CHICAGO — Having the right, working equipment is a key to the success of industrial and institutional laundry operations.
Most operators rely on distributors for their equipment, from the point of purchase through keeping the equipment in good working order. Fortunately, many laundries have good relationships with their distributors.
That’s what respondents indicated through the most recent American Laundry News Your Views survey.
More than 92% of those who took the survey say their operation works with a distributor to acquire equipment. Less than 8% don’t work with a distributor.
Survey takers indicate they most often purchase washers and dryers through distributors (35.1% each). Those machines are followed by folders (13.5%), ironers (10.8%) and “other” (5.4%).
Operators who purchase other equipment from distributors say these are more ancillary products, such as folding tables and furniture.
When asked how important it is that distributors offer maintenance/troubleshooting services, most (84.6%) indicate it’s “extremely important.” The remaining respondents rank these services as “somewhat important” (15.4%).
The majority of respondents (53.8%) says their equipment/service experience with their distributor is “excellent,” followed by “good” at 23.1%. Less than 16% rank their experience as “OK,” and only 7.7% share it has been “poor.”
While most operators say their distributor experience has been positive, there’s always room for improvement. When asked to choose what they thought would be the best way to improve their experience, “better communication” and “more preventative maintenance options” topped the list at 27.3% each. Other answers were “improve on-site service” (18.2%), “offer more deals” (13.6%), “increase troubleshooting assistance” (9.1%) and “other” (4.5%).
While the Your Views survey presents a snapshot of readers’ viewpoints at a particular moment, it should not be considered scientific. Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100%.
Subscribers to American Laundry News e-mails are invited to take the industry survey anonymously online each quarter. All managers and administrators of institutional/OPL, cooperative, commercial and industrial laundries are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and identify industry trends.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
