Stan Caplan: Getting control of your quality

This series continues with the manager's duty to select the right person for the important position of inspector. After the choice is made, the manager's task to train that person is just as important as the manager's responsibility to train his production workers.

Last month I outlined the basis of training in the various steps of the receiving and production processes, and this month I continue with selection of the inspector and training of the inspector in the various steps of what to look for and get correction of any defects.

Choosing the inspector
The modern manager must be very careful in selecting the inspector. Much thought is needed.

What kind of temperament does that person have? Does that person go to any lengths to be liked? Will the fear of being disliked allow more garments to pass when they should be rejected? This type of person will not be an effective inspector.

Is that person a paranoid type who wants to dominate others?

Is that person fanatically critical or too particular so that finishers and spotters will want to quit because of perceived harassment?

Does that person possess enough knowledge of finishing and spotting to discern between what can be corrected and cannot?

Is that person's tone of voice and domineering attitude going to alienate the production workers? This type of person will not make an effective inspector.

All of these considerations by management make a decision to choose the right inspector very difficult and, sometimes, there might be the need for a "trial and error" selection. This really makes the decision very tough.

If the manager chooses one of the pressers, is that person particularly friendly with one of the other finishers? If that is the case, the manager could be asking for trouble. This could create an air of tension among the other finishers if the inspector shows obvious favoritism toward that friend. That person, therefore, will not make a good inspector.

How does that person feel about the company? Is there loyalty and dedication? Does that person sometimes work in the customer service area? If so, is there a desire to satisfy customers and avoid the embarrassment of delivering bad quality? This type of person will make a good inspector.

Can that person accept constructive criticism? This is a key point and is of utmost importance since any complaint coming from a customer due to faulty inspection should be discussed with the inspector who should be informed emphatically, but not antagonistically, that there was in fact a faulty inspection. If that person is one who becomes angry or argumentative when criticized, then that person will not be an effective inspector.

Does that person have good vision and no color blindness? If the inspector's vision is bad, or is color blind, how could small spots be seen or the last races of a dye stain be detected?

Finally, and most important, does that person recognize the difference between good and poor cleaning? What constitutes good finishing as opposed to bad finishing? Can that person tell which spots are permanent or removable?

If that person cannot qualify for of these attributes, can he or she be easily trained to qualify?

Now you can see how difficult, but critically important, the manager's selection of the inspector can be, and you can see how critically important the inspector's job is to the success of the entire production process and of the company as well.

In view of all the foregoing topics in this column, the plant manager, and the owners, should be directly involved in the quality control process.

All production employees should be informed by management that a weekly inspection will be forthcoming for evaluation of quality work coming from all areas, and no particular day will be chosen.

What the inspector looks for
What should the inspector look for?

For drycleaning, look for brightness and no odor. If the cleaning is bad, whether customers complain or not, those garments should be shown to the inspector and problem discussed.

After the cleaning quality has been corrected, management should show the inspector what properly cleaned garments look like (including the original garments when corrected) when they have been restored to their original brightness or whiteness and without odor.

For rips, tears, open seams, torn belt loops, open cuffs, missing or broken buttons, missing or broken waistband clamps or hooks, untacked waistband lining and any other damage, the inspector must look from top to bottom and side to side.

For spotting, see if spotting procedures are producing rings that should be rejected. Look for roughed-up areas resulting from improper tamping or other forms of mechanical action. Look for chafing from improper use of the spatula (bone). These faults should be shown to the inspector so they can be recognized in the future.

Look for spots and ground-in soil. The inspector should be told how some spots are invisible when brought in by the customer, and how steaming will bring them to the surface. Explain how this relates to a caramelized sugar stain which can appear if improper drying temperatures have been applied and with use of improper chemicals.

For finishing, the inspector must be told how critically important this last step in the production process is to good quality and in customer satisfaction. It must be emphasized that there is no way to find an excuse for a poor press job since nothing is hidden.

First, an inspector checklist should be prepared for both the inspector and the finishers. This checklist should be posted at each finishing unit as well as in the inspection area to minimize any conflicts between the finisher and inspector when a garment is rejected.

The inspector should be shown the actual areas to be inspected on each type of garment. The finishers should also be shown the fine points on the garment that the inspector will be looking at (regardless of how much experience the finisher has).

This check list should be prepared by management in accordance with the type of quality desired, which is usually dictated by the type of area that the stores and routes are located in and the prices charged.

Next month, in Part 3, I will continue the discussion of the training of the inspector in the critical role of finishing quality and the fine points involved in the inspector's check list.

The three levels of quality will be discussed:

1. Production Level. Dis-count and low prices (bargain hunters)

2. Deluxe Level. Medium to higher prices (most popular, satisfies most people)

3. Classic Level. Highest prices, satisfies less people with high income

Bear in mind that the finishing inspection is considerably more detailed and extensive than looking for a spot, damage or alteration.

NOTE: My video, "The Caplan Method of Stain Removal," which includes my comprehensive text (edited by Hal Horning) and the handy spotting board reference, is now available in English, Korean (video only) and Spanish (video only) from the Golomb Group, c/o Dennis McCrory, 7664 Plaza Court, Willowbrook, IL 60521; phone (630)887-7339.

This video is actually a "trainer in a box" and is a complete training course for both experienced and novice spotters. My comprehensive text reinforces all of the background technical material required to produce a professional spotter, and the viable way to inspect for spots after cleaning with moving the garments to finishing with efficiency are outlined.

Also available is my video on step-by-step shirt finishing, which includes my comprehensive text in loose-leaf form outlining each procedure for a single-operator cabinet shirt unit and a two-operator cabinet shirt unit. Both units are demonstrated using a cabinet sleever and a single, or triple, heated collar former. This procedure was developed by me to top quality with no touch-up (regular sizes) together with maximum production without overexertion by the operators.

Avoiding shrinkage, wilting and dipping of the collar together with its proper "breaking and forming" on the heated collar former cone are all demonstrated. Both the collar and front buttonhole placket, the two thickest parts of the shirt, are completely dried with no loss of production time.

