(Not Too) Extreme Makeover: Spring Cleaning Edition

By Bob Nieman | Jun 03, 2009

How many times have you heard it said that, in business, if you’re not moving forward, you’re losing ground? Especially in today’s economic climate, maintaining the status quo can very well lead to boarded-up windows and an “Out of Business” sign – sooner rather than later.

Nowhere is this more accurate than when it comes to the outward appearance of your coin laundry. If you maintain your self-service laundry in a static manner, it’s on its way down just due to a natural atrophy from the day you open the door. People are using part of that store every day. It's going to show its wear and tear if you don't keep up with it.

What’s more, someone else in the neighborhood is going to show up with a clean, shiny brand new laundry for your customers to wash clothes in. At that point, it's very hard to get someone back into your place.

One of the best ways to protect against that is through a regularly scheduled renovation strategy.

In addition, it keeps your customers fresh. They can get stale coming to the same place all the time. It gets as old to them as it does to you being there. It just generally perks up everybody's attitude to remodel.

And, obviously, it looks good to customers to see that you're putting money back into your business, and you're doing it on their behalf. They don't want some place where an owner is just taking their money and not putting anything back into the business – especially these days.

Still not sold? Drop by your local Dunkin' Donuts or your neighborhood McDonald's. These businesses are in a constant flux. If they've got a broken tile or a leaky roof, it gets fixed in a quick, organized manner.

“In many markets, the coin laundry still carries the image of the old, dark, dingy store with the wet floor,” said Bob Mangum, who operates five laundries in the Greenville, S.C., area. “I like to change impressions on that every day.”

First impressions are indeed a big deal. If you walk into a store, the first thing your eye is going to do is look up above, and then it's going to look below to where you're stepping. If you've got a floor that's in bad repair or is dirty, or if you've got a front desk or service area that’s in disarray, then you're leaving an impression. You may be the best person in the world. You may be the friendliest person. You may give the best service. You may have the best washers in town. But if customers see initial things that turn them off, you can potentially lose that customer.

And, once you lose that customer, not only have you lost that one customer but you’ve also lost her friends and relatives, because she’s going to tell everybody she knows.

“The minute a customer pulls into the parking lot, he’s forming an impression,” Mangum said. “You’ve got to keep the outside of your stores fresh. You’ve got to keep your parking lot and the lines in your parking lot fresh. That’s how I judge any business. I always look at the outside before I go inside. You just have to keep fresh paint on them. You’ve got to industrialize them – bulletproof them.”

Three Types of Remodeling

You can organize your remodeling and maintenance efforts by dividing them into three separate categories: (1) cosmetic, (2) equipment replacement and (3) expansion.

The first one is basically a cursory touchup. You go through your store on a 30-, 60- or 90-day basis, and look for areas in and around your store that are starting to look ragged.

The second one – equipment replacement – is self-explanatory and requires more of a commitment on the owner’s part. Clearly, today's equipment is relatively expensive; however, the payoff for adding new equipment can often make a positive statement within your store.

The third type of remodeling is the major one – an expansion. Clearly, this requires a major commitment of time and money on the laundry owner’s part.

This article will focus on the first category. The smaller things all store owners can do relatively quickly and inexpensively – the things that provide the most bang for the buck.

One of the best ways to “wow” your new customers and retain your regulars is through regularly scheduled remodeling and renovation.

“One of the key things I have found is you’ve got to get into your stores every day,” Mangum advised. “I run five, and I’m in them every morning. I try to get in before the crowds get in, and I make mental notes every day about touch-up paint or whatever else is needed. You’ve got to keep your machines running, you’ve got to keep the walls fresh, and you’ve got to keep the floor clean.”

Your Spring Cleaning Checklist

Of course, the big question is what exactly to upgrade and enhance. Here's a list of areas that commonly need regular attention and maintenance:

Exterior

“Take a step back and look at your building honestly,” said Mark Wagner of Valley Laundry in Park Falls, Wis. “How does it look? If you were driving through town would you stop there? You’ve got to make it inviting.

“My parking lot alone cost me $30,000 to build. It’s a major investment to go with your structure. Maybe new fresh lines would be a good idea. That just makes a business look successful. You’ve got to keep the business looking like it’s in business.”

“Colors change,” Mangum added. “People’s tastes change. So I totally changed the outside of my stores to different colors this year. I also put up new awnings outside.”

Don’t Forget:

• Check the parking lot for needed improvements. Consider lighting issues for customer safety. Remember, the parking lot is the first encounter the customer is going to have with your store. Their experience needs to be a positive one. If the parking lot is torn up and there aren't any spaces to park you need to make some adjustments.

• Review the exterior of your building. Does it need a fresh coat of paint? Do you need to do a complete renovation?

