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Survey: Competition Excites, Energizes Laundries to Continue Improving

CHICAGO — Half of those responding to a Wire survey say that competition excites and energizes them to continue to make operational improvements. Subscribers were asked how they typically respond when they learn another laundry service is competing with theirs for the same business.
Roughly 22% say they become “anxious, because the threat of competition always makes me question if my service is doing the best job it can.” Another 17% say they’re “unconcerned” because they’re confident in their laundry’s abilities. Slightly more than 11% say they’re “complacent” because their “customer base is well established and I don’t really care if another service is poking around.”
When promoting their laundry service to a prospective client or end user, virtually all who responded – 88.9% – say they emphasize only their company’s positives. The remainder said they emphasize their positives and their competitor’s weaknesses. No one said they emphasize only their competitor’s negatives.
More than three-quarters of respondents call on potential customers, either by phone or in person, and roughly 72% rely on word of mouth to promote their laundry. Approximately 28% participate in industry associations, 22% advertise in a publication of some kind, and less than 6% send direct-mail pieces.
Subscribers to American Laundry News’ Wire e-mails — now distributed weekly — are invited to participate in an industry survey each month. The survey is conducted online via a partner website. Each survey is developed so it can be completed in 10 minutes or less. Readers are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and industry trends.
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Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].