Attractive detailing and packaging of the hangered shirt, padding, steam pressure and timing are discussed. Also, a unique wash formula for whiter whites, brighter colors and total removal of grease and body oils is included.

Ray Colucci: What is the role of wetcleaning?

What about wetcleaning? The one thing I still detest is the name. It still carries the association with washing and shrinkage and a humid, hot laundry.

The thought of having your Armani suit or Paris creation cleaned in a washing machine is something that I'll never be able to justify.

I have seen just such garments in the hands of an expert with the skill of knowing what programs to utilize, what chemicals and amounts to allow, what temperature, agitation time, etc.

Unfortunately, there will be many a claim, similar to our early days of drycleaning with perc when we wondered what caused dye bleeding, imitation leather to harden and plastic buttons to melt, to name a few disasters.

Along with the failures, I have seen cashmere, leather, chiffon, etc., wetcleaned like new, as well as some very expensive wedding gowns, all hemlines hand brushed on the wet side, cleaned like new. The garments have great hand, no solvent odors, and few problems in finishing.

I'm afraid it takes a courageous drycleaner to tell that customer, "We are going to wetclean this garment" when the label clearly states "Dry Clean Only."

"You're going to what?"

I hope everyone has read Mike Achin of Laidlaw's excellent piece on why "Wetcleaning is not washing"

So what about wetcleaning?

We have progressed to the point of chemical balance and complete control of which program to take advantage of, depending on what garment we want to clean safely and effectively.

Most important we can control the content of moisture in the drying cycle, and releasing the load not by a timer, but by in-depth reading of the clothes being dried. This process has reduced the problem of tedious pressing and specialized skill in finishing.

Yes, I have seen garments restored and returned as-new, with pride and in any price range.

100% wetcleaning
Can wetcleaning take care of 100 percent of the garments brought into the average drycleaner on a daily basis?

Some experts say only 50 percent can be wetcleaned, which I challenge, since we were wetcleaning wool pants for decades to remove stiff perspiration in the knees, and thoroughly washing soiled khakis.

There is still the problem of rayon linings having breaks and requiring some hand finishing, or some cases of air drying, but it takes the expert to determine when and which garments.

Some special pieces, with risk involved (which we are not obligated to take), should be drycleaned in solvent.

What's the percentage for the average cleaner? I like to think 75 percent for the less skilled, and progressively higher for those with more skill.

What percentage can be safely and profitably wetcleaned? Again I say 75 percent and higher. In our favor are the research chemists who design fabrics for cleaning in water.

Why do I know this? For one thing, because some of the wealthiest companies are developing products to be cleaned at home with the use of water.

Risking the untried
As the next reason, I see an equal share of risk on the use of some of the newer miracle solvents. I admit I am pleased to see that there are "risk takers" so long as they are not Mr. or Mrs. Neighborhood Drycleaner. Let the risk-takers risk the EPA fines for pollution.

Why am I then in favor of wetcleaning when there are so many excellent alternatives which don't require a "customer education" and can also clean as well?

For one thing, these new-solvent systems and units are extremely expensive to purchase.

I'm sure the price will come down as more and more are sold, but I also have another fear -- that most will have restrictions or be outlawed by the EPA or landlords.

A great idea, at one time
I go back to the early 1960s when coin-operated drycleaning was introduced. Here were some of the biggest giants in American industry, names like Westinghouse, Philco, Bendix and Norge to name a few, all with millions to spend on research and marketing.

They stormed ahead, with eight pounds of cleaning for $2! The clothes had a strong perc odor, lint was rampant, and spotting and finishing were non-existent.

Furthermore, the units had a short, three-year life span and most operators went under or bankrupt.

Can that happen again, to buyers of new solvent units with some of the new equipment on the market today?

My concern is not that I care so much for the billion-dollar companies behind these products nor for the myriad of easy-care products sold in your supermarket that let you clean at home in your washer and dryer.

Some may simply "write off" their losses because they are probably in a tax bracket in which 50 cents out of every dollar goes to the government. They want to be congratulated for being creative in attempting to give the public new products. It becomes incidental whether the products live up to what they advertised, or fail in a few months.

I'll never forget the ad showing a prominent football player loading a garbage truck in a beige tan summer suit, the clock showing 9 a.m. Then they show the same suit bouncing around in a washing machine and dryer, while he sings in the shower, getting ready for his date, the time showing 6 p.m.

Next they show the same handsome athlete calling on some lovely model, ready to go out, wearing the same meticulously clean and pressed suit! The ad with background music clearly said "You can be here (loading a garbage truck) while (getting to meet your date) over there!" Wash n' wear! And the ad showed a retake of the suit being washed and the suit being worn, ready to go out!

Did it work? Did it sell a ton of wash n'wear? I guess it did! But did the manufacturers care if it was the truth?

My concern is that wetcleaning has replaced wash and wear, but we are a lot smarter now than 30 years ago.

We have also learned the hard way that the EPA is not the friend of the drycleaner, and the billion-dollar companies and their profit and loss are not our concern. We have learned that the EPA can close us up in a minute, with just the words "Hazardous Waste" or "Toxic."

Who ends up paying?
I still remember the grieving widow who inherited her deceased husband's drycleaning business, then sold it. Then she found out she was liable because of "retroactive liability" with the discovery of perc in the soil that was present on the property. Imagine, from the grave, and this, after several years!

That's my concern. Will these new units suddenly fall into that category?

I assure you, there will be no support from those companies, no matter how much wealth they represent.

Will they ever outlaw water? I think not, but I'm sure if they want to, they will find a need to attack "polluted waste water."

Room for improvement
Wetcleaning still needs some hand-holding. The number is not quite a 100 percent but the overall usage is at a practical and profitable level.

For instance you can do excellent shirt laundering, leather cleaning, water repellency, all in your wetcleaning unit, all items you could never handle in a perc or solvent unit.

