CHICAGO — When offering wash-dry-fold (WDF) service, consistency isn’t just a quality goal — it’s the foundation of customer trust, operational efficiency and repeat revenue. Yet delivering the same finished product, on time and to specification, day after day requires far more than good intentions. It demands clear systems, disciplined training and a culture that treats every order as a reflection of the brand.
To better understand how successful operators build that consistency into their WDF programs, American Coin-Op spoke with four laundry owners and managers who have refined their training processes, documentation and quality controls. Their insights reveal practical strategies for turning new hires into confident producers — and for keeping standards high as volume grows.
In Part 1, the group defined “consistent” service, described the written systems or checklists they use, and detailed how they train their new hires during the first days/weeks on the job. Let’s continue:
Q: Which steps in the WDF process are most prone to mistakes, and how does your training address them?
Travis Unema, owner, Brio Laundry & Cleaners, Bellingham, Wash.: It’s intake and spotting/stain treatment. If any stains or damages are missed when the customer is dropping off their order (or inspection of delivery order), then you could be liable for pre-existing damages/stains to customer garments. Going through an order in detail, you will be able to remove any red socks, Sharpie markers, glue in pockets, etc. Always check pockets; it takes extra time but is always worth it. Skipping this will save time on most orders but that one order will take away all that “saved” time.
Ramona Buckner, operations manager, Bubbles Laundry Service, Anaheim, Calif.: I have found the bagging process to be a struggle for new staff. Often, people will try to put everything into one bag to have as few bags as possible. This leaves the final product looking crowded or unstable, as well as being too heavy for some of your clients, such as the elderly. Our training focuses on making all of our bags stackable by requiring a rectangular or square shape and encouraging use of multiple bags to focus on the look and ease of use.
The other big issue is items being forgotten in the dryer, whether it’s because you have multiple dryers going or you put something back in because it was still wet. We use a magnet system that has the client’s information and amount of total machines used so anywhere the order goes, the magnet follows. This is especially helpful for when you finish an order, you want to check all the dryers. If you see a magnet there, it alerts you that there is still something in the dryer, perhaps a sock (notorious for getting balled up and staying wet) or a hoodie that was put back because it was still wet in its seams.
I started as an attendant and developed the magnet system for myself to catch my mistakes. It’s meant to be redundant to work as a failsafe. I always say the magnets don’t prevent you from making mistakes, they prevent the mistakes from reaching the customer.
Brian Henderson, owner, Liberty Laundry, Tulsa, Okla.: There are certain key moments that are most susceptible to mistakes, including the hand-off of orders between work shifts of attendants on duty; not following special laundry instructions left by the customer or detailed on the care tags of garments; misplacing parts of orders; or the incomplete return of all parts of a finished laundry order to a customer.
Our training focuses on communication and documentation, with an emphasis on answering this one question: If you had to leave suddenly for an emergency, could another team member come up to the service counter and be able to determine exactly where every order is, what stage of the WDF process they are in, and know about any special instructions that need to be followed? Could they take over your shift without a word and make no mistakes?
When returning a finished order to a customer, our system includes labeling every bag in the service area. The return process involves confirming the customer’s name out loud, saying out loud how many bags or hanging items are being returned to them, and confirming the payment status of the order before handing over the laundry. Our point-of-sale system helps automate this process by scanning an order out, and it will confirm how many bags of laundry are in the finished order and prompt for payment at that time if it is due. It also records which team member handed out the order and exactly when it was returned to the customer, which is useful when someone comes in to pick up an order that can’t be found but turns out was picked up by their spouse the day before!
Linda Simmons, owner, Super Suds Laundromat, Long Beach, Calif.: Most mistakes are made by new employees who fail to ask the supervisor when they have a question and feel like they can figure it out on their own. An example is an employee who wound up with an order 20 pounds lighter than the weight it was brought in at. Instead of asking the supervisor for help, she just put it on the racks. Fortunately, the supervisor found this error before it was given to the customer. Another problem is that the attendant should finalize each order as they finish, but sometimes they take a shortcut and try to finalize everything at once and mistakes happen.
Q: How do you communicate customer preferences — such as detergent choices, folding styles, or special instructions — to your staff?
Buckner: Customer preferences are listed on the bottom of their receipt/ticket. You can always go back and refer to your ticket, but we also use our magnet system to communicate preferences as well. For example, if a client wants dryer sheets, I may have forgotten that I read that on the ticket but by writing “dryer sheets” on the magnet, when I put the order in the dryer, I know to grab some dryer sheets.
This helps with efficiency a lot as it saves staff from having to run back to the computer to check preferences. It also prevents you from having to rely on memory.
Henderson: We strive to save as much information as possible into our POS system, which will automatically print the notes onto the receipt every time a customer returns to our store, and highlights the notes on the computer screen. Special instructions are a real challenge for laundry attendants because most orders do not have them. The team gets busy working through orders quickly and it is easy to overlook special notes, so using a computerized system that automatically brings attention to these notes helps to reduce oversights.
Saving the information into the computer system also helps avoid favoritism from customers, who otherwise might say, “Oh, I only want (so-and-so) to do my laundry, they know how I like it.” While on the surface that may sound endearing and sweet, it is not operationally efficient and puts your business at risk. It ties your customer’s loyalty to the attendant and not to your business. As the owner, this is concerning because turnover in the laundry industry is a sad reality and it is wise to avoid dips in revenue or unnecessary drama should your staffing roster change over time.
Simmons: The customer preferences are stored in the POS system.
Unema: Special instructions are defined by what can be recorded in our POS (system). Special soaps or laundering instructions are pre-defined for the customer. We have a limited number of scent/soap choices, two different ways to package orders, we do not hang-dry, etc. Just make sure the customer knows your rules so they can play within those rules!
In Part 3 coming Tuesday: The role senior staff or supervisors play; balancing speed and productivity; and tools or methods used to reinforce WDF training
Miss Part 1? You can read it HERE
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].
