How can laundromat owners spice up their offerings?
These days, competition among local laundromats may be on the rise, as more turn to taking on services or features that can help them to stand apart from the competition. What many owners are starting to realize is that it’s not just proximity that attracts customers en masse any more, and extra efforts need to be made to make sure they have a leg up.
One of the easiest ways for companies to do this, even if they don’t have a lot of money to spend, is to simply keep close watch on the latest trends in the industry, because these can at least give entrepreneurs a springboard for figuring out how some of them can be applied to their laundromats without a huge financial investment, according to a report from American Coin-Op. Often, it can be as simple as finding new ways to display the same old machines, such as changing lighting or rearranging the floor plan so that things are a little more free-flowing and appealing to customers.
“It’s easy to notice the positive difference when revamping an entire store, but even small changes can go a long way in transforming a store’s brand,” John D. Dixon, president of National Laundry Equipment in Nashville, told the site. “As store owners, we have the ability to speak to customers in many ways – through colors, cleanliness, layout, and equipment. If every single element is on point and adds value and personality, customers will notice and reward you with their business.”
A different perspective
Indeed, when entrepreneurs are thinking about ways they can improve their spaces, they typically do so through the eyes of business owners, the report said. And while it’s certainly a good idea to think about costs, efficiency, and so on, that usually isn’t going to be something that customers are interested in. Therefore, owners who can see it from both sides of the business relationship will probably be the ones who put themselves in the best position to succeed going forward. In some cases, it might be a good idea for owners to regularly talk to their most frequent customers to find out what they might want to see change in the future.
The more that can be done to attract customers, the better off laundromats and dry cleaners are going to be moving forward. But beyond attracting them initially, owners have to ask themselves what’s going to keep a new customer coming back time and again, and rise to meet that challenge.