Yes, you may have to farm out some small percentage to a solvent system, but progress is upon us, and in our favor.

I believe tomorrow holds the key to newer and care-free fabrics that will be serviced by the professional cleaner.

Today's modern housewife wants and will demand easier, care-free garments. The two-income household is not going away, but will keep on increasing, always seeking more convenient services.

As it is now, there are not enough hours in a day to free the busy household to take care of the necessary family business

I strongly believe the answer is the professional drycleaner and his faith in the future. Wetcleaning could be part of the answer.

Don Desrosiers: Your shirts. Your costs. Your price.

What should you charge for a shirt? I bet that there have been times that you wanted to rethink the price that you charge for laundered shirts. I bet that this is true whether you are charging 80 cents or $3.50.

Let's say that you have come up with a cost per shirt of $1.07. This may have caused you to scratch your head, wondering how all of your competitors could possibly be charging 99 cents for their shirts.

Often, the result of this is simply leaving your retail price where it is for fear that you will price yourself out of the market. My travels have shown that the average price for laundered shirts is a little over $1.50. I will guess that the median price is $1.40.

I suppose all of you know that there are wholesalers out there who charge well under a dollar. In fact, there are wholesalers that charge 75 cents per shirt. (That is what I charged, wholesale, 20 years ago!) Even I have never been able to make money at that rate while still doing everything above board.

I am not implying anything here except that if you charge that price, and you think that you make money, there is something that you've missed. It's easy to miss things like an hourly wage for yourself; profit for your company, i.e., return on your investment; and the use of your equipment and its depreciation.

If you have truly made money, then at the end of your equipment's life, you have exactly enough cash to replace it all with new stuff. And not a penny of that money has been profit. That is why you get to deduct that income on your tax return... it's not really income.

OK, enough about that. I am not an accountant or a tax attorney and will not pretend to be either.

My point is that there are some folks charging 75 cents for basically the same product that others charge twice that for.

Please don't call me to beat me up about that statement. I said basically the same thing, that is, a shirt washed and pressed.

I know that there is value in the amenities and that uppity cleaners serving elite clientele can charge more because they offer more. That may be any number of things, from a fancy call office to expert customer service reps to home delivery to spiffy packaging.

However, the fact is that this upscale operator probably does not factor those "extras" into his cost-per-shirt equation. He may well be justified in charging this high price (and good for him/her), but the fact is, his cost-per-shirt calculations include the same line items that the inexpensive guy's calculations have.

I digress. Let's just say that the guy at 75 cents breaks even, OK? (He doesn't, but let's say he does.) Now, let's say that the other guy across town charges $1.50 per shirt and does 3,500 shirts per week. He probably makes money, right? How much?

Well, if you believe that the cleaner who charges 75 cents breaks even, then you must also believe that the one charging twice that must be making $2,625 per week in profit (3,500 shirts x ($1.50 - .75)=$2,625). That's over $136,000 per year.

Why would he bother trying to make money in his drycleaning department? The shirt department generates all of the profit that he needs. In fact, if shirts were that profitable, then perhaps this cleaner should begin discounting his drycleaning "to get the shirts."

Isn't that a reversal, huh? How many times have you heard of cleaners discounting the shirts "to get the drycleaning?" Seems like everyone has at least thought that at one time or another. But if shirts are so profitable, I must ask you: Why are we discounting them?

Some will argue the same point that they always do: "So I can get the drycleaning!"

If that is true, then, the guy that isn't discounting his shirts, that is, getting the full $1.50, is in one of two situations: 1) He is making a killing on his shirts ($136,000+), plus he is making some sort of profit on his drycleaning, or 2) he isn't.

If he is in situation #1, he must be using his drycleaning to "get the shirts." Seems to be working rather well. It is shameful that he can't make at least some money on his drycleaning. There are surely thousands of drycleaners that fit this description exactly: 3,500 shirts per week and about as many pieces of drycleaning per week. If they make a net profit of 75 cents on every shirt, don't you think that they should be making at least that on their drycleaning? They get over $9 for a dress. Don't you think that there is 75 cents in profit in that? I should hope so!

Why do I not believe this?

Well, the fact is that the last 400 words of this article have been peppered with fiction. The simple truth is that many of you lie to yourselves about your true cost per shirt.

Stop doing that!

I will attempt to walk you through a cost per shirt calculation. It will not be perfect and I am still not an accountant, but I think that it will be conservative, in spite of the line items in this calculation.

I have colleagues who will argue that I have left some key things out. I present this to you with full knowledge of that. It isn't that I disagree with them, but rather that I am trying to make this as simple as possible.

I'd like for you to do this today. It may take a bit of homework to get going and it may not get you to double your price, but I think that it will keep you from lowering your price... ever.

Calculating your costs
Step #1 is to determine what percentage of your total gross sales is shirts. For this calculation, keep out the income and expenses related to other laundry items such as fatigues, tablecloths and laundered pants. Shirts only, OK?

Let's say, for the sake of example, you have come up with a figure of 20 percent. You do $1,000,000 in sales and, of that, $200,000 is for shirts. Come up with a close estimate of how many shirts that you did, using this figure. If your shirts are a dollar each, you did 200,000 shirts.

Now gather the annual sums for the following items and write them in on a form like the one shown below.

Sick to your stomach yet? These are probably all of the things that you have never factored into your calculation before, but they do belong here. Prove to me otherwise.

A likely argument against including, say, the telephone expenses at your drop stores, is that you'd have them whether you did shirts or not.

True, except that it is senseless to leave it out and ultimately charge the full amount to your drycleaning income or simply to "the cost of doing business."

You may disagree with the way that I allocate the rent expenses at the plant. You may choose to allocate the rent by square footage used. The reason that I don't generally endorse this method is because it is too easy to cheat. Suppose that you have a 3,000-sq. ft. plant. Your shirt unit occupies an area 10 feet by 20 feet.

Some folks will cheat and charge the shirt department for 200 square feet of space. That is unfair. What about all of the other space required for washing, inspection and assembly? Percentage of sales certainly has its flaws, but it keeps a novice from cheating.

