Coin Laundry Association<\/a> to borrow this slogan and apply it to our industry.<\/p>\nCustomers form the foundation of our various businesses. We work hard to attract, serve and maintain customers, regardless of which segment of the industry we serve \u2013 store owner, distributor, manufacturer, finance company, payment systems provider, consultant, WDF pickup-and-delivery solutions or others. At some point in this customer relationship process, we ask some form of, \u201cWhat can Brown do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n
It may be \u201cHow are we doing?\u201d or \u201cHow can we help you?\u201d or \u201cWhat do you need?\u201d In fact, successful companies ask these questions often. After all, how do we know what our customers want if we don\u2019t ask them?<\/p>\n
A trade association also is a business. Its members are its customers. The same methods of relationship-building apply. The challenge for a trade group is to realize that \u2013 once members pay their dues \u2013 they become customers in need of service. Without a physical storefront to visit or sales representatives to call on association members, how does that customer relationship grow? How do the two businesses communicate? How does the association know what its customers want and need as time moves on, as the economy shifts and as its customers evolve? How does a trade association remain a valued trading partner?<\/p>\n
Compounding this challenge for the CLA is the breadth of its customer base. The CLA serves three main groups: laundromat owners, distributors and manufacturers.<\/p>\n
However, the vast majority of its members are store owners. Given that, it\u2019s required that laundry owners comprise at least half of the CLA\u2019s Board of Directors.<\/p>\n
Successful store owners are the cornerstone of the industry. They purchase supplies, parts, service and equipment from distributors, who in turn purchase products from the industry\u2019s manufacturers. As a result, it\u2019s not surprising that the CLA is spends a lot of its time, money and resources educating and advising laundromat owners and potential investors. Which brings us to ask the question: \u201cWhat can the CLA do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n
The store owner segment of the laundromat industry is varied. Some laundromats are fully attended, while others are unattended. Some stores are the primary sources of income for their owners, while others provide second or third incomes. Many operators have one store, yet others own multiple locations. Some owners have been in the industry less than three years, and others are running second- and third-generation businesses.<\/p>\n
Clearly, asking store owners, \u201cWhat can the CLA do for you?\u201d would generate a wide range of answers. Now, couple that dynamic while asking the same question to the industry\u2019s distributors and manufacturers and one soon sees the complexity of the task. Nonetheless, the question must be asked.<\/p>\n
This year, the CLA will embark on an ambitious program to examine its product offerings to the industry, with an eye to enhancing the value proposition of membership. This program depends on maintaining and growing relationships with its members through ongoing communication consisting of electronic and in-person interactions. It consists of educating all members on the association\u2019s current products and services, while discovering \u2013 and then delivering \u2013 new products and services that this industry needs.<\/p>\n
In closing, on behalf of the CLA, I ask, \u201cWhat can the CLA do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n
[Editor\u2019s Note: In light of this month\u2019s column, please let us know what the Coin Laundry Association can do to help you better run your business? Send your thoughts and suggestions to: membership@coinlaundry.org<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat can Brown do for you?\u201d That was the popular slogan for UPS from 2002 to 2010. Simple in structure yet far-reaching in scope, the slogan engaged UPS\u2019 multi-platform customer universe to think about its relationship with the company and how it might be expanded. The shipping, receiving and supply chain management giant wanted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1270,"featured_media":11115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[186,243,244,245,98,9351],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viewpoint","category-feature-1","category-feature-2","category-feature-3","category-featured-articles","category-highlights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11116,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11114\/revisions\/11116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}