How a POS System Can Add Value for You and Your Customers
“What gets measured, gets managed.” – Peter Drucker
If you already have a point-of-sale system, you know how valuable they are. Unfortunately, many laundromat owners still use paper and pen – and the laundromat industry in general remains woefully behind in its use of technology.
In high school, I used to work at a supermarket. This was in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Back then, we would type each individual item into the register, rather than scanning it. For instance, a carton of milk would be “89 cents, dairy,” a bottle of bleach would be “69 cents, taxable grocery,” ground chuck was “$1.27, meat department,” and so on.
Of course, you’d be shocked if you went to Walmart today and the cashier did that. Why would they be using such an antiquated system? Where’s their scanner that indicates the price, number in inventory, and aisle location?
So, why are some laundromats still stuck in the ’90s – weighing clothes on an old-style scale where the needle vacillates back and forth until it eventually settles on a weight, and writing all of the customer’s information on a paper ticket?
Let’s look at this from both sides of the counter. I’ll start with the management side first.
It’s 2024, and if you’re still writing everything down, you can only guesstimate your business. The Drucker quote above is so simple, yet so profound.
Here’s a little example: I was running a report on everything we had sold YTD. It told me how much we did in pickup and delivery at each price point, how many dog beds and blankets we cleaned, total sales, and so on. Then I asked my staff members how many blankets they thought we’d processed so far that year. I got guesses ranging from 250 to 6,000. The actual number was 689.
Why is that important? Because it represents more than 15 percent of our wash-dry-fold business. Blankets are a valuable part of our business, and maybe I could lean into that more. Another thing I discovered was that we had done roughly $80 in pet beds. (And we didn’t even wash the one we have for our own dogs.) Roughly 44 percent of U.S. households have at least one dog. Going forward, it could be a huge opportunity for us if we promote that service. I wouldn’t have known this if we didn’t have a POS system keeping track of it.
The second benefit of having a POS system is the fact that it allows you to collect all of your WDF and/or PUD customers’ information. This makes it easy to store customer preferences, as well as to send them text or email marketing.
For example, let’s say that Jane doesn’t want any fabric softener used on her clothes, and she wants all of the collared shirts hung on hangers. This information will always appear when you print out the ticket to place on her bags. If the tag is handwritten, she has to remember to tell the attendant at drop-off, or you will have to ask each time she comes in. Perhaps, for some reason, Jane receives special pricing; that also would be stored in the system.
Additionally, a POS system allows you to manage your laundry business from anywhere. I can log on from any computer or mobile device and see that there is still, for instance, one 84-pound order that needs to be processed for delivery tomorrow. Or maybe we have 117 additional pounds of laundry due tomorrow – and I can see that one order is in the washers right now, and one is in the dryer. I also can see that in two days, 112 pounds are due. This is a manageable amount, and based on this information, those orders shouldn’t be difficult to finish.
Of course, I’ve seen it happen when everyone decides to drop off their laundry at once. Let’s say an attendant texts me, saying: “We got a lot of drop-offs!” OK, what exactly does that mean?
Maybe someone has just returned from vacation and dropped off 110 pounds, and a new customer walked in with 75 more – and that’s on top of the 225 pounds we already have in the system. Now I have the information I need to decide whether or not I should bring in extra help in the next day or two.
I also can see what laundry still needs to be picked up by customers, whether they’ve paid, and how old their orders are. If anything is “too old,” we will send the customer a text reminder from our POS system, or an attendant will call. Surprisingly, prepaid items sometimes hit this list. Although I’m glad we got paid, I’d still rather not have to store customers’ items for six months.
The next thing I can do is look at our drivers’ schedule for the upcoming days. Again, this helps me gauge how busy we’ll be. We provide pickups and deliveries Monday through Friday, between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. We have several recurring customers who are scheduled every other Monday, which typically is our heaviest day. I use this information to help me schedule my drivers.
Anyone working at my laundromat can access all of the information I’ve mentioned thus far. But my system also provides critical data to which only I, as the owner, have access:
Monthly and YTD pounds washed: You need to know how much laundry you’re processing and be able to compare it with past months and years.
Total number of orders and average price per order: Is your business growing, or are there other factors involved? Obviously, you can see if total sales are up or down, but what’s driving that? Did you add a large commercial account? Are your drop-off customers down? Do you service the same number of customers, but have higher revenue because of a price increase?