Other key items
The chart isn't even close to complete, of course. Still needing to be added to this is:

Your salary: 20 percent of your business is shirts, so 20 percent of your salary needs to be charged to the shirt department. Surely, you know that is conservative since 50 percent or more of your time is spent in the shirt department or dealing with issues related to shirts.

Supplies: Easy to calculate. Add up all of the supplies related to shirts for a year -- shirt hangers, cuff clips, shirt poly, chemicals, shirt boxes, shirt boards, etc. and divide it by the number of shirts that you processed. Don't try doing it for a month. It won't be accurate. It should come to around 14 cents per shirt.

Utilities can be tricky, so it is acceptable, in my opinion to charge the shirt department four and a half to five and a half cents per shirt. Alternately, you can total all of your utility bills and multiply them by 20 percent, then divide by the number of shirts. If you have low volume and slow production, you will find that your cost is over 10 cents per shirt for utilities. With the cost of natural gas, these days, it could be two times as much as it was last year.

Repairs: Do this calculation like you did for supplies. Add up every part that you purchased and/or every service call related to your shirt equipment and divide it by the number of shirts that you produced. It should be about a penny.

Claims: This will usually add an additional penny per shirt.

If you expect to do 200,000 shirts per year, every year for 10 years, then your equipment will be usable for 2 million shirts. Divide the equipment's value by 2,000,000 shirts. That will add somewhere between three and five cents to your cost per shirt.

And, of course, labor. I could write for a day about labor cost. Rather, I will use a figure that represents what most of my clients are spending (before they adopt my system).

The most generic way to do that is to determine the number of shirts that you produce per labor hour that you buy. The average figure is 16. Optimum is 25. I've seen as low as 6. Ouch!

So let's say that you are typical. You produce 16 shirts for every labor hour. That means that you use about 220 hours per week in the shirt department to do 3,500 shirts. At a lowly $8 per hour (including payroll tax), your cost per shirt for labor is over 50 cents.

So what's the total? I never asked you what you pay yourself. And all of the figures in that table are figures that I pulled out of a hat. They mean nothing in your operation. But it is surely over a dollar per shirt and that is assuming 200,000 shirts per year among which to disperse the fixed expenses.

So, how much should you charge for a laundered shirt? Do the math for your operation and then answer that question yourself.

Dan Eisen: Sheer fabrics need expert attention

Sheer fabrics are fashionable because they provide garments with a soft, free-flowing drape and a transparent look that is both sensuous and alluring.

Sheer fabrics are very thin, and lightweight fabrics may be woven with fewer yarns and very fine yarns, characterized by open space between the yarns. Manufacturers can easily duplicate fine yarns with synthetic fibers by the invent of micro fibers.

Some typical sheer fabrics are chiffon, organdy, batiste and ninon. Sheer fabrics can be made of any fiber and usually take on the make of the fiber.

For example they may be referred to as silk organdy, rayon chiffon, etc. Sheer fabrics are used for gowns, blouses, capes, slacks and scarfs. Sheer fabrics are also used for curtains. Ninon is a sheer fabric used for curtains.

Fabric problems
The problems associated with sheer fabrics may be due to fiber content, loose weave construction, sizing or bias cut construction of the garment.

1. Yarn slippage and snagging are due to the fine yarns and loose weave.

2. Distortion may result because of loose weave and the loss of sizing which kept the fabric stabilized.

Bias cut garments, which give it a billowy appearance, are especially susceptible to distortion.

Creped yarns are likely to become distorted because the highly twisted yarns absorb moisture and cannot be held in place by the loose weave construction.

3. Cloudy or ringed areas may appear where water-soluble sizing has been used, and moisture, perspiration or spillage during wear has partially dissolved the sizing.

4. Color loss, which usually appears as streaking or dye crocking, is characteristic of dye loss in heavily sized sheer fabrics.

Inspection
When receiving sheer garments, examine them carefully. Uneven hem lines and seam puckering usually indicate stretching, shrinking or distortion. Bias cut garments are almost always distorted to some degree. Note the distortion on the sales slip. Examine the entire garment for snags and pulls.

Pay special attention to seams, arms, seats and collars. When examining seams, look for fabric unraveling due to stress. Look for rings and swales that may have been caused by perspiration or liquid spillage.

Garments are best examined while on a hanger.

Drycleaning
Place sheer garments in a net bag. Dryclean for no more than three minutes. Classify with a silk load with no moisture.

Do not dry higher than 140 degrees F. Mechanical action or moisture may cause distortion, yarn slippage or dye loss.

Spotting
Because chiffon is a sheer fabric, stains are frequently not noticeable when the fabric is placed on the spotting board. Note stains with a sticker or stain tag.

Hold the steam gun at least six inches from the fabric to avoid yarn separation and shifting.

Do not brush chiffon. Instead tamp lightly with a special padded silk brush, or a brush wrapped with a towel. Do not tamp over a screen. Spot in small areas with a steam gun to avoid ringed areas, light areas and shrinkage due to the dissolving of water soluble sizing.

The air gun, too, must be held at least six inches from the fabric. Most wet-side stains respond with only the steam gun since stains are absorbed by the fine yarns and loose weave.

Prespotting
Use a leveling agent on a wet area to prevent rings. Allow to dry before drycleaning. Sheer fabrics will dry quickly. The use of the air gun will aid in drying.

Wetcleaning
Do not wetclean sheer fabrics made of silk or rayon. Thermoplastic fibers (acetate, nylon, polyester) can be soaked in cool water (under 100 degrees F) with a mild lubricant. Rinse and hang to dry.

Finishing
Sheer fabrics should be placed on a steam air finisher with the expansion of the bag restricted either by string, straps, special bags or placing on a steam air finisher that is functional for dresses due to its limited expansion.

Most sheer fabrics need only light steaming to remove wrinkles. Some touch up can be accomplished by the puff iron or the use of an iron while the garment is hanging.

