Orginally posted – Mar 18, 2013
Every laundromat owner has one thing in common – we all want to maximize the amount of turns per day on our equipment.
To every customer, your laundromat never has enough machines for their needs, regardless of the size of the store, the age of the machines or even if they are the only customer washing in the store. We have all heard customers say, “There are no machines available,” or even worse, “All of the machines in this store are always broken.”
In our day-to-day operations, machines routinely are downed. Some are due to minor maintenance issues – such as a diaphragm that needs to be changed or a drain that is clogged, both which can be cured quickly and with little investment.
However, occasionally a major part fails such as a motor, a door lock or a computer board, which can cost up to $500 to repair. As a new store owner, thinking about a $500 repair to fix one machine really startled me. I would take my vend price of $1.75 for a 20-pound frontloader and calculate that it would take me more than 285 turns on that very machine before I could even generate enough money to pay off the repair expense. So, the machine would sit there with an out-of-service sign across the coin acceptor for months before I finally would splurge for that repair.
Out-of-service machines are the single most detrimental flaw of a laundromat for both the financial stability of the operation and customers’ perception of your laundromat. When customers elect to come to your store to do their laundry, they have an expectation of arriving to find plenty of machines to wash their household laundry efficiently. After all, that is why they decided to go to your laundromat rather than use the few outdated machines in the basement of their apartment building or elsewhere.
When customers need just one more machine to complete their wash and all of the other machines are occupied, they look at that out-of-service machine as being “their machine.” They begin over-analyzing everything in the store and wondering to themselves “if this machine is out of service, how do I know that my machine is not going to break down while my clothes are being washed.” The out-of-service machine continues to boggle them, and they may strike up a conversation with another customer in the store, and the negative mindset can snowball into “every time I come here all of the machines are out of service.”
Then, customer will continue to talk about how long it took to do their laundry, since “their machine” was out of service and, very quickly, your laundry can develop a reputation of being “the store with broken machines.”
In my case, I guess the customer didn’t take the time to count all 130 machines that we have, and realize that if one or two are out of service, it is less than 2 percent of the machines.
Therefore, it’s critical that store owners develop routine maintenance initiatives to prevent issues, while also being prepared for a major repair so that any downtime is minimized. You should strive to have 100 percent uptime on everything in your store – and not just your washers and dryers; after all, it is the entire experience we deliver to the customers that they will reflect on. This means that, when a customer goes to buy a soda, the vending machine works. If they use the restroom, it should be clean, with ample hand soap and towels available. Your televisions should function, and any other peripheral equipment that you provide is must be available and reliable for your customers’ convenience.
To achieve 100 percent uptime, it must be instilled in both your staff and your vendors how important this is to the success of your business. Take the time to explain why this is important and how all of the business’ stakeholders will experience dividends by working together to maintain all of the equipment in excellent condition.
Communication is the most critical component to any working team. I expect my staff to interact with all of our vendors to better understand their equipment. To that end, I post a list with the names of all companies and phone numbers for my staff to contact in the event of the slightest malfunction.
I lead by example – performing daily, weekly, monthly and annual maintenance on every single washer and dryer. We also stock a handful of common parts in-house at all times. I find it crucial to have basic troubleshooting knowledge instilled in everyone working at a store so that simple issues are quickly rectified. By having a knowledgeable attendant, it adds to the value of your laundry and also fosters a sense of trust within your customers.
If a customer experiences a malfunction with our equipment, we not only rewash their clothes in another machine at no cost, but we also issue them a voucher to use on their next visit for $5 of drying time, to make up for the inconvenience and to show them our dedication to our equipment.
Equipment breakdowns are inevitable. However, by developing a program similar to the strategy discussed, your store will operate more efficiently without experiencing negative fluctuation in your turns per day as a result of your equipment.
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