Services and service options sold: This is where I can see what we sold and at what price points. For example, we had different price points for wash-dry-fold throughout the year; a couple were because we made errors initially, and another because we decided to raise prices during the year. This is how I know how many blankets and pet beds we’ve processed. I also realized we were missing an opportunity by not upselling customers from our house detergent to premium brands. Often, if you simply ask customers whether or not they want Tide, they’ll say yes because it’s a familiar brand.
View promotion usage: Are customers responding to your promotions? If we give out coupons at certain local events, we can see how many are redeemed and consider whether or not it’s worth attending those events in the future.
List of new and recurring customers: The question I have all of our attendants ask when we get a new customer is, “How did they find us?” Was it a Google search or a referral? Do they drive past the store every day?
Monthly customer revenue: This shows you how much each customer spent and the last time they used your services. When I go through this report, I can find customers who used to come in every month and then just stopped. Now, I can contact those customers and offer them a deal to get them back.
Prospective pickup-and-delivery customers: This is a list of customers who went to our website and filled out information, but never placed an order. I also can reach out to them.
Customer list: This is a list of every customer we have in the system, and it can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet.
Employee reconciliation: It reconciles cash and tracks all transactions during each shift.
Cash events: I can view a list of all cash events, including purchases and refunds. This is good for when you might not be in the laundromat often.
Product sales: This gives you a look at sales of behind-the-counter items such as Tide pods, bottles of detergent, fabric sheets, etc.
Turns per machine: This will let you know how frequently each machine is being used and if there is increased (or decreased) usage. It also indicates which machines are currently in use.
Another great benefit of laundry POS systems is that the companies hosting your system will develop your website. Some will let you customize your site with different templates, but the key is that they do it for you. Even today, only about half of laundromats even have websites, so getting one professionally created is just one less hurdle you need to clear. These providers also will develop your site for search engine optimization (SEO) so that customers can find you more easily.
Some POS systems boast a fully integrated payroll feature. Employees can clock in and out at the register, and the system will send the information to your payroll processing company. They also enable you to work with DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, and any other gig economy companies that handle pickups and deliveries.
I’m sure there are probably 50 other features these systems can offer laundromat operators, but I think you get my point. A POS system is a valuable addition to your operation, especially if you want to grow your business.
From the Customer’s Perspective
Customers expect technology. It’s a part of all of our lives. You can sit on your couch and run your life from your phone. You can order food, medicine, groceries, do your banking, have your doctor’s visit, and never leave your living room.
If you needed to rent a car, you’d be shocked if Avis didn’t have a website. If you order a slice of pizza, that food order is going through a POS system. Go into any hair salon to make an appointment, and they’re going to put it into a computer; they don’t write it down anymore.
So, why are laundromats different? Yet, with many laundries, potential customers can’t even find out the stores’ business hours. In today’s society, such laundromats without a basic website feel like relics from a bygone era.
Now, if you used a laundromat regularly and it had an app that told you how many machines were currently in use so that you would know if the size of machine you need is available, wouldn’t that be useful to you? What if the app included a rewards program, and you could receive free items based on your usage?
Additionally, let’s say you drop off your clothes for wash-dry-fold and are told they will be done by Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. However, if your garments get done early, you’d receive a text message that your clothes are ready for pickup on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. Sound helpful?
As a pickup-and-delivery customer, you’d get a text message when the driver was on the way to your house, and another one when your items have been either picked up or dropped off.
In 2024, these aren’t merely nice service options to offer – they are the baseline expectations of all consumers when shopping for any product or service.
From a Buyer’s Perspective
Still need one last reason to incorporate a POS system into your operation?
I assume most store owners will want to sell their laundromats at some point. A system will help prospective buyers conduct their due diligence. The laundry business is still a mostly cash business. Given that, you will have a much easier time building trust with a buyer because verifying your numbers is much easier with a POS system.
Without a POS system, even if all of your numbers are 100 percent accurate, any new owners who want to scale the business would still have a lot of work ahead of them. After all, despite knowing your topline sales number, they wouldn’t necessarily understand exactly how that number was reached. How much of it was from blankets, detergent pods, etc.? They couldn’t truly dig into your numbers until they created their own with a new POS system.
The easier you can make the transition and the more information you can provide a prospective buyer, the more valuable your laundry business will be in the long run.
