Marketing and Growing Your Laundry Business’ Pickup-and-Delivery Service
[This is the second of a two-part feature. You can read Part One here.]
Clearly, you will face obstacles as you promote and begin to grow your residential pickup-and-delivery business, especially when compared to a self-service operation or even a drop-off laundry model.
“Marketing to delivery customers is a different game than marketing to traditional laundromat customers,” said Mark Vlaskamp of The Folde, serving the Houston and Austin, Texas, markets. “You’re not competing against local laundromats – you’re competing with digital-first laundry apps. These apps don’t process any of the cleaning – instead merely pairing customers with cleaning partners to do the laundry. With no laundry to worry about, these apps hone their focus on marketing.
“You’re starting off at a disadvantage, because you’re not a full-time marketer. The biggest challenge owners face when targeting PUD customers is realizing that they’re being held to a higher standard in the competitive landscape. Flyers, inside sales calls and Facebook posts might work for laundromats, but they’re far from truly competing with the front-runners in the deliver space right now.”
In other words, a leading challenge owners face with pickup and delivery is visibility, according to Aaron Simmons of Curbside Laundries.
“Part of your lease or mortgage payment are paying for visibility to the thousands of cars that drive by your laundromat,” he said. “Most pickup-and-delivery customers will find you online, so time and effort needs to be spent making sure people know about you.”
Moreover, in some markets, consumer education will be an additional challenge for operators, according to Nick Chapleau of Starchup.
“Many prospective customers haven’t used this type of service before, and certainly not with your business,” he said. “You need to educate that prospect without the benefit of an in-person customer service representative. This is why a high-quality website and well-targeted communications are crucial to those conversions and your business’ growth.”
PUD is quite a bit more complicated than drop-off laundry, admitted Peter Lowin, owner of LaundryaGoGo, a laundry pickup-and-delivery business serving the Pasadena/Burbank market.
“You need a website, backend software, vans, drivers and commercial auto insurance,” he pointed out. “There’s quite a bit of logistics involved with PUD, so there will be much more management involved.
“Driving logistics are key. Backend software that helps to organize driver routing is a must. Our system also sends automatic text messages once the driver is on the way.
“No doubt, with more complications, there will be more opportunities for things to go wrong – customers getting other people’s clothes, customers not being ready when the driver gets there, etc. And, as your volume grows, there will be other challenges, including the need for more employees. Fortunately, these changes won’t all occur overnight, so you’ll have some time to adjust.”
As far as specific marketing challenges, often the biggest hurdle is the added cost of delivery, according to Eli Aizenstat, director of marketing for Cents.
“If you experience customer resistance, trying promotions and subsidies to make the delivery free is a good strategy to show them how easy it is and to help them understand the value of what they’re paying for,” he said.
In addition, Aizenstat explained that his company’s research has indicated new residential PUD customers are often concerned about the use of incorrect detergents or machine settings, as well as the risk of clothes being lost or stolen. Therefore, be sure to use appropriate messaging to assure your customers of the quality of your service, as well as perhaps addressing those specific concerns.
Mistakes to Avoid
Mistakes are going to happen when establishing and growing a relatively new service like residential pickup and delivery. The trick is to avoid the obvious miscues.
And one of the simplest pitfalls to avoid is not charging enough for your service, noted John Baiada, who owns Tornado Laundromat in Amarillo, Texas.
“I see so many laundry owners trying to compete for the lowest price in their markets, instead of charging based on the value of their service,” he marveled. “There are so many costs involved with pickup and delivery that can get overlooked, including gas, vehicle maintenance, drivers, software, laundry bags and so on.”
HappyNest founder and CEO John MacKrell agreed, noting that some operators incorrectly focus on the volume of laundry, rather than the price.
“Pricing your service too low is a common mistake,” he said. “Just because you have a lot of laundry being processed doesn’t mean you’re making money. Do not confuse activity for progress.
“In the past, I also have been seduced by the large commercial accounts,” MacKrell added. “I thought, if I could get the laundry in the door, I could make it work and make money. In most instances, what it did was concentrate my business on just a few large accounts that were very price-sensitive. If you know your costs and your acceptable margin, you can avoid this trap.”
Another common error is simply giving up too quickly, if you’re not noticing any traction, Aizenstat said. Depending on market conditions and demographics, it may take some time for your business to begin to take off – so patience and persistence is crucial as you look to growth this segment of your operation.