If hard wrinkles prevail, the garment may be placed on the buck of the press.

Avoid using head pressure on bias cut garments since the lay of the garment may be affected. Use hand pads, or touch up with irons making sure the iron is free from rough areas.

The garment is always pushed away from the operator to avoid snags, pulling, dragging and distortion.

Summary
Sheer fabrics range from limited serviceability to unserviceable. Distortion may result because of the loosely woven fine yarns. Distortion is especially a hazard if the fabric has been bias cut.

The use of moisture in rayon and silk sheer fabric in any step may be hazardous because the sizing may be water soluble. Rings, swales, light areas and shrinkage will result in loss of sizing.

Be sure to inspect chiffon garments before accepting them for snags, pulled yarns, distortion, uneven hem lines and discoloration.

Stan Golomb: Surviving in the drycleaning jungle

What does it take to increase sales and profits?

• A plan.
• Incentives.
• Communications.
• Excitement.
• Commitment.
• Study and effort.
• Knowledge.
• Location.
• Projections.
• Costs.
• Advertising.

Plan your work and work your plan
Years ago, when I worked as a field representative for R. R. Street & Co., we had an itinerary form to fill out each week for the coming week. At the top of the form it said, "Plan your work and work your plan." I did and was very successful as I went all out to work my plan. To this day, I use that formula, as there is no denying that a well-defined plan carried out is a road map to your destination.

Incentives
Incentives can be as simple as visualizing the results of your efforts.

Without motivation, be it self motivation or outside motivation, we can become sluggish in our efforts to accomplish our goals.

Communications
Everyone is selling something even if the product you are selling is yourself. We communicate through our appearance and that's one of the benefits the drycleaning industry provides. A well-groomed individual communicates that fact through his or her appearance. Drycleaners sell appearance and communications is part of the selling process. Never take anything for granted. Always make sure you let the world know your process through some form of communications.

Excitement
To the consumer, drycleaning is a necessary evil, like going to the dentist only not as painful. Nobody looks forward to going to the cleaners but they do look forward to having freshly cleaned and pressed garments to wear.

Johnnie was a very successful route driver for Artistic Cleaners. He created excitement simply by handing out a stick of gum to every person he contacted. A cleaner in Ohio passed out bananas to his customers on certain days of the week and this unexpected gift created a lot of excitement.

Smitty Fazio creates excitement in his stores by providing coffee and donuts and a free newspaper to his morning customers. That's excitement and the customers show their pleasure with a big smile.

Others give small different gifts to their customers for no reason other than to have the customer say, "What is this for?" and the answer would be, "Because you are a special customer and we appreciate your business."

Commitment
Commitment is keeping your word. If you say that an order will be ready by 3 p.m. the next day, that's your commitment and you had better follow through.

Commitment is also making a pledge to yourself that you will do what you plan and if you decide to start a marketing program, you have to be committed to your plan and follow through.

Study and effort
Would you go to a doctor who didn't keep up with the latest medical information? Or a doctor who did not make an effort to go the extra mile to see that you are treated properly? To be the best you can be in any endeavor, you have to make the effort to learn as much as you can about what you plan to do and never stop learning. The effort is the first step.

Knowledge

Knowledge is the result of study and effort. If you want to understand your market and the people in it, you must have the knowledge that comes from study.

Each market is a universe unto itself. There are just so many people and just so much potential. If you attain the knowledge, you will know what your market potential is and then you can find your share. Then, at that point, you can go after an increase in market share.

Farmers measure their performance by the yield they get per acre. But in order to do this, they have to know what is expected under normal conditions.

Dry cleaning markets are like farms and have an average yield per acre. But the problem with a drycleaner's farm is that there are other dry cleaners farming the same area.

Location
Any business in a fixed location will draw best from the immediate area and have a diminishing return, as we get further away from the site.

Now the question is, how much business is there in a prime market?

A demographic study will show you the potential of your realistic market. If you don't have access to this information, there are other ways to get a good idea of the total potential of your prime market.

A typical market will extend no more than 2 miles from the site. Any business that comes in beyond this distance is a bonus.

If the homes in the immediate area are of the same general value, you can make a good estimate of the potential.

Take an average of the value of the homes in the area. Then count the number of active customers you have, excluding any that have not been in within the past 90 days.

Using your average customer income per month, you can project the market potential.

This may seem a bit complicated but all you have to do is follow the formula and you'll get a good idea of your market potential.

Say you have about 3,000 active customers and your sales come to $6,000 a week. Divide the $6,000 in sales by the active customers, 3,000, and you are averaging $2.00 a week per customer.

If there are 18,000 homes within the two-mile radius of your store and they average $2 a week, the rest is easy. The weekly potential for your two mile radius market is $2.00 times 18,000 homes, or $36,000 a week.

You are averaging $6,000 a week, so divide this by the full potential and you will find that you have a 17 percent market share.

In the United States, we have mapping and demographic programs that show us the number of homes and other factors so we can assign a potential expenditure of dry cleaning and related services per household.

Many areas don't have this information so you have no choice but to figure it out the hard way as described above.

Projections
Now here's the really exciting part. Knowing that your market share is 17 percent, you can project what a 5 percent increase in market share will accomplish.

This plant is now doing 17 percent of the $36,000 market for sales of $6,000 a week. A 5 percent increase in market share will result in an $1,800 weekly increase in sales. Five percent of the total market potential of $36,000 = $1,800.

Exponential growth is a powerful weapon and the fastest way to increase total sales, even double sales, in a short period of time.

In this reference, exponential means to get more customers, motivate them to come in more often, to spend more on each visit, and to stay with you a longer period of time.

Costs
Increased sales at a fixed location will be very profitable once the business gets past break-even. The reason is that the fixed costs are fixed and only the variable costs will go up.

The variable expenses are direct labor, supplies and energy but these go up marginally and most managers can contain this to an increase of 30 percent. If that's the case, the balance of the increase will be net profit.