• Does your store have an inviting appearance?

• Is the area clear of trash?

Entrance

Al Choquette, who owns The Clothes Line in Jaffrey, N.H., views a store’s entrance as crucial, especially for newcomers to the laundry.

“Keep it looking good,” he said. “And, if somebody has never been in there before and they want our wash-dry-fold or drop-off drycleaning service, they should be able to tell almost immediately where to go for customer service.”

“Keep properly working doors,” Mangum also noted. “I’ve seen stores with doors with cracks in them. Every time I get a glass with a crack in it, it hurts. But replace it immediately.”

Don’t Forget:

• Is your front door a barrier for your customers?

• Is it clean and welcoming?

Laundry Carts

“I buy about a dozen carts a year,” Mangum explained. “And I will move my carts around between stores. I just finished bring about a dozen down to my shop. I welded some pieces that were broke. I put fresh wheels on them. I washed them up. I’m pretty particular about them.”

Don’t Forget:

• Keep carts clean. Examine them on a regular basis for rust, as well as broken or warn parts.

• Replace carts at the first sign of wear.

Floors

“Years ago, I met a supermarket manager and he told me that their motto was, ‘If you kept the floor clean, nobody sees the dirt anywhere else,’” said Dion Marcionetti of Laundry Concepts in Addison, Ill. “The theory was that people will look down and see the shine coming off of there, and they really won’t see if the cans on the shelves are little dusty. He taught me that lesson, and it’s very true. If the floors are shiny, it gives you the sense that the business is clean.”

Marcionetti added that it’s crucial for laundry owners to focus on the corners of their stores and along the edges of the walls when washing their floors, as this is where much of the dirt collects.

Don’t Forget:

• Review the current flooring material. Is it unattractive? Does it need replacing?

• Does the floor have a shiny, clean appearance? Are the tiles scuffed? Are they in need of replacing?

Lighting

“One of the most important things is to keep your stores well lit,” Mangum advised. “I spend more money on lighting than anyone I know. I just changed all the bulbs inside and outside on every store I’ve got. That was pretty expensive, but I went to the new high-output bulbs. Right after I installed them, I pulled up before daylight one morning, and it was like being at the mall. It lit the parking lot that much – and it lit up the inside of the store. You would not believe how big of a curb appeal that will get. And it’ll show off your machines too.

“Annually, I spend $500 per store per year on lighting,” he added. “If I walk into a store and a light bulb is not burning, I get irate. You have got to keep those bulbs burning. One eight-foot strip of lights in a 2,400-square-foot store will make the rest of the store look bad to me.”

Choquette added that it’s important to stay on top of your store’s lighting as a safety issue, especially with women in your store later at night. “You don’t want any dark corners,” he noted.

Don’t Forget:

• Do you have ample lighting?

• Are your ceiling lights clean and bright?

• Turn your lights on.

• Is your store bright and inviting?

• Do customers feel safe in your store?

Ceiling Tiles

“In the store I just remodeled, I took down all of the ceiling tiles,” Mangum explained. “After a period of years, they get a little dirty and start sinking in the middle. So I took down all of the tiles and painted the grids. It was so simple to do. It had been white tile on a white grid. So I got a two-inch paint roller on a stick and painted the grid red – and then installed in the new white tiles. You wouldn’t believe the difference. Customers walk in, look up and say, ‘What have you done?’ They know I’ve done something but it takes them a while to figure out what it is. I spent about $1,200 on that, and I believe I got $20,000 worth of appeal out of it.”

Choquette checks his store’s ceiling tiles once or twice a year. “You don’t want customers looking up at brown stains on your ceiling,” he said.

Don’t Forget:

• If you have ceiling tiles, review their condition. Are they broken? Do they have water stains? Are they dirty?

• Replace tiles or consider cleaning or painting them.

Walls

“Since I’m also in the real estate business, I have a saying that I use with a lot of my sellers, and it’s: ‘A can of paint is worth $25 on the shelf, but it’s worth $500 once it hits the wall,’” Wagner said. “You need to stay on top of the little things like that. Anyone can paint.”

“I’m currently modernizing the colors in my stores,” Mangum explained. “I like to change the color scheme every five years or so. I was big on red, white and blue at one time, and now I can’t wait to get rid of it.”

“When we first started out, we were doing all white – white walls, white ceiling,” noted Keith Griffin, who owns 10 stores in Arkansas. “But now we’ve started going with school bus yellow. We’ve got blue folding tables, red bulkheads and yellow walls. It sounds kind of wild, but the brighter the store, the cleaner it appears.”

Griffin added that he uses oil-based paint on his coin laundries’ walls, making it easy to wash off any footprints or smudges that do occur.

Don’t Forget:

• Take a look at your walls. Are they clean? Could they use a fresh coat of paint?

