Yes, seriously, have you ever tried to be your own customer? Why? Because, it’s an enlightening experience.
Recently, I’ve tried conducting business with various companies here in the city in which I live, and the experience has been, well, less than satisfactory. My experience was so bad that I thought that I had to try my luck at other businesses and found that my experience isn’t exactly isolated to just my city. So, I tried calling a few of my clients’ stores and, well, again, I found disappointment. I’ve already reached out to my clients to make them aware that there some issues in their operation that require addressing. But, based on reading through some google reviews of other dry cleaners around North America, it’s become clear to me that this is a topic that bears writing about industry wide.
We all become blind to certain things over time. When we are new to the business, we can see all sorts of problems we see in competitors as well as within our own shops. But, gradually, over time, we begin to lose sight of our own problems and overlook them and fixate on your competitors, reveling in their mistakes. Yes, it’s easy to revel in the Schadenfreude of our competitors, but it becomes difficult to seek fault within ourselves.
It’s just human nature to take pleasure in a competitor’s screwing up. But, it’s also a trap we fall into thinking: ‘at least we are not as bad’. Really?! How do you know? If you answered NO to the title of this article, it’s highly likely that you have a lot of problems in your operation that you don’t know about, or worse, you haven’t noticed and have yet to fix.
How do you discover what your business is doing wrong and alienating customers so much so that it prevents them from doing business with you? Well, the answer is, again, in the title of this article: Try being your own customer.
Yes, really.
Try calling your store and signing up for pick-up and delivery service.
How was your staff on the phone? Were they courteous and helpful, or did it ring 7 times before anyone picked up the phone? Have you tried to sign up for service via your website? How many steps did it take, or did it even work at all?
Have you sent in some of your own clothes for cleaning and pressing? When you got your clothes back, how was the quality? All stains removed, no double creases, everything in a ready to wear state? If your clothes are not in a ready to wear state, you can rest assured that many of your customers are receiving the same level of service and quality.
How about your lobby? When was the last time you walked into your store from the front door and took a good long look at how your store looks to your customers? Is it clean? Well lit? Does it look organized, attractive? Again, this is one area where we all develop willful blindness. We all become immune to seeing our store as our customers and potential customers see it. While the geraniums you care and tend to so lovingly are about to bloom, you may not have noticed that all 75 of them have moss growing out of the pots and have taken over every flat surface to the point that you can’t even lay a pen on a shelf (and yes, I really have seen drycleaning stores that this very aptly describes their call office). I propose, maybe it’s time to cut back, if not lose the potted geraniums entirely because, well, frankly, geraniums suck. Yeah, please consider that perhaps less, is more and one or two subtle succulents might satisfy your green thumb rather than a lobby full of potted plants occupying every surface.
We drycleaners are in the business of ‘cleaning.’ We sell a neat professional appearance. And yet so many of us ‘Cleaners’ have dated decor, untidy, dark or dimly lit stores, filled with posters and handwritten signs that franky, look pathetic, unappealing and junky. Unappealing and junky confuses potential customers… Unappealing and junky causes potential customers to think: “How is something going to get clean in that sh!thole of a shop?”
I said before, we tend to become blind to our own faults over time. We get used to walking into and past certain habits and we develop a jaded eye to ‘not see’ these issues. One way to get an ‘outsider’s view’ is to simply hire an outsider to take a look at your shop and provide you with comments, their opinion, their view.
Here is an inexpensive method of getting an outsider’s view of my business when I had my shop. I used to pull two tickets from pick-up orders at random and reach out to customers with a short survey via email or letter asking these customers to tell me about their experience. I asked their opinion of the lobby, the decor, the staff, the service, the quality and it was entertaining as well as educational. One customer responded to the quality of drycleaning question with the reply: “If my pants are over a hanger and wrapped in plastic, two thumbs up!” Which I found hilarious. But, some of the answers were frank, honest, constructive criticism that opened my eyes to problems I hadn’t noticed nor knew about. Had I not sent out occasional communications inviting my customers to complain, I likely would not have discovered some of these issues on my own. How many customers have you lost because your customer has experienced an issue? It kinda’ makes one wonder, doesn’t it?
Check out the picture above. This is my personal doctor’s office, or maybe I should say, was my personal doctor’s office because I’m getting ready to change physicians. I’ve tried and tried calling to book appointments. And can never get through. I literally have to drive to his office to book appointments because nobody answers the phone. When you do walk in, there is never anyone at the desk and how would you even know that the desk is being staffed because you can’t see a receptionist for all the plants and signs. It makes me wonder, has my doctor ever tried calling his office? He walks by this desk every morning on his way into his practice and he doesn’t see what I see. So, what do you see? Which leaves me with one last question for you: have you ever tried to be your own customer?
