CHICAGO — Without a doubt, COVID-19 was a major disrupter in the laundry and linen services industry.
From lockdowns to supply-chain and labor issues, what was normal before 2020 isn’t normal anymore.
So, how can a laundry operation operate what could be described as the “new abnormal?”
American Laundry News posed this question to the industry, and what follows are the responses from three laundry leaders around the country.
CHRIS WELCH, PRUDENTIAL OVERALL SUPPLY
Having your head on a swivel is more important now than ever.
With ongoing evolving challenges to the business—government regulation, supply-chain disruption, tight labor markets, etc.—it is critical that leaders be principled but flexible in their approach to whatever comes next. What is working today may not work three months from now.
Being sharply focused on your core competency is imperative in today’s marketplace, but at the same time, you have to be actively listening to what the street wants or may want in the near future.
Taking some well-educated risks may pay off, but you have to make sure that your financial model has the resiliency to survive the bets that you lose.
Having the business on a solid footing from both talent and finance perspectives has been the foundation of everything else we have done. With the feet of our business firmly on the ground, it has enabled us to successfully move from issue to issue, looking for opportunities where they present themselves and continuing to properly service our customers and support our employees.
Knowing who you are and having a strong foundation makes all the difference. When you aren’t overly worried about the day-to-day and your leadership knows what the direction is, it becomes much easier to rally the team around what needs to be accomplished and go to work.
A healthy balance sheet and well-trained talent at the local level allow for more boots-on-the-ground decision-making that takes full advantage of opportunities as they arise while still allowing for some overarching strategy to drive other pieces of the business forward.
Upper management needs to listen aggressively and communicate aggressively. Silence breeds paranoia. Make sure your teammates know things are really okay and what you hope to accomplish not just now but at the end of this cycle of tumult.
Well-trained, goal-aligned employees can be much more self-directed and fulfill the company strategy with limited need for corporate oversight.
I think laundries will return to pre-COVID operating statuses. None of these things last forever. In five years (or less), we will all be overcoming new crises that arise (no water in the Western U.S., for example).
WILLIAM MUSE, UNITED HOSPITAL SERVICES
As a healthcare rental provider, we have been fortunate that COVID-19 hasn’t changed how we do business and serve our customers. It has, however, brought about a greater level of communication between customer and provider.
The fact that we were able to provide service without interruption to our customers in a world of supply-chain challenges, labor challenges and product shortages has elevated the level of trust and improved satisfaction across our accounts. I am optimistic that the challenges hospitals face today can have a positive impact on driving change and increasing the adoption rate of reusable goods over the traditional disposable options currently used.
As a provider that serves only the healthcare industry, I don’t believe there has been some large shift within our market making operating successfully any more or less challenging. That said, the importance of building and maintaining good relationships with both customers and vendors alike is even more important in today’s environment as customers will remember how their vendors withstood the challenges presented during this time.
We have found customers to be extremely understanding of the challenges presented so long as the communication is present, and they are kept in the know.
As with any crisis, there is nothing more important than planning. We, of course, didn’t plan for a global lockdown, but in my experience, laundry operators are great at rolling with the punches.
Looking back on the last almost two years, the one word that comes to mind is communication.
Early on when COVID was a new topic and before mask recommendations etc., we found that there was a lot of fear and misinformation being shared throughout the workforce. To combat this, we held weekly town hall meetings with staff enabling us to keep everyone informed. This helped to really enhance the employee relationship as they knew we had their wellbeing at our focus.
Customers were also facing their own challenges in trying to stay safe with this new, unknown virus. We will all likely not forget the images of nurses and caregivers wearing trash bags and dishpan gloves to care for sick patients. That said, by establishing and maintaining a much greater level of communication with our customers, we were able to reduce the panic and ensure calm as our customers elevated us in their eyes from vendor to partner.
I think going forward, communication will continue to be key as we work to overcome labor shortages, supply-chain interruptions, etc.
I think that laundries will return to pre-COVID operations, as many have already recovered and seen growth in their local markets. That said, as we continue to look beyond COVID at what comes next, what’s more important is to identify what we learned, where we excelled and where we failed. These are the lessons we can learn from to improve our product, our service and our relationships with customers and employees alike.
The best way to maintain operations is to control and perfect what is within your control. Ensure you maintain great relationships with your customers, and remain competitive in the areas of price, quality and service.
PHOEBE ELLIS, LACE HOUSE LINEN SUPPLY
This is a relevant question for all of us in our “essential” industry, and I am a bit uncertain how to respond in these “unprecedented and challenging times”—but I am giving it my best effort!
It is interesting how the “new normal” from 2020 has now become the “new abnormal” in 2021. I’m not sure what the mantra will be in 2022—the “new normal abnormal?”
We have all made many changes, quick decisions and continue to try to predict/project what will happen next week, next month and next year, and I think we can all agree that the only certain response is that we cannot predict much more than what is happening each day.
We have learned that the best way to operate in this “new abnormal” is to be flexible, agile and grateful for each employee, each delivery and each customer.
After laying off nearly 50% of our employees in March of 2020, some of them 20-plus-year employees, and having more than 80% of our customers close, we were not sure what Lace House would look like in the future or would we even be able to keep our doors open.
Fortunately, we received a PPP loan, which allowed us to get through the first six months of the pandemic and to keep a key group of employees on board. As we started to rebuild when businesses reopened in the summer of 2020, we had seasoned employees to get the work done as we were only operating three days a week.
Although we have always valued our employees, it is even more evident now how much we need committed employees who care and are engaged at their work at Lace House. We are increasingly mindful of their personal lives, second jobs and family demands, so we are being very strategic in staffing our production and delivery schedules to avoid burnout, injuries and complacency at work.
We are focused on our key employees with training, education about our industry and what our customers need—and as a result, we have fewer employees who are working more efficiently. We notice a remarkable difference in the mood, vibe and energy in our plant when people are not working overtime each day and extra shifts.
Knowing that we have fewer employees and have a reduced production schedule, we have realized that being a mixed plant is essential and we are grateful to be serving food and beverage, hospitality, uniforms, and dust-control customers. We are very aware that this product diversity creates production challenges, but our mixed customer base was critical to maintaining some volume during the past 18 months.
We have spent a great deal of time analyzing our customer base and have terminated some customers because they were not solid partners, either because they did not manage adequate linen inventories, did not pay their bill or did not appreciate our service.
As we start to think about growth again in 2022 after nearly two years of no growth, we are very focused on markets and locations where we are confident that we can manage the product and delivery demands while offering quality goods and customer service.
We are excited to be open and thriving and continue to focus on a healthy work environment, positive employee engagement and close customer relationships. Our management team maintains flexibility and agility, and we are working to improve communications with employees and customers so that all are aware of daily concerns.
We have all learned a ton during this time and now realize that not even the best operator could have prepared and planned for such a time in our business.
As our director of operations, Rodrigo Patron, tells us, “It is not daily increase, but daily decrease, hack away the unessential.” (Bruce Lee). We have all embraced this mantra as we realize how essential we all are in this industry and that our customers expect excellent, honest, quality linen service.
For us at Lace House, navigating the “new abnormal” includes focusing on the essential, necessary services to meet customer daily demands while ensuring that our employees and owners are healthy, happy and hopeful and celebrating our accomplishments daily. Cheers to our industry!
Check back Thursday for the conclusion with insights from two more laundry operators.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].