Orignally posted – Dec 01, 2014
For the most part, our industry is the same throughout from store to store. Each laundromat features basically the same setup: washers and dryers for a set price, folding tables, carts, maybe some vending machines and possibly an attendant on duty.
If so much is the same from one laundry to the next, how then can one find or create their store’s competitive advantage?
At Liberty Laundry, we’ve found our best results by focusing on how we contrast with our competition. While many laundry businesses in many markets may boast older equipment or are unattended or perhaps accept only cash, our three locations feature large, modern, stainless steel washers and dryers; always have a friendly attendant or two on duty; and accept multiple payment methods.
For us, that last difference has been a key addition to the business. When we built our second store in 2010, we made a last-minute decision to add a credit card payment system to every washer and dryer in the store – and it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Not only could customers pay with quarters or dollar coins on every machine, not only did we provide bill changers and an ATM for their convenience and not only did we have an attendant on duty to make change at the cash register – but now customers could use their credit cards on any machine they wanted to use throughout the entire store.
It was – and remains – a huge competitive advantage. Right off the bat, we were seeing a full 30 percent of our self-service customers using credit cards, and lately we’ve observed a trend toward 40 percent.
In four years, this 2,400-square-foot store has raced to the top 1 percent in the country in gross sales, according to the Coin Laundry Association’s 2014 Coin Laundry Industry Survey.
Our card system – Setomatic’s SpyderWash system – not only supports magnetic-stripe credit card payments in addition to proprietary loyalty cards, but each card reader has a built-in NFC reader. NFC, or Near-Field Communication, is the industry standard for mobile phone contactless payment systems.
Any smartphone with NFC built into it, such as many Android phones with Google Wallet or Apple’s new iPhone 6 with Apple Pay, can be used to make a payment. Recently, Apple has made a big play in its marketing, pushing the new payment system for its convenience and security. It has been reported that Google Wallet transactions nationwide have jumped nearly 50 percent as well, presumably as a result of Apple’s efforts to raise public awareness of this new payment method.
At Liberty Laundry, we decided to take advantage of Apple’s efforts made a couple of marketing videos that showcase this feature of our store, and we’ve already had several customers try it out with great success.
Picture this scenario: A customer comes into our store carrying the new iPhone 6 with Apple Pay. Since they already registered their credit card information into their NFC-enabled smartphone, all they have to do to use our machines is tap their phone on the reader and the machine will start. Since it’s NFC, everything remains secure and encrypted – and the payment shows up in our reports just like any other credit card transaction.
Now we have a customer who is thinking about how cool it was to use their new phone in a futuristic way and how convenient it was, without a single thought regarding the cost or what a chore laundry can be. I’d call that a competitive advantage, wouldn’t you?
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