Even more important is that by adding $1,800 a week more in sales by increasing market share only 5 percent, this plant will now show a bottom line profit of an extra $1,260 a week. That comes to over $65,500 a year in extra profits.

Another advantage to increasing sales and profits is that the equity value of the business will go up at least three to four times the increased profits. In this case, the value of the business will go up by at least $196,000.

Once this is understood, the rest is easy. You now have the motivation, if earnings and your net worth are important to you.

This may sound difficult and too ambitious a project, but it can be done because most dry cleaners compete with mediocrity. It's not that the average dry cleaner is lazy or tired -- it's simply that it takes an entrepreneurial spirit to make things happen. Most drycleaners are too busy working to think about ways to create a more lucrative business.

Advertising
The advertising must contain an incentive for the consumer. It must offer a perceived good deal. This could be a combination sale, a sale on sweaters or an out and out price sale, or even a premium gift.

Whatever the plan, it must be followed on a consistent basis or it will fail.

The plant personnel must be trained to make the new customers feel appreciated. The people who handle the front counter should be very friendly and treat each customer as they would visitors in their own home. They should smile a lot and be sincere in their desire to be of service.

And above all, they should provide that new customer with some small gift of appreciation. It could be a ball point pen, a note pad or some small token. The trick is to make that new customer want to come back again and again.

It is a known fact that people would rather go to a restaurant where they are recognized than one where the food might be better. With all other factors being equal, where would you rather go? To a place where they just take your order in a routine manner or to a place where the person waiting on you is sincerely happy to see you and treats you like a friend.

Being this accommodating at the counter does not come naturally to everyone, but people can be trained. It's all in a mental attitude that can adjust to any situation. If a person cannot learn to be sincerely friendly, they should be placed in a different situation.

People who are friendly and smile a lot are happier people and enjoy life more.

It's exciting to get up in the morning looking forward to meeting and greeting friends who not only come to trade with you but also look forward to seeing you.

Finally, you have to be totally honest and back up any promises you make. If you say the work will be ready on Wednesday afternoon, make sure that you keep your word.

And now we get to the product -- the quality of your work. It should be as good as you can make it based on the value of the prices charged. The higher priced cleaner will pay more attention to detail and make the store as attractive as possible. Packaging should be in line with the price.

People bring in clothing to be processed because the garments are wrinkled or spotted or have picked up odors such as smoke and cooking that have attached themselves to their garments.

If people were satisfied being sloppy and wearing soiled and smelly clothes, there wouldn't be a drycleaning business. But clean and well-pressed clothing give the individual confidence.

What a drycleaner is selling is appearance. Everyone wants to look their best and they can only do that with the help of their drycleaner.

There was a slogan often used in this industry, "Your dry cleaner is your clothes best friend." This may sound good but the expression should really be, "Your dry cleaner is your best friend."

Your dry cleaner makes a person look good and feel good and gives one confidence in themselves. And this means a happier and more productive person.

NOTE: A version of this article appeared in Laundry and Cleaning News, a British trade publication. Readers can visit LCN's web site for industry news from "across the pond," www.connectinglaundry.com.

Frank Kollman: Are you failing to communicate?

Last month, I gave you the outline of a labor relations audit to see if your business is properly dealing with employee relations. The first item on that outline was "communications," an overused word in the labor relations field.

For those of you old enough to remember the Paul Newman movie, "Cool Hand Luke," you will remember the most memorable line of the film, delivered by the warden right after Luke is beaten for disobeying:

"What he have here is a failure to communicate."

If you feel like a warden most days, rather than an employer, you probably have a failure to communicate. There is no way you can solve employee problems if you have no idea what they are, and if employee problems remain unsolved, you will have loss of productivity, high turnover, lawsuits, and perhaps employee interest in unions.

When was the last time you met with your employees to ask them what is on their minds? Or when was the last time you had a supervisors meeting and you asked: "Are there any employee concerns I should know about?"

If the answer is never or a year beginning with 19__, you have scores of little problems in your workplace that could blossom into bigger ones, or you have big problems now that will threaten the health of your business.

While money and benefits are the two most important components of a job, loyalty and other quality of life issues rank almost as high. In my experience, low wages will not result in an interest in unions any faster than resentment, anger, or lack of loyalty to the job. And by loyalty, I mean that the employee believes that his employer cares about him enough to talk to him, ask for his ideas, and accommodate his reasonable requests. If an employee is loyal to his job, he will view a union or the government as something he does not need to have job satisfaction.

There is no substitute for regular meetings with supervisors and employees. There is also no substitute for the manager/owner walking through the plant and talking to employees now and again, to ask how they are doing, whether the sticky equipment problem was fixed, what their ideas are about decreasing the number of returns, or whether an individual employee hopes one day to be a supervisor.

These meetings can be small group meetings where employees should be granted immunity to talk about any issue that they wish. They should be assured that there will be no "revenge" taken by anyone for a problem being identified in one of these meetings. You may have to prepare your supervisors to recognize the need for immunity. There should be follow up after meetings, and problems easily solved should be solved, sometimes right on the spot. Yes, there will be times when it will feel like a "whining session," but whining can be good for the soul, at least the employee's soul.

In addition to meetings, there should be a written employee handbook, reviewed by your lawyer to insure that it remains a management tool, not an employee weapon. There is a model employee handbook on my firm's interactive website, www.hrlawforum.com, and it contains most of what you need to get started. Tailor it to your needs, then have it reviewed by competent labor counsel.

Handbooks communicate rules and policies to employees. Handbooks are the first step in making the employee feel that he works for a good company. Handbooks can be used to explain how the business got started and how it grew to its current size. Handbooks can also give employees a mechanism to communicate with the employer, other than regular employee meetings.

A handbook policy dealing with sexual harassment, and how to communicate possible violations to management, can make sexual harassment lawsuits go away. The absence of such a written policy can make a sexual harassment lawsuit more difficult to defend and win. In addition, many times government agencies -- like the unemployment people -- need to see written rules to disqualify a discharged employee from benefits. An employee handbook can do the trick.

