A good day for customers would be a day in which they would be greeted with a smile or at least a grin. This is always a good start because so many people in our culture (and others) seem to wait for the signal on how they will be greeted to start out their day, especially if their first stop outside of their house is the local drycleaning and laundry plant. And to be more specific, a wet cleaning facility as well as commercial laundry, professional drycleaning and possibly wash and fold. A happy counter service person is one I have seen in my travels where I was behind five customers and the one counter person on duty, looked up and greeted me with a wink or nod or “good morning”. How decent are our plants when we have such nice CSR’s (Customer Service Representatives) that are happy to see us? Many cleaners I have gone to in my past travel days greeted me with enthusiasm and made me feel welcome as a customer. These CSR’s are happy to see you even if they were left to survive on a busy counter all by themselves. As a friend of mine once said, “you can only wait on one customer at a time,” so don’t move at a frenzied pace or you will make mistakes. These trained folks moved swiftly and carefully and still took the time for a five second comment on how nice my suit was. I have seen this repeated many times over the years, especially on women’s clothes. It sure warms a person’s heart for someone to take personal notice of your clothes.
These stellar plants have all the lights on and shining brightly on the interior, not dusty old light bulbs. Professional plants today have nicely dressed Customer Service Representatives (CSR’s) and the drycleaning/stain removal expert comes forward to answer any customer’s questions about the issues involving cleaning precautions and stain removal issues. In fact, they are glad to come forward and explain their work and their interest in your expensive garments. These wonderful employees take the time and joy to explain why your garment was handled the way it was and why certain precautions were, taken according to label guidelines and their vast experience of knowing how to handle most garments on today’s market. How nice it was to enter these stores and find the owner on hand at times to make me feel warm and fuzzy about knowing “the boss” was around. I have been greeted by great professional managers too, not someone who just started the job yesterday and since they are the only one who showed up that morning, they are now given the title of manager. Not to worry because these well-organized plants have the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute’s (DLI-formally IFI) books of knowledge on CD or DVD at the counter and can show you your garment and any problems that may be associated with their care. Nothing say’s it better than a picture. These kinds of things are real deal breakers because they show your customers your knowledge level, your company’s interest in your education and a quick source for your customer to discuss their garment issues. How very professional.
What Satisfaction To See A Nice Garment Pass Through The Stages Of Production
As customers we sometime watch as the miracle of the drycleaning process unfolds with several workers handling your garment from front counter, to tag and identification and inspection to further inspection by your drycleaner person, prespotting stains when necessary and placing your clothes in a large machine that releases your clothes from this step in about forty five minutes. Clean, fresh, odor free and mostly a wrinkle free garment and on to the next station where a pleasant and experienced finishing department worker will remove excess wrinkles, shape and iron the item until it looks new again. Restoration you might call it. That is the business we are in, restoration. Now we watch with fascination as a finished garment proceeds to an inspection department where it is looked over for any remaining stains or wrinkles and moves up to the line for packaging and on to storage. The miracle of the simple conveyor sends your garments gliding along to storage until it is recalled for your pickup and hopeful satisfaction.
Very well trained, professional, plant owners, managers, supervisors and other workers have touched your garment many times. No one single person has worked on it. After all of that work, you get your garment back finished to a tee and ready to wear. Pretty good deal huh? Be proud of what you sell folks because we make and sell a great commodity. Yes, our numbers will reduce in coming years, but the service will always be needed. Fewer plants doing better quality work all the time as we realize that we get one shot at impressing our customers and helping them to realize that this sale was a heck of a bargain!
I’m headin’ to the wagon now, these boots are killin’ me!