Also, some laundry owners mistakenly believe that “only affluent people have their dirty laundry picked up, washed, folded and returned to them,” said Curbside Laundries’ Matthew Simmons. “To the contrary, many of our customers live in apartments near our laundromat. In reality, everyone benefits from outsourcing their chores and saving time.”
“A more nuts-and-bolts type of mistake is hiding the PUD button within a menu or down toward the bottom of your website,” Aizenstat explained. “From a technical perspective, you should always put the PUD button front and center on your page to get the customers’ attention.”
In addition, many PUD operators neglect to include such important information on their websites as pricing, hours of operation and turnaround times, according to Jorge Rodriguez of Hamperapp Technologies.
“If it’s not on your site, you will receive frequent calls, texts and emails asking those basic questions, and have to spend hours answering them over and over,” Rodriguez explained. “So, make sure to add a frequently asked questions section to your website to avoid having to constantly repeat the same information.”
Moreover, a one-size-fits-all email or SMS system is another common pitfall, according to Ricard Pryce, business development executive for CleanCloud.
“By dividing up your customers and filtering them into those with the highest order counts, those with minimal orders, those with infrequent but high-value orders and so on, you can tailor your incentives to best fit each of these client groups,” Pryce advised.
However, perhaps the biggest mistake is not setting appropriate expectations for yourself and your customers.
“When starting a new route, it’s easy – and perhaps wise – to take anyone and everyone in order to create that ‘beachhead presence’ in a new area,” said Daniel Sofranko, owner of Perfect Wash-Express Laundry Center in Huntington Beach, Calif. “But there comes a point where you need to evaluate any less- or non-profitable customers, regions or service offerings, and make the appropriate adjustments.”
With that said, it’s also key to make sure your new customers know your turnaround time and what days of the week you will be in their area.
“Put yourself in their shoes and answer the questions you might have,” Sofranko advised. “At first, they may be nervous about leaving their laundry on their porch or calling a stranger to take their garments.”
You need to gain your customers’ trust:
- Pick up and deliver on time.
- Consistently deliver a clean, well-packaged finished product.
- Be professional.
- Be responsive.
- Be transparent with your pricing.
“A huge part of marketing is trust,” Sofranko said. “If you gain your customers’ trust, they’re going to tell all their friends about the great service they found – and there’s no better marketing than that.”
The Times Are Changing…
Most people still have no idea they can leave their laundry at their front door, and someone will pick it up and bring it back in a couple of days – all washed, dried and professionally folded.
But that’s changing quickly.
“As more potential customers learn about this magical service, the industry will grow,” Sofranko promised.
“A couple of decades ago, there was an increase in demand for house-cleaning services,” Lowin noted. “People soon discovered there were alternatives to cleaning their homes, rather than doing it themselves. Independent cleaners and maid services popped up everywhere, and the demand for them only continued to grow.
“When we first started to see real growth in our PUD service, we thought we might see a decline in our drop-off laundry business. However, in the last nine months, our drop-off business has returned to pre-COVID levels, while our PUD business continues to grow.”
Vlaskamp sees the laundry pickup-and-delivery market as just starting to take shape.
“If this were a baseball game, the national anthem would be about halfway over,” he commented. “Right now, demand is outpacing supply to fill orders. There hasn’t been an established ceiling on pricing yet. Smarter, well-capitalized investors are moving into the space, and software automation is starting to develop at a faster pace – thus, minimizing production costs and maximizing efficiency.”
For Chapleau, economic, cultural and technological shifts have all conspired to boost the demand for laundry PUD services as high as it’s ever been.
“Consumers are recognizing how valuable their time is, and technology has reduced the cost and increased the ability to grow pickup and delivery,” he explained. “It would not be surprising if, in 10 years, the delivery market outpaced drop-off and self-service laundry, and potentially began to make a significant dent in home laundry as well.”
“The underlying trend of outsourcing home services continues to grow, and I think it makes a lot of sense for laundromat owners to expand into this segment,” MacKrell said. “From a store owner’s perspective, it helps make a good store become a great store.”
“Consumer habits have changed,” agreed Bruce Walker, who owns Wash It Kwik in Denton, Texas. “The future is Uber, Grubhub, DoorDash and Amazon. If you’re a laundry owner who wants to remain relevant in 2022, you must grow your pickup-and-delivery business.”
