a few things about the features of your laundry, but they will never forget how you made them feel when they were there.
CHECK out your competitors on a regular basis. As you know well, the business world is highly competitive and not knowing what your competitors do or don’t do can cost you market share and money. Rest assured that they are very likely checking out your store.
You need to know all about your competitors, such as (but not limited to) their vend prices, equipment mix, hours of operation, ancillary products offered, and how friendly and helpful (or not) their attendants are. Believe me, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors know all about each other.
With this knowledge, you can produce more effective advertising and perhaps discover if your coin laundry is lacking in some way. Being competitive means that you are constantly knowledgeable about who and what you’re competing with. Continually fine-tune your laundry business by being an engine of reinvention.
CONSISTENTLY use diverse, multi-channel methods of advertising. Not all people read the newspapers, watch TV, listen to the radio, receive e-mail or even read their postal mail. Using only one advertising method severely limits your contact with your targeted audiences.
It’s time to wake up and grasp the past decade. Customer diversity is the norm. It used to be that pretty much all coin laundry advertising was essentially the same because all of the customers were essentially the same. Although it’s true that birds of a feather flock together, now there are many more flocks. So vary your approach.
ENCOURAGE customer loyalty by using attention-producing retention techniques. Make your laundry much more than just a room filled with washers and dryers.
For example, there are a wide variety of enter-to-win loyalty program ideas you can use. Each time customers comes in to do their laundry they can enter to win such things as free gasoline, lottery tickets or perhaps even free washing and drying for a month.
In addition, you can establish a frequent washer club, and perhaps even a frequent comforter club. Club members can be rewarded with free washes once they have paid the regular price a specific amount of times.
In other words, make your self-service laundry more than just a place to do washing and drying. Give it some excitement and a new dimension so the customers will look forward to getting something other than just clean clothes, which they can get at virtually any laundromat.
Furthermore, don’t choose the enter-to-win items yourself. It’s not about you; it’s about what motivates them – your customers. Never confuse those two pronouns. Focus on “them”and “they,” not “we”and “me”and “us”and “I”.
And, by the way, the best way to know what motivates your customers is simply to ask them, either informally or by means of a questionnaire.
STEP out of the box… and out of your comfort zone. Be sure your laundry contains a lot of value propositions, credibility drivers and totally unique features. In past columns, I’ve mentioned that brown and black cows get very little attention because they are so commonplace, while a purple cow (if there were such an animal) would get highly noticed.
Make your laundry the purple cow. You get the point.
“Purple cow”laundries stand out. They get loads of attention. Make your laundry signature the “home”of something – perhaps your store can become the home of the constant BOGO (buy one, get one free) sale. You can achieve this by using dry or wash ideas, and have it operative at certain times throughout the year. It will get attention because it’s different.
Or maybe buy or rent one of those cash cube machines, where your customers can win or earn time in the cube, grabbing as many dollar bills or free-wash coupons (or whatever you decide) as they can.
Like I said before, be a purple cow.
STRETCH yourself. Intellectual growth comes from being curious, and being curious is the basis for being creative – and being creative produces purple cow marketing and management programs for small-business owners.
Being creative is the basis for success in small business. Diversify your reading. Learn about everything. All of the information you take in will be stored in your psychic banks for later use. Then, presumably out of nowhere, ideas will pop into your head, which will greatly benefit your marketing programs.
Actually, these ideas pop into your consciousness when you need them, but first they have to be stored in your psychic banks. Light the lights within you.
And there you have it – seven not-overly-difficult steps you can take right now to begin running a more successful and profitable laundry business.
#PlanetLaundry #Public #CustomerService #TheBusinessMind #BusinessManagement #Article
