Stop driving away your laundry customers

Remember that restaurant you loved going to until the service became so bad you’d have to wait for 2 hours for a table? Or how about that store you’d run to across town, only to find out they don’t have the item in stock, even though their website said they did.

People may go back to a business once or twice after a bad experience, but after that they will be gone. So, are you driving away customers from your laundromat without even realizing it?

The answer is yes, if you are offering mediocre customer service, products and amenities. But here’s what you can do:

• Offer stellar customer service. Research shows that 89% of consumers have switched to a competitor due to a poor customer service experience. So, make sure your laundry employees are friendly, knowledgeable and willing to help however they can. And if something does go wrong, fix it (fixing issues in real time is one of the huge customer service – and management time savings – that remote laundry management systems offers). Other research shows that about 75% of consumers who give a company a “very good” customer experience rating are likely to forgive that company for a bad experience.
• Make sure your laundromat is always clean. You’re in the cleaning business, so a dirty facility — outside or in — makes you look very unprofessional. Make sure the outside of your facility, including the parking lot, is maintained since the outside gives potential customers their first impression. Inside, make sure you have plenty of trash cans and recycling bins available and have a daily checklist of cleaning and maintenance tasks with assigned duties. If that’s not working, hire a cleaning service or additional staff.
• Technology is in. More than 92% of the population has smartphones so people are constantly connected. Huebsch utilizes the latest technology to help improve the laundry experience for you and your customers. Through Huebsch Command, you can easily accept mobile app payments, offer and track rewards, and monitor your laundromat’s performance from anywhere. It’s a win-win for customers and laundry investors and owners.
• Have an online presence. There are 5.9 million Google searches per minute and 63% of the searches occur on mobile devices in the U.S. You need an online presence including website, social media and online reviews to be competitive.

About 27% of small business don’t have a website. Is your laundromat in that percentage? At a minimum, your laundromat should have a website that is mobile-friendly, easy to use and optimized for search engines. Customers should be able to find your address, business hours and services quickly and easily. If you already have a website, look for ways to improve it. That could be as simple as adding fresh content regularly.

But a strong social media presence and up-to-date local listings on sites like Google My Business and Yelp also allow you to interact and connect with patrons across channels in a way that’s convenient and easy for them. Grow your social media presence and improve customer service response time across these channels.

Replace outdated laundry equipment. Or add more if your customers have to regularly wait for a machine to open. This is the most important consideration, as people aren’t coming into your laundromat to buy milk or new shoes. They’re there because they need clean laundry, and they want it now. Customers today expect top-of-the-line equipment that gets their laundry done quickly and efficiently. If you don’t provide that, they’ll go to a competitor who does.