Commercial Laundry: Rodrigo Patron, Lace House Linen, Petaluma, Calif.
In today’s competitive landscape, most laundry plants face the dual challenge of increasing operational efficiency and ensuring exceptional customer service.
Efficiency in an industrial laundry setting means optimizing processes to reduce waste, lower costs and increase throughput. This can be achieved by utilizing better and newer technologies such as automated sorting systems and high-efficiency washing and drying equipment.
These upgrades not only make things more efficient but also make the service better for customers. Being more efficient means getting things done faster, which usually translates into better and faster service for your customers without sacrificing quality.
Quality, on the other hand, involves ensuring that the laundry services meet or exceed industry standards. This includes maintaining the integrity of fabrics, employing the right chemicals and adhering to rigorous cleaning protocols.
High-quality output is essential for building trust with clients, especially in sectors like hospitality and healthcare, where cleanliness is non-negotiable. When we commit to quality, we position ourselves as reliable partners, ultimately leading to satisfied customers.
Enhancing efficiency and quality is crucial, but prioritizing customer service is equally important.
Exceptional customer service fosters positive relationships, leading to customer retention and satisfaction. This can be achieved through effective staff training and empowering employees to take ownership of their roles.
STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Invest in Technology: Using advanced equipment and software can enhance efficiency. Automated tools for laundry sorting and tracking can reduce errors and speed up processes, allowing employees to focus on customer interaction.
Train your employees: Implementing a comprehensive training regimen covering operational skills and customer service can ensure that all employees are equipped to meet job demands.
Workshops, training and even Zoom meetings on effective communication and problem-solving can help staff handle customer inquiries and concerns better.
Listen to your Customers: Establishing channels for customer feedback can provide valuable insights into areas of improvement. Regular surveys and follow-ups can help identify service gaps and areas where efficiency can be enhanced.
Create a Culture of Collaboration: Encouraging collaboration between departments, such as production and customer service, can improve communication and understanding of customer needs.
IN CONCLUSION
Increasing efficiency and quality in your plant should never come at the expense of customer service.
By investing in technology, training, and communication, you should be able to create a balanced and harmonious environment where operational excellence and customer satisfaction can coexist happily.
Textile/Uniform Rental: W. Kirby Wagg, Performance Matters, Sarasota, Fla.
After years of streamlining efficiency and improving product quality, textile rental operations often find themselves needing to refocus on customer service.
I found at Wagg’s Uniform and Mats in North Toronto that as the industry became more competitive, customer experience became the key differentiator.
Enhancing customer service skills across your entire organization is essential to building long-lasting relationships, improving client satisfaction and sustaining growth. Independent operators do this better!
Here are several strategies to refocus and elevate customer service skills across your operation.
1. Build Culture
Building a culture that prioritizes customer service starts with ownership and extends throughout the organization. Every employee, from leadership to the route service representatives (RSRs), needs to understand the importance of customer satisfaction. Meet and exceed customer expectations!
Communicate (posters, meetings, one-on-ones) to your team that customer service is a key priority.
Leadership can demonstrate customer-focused behavior by regularly interacting with clients, addressing concerns and ensuring that staff feels supported in delivering great service.
Ensure that efficiency, quality and customer service are equally measured in key performance indicators (KPIs). This shows your team that service quality is just as important as the efficiency of the laundry floor.
2. Invest in Development
Customer service skills require continual development; a comprehensive training program is critical for raising customer service standards across the board.
Provide regular refreshers and encourage continuous learning. Incorporate customer-service discussions in team meetings, sharing best practices and lessons learned from real-life situations.
Identify team members who excel in customer service and designate them as mentors. Your service manager can help lead initiatives, offer advice to peers and provide real-time feedback to employees on their interactions with customers.
3. Empower Employees to Make Decisions
RSRs are the face of your company, and they often interact with customers in real-time. Empowering them to make decisions without waiting for approval can speed up issue resolution and create a more positive customer experience.
I gave my RSRs total autonomy to make decisions with their customers.
Give employees the authority to solve common customer problems, such as managing minor complaints, offering solutions or providing refunds within set guidelines. These build trust with your team as well as customers and show them you value their time.
4. Focus on Personalized Service
Personalized service creates memorable customer experiences. Clients want to feel that their unique needs and preferences are being addressed.
Train employees to gather and use customer information effectively. Tracking special requests, preferred delivery schedules or specific garment needs—having personalized service—makes customers feel valued.
Avoid using a one-size-fits-all approach when communicating with customers. Encourage team members to adapt their tone and style based on the customer’s preferences.
5. Measure and Act
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Regularly gathering and analyzing customer feedback is essential to refining your service approach.
Listening to feedback is important, but acting on it is even more critical. Address common pain points quickly and communicate any changes or improvements to your customers.
Recognize and reward employees who consistently receive positive feedback. Celebrating customer service successes can motivate the team to maintain high standards. Have your customers rate your customer on Google reviews: get a 5-star rating!
6. Foster a Team Environment
A cohesive team that collaborates and communicates well is key to providing consistent customer service. Encourage teamwork across departments to ensure seamless service delivery.
Ensure sales, operations and customer service are aligned with their goals and communication. This prevents customer issues from slipping through the cracks and improves overall service consistency.
Keep everyone updated on customer feedback, ongoing issues or service improvements. A well-informed team can provide better and faster solutions.
CONCLUSION
As your laundry operation continues to grow, customer service must remain a top priority.
By investing in training, empowering your team and creating a customer-centric culture, your operation can elevate its customer service skills and build lasting relationships with clients.
When employees feel equipped and supported in delivering excellent service, your company will stand out as a trusted and dependable partner in the textile rental industry.
Uniforms/Workwear Manufacturing: Duane Houvener, ADI-American Dawn Inc., Los Angeles, Calif.
To elevate customer service skills across your organization, here are some strategies to consider:
Train on Customer-centric Mindsets
- Workshops: Hold regular workshops that emphasize empathy, communication and problem-solving. Tailor them to specific roles, highlighting how each department impacts the customer experience.
- Customer Journey Mapping: Encourage production employees to walk in the customer’s shoes, understanding the pain points and expectations at each stage of service. Set up and coordinate “field trips” to your customer sites and take production employees to customer sites so they can see how important their job at the plant is.
Empower Employees to Make Decisions
- Give frontline employees more autonomy in resolving customer issues. This builds confidence and allows quicker responses to customer needs, fostering a culture of ownership and accountability.
Reinforce Positive Examples
- Recognition Programs: Celebrate examples of great customer service publicly. Use team meetings or internal newsletters to share success stories, which can motivate others to follow suit.
- Peer Mentoring: Pair employees who naturally excel at customer service with those needing improvement. Learning through observation and feedback can accelerate growth.
Use Feedback to Drive Improvement
- Customer Feedback Loop: Set up a consistent way to gather and share customer feedback across departments. Ensure employees see how their actions directly impact customer satisfaction.
- Internal Feedback: Collect insights from staff on roadblocks or issues they face in delivering exceptional service and work on solutions collaboratively.
Create Clear Standards
- Define and communicate clear service standards across the organization. Create guidelines around responsiveness, tone, professionalism, and problem resolution.
Monitor and Coach
- Implement regular performance reviews that include customer service metrics. Use these reviews to coach employees on their service skills and offer resources for continuous improvement.
Balancing operational efficiency and a customer-first mindset will help create a stronger, service-oriented culture across the board.
Miss Part 1 with thoughts from hotel laundry, distribution and healthcare laundry experts? Click HERE to read it.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