Finally, a good communications program can help you measure employee satisfaction. You will find out, for example, that employees would rather have the parking lot paved than the lunchroom painted. You will find out that a particular supervisor is mistreating employees, rather than supervising them. You will find out that many employees are just as concerned with quality as you are. Take steps today to check the quality of your communications program. If you are not prepared to do so, rent "Cool Hand Luke."

Frank Lucenta: Finishing cuir savage leather

Cuir savage leather (also called aniline leather) has the color dyed into the skin and a slight surface shine or sheen that gives it a stained look with a slight surface gloss.

This cuir savage look can be compared to the way a piece of wood looks that has been stained and varnished so that the wood grain shows through the surface sheen.

An antique look is imparted to the cuir savage leather by unevenly applying a dark pigment color in an irregular pattern over a lighter base color dyed in the skin.

For purposes of this instruction, cuir savage leather will include any leather that has a shine and will absorb a drop of water when it is placed on its surface. This includes cuir savage leather in any color or with an antique finish.

Spray finishing cuir savage in any color or with an antique finish is similar to spray finishing painted leather, except the spray materials required and the spray techniques that are used can be quite different.

A cuir savage in a single color or with an antique finish may exhibit various degrees of wear when it is received for cleaning.

The techniques employed and the finishing materials required to restore a cuir savage leather will depend upon the degree of wear and the type of wear that exists on the article.

A cuir savage in a single color or with an antique finish may exhibit any of the following conditions of wear: loss of surface sheen; loss of surface sheen and color or dark antique overlay; and loss of the surface of the skin.

Restoring surface sheen
If the cuir savage color or antique finish is not worn and only the slight surface sheen is missing, the surface sheen can be restored by first pressing it on a hot head press set at a temperature of no more than 250 degrees F and then spraying it evenly with a light surface coating of Leather Sheen Clear Cuir Savage Leather Finish. This is best accomplished by using a fogging spray technique.

The fogging spray technique requires that spraying be done from a distance of eight inches away from the leather surface at 80 psi of air pressure, with the spray gun adjusting screw at the rear of the spray gun screwed all the way in and then backed off one-quarter to one-half a turn.

This technique ensures that only a fine spray or fogging mist will be sprayed on to the surface of the leather and it will dry quickly on the surface and not soak into the skin.

Warning: Do not apply a heavy coating as it will be absorbed into the skin and the skin will get dark and stiff.

Close the adjusting screw at rear of gun.

After spraying, allow the finish to dry.

Drying should be relatively rapid. When dry, press with a hot head press at a temperature of 250 degrees F or press with a press fitted with a hot head grid plate to restore the original soft supple feel and the slick surface sheen.

After spraying and drying, press on the hot head press.

If the cuir savage color and surface sheen are both worn or faded, the item should be sprayed with a mixture of equal parts of Leather Sheen finish and Brit-N Dye to restore color and sheen.

Restoring color and sheen
If the cuir savage antique pattern color and surface sheen are both worn, restore by spraying with a mixture of equal parts of clear cuir savage leather finish and Leather Pro Color Leather Finish in the original dark matching overlay color.

Spray in an irregular pattern that duplicates the original antique pattern.

Spray and press using the same techniques described above to restore the soft supple feel and slick surface sheen.

Restoring antique and sheen
If the cuir savage surface sheen, color and skin surface are worn, the item should be sprayed with a mix of equal parts of clear leather finish, color dye and Leather Pro Color Leather Finish in the original matching color. This azeotropic mix will restore the surface of the skin, the color and the sheen in one application.

NOTE: If the cuir savage also lost an antique finish, a second spray application will be required to restore the antique as previously described.

This same mix of clear leather finish, color leather finish and color dye can also be used to cover unremovable spots and stains and to restore worn surface areas.

For badly worn surface areas on cuir savage leather, such as along the edges of cuffs, hems and lapels, apply the mix with a Q-tip or an artist's brush to the worn edges to restore the surface and color. Then spray the entire article using the applicable technique and spray materials that are appropriate to correct the condition of the article as described above.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Do not use products not specifically formulated for use on suede and leather. The products referred to in this article are specifically formulated for use on leathers. Other product may not give the same results when used as described in this article.

Dennis McCrory: Making the most of what you have

Traditionally, most cleaners have focused on customer acquisition, whether they called it "increasing the customer count," "growing the business,"' or "capturing more market share." The idea has been to push more and more customers through the door, and offer greater and greater sales incentives.

In short, most of the focus for the past 25 years has been on new customers and new business. But is this really the best way to build a business in a rapidly changing marketplace?

More and more cleaners are realizing that their most precious asset is their existing customer base. As a result, the old marketing tactic of gaining new customers through mass marketing is changing.

Smart cleaners are spending less on advertising and more on customer loyalty and retention programs. These go by many names, including loyalty, frequency, retention, and relationship marketing.

Whatever they are called, all refer to the same basic marketing concept: Identify, grow and retain existing customers by communicating and rewarding certain behavior. Namely, patronizing your store.

The get-a-customer-at-any-cost mentality of some drycleaners raises some serious questions about building, and more importantly, maintaining, a successful commercial enterprise.

The interesting part of this is that study after study has shown that customer retention is a key ingredient to business success, that holding onto customers provides big returns, and that even small increases in customer retention have a major effect on the bottom line. Growing present customers is generally less costly and provides quicker returns than continually adding new ones.

But even knowing this, most cleaners don't spend much time and energy doing the things necessary to grow their businesses in this way. Here are some of the problems and opportunities affecting those decisions.

Too many cleaners have a "hunter" mentality. They don't fully comprehend retention. Let's face it. Hunters make lousy farmers. Everyone celebrates the acquisition of more and more new customers; no one celebrates the customer who just keeps buying year after year.

Some cleaners believe, "If I can add enough new customers, with enough new volume, they will replace the customers who drift away or aren't recognized and simply leave." But the leaky-bucket marketing approach usually reveals the truth too late.

