The Dry Cleaning Dilemma

Like most white-collar, business-minded, entrepreneur types, I wear a fresh dress shirt whenever my entrepreneur dress of t-shirt and jeans isn’t appropriate. Ironed, pressed and light starch. Because of my dependency on the perfect shirt and my lack of time (and want) to wash and iron them myself, using the services of a professional dry cleaner is a must for me.

Unfortunately, dry cleaners simply don’t do customer service. I mean, it’s reasonable to expect my dry cleaner would replace any missing or broken buttons on my dress shirts, free of charge, right? So why does it always feel like it’s my fault – like I’m the bad guy? These days, customers are turning their backs to businesses that do not deliver value, and good customer service adds value. There’s no way around it and no shortcuts. Customers demand value for money, or they are out of the door. And why shouldn’t they? After all, the customer is always right. Apparently dry cleaning management never got that memo.

They should learn this quickly though, before they all begin to fail.

According to a survey done last year and reported in American Drycleaner magazine (yes, apparently there is a trade magazine even for the dry cleaning industry) dry cleaners aren’t faring that well in this tough economy. That’s because many people have discovered that they can get through life just fine without such a luxury; it’s an easy way to save a few bucks every week.

And it will be an uphill battle to convince them to return. When asked about initiatives they have planned to help increase sales in 2012, many dry cleaners said their efforts would involve continuing or improving upon their marketing programs to increase visibility. Others are targeting route sales, training their customer service representatives to cross-sell, and increasing promotion of specialty cleaning and pressing services.

Hmm. No mention of customer service. Not surprising.