OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. — Modern laundromats are incorporating a range of amenities designed to transform the traditionally mundane chore of doing laundry into an enjoyable and efficient experience.
From high-speed Wi-Fi and comfortable lounge areas to varied payment options and premium detergents, these small but important changes in service and environment can have a big impact on customer satisfaction and business success.
A recent CLA webinar titled “The Customer Experience: Trends in Laundry Amenities” took a closer look at laundromat amenities through the eyes of a small panel of store owners.
Panelists were Carlie Canfield, LaundroLab, St. Petersburg, Florida; Josh Chapman, Wash Bar, Ardmore, Oklahoma; and Bruce Westfall, Big Kahuna Ozone Laundry, Newark, Ohio; their responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What trends are you seeing in customer preferences, and how does that influence some of the amenities you’re offering?
Chapman: In self-serve, we’re seeing a lot more people wanting to take advantage of our card system. Lot of people ask about rewards. I don’t know if it’s because people are hitting casinos nowadays but they’re about getting rewards for coming in. That’s been real popular. Something that’s come out of left field that I was not expecting is people asking about our vending machine and drop-off for specialty soaps. We have a lot of people asking for custom high-end soaps, and I never saw that coming.
Canfield: I have an unattended store and then our LaundroLab store. One thing that kind of surprises me is that people like to have options. So, in our new store, we have all the options for machine size from washers to dryers, and then payment options. We offer coin and app. You have those customers who aren’t ready for the technology piece or aren’t ready to get out of quarters, but then you have other customers who love the app and the card pay.
Westfall: We entered a market of what I’d call ‘depressed’ laundry facilities, but the area itself was not depressed. They just really hadn’t come along with technology and newer machines. We were first to bring a card system to the market. We were first to bring the variety of machine sizes. We still allow coins (as payment). Our hope, when people walked in, was to say, “OK, I can use the laundry the way I’m used to doing it, but if I really want to, I can use this newfangled card system.” We even went out of our way to private-label our app. The more we educate people on the card system, the more they’re using it.
Q: How are you leveraging technology? Card systems would be one of the ways you’re doing it but are there any others?
Chapman: I’ve built four new stores over the last four years and all of them are hybrid. I’ve heard arguments for going all coin, all card. You can incentivize people to come back. I love the app just because I can send direct notifications to people for promos. We do a “happy hour” so I can be anywhere in the world and if I want to half-price washes for a morning, I can jump on my phone and instantly make all my washers half-price.
I’m also a huge fan of ozone, every one of my locations has it. My first store is 4 years old and when people walk in, they know about ozone. I have good signage, and on our website, we push it on everything. People walk in and they can smell it, fresh and clean. I’ve actually dialed mine up a little higher than the manufacturer suggests just so you can smell it. Ozone has been huge for us. A majority of our wash-and-fold (business) is medical contracts because we do have ozone.
Westfall: That was my biggest challenge when we were building this store. I wanted to put the word “ozone” right in the name of our business, but nobody here knew what it was. I said, “Perfect, that’s exactly what we want to do.” What’s the first thing a prospective customer going to do? They’re going to Google it. People are curious, especially with a smartphone in their hands.
I’m going to include some things that aren’t technology but kind of is. How about automatic opening doors? I like seeing someone walk in with her hands full, turn around and look at me as if to say, “Ah, thank you.” That’s a big deal. You’ve got that, and most places where you can sit in our store, you can charge your phone. I made sure we put USB chargers everywhere.”
Check back Tuesday for more on boosting customer experience through amenities
The CLA frequently offers free webinars covering topics such as marketing, store operations/management, and new investor education. Visit https://laundryassociation.org/webinars to learn more.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].