As the general population becomes better educated, consumers approach purchasing decisions with greater scrutiny. Consumers are smarter and expect more. They are demanding better quality and a higher level of customer service.

Low unemployment is squeezing customer service. As the labor pool shrinks, so does the quality and skill level of available labor for frontline customer service jobs. This decline in the quality of customer service damages and severs relationships with formerly loyal and profitable customers,

Technology is beginning to play an important role in managing our customer relationships. By mining all of the available data concerning each customer, we are able to build profiles of customers and their habits, both on an individual basis and as groups of users.

Using technology to provide the answers to obtaining, holding on to and maintaining customers is a tremendous asset because everyone in your company, and even beyond, can share the same overview of any customer trading with your store. But technology, by itself, is not a magic wand, which when waved can suddenly cause customer retention to blossom.

However, when technology is blended with the old approach, which is based on culture and communication Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is enhanced. The fact is, human intervention is what builds ongoing customer relationships and technology is only the enabler. Every drycleaner should view themselves as a communications company, because communications is the glue that holds drycleaners and their customers together.

If you would like to know more about how to best communicate with your customers, contact me, Bill Bishop or Stan Golomb (see below).

Astute business owners know that communication is the glue that holds any business together, but it's also the glue that binds customers to a business. They also know that it's time to jump on board and become actively involved in Customer Relationship Management, or they'll be watching their customers go by on their competitor's train.

Alan Robson: Staying afloat while others sink

Recently, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan reported that we are not in a recession yet and that the current downturn may be short-term. He also went on to say that if the economy does grow, it will grow at a very slow rate.

The good news is that, traditionally, recessions and slow economies have not hit the drycleaning industry as hard as other industries.

This industry is somewhat immune to recession because people still need to look good and feel good about how they look. Although they will cut back on buying new clothes, they still need their old clothes cleaned.

Also, during an economic downturn people reduce their spending on big-ticket items such as homes, SUV's, etc. -- not drycleaning.

Short-term, over the next 12 months, the biggest issues facing our industry will be rising energy costs and rising labor costs.

The increases in natural gas, fuel oil, propane gas and electricity have already driven up costs in many areas of the country. These increased costs not only affect your business -- they also affect your employees at home.

Many of you have read or heard me say: When you save a dollar that dollar goes right to the bottom line. What happens when your costs go up a dollar? That additional cost has to come from one of two places -- out of your pocket or out of your customer's pocket. Some may argue that you can avoid higher costs by being more efficient. The odds of improving your efficiency at the rate that energy prices are increasing is highly unlikely.

I have one client whose energy consumption for January 2000 was the same as it was for January 2001 but his bill went from $1,800 to $4,700. This represents a $2,900 increase for one month. With sales of $100,000 per month, that $2,900 increase represents 2.9 percent of total monthly sales. This means that this drycleaner is spending $2.90 more on energy for every $100 in sales.

Once again, who will pay for that cost increase -- you or your customers? In order for the customer to pay for the increase, you will have to raise prices. You may feel that you can offset this increase by increasing your sales volume without increasing your prices. The question now is: How much will my sales volume have to increase in order to pay for the 2.9 percent increase in costs? That depends on your gross margin.

The gross margin is the amount of money left over after all direct and operating costs are paid. Your direct costs include labor costs, company share of payroll taxes, outside services, workers' comp. insurance and employee benefits.

Your operating expenses include supplies, utilities, vehicle expenses, repairs and maintenance costs. What is left is your gross margin.

The average drycleaner has an approximate margin of 30 percent. With a 30 percent gross margin, you will have to increase your sales volume by $9.67 per $100 in sales to pay for a $2.90 increase in costs. That is a huge sales increase.

Now, what about your employees? Their energy costs are going up, too. Where will they get the money they need to pay their electric and gas bills?

Out of necessity, they will be trying to stretch their hours and they will be hitting you up for a raise.

Once again, where will the money come from? If one employee, working 40 hours a week, gets a 50-cent per hour raise, you will have to increase your sales by almost $70 per week to pay for the raise. Again, this is with a 30 percent gross margin.

In times like this, you and your key employees will have to work together to increase sales volume and reduce other expenses before you can consider any raises.

The most important thing for you to do is act in the best interest of your company. What is best for the company is ultimately what is best for you and your employees. You and your key employees want to continue to have a long term and mutually beneficial relationship.

In order for the company to fulfill this goal, the company must have the financial wherewithal to sustain increasing costs.

The drycleaners who can maintain high levels of customer service and quality work in the face of increasing costs will grow their volume. Increased volume brings with it even higher costs.

Thus, you and your key employees are going to have to make sure that the company's needs are met first. In uncertain times such as these, you need to keep your company fiscally sound, which means not wasting your financial resources.

In an article I wrote a few months ago, I said that the marginal cleaners would be selling out. Since then, I have seen several drycleaners forced by their creditors to close their doors. These owners found that their businesses were in such bad shape that nobody would buy them and their banks and landlords would not continue to carry them.

What happens when a competitor suddenly goes out of business? You will instantly be blessed with more volume. If you are not prepared for a sudden increase in piece volume, this event could become anything but a blessing.

A sudden increase in volume can have a horrible effect on quality, turn-around time and lost items. Furthermore, it will force you into hiring new people who will all need to be trained to do the job your way.

All this change will drive up costs and put a strain on your cash flow.

Not everyone has a competitor who will be forced to close his or her doors but most have a competitor who would like to sell their drycleaning business.

You need to position your company in such a way that you can take advantage of any opportunity that comes along. The best way to do that is to firm up relations with your bank. Talk to them about getting a line of credit or increasing your current line of credit.

The conditions in the drycleaning industry are becoming very exciting. Timing is everything. Being able to anticipate opportunities and being prepared to take advantage of them will allow you to act quickly.

Those who can act quickly will be positioned to launch moves that will make their company a winner in this stage of the business cycle.

Remember in the game of business the more you know the better you can play the game.

Copyright © 2001, National Clothesline
Maintained by: Hal Horning