• Review your baseboards. Do they need cleaning, painting or replacement?

• Consider new modern colors and décor.

Signage

“Signage is a major thing,” Choquette said. “Our soap dispenser is in a good location, but it’s not very visible. I immediately got fluorescent, eight-inch block letters and spelled out ‘Soap’ on the side, so when a customer walks in, that sign is very visible.

“Check your windows regularly, too,” he added. “I’ve got several windows across the front of my laundry, and I’ve got static cling letters there, promoting certain things. But, when you go away for the weekend, kids might peel them off or misspell something. So you’ve got to keep an eye on that, because it could make you look stupid.”

“I’m in the process of putting up fresh signs outside,” Mangum explained. “They’re lighted, box signs.

He added that he’s noticed how some laundry owners tend to get “too busy with signs on the inside. I’ve tried to keep it simple. The least amount of signage you’ve got inside the best.

“You’ve got to have your instructions, but I don’t gaudy up my stores with signs. Some owners will print off a sign from their computer and stick them everywhere. If you’re going to put up a sign, put up a good one – a metal sign with nice lettering. And keep it to a minimum.”

Don’t Forget:

• Review the signs in your store. Do they need to be replaced?

• Examine exterior signs. Are they faded? Are they in need of replacement? Do they look professional?

Windows

“Windows are a simple thing, and they’re something you have to stay on top of,” Mangum said. “In my stores, the windows are cleaned inside and outside once a week, and they are spot cleaned every day. That is on the list for the cleanup people.”

Don’t Forget:

• Are the windows clean and uncluttered? Can you see in and out of the store?

Restrooms

“One of the main places I used to find graffiti was in is the restrooms,” Mangum admitted. “I struggled with that for years; after all, you can’t put a camera in there to watch what’s going on. Then, one day, I got the idea to paint the restroom dark blue and put down a dark blue asphalt floor. And I also put a 25-watt light bulb in there.

“That’s stopped the graffiti dead in its tracks. How many white magic markers have you ever seen? They try to write something in black and give up.”

Your restrooms also can be an area of your business where you save on utilities costs – waste them, according to Choquette.

“I had a problem with a brand new toilet that we bought at Home Depot,” he related. “It would stick when it was flushed. It would just keep running the water; when you’re paying for water and sewer, that’s big. Also, we had a faucet on the bathroom sink that would continually drip out. I replaced it immediately, because you just can waste water and sewer like that.”

Don’t Forget:

• Consider ADA upgrades.

• Keep the area spotless, have an attendant check and clean on a regularly scheduled basis.

Other Areas to Consider

A major area to keep an eye on is your service counter. “When you go to that service window, I don’t think you should see a mess,” Choquette said. “If you see a mess behind the doors, that’s tells customers your business is dirty and disorganized. I want customers to see a reflection of the entire business when they view that service area. It should be organized and clean – not have old Chinese food take-out cartons that have been sitting there for three days.”

Another simple, but effective upgrade to your store is to replace any old or worn facings to your washers. “I keep new facings in stock, the stick-on directions that go on the front of your machines,” Mangum said. “It’s kind of like putting a new set of tires on your car; it freshens them up.”

Don’t Forget:

• Is your service area clean and clutter free?

• Review the appearance of your service counter. Is it in need of repair or replacement?

• Do you have plants in the store? Are they alive?

• If you have television sets or music in the store, is it in working order?

• Consider adding a kids’ play area, space permitting; expansion may be needed. Keep the area clean, safe and inviting.

A great way to be sure your checklist is complete is to install a well-marked suggestion box in your store. And be sure to follow up with the customers who take the time to give you their feedback.

It can lead to things that you simply don’t notice during the normal course of a day. Unless you sit down and analyze your coin laundry with a fresh approach, you may not see everything that needs to be done.

‘Get Aggressive’

“I’m remodeling my oldest store now,” Mangum said. “It’s 30 years old. A few years ago, two blocks down the road, this guy built a brand new laundry. He put a million dollars in that thing. A million dollars! He was open two years, and now it’s closed. He spent money in the wrong place.

“It’s a tough world out there. And now is the time to get aggressive.”

This is especially true with regard to your business’ overall appearance.

“People have a choice,” Choquette explained. “If you don’t recognize that, you’re going to fail. If you think they’re going to come to your laundry just because you built a nice store, it’s not enough. If I think they’re going to come just because you’re a nice guy, it’s not enough. They have a choice.”

“You have to respect your customers and make sure things are nice for them when they come to your store,” Marcionetti agreed. “Store owners walk into the same place seven days a week and they may not notice the dryer glass being smudged up or dirt in the corners. If you can develop the ability to be able to see that stuff, you’ll run a successful laundry.”