Market Research Ideas for Laundry Growth

Doing proper market research is one of the tools employed by successful businesses of all types. The goal is to find out what services and products customers want and then provide those services while making a profit. Basically, the better the information about clientele a business has, the better they can serve that clientele and the more profitable that business will be. Research departments are a feature of most large corporations, plus they hire outside research teams to find out what will work best for their business. Laundry operators need the same kinds of information to succeed, but usually don''t have the luxury of being able to hire outside groups to do this job. They have to do it themselves. The purpose of this Tips column is to offer a few examples that may work for your laundry operation. First, decide on the kind of information you want and need. Are you thinking of adding fluff & fold? Then you need to know if your current clientele will be supportive of that service. Do you plan to add more machines? Then you want to know type and sizes of machines your clientele will use. Once you know what you need to know, it''s time to get friendly with your customers. Make the effort to talk with those using the laundry. Would they like to have bigger washers and would they use them? Does their busy schedule make it likely they would take advantage of a fluff & fold service at your laundry? In just a brief time, the information you need to know is in your head and maybe the success of your decision is assured. At least with the right data you have a much better chance of being successful. What about putting some information you may already have to work for you? What''s that? What information? Almost all laundries offer refunds when a machine has malfunctioned. Those who had the problem fill out a card and usually include their address and phone number. Customers expect, and they deserve to have their refunds quickly processed. But that should not be the end of it. Over time, most of your long time regular laundry customers will end up having requested a refund for a real or imagined machine failure. A wise laundry owner won''t just make the refund, then throw the card away. Instead, the name, address and telephone number will be placed on an advertising and promotions list, preferably on your computer. You can see that such information could become a good mailing list. With a little time, such a list can become a real benefit to your business. Having such a list allows an owner to use this information in several ways. One idea is to call to say how sorry you are they had the problem and that you want to be sure that they are now happy. When was the last time someone phoned to keep you happy? It''s great PR! Another way is to take the addresses and post them on a local map to show the geographic areas your business comes from. Looking at such a map shows you whether or not there are parts of your business area that you draw too little business from. If so, maybe it''s time to do some advertising and promotion in those areas. However, without that list and the map, how would you know? Although some people think it''s kind of old fashioned, customers still appreciate it when someone they do business with sends them a card during the holiday season. It''s a nice way to say thanks and helps you guarantee customer loyalty. But, hard to unless you have a customer mailing list to work with.