The first day of Clean 2015 in Atlanta wrapped up with a standing-room-only presentation by Brian Henderson, who serves as operations manager for Liberty Laundries, his family’s three-store chain based in Tulsa, Okla.
This packed educational session was held in the exhibition hall, giving laundry owners the opportunity to attend without having to stray too far from the trade show floor.
And the topic was one that is on many laundry owners’ minds these days – technology… namely, how to use today’s tech to streamline laundromat operations.
Having joined the family business in 2010, just as it went from one store to two (and would soon grow to a third location), Henderson was forced to come up with more effective ways to keep tabs on Liberty’s growing team of staff members, which now stands at 25.
“Everyone is looking to squeeze every bit of efficiency out of their team members,” Henderson said. “You have to manage those ‘pain points,’ and develop systems to cope with those growing pains.”
Among the four key technologies that Henderson outlined in his session were: QuickBooks Online; Dropbox, an automatic file backup and sharing system; Google tools, including Gmail, Calendar and YouTube; and WordPress, which is a free website building platform.
As examples, Henderson detailed how his company controls workflow by handling time-off requests through a private WordPress site, as well as how his staff members’ work schedules are saved to Dropbox.
“Right here on stage, I could handle work issues and manage my team from back home,” he explained.
What about employees who aren’t very techie?
Henderson said that he looks for people with some internet familiarity during the hiring process. However, he admitted that Liberty does employ some valued staffers who are allowed to handle their work schedules, etc. with old-fashioned pen and paper.
In closing, Henderson promised to create a few YouTube videos to further elaborate on the key points made during his session.
