Commercial Laundry: Edward Arzouian, Bates Troy Inc., Binghamton, N.Y.
To give credit where credit is due and not to reinvent the wheel here, the August issue of American Laundry News had what I see as the most pressing issue facing the laundry industry as its front-page story. If you have not read that issue, I’d suggest you look for it and read it.
Deana Griffin, president and owner of The Griffin Group Inc., a nationwide recruiting firm, wrote, “Today several forces are reshaping laundry hiring, including a shrinking applicant pool (especially for chief engineers and maintenance technicians), evolving immigration policies and the rapid growth of AI.” I could not agree more.
The difficulty of hiring and retaining experienced and reliable maintenance staff is a huge problem. The increasing complexity of laundry equipment makes that problem even greater.
There are a couple of other factors playing into the equation that are specific to the laundry industry. As we know, the production floors and washrooms/soil-sort areas of commercial laundries are not the most comfortable environments in which to work. Strike one.
For an independent laundry such as Bates Troy Inc. in our location in New York’s southern tier, we face a few other specific challenges. The Binghamton Metropolitan Statistical Area encompasses Broome and Tioga counties. Together, they had a population of 247,138 as of the 2020 census.
To call it a metropolitan area is misleading. Binghamton has about 46,000 residents. The rest of the area is suburban and even rural. There is a limited labor pool from which to find qualified maintenance technicians. Strike two.
From that limited labor pool, our laundry has to compete with our clients, hospitals with billion-dollar budgets, a very large state university, and aerospace companies. That’s tough competition. Strike three.
What’s the solution? Raising salaries to attract better applicants is difficult for an independent laundry of our size and, given the tight labor pool, still might not draw enough worthwhile interest. Manufacturer-certified, factory-trained technicians are an option, but they are expensive and not readily available.
I think help has to come from the laundry equipment manufacturers themselves. As they want to provide more and more sophisticated technology, they will have to step up the training they offer during an on-site installation.
Also, equipment manufacturers should consider providing more cloud-based, online training videos in multiple languages for both equipment operators and maintenance staff technicians. The training for maintenance techs should be specific. The manufacturers know what can go wrong with different components in their equipment. Rather than tossing us an owner’s manual and having us fend for ourselves, there should be training aids, visual guides, review of key repairs, and preventive maintenance (PMs).
There are sales videos to sell equipment. There are YouTube videos to learn how to repair all sorts of things, but very few of them to repair our laundry equipment.
New, high-tech laundry equipment that sits idle does not help anyone. I often feel we are losing the battles in trying to keep this stuff running.
Textiles: Lenore Law, Alliance Textile Solutions, Corona, Calif.
There are a lot of changes within our industry, from more automation to manufacturers going direct to end users for higher profit margins in this economy. AI is now the new norm, and trying to get to someone directly is much more difficult.
Because I have a degree in communication, I feel going forward that will be a very big topic, with AI being implemented throughout most industries. Some AI is good; some AI is very tough to navigate through.
I feel staying close to your customers will be front and center in 2026 moving forward. It has always been important, but the real contact now for commercial laundries, once a new customer is installed, will be the route driver who is at the customer every week.
This has always been very important, but it will be much more critical these days. With all the labor shortages, especially in transportation, hiring a driver who can also service and sell to his customers will be front and center. It takes a special personality to be able to perform both functions all day long at multiple customers and in varying markets.
The laundry team approach to sales and service will be very important these days, especially if it’s tougher to get the decision maker on the phone or for an in-person meeting or a Teams or Zoom meeting.
Educating your staff on how technology can be a tool for them to achieve greater sales versus a stumbling block is equally important to proper communication as well. Conducting surveys to see how happy your customers are is also important. Combining all departments in a team approach will be front and center, and whenever possible, get an in-person meeting or a Zoom call or even a phone call to ensure all is well.
So many changes, and tariffs are changing all the time from one country to another. Customer confusion needs to be avoided. All bases have to be covered, and communication is the most important tool in a service-oriented industry.
Let’s not let AI make all the profit. Our industry has been a very important part of our world for hundreds of years. We are here to service our customers so they have one less job to do. Let service prevail, with lots of inventory in stock, to save them money and time. Yes, you can buy the same product at Amazon or online these days, but it’s not hygienically clean. Our world needs our industry more than ever in a technology-first world.
Check back tomorrow for insights from linen and chemicals supply experts.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
