Make Smart Business Decisions While Listening to Your Customers

HK Laundry’s team of laundry professionals have a lot of experience working with clients on renovating their laundromats. Supporting laundromat owners through this process has allowed our team to discover why listening to your customers matters and how to make smart business decisions while doing so. HK Laundry wants to share some of our insights with you.

Consistent Themes across Laundromat Customers

In one particular renovation HK Laundry did for a client, there were two common grievances made by their customers. They were:

• “There is no sink for customer use”
• “The vend prices have gone up on all the machines”

Essentially, these common criticisms all stem around one problem; usability of the laundromat, which can be a realistic problem for any owner. It’s important that you are always putting your customers’ needs as the main priority of your laundry business; after all, they are supporting your operations.  Listening to your customers’ feedback is important to help create loyalty, satisfaction, and a successful return on investment for yourself.

Be Aware of Vending Prices and How They are Displayed

In an industry where differentiation is key, listening to your laundry customers matters. Providing them with the best user experience, combined with smart business decisions like how you display vending prices, is the recipe for success as an established laundromat owner.

Let’s tackle the issue of raising vending prices on machines. Typically speaking, vended laundry equipment gives laundromat owners two options for displaying the price to vend; the total number of quarters needed and the price in dollars & cents. With the exception of card reader devices, that only allow you to show the vend price as dollars and cents, most equipment will allow you to display either option. Presenting the vend price as quarters is the best method to choose. Most customers either do not count out the total price or cannot do the math quickly in their head. If you need to raise the cost per load of laundry, this is the option that will receive the least amount of negative feedback because it takes away the “sticker shock” of the total price from customers. If you are only able to display the fee in dollars and cents on your machines, transparency is always a best practice. Make sure that you are properly communicating why the prices have increased, with some common reasons including:

• New amenities have been added
• Equipment has been upgraded
• Your facility is being renovated
• Utility rates have increased

The customer is always king definitely rings true for the coin laundry industry. Keeping listening ears open and making decisions that are viable for business growth and customer satisfaction are always the smartest moves as a laundromat owner.