Beneficial Features To Help a Laundry Grow

You see them and it makes you wonder. Here are two laundries about the same age, and both have about the same equipment and are about the same size. They look about identical and have similar locations in what should be a good business neighborhood for laundries.

Both owner/operators work hard. Each spends about the same amount of time at their businesses every day. They keep things clean and their equipment in good repair. Yet, one stretches to pay his bills and is nervous. The other one is banking profits and is happy. Why the difference?

Surveys of laundry customers have shown that the second most disliked household chore is doing laundry. It comes in a close second to cleaning toilets. It should then come as no surprise that the more successful laundry owner businesses are those that are geared to make the laundering chore as convenient and pleasant as possible. These laundries offer extra benefits and features that are not usually found at their competitors.

In a laundry business, the word amenity could apply to those things that make a coin laundry user’s time go faster, easier and more agreeably. In other words more pleasantly.

Following are some of the features noticed by the News in successful coin and card operated laundries we have visited over our many years in the industry.

 

Offering Free Morning Coffee.

Quite a few laundries have free coffee in the morning. Some just on special days, but many do it all week long. They do this hoping to attract new customers by offering something other laundries don’t. Some brew up an urn full each morning while others use the urn only for keeping the water hot and offer instant coffee.

The cost varies, but most laundries say this is under $50 per month including the coffee, cups, sweetener and creamer. Less than $2 per day. There’s also a cost for labor to do it, but that’s minimal.

It requires the presence of personnel at the laundry to offer coffee without having a lot of waste, so again, this promotion will work better in an attended situation.

 

Background Music

It was no surprise for the News to find that many coin laundries offer background music in some fashion. A speaker or two laid up above the ceiling tile, with wires run back to an FM radio, is all it takes. Tuned to a middle of the road music station, the radio provides free music for customers.

The laundry owner has offered a nicer and more pleasant place for the coin laundry’s clientele.

There are a few possible problems. Some will want the music louder, some will tell you it’s too loud. Then there is discussion as to the music style they want. You can’t please them all, but they mostly want some music over having no music.

This idea works well if the laundry is attended or not. The cost for a radio, speakers and wire is minimal. The cost to install is basically nothing.

 

If music does indeed soothe the savage beast, think what it might do for the attitude of coin laundry users. This is an easy, low cost and much appreciated coin laundry amenity.

 

A Bulletin Board is an extra too.

If you watch any laundry’s bulletin board area long enough, you’ll see the customers stop and read what’s there. They read the business cards, notices and notes. It helps keep the customers entertained and informed. So your bulletin board is a real benefit.

It doesn’t cost much to put up and it’s easy to maintain. To keep it neat and clean does take some occasional labor, but it’s so interesting for bored customers.

 

Magazines & Other Reading Matter.

Something noticed more in older laundries than in new. Quite a number have magazines and other reading matter available for their clientele. These are usually stacked on a table or placed in a rack built for the purpose.

The cost is virtually nothing. Over time, some customers will begin to bring in their old magazines, while others will take some with them to finish reading. This cycling ties customers to the laundry and makes going to that laundry something like going to the library.

An additional advantage is that parents use these magazines to help entertain the children. Some laundries include crayons and pencils and provide coloring books. “It helps keep the kids off of the machines,” said one laundry manager.

The disadvantage is the small amount of labor required to re-stack the magazines which eventually will be scattered all over the laundry.

Like almost every coin laundry promotional idea, offering a magazine library works best in attended laundries, but can be used by those that are not attended as well.

 

Television for Customer Viewing.

Coin laundry customers are like everyone else and watch television a lot. Many stay home when their favorite Soap is airing. Many male laundry customers avoid doing wash at times when there is a good game on the tube. Because many men accompany wives to the laundry, a good game cuts business even more. Laundry owners are TV watchers too. It just makes sense to think about putting in a TV as an amenity for your clientele.

Offering TV viewing isn’t quite as simple as providing background music. There will be cable charges in most areas, or at least the cost for buying the antennae.

TV’s have value and become a target for thieves. This means the sets need to be secured or put on an alarm. There are special mounting posts available, or a set can be built into a wall with a clear plastic window denying access to the set. Clear plastic attracts film, so it must be cleaned frequently.

Sets should be installed high enough to permit viewing at a distance, and so must be tuned by remote. One problem cited by owners was misplacing the remote.

The sound should be distributed to the viewing area by adding a speaker or two wired to the set. Otherwise, the sound has to blare near the TV and won’t be heard at any distance over the sounds of the equipment.

You can never please everybody with the selection of programs. Ethnicity in some areas dictates Spanish or Black oriented programs. Some owners use movie tapes and announce what will be playing well in advance.

In many areas, you have to be on cable and pay a monthly fee. Where antennae are required, there is a cost for purchase plus installation. In many areas antenna must be screened or otherwise hidden from view by the public. It all costs money, but it does seem to be appreciated by coin laundry clientele.

This amenity does cost more. There’s an original investment in the equipment plus monthly expense for cable, dishes, videos and upkeep. It’s from $50 to $100 a month.

 

Sodas, Munchies and misc. vending.

Having a vending operation may or may not be a satisfactory profit center in a coin laundry. But, it can pay off by bringing in and keeping more contented customers. The positives of this kind of vending far outweigh the negatives.

Among the positives are availability of something to drink on a warm day, or munch items, which makes doing their wash much more pleasant for your clientele. When they bring their kids along, it helps mom keep the natives quiet, and there’s an opportunity for having more cash flow.

Negatives include extra work for owners and their staff. Spilled drinks are common, and having potato chips and candy spread all over the laundry takes extra time to clean up. Temper this by realizing that customers will go elsewhere to buy these things if they are not available in the laundry, and will probably create the same mess anyway. So, why shouldn’t you make the profit?

 

Virtually anything a coin laundry owner does to make their laundry a better place to be, is an amenity. Having attendants makes customers more confident about doing their wash there and they also will feel safer. Fluff & Fold and Drop Off Dry Cleaning Service and alterations offer the clientele a one stop laundry service convenience.

Presenting a pleasant decor is really the first amenity a laundry should offer. Everyone knows what ugly is, and they don’t want to go there, especially to do what is considered to be an unpleasant chore like the laundry.

 

Sun tanning machines, post office boxes, water sales, shoe repair, Wi-Fi access and even pay phones make it nicer and more convenient for the customers, because there is either something different to look at, think about or to do.

Proper mix of washer sizes, easy to read instruction signs, selling soap and supplies all make customer’s lives easier. Chairs and tables, both for folding and use in the seating area, could be considered amenities as well.

 

We have said it before, and will no doubt keep saying it again and again, because it is the truth: “Successful laundry operators should always be amenable to adding amenities.”

 

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