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).
Part 1 discussed customer preference trends and how they influenced the amenities these laundromat owners were offering, plus how the owners were leveraging technology. Let’s continue.
Q: Let’s talk about community-focused spaces within your stores, whether that’s maybe a kids’ play area, reading area, a study space for students, or just a nice lounge. What are you doing with those kinds of spaces beyond doing laundry?
Canfield: When creating this store, it was really important to me to create a space where it wasn’t just about doing laundry, it’s about more than that. A space where elderly people can sit and be comfortable. We do have stools but there’s also nice seating where people can have nice lighting to sit and work. It’s not uncommon for us to see a group of friends bring out a board game, or one night we had someone bring a whole charcuterie board. They feel like it’s a clean enough space to want to bring food, to gather their friends and come there, and that’s huge.
The thing we get the most compliments about is having a kids’ area. We have a very nice designated area—probably 200 to 300 square feet—where kids and adults can come and, you know, really promoting that literacy piece. When I took over my small store, there was no seating at all and we added a kids’ area with just a table, crayons, books, things the kids can do while they’re there.
Westfall: We have an extremely open floor plan. The open area of our store is 6,300 square feet. There’s plenty of them out there that are bigger, but it’s a very open area. We have a lot of tables with chairs connected to them, and we did a custom matching bar with bar-height stools all the way. Behind that, we have a children’s picnic table, usually with a few books and a Connect 4, a single game. We have the coin-operated claw game, bubble gum machines, a little helicopter game, all kinds of different things for them to play with as long as Mom and Dad gives them some quarters.
Q: Going beyond the store or space, what about community events or maybe outreach programs?
Chapman: It blows my mind how much laundry gets left behind. One of my attendants came to me and said she wanted to start something, with our blessing. Pull out the good clothing, the towels, the socks, things that are good quality, to wash them, package them, add in toiletries, and it makes what we call Loads of Love. About every two weeks, she’ll take between 18 to 20 care packages to different homeless and battered women’s shelters, places that we’ve identified that are helping our community. That started at our first store four years ago and now we have that at all of our locations.
Westfall: We donate clothes left behind. We definitely donate to churches and homeless shelters, and we also partner with an organization called Pathways. They do a lot of things but one is to make sure they have warming shelters up here in the North. They supply toiletries and towels and different things, and we give them pre-loaded laundry cards. When it runs out, we load it back up and make sure they’re taken care of. Only been in business for 18 months with Big Kahuna in this new model, so we’re kind of young at this. We want to do more, we just haven’t yet.
Canfield: I really like to create an atmosphere that people want to be in, so we did a Halloween event and invited people to come in dressed in costume. They got a free wash if they came looking festive, and the kids got goody bags. We had all kinds of treats and decorated the store, just made it a day to enjoy. And we did the same thing at Christmas. If you came in, you got something out of Santa’s goody bag. We wrapped up the soaps in the vending machine, and a few of them contained cards for a free wash. I wrapped up books from the LaundryCares Foundation; every kid that came in got a present to open. Those types of events, I want to do more.
Check back Thursday 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].
