How has technology changed the laundry industry?
Technology has helped streamline many industries through automation, including the laundry industry. From marketing to the actual operations of a laundromat, technology has played a hand in making it easier for the business owner to stay on top of, and even be proactive about, any potential problems or complications.
There are a few common pain points existing store owners face: time, utility costs, labor, keeping up with the competition, changing customer expectations and generating a profit or expanding. To address these issues, some models of washers and dryers contain advanced technology to help keep costs low, save business owners time and even stay competitive with other local businesses.
Business operation
While coin-operated machines are still the norm in many laundromats, there are machines available now that use technology for everything from operation to payment. Some machines can be completely operated remotely, meaning a business owner can be at home and see real-time usage data without having to go anywhere. If there are slow drain or fill times, the laundromat owner is notified immediately, which means they can be proactive and quickly solve a potential problem before customers are impacted. This eliminates hours of time each week driving to and from your store(s) to check on your machines, or receiving a nasty online review for delayed service. Additionally owners can even remote-start machines and do remote programming.
Another huge advancement is the app-based payment system, which eliminates coins altogether. This means your customers no longer have to worry about carrying coins (a HUGE bonus for them.) and you don’t have to spend your time making sure your change machine is stocked, your machines aren’t out of order due to a coin sticking or going to the bank in person to manage your profits. Basically, everything can be done remotely through technology, again, saving you time and money. App-based payment has been particularly helpful during the current coin shortage.
Lastly, technology has helped laundromat owners and their staff become much more independent. By using app-based machines, attendants can have autonomy to use the tablet to take care of any customer issues. This has been proven to lead to more job satisfaction among attendants and the store owner still has full visibility of what the attendant is doing.
Analytics
If you have a machine that records performance data, you can analyze that data and modify business plans and operations as necessary without much guesswork. For example, if you notice your machines are using more water than normal, that’s an indication something could be wrong, and you can address the problem before it becomes an even bigger (more expensive) issue.
Another example would be if you notice you have a high volume of customers during the weekend but it slows down quite a bit on Wednesdays, perhaps you offer a special on Wednesdays to try to draw some of the weekend crowd to come in during the week. Having access to analytics and data from your machines and business allows you to make more informed business decisions, which in general will lead to a more profitable business. Just another way technology is helping laundromat owners evolve their brands.
Marketing
In the past, many laundromat owners didn’t spend much effort or money on marketing their business. With the growth in social media, however, there has been a boom in digital marketing efforts among laundromats. Meeting your customers where they are, especially during the pandemic, can only help your business. In most cases, your customers are online.
Technology that helps maintain efficient business operations can also help with marketing a store. For example, there are all-inclusive programs that also offer a CRM (customer relationship management) system that can help owners generate promotional codes and even track ROI off those codes. By taking full advantage of the offerings in your machine’s technology, you’ll be miles ahead of your competition because you can monitor and track what is working and what isn’t in terms of marketing. This gives you the peace of mind to know you’re not spending money on efforts that aren’t generating any profits.
Equipment error or user error?
While there are many ways technology has helped streamline the laundry industry and business operations, there are sometimes barriers users face – most commonly learning to use the tools available to them.
From the owner/operator perspective, technology can be overwhelming if you’re not used to it. Some laundromat owners have machines with useful high-tech options but don’t know how to best use these features and are missing out on some great opportunities for themselves and their clients.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can always reach out to your manufacturer for questions and training resources. Some offer one-on-one training and best-practice guides.
What’s next?
It’s incredible to look back to a traditional coin-operated store and see how far the industry has progressed, and there’s no slowing down. Some of the potential opportunities on the horizon include pickup and delivery, especially considering the current business climate resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a big opportunity for growth integrating technology into the pickup and delivery of laundry (think Uber for laundry) and also predictive analytics that could provide proactive reminders for servicing a machine, for example how vehicles can remind the driver it’s time for an oil change.
Wherever technology takes us, it’s important to remember the end user, though. Is this going to be useful to the customer? If not, ask yourself, is it still worth doing?
