Following good counter procedures
Good counter procedures can reduce claims
and increase customer service area efficiency.
(This article is an update of my articles
of February 1988 and 1991; there have been many changes in
customer service area operations since then.)
The current rash of claims for
“spots that weren’t there when I brought it
in” and “tears that weren’t there when I
brought it in” and “you washed my blouse instead of
drycleaning it, and it is all faded out” are growing by
leaps and bounds.
Several market tests by TV stations
against some neighborhood cleaners have revealed many
shortcomings in counter efficiency relating to a lack of
removing stains and noting damages, etc.
It was found that the discount cleaners
did a job with quality comparable to the full-price cleaners as
far as stain removal and general cleaning was concerned. Of
course, not all full-price cleaners were tested, and the
results, therefore, cannot be fairly judged to be indicative of
the entire industry, but the fact remains that the public still
got a bad picture of our industry as a whole.
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The key to the solution of this problem
can be summed up in two words: INSPECTION and QUESTION.
Although inspection is everybody’s
job, the most important area to perform these jobs is the
customer service area and by the customer service
representatives (CSRs). When I mention this to some of the
plant owners, they actually become very negative and
immediately proclaim: “Our customers would never stand
for all the time taken to inspect their clothes at the counter.
They’re always in a hurry, and they don’t even want
to give us their name and phone number.”
Consequently, the garments have to be
(somewhat) inspected for stains and damages (hopefully) at the
marking table or area usually somewhere else other than at the
counter area.
Now that most cleaners are computerized at
the counter, and most are utilized as “point of
sale” transactions, customers are given a priced and
itemized receipt. However, this receipt usually does not
contain any notations by the CSR as to stains or damages that
may be on the garments. This is where the claim is born, and
the cleaner has to assume the liability.
I have just experienced that very same
situation at my neighborhood cleaners whereby a very expensive
lady’s suit jacket had two similar stains that were
permanent. Naturally, she said that the stains were not there
when she brought it in. However, if the jacket is sent to IFI
for analysis and it is determined that they were not put there
in the cleaning process, she would accept that decision and
release the cleaner from any liability.
Doesn’t that sound
“fishy”?
The entire situation could have been
avoided by the CSR “eyeballing” the jacket upon her
receipt of it (inspection) and asking the question: “Do
you have any stains to be removed or any tears to be
repaired”?
Please do not tell me that you cannot take
the time to quickly “eyeball” a garment and ask the
simple questions. Remember, most of you thought that customers
would not wait for a point of sale listing of their garments
with an itemized, priced receipt. You found that you were wrong
in that belief.
It all boils down to the fact that
customers can be trained to follow your procedures as long as
those procedures are for their benefit and are efficiently and
quickly implemented. Women’s clothes, especially, have
more problems than men’s clothes, and the good news is
that the women actually want you to take the time to inspect
their clothes at the counter.
When I was taken to court for payment of a
claim for a damaged garment, the judge told me that writing a
deficiency on the invoice after the customer leaves the store,
with no notation on his or her receipt, leaves the cleaner
totally defenseless.
Most consumers believe that any garment
can be drycleaned even if its care label gives washing
instructions only. They could be correct in that belief
provided that the garment has been dyed with
non-solvent-soluble dyes. However, with the acceptance of
wetcleaning as a primary source of soil removal in garments
labeled with washing instructions only, the CSR must explain
that type of process to the customer and reinforce the new rule
that “we follow the care label exclusively, and any
deviation will have to be at the customer’s risk.
Whereas, if the garment fails after we have followed the care
label, then the liability falls on the manufacturer and seller
of the garment.”
It is therefore obvious that our customers
need educating, and whom is the obvious person to do that
educating? That’s right: The CSR. But this person must be
educated, also. So the real name of the game is training.
A training program must begin with
upgrading the position of CSR to include some technical
knowledge in addition to the clerical, administrative and
public relations skills already required. Included should be
subjects such as: wetcleaning defined, drycleaning defined,
fibers to fabrics, care label instructions, basic stain removal
and finishing details in addition to computer invoicing, filing
of finished orders, delivery of finished orders, handling of
cash and checks, handling of charge accounts, marking and
classification for processing, etc.
However, let’s not forget some of
the most important jobs of the CSR: customer relations and
radiating his or her personality onto the customer, especially
repeating the customer’s name when thanking him or her
for his/her business. A dull and irate CSR can be the single
most important cause of losing a customer’s business. The
CSR MUST keep his or her cool when approached by an irate
customer with a complaint or even a silly request.
If your CSR would spend a little more time
with the customer, your claims would be cut drastically.
Garments should be quickly inspected in front of the customer
for stains and damages.
The CSR should ask the customer if there
are any stains for removal or damages for repair as a double
precaution in case the inspection does not reveal these
deficiencies. All stains are “boxed” with tailor
chalk and the customer asked what their composition is and the
age of the stain. If the stains are identified, a flag tag is
prepared with a marking pen describing the stains.
Placing too many garments on a single
invoice is cumbersome, time-consuming in assembly and bagging,
and conducive to errors. How can you file a 15-piece order on
an up-and-down storage conveyor? How can you join the pieces to
the order neatly with a hanger-tie or clip? The most practical
method of listing garments is to not exceed six garments (belt
and tie included) to an invoice. The customer may get two or
more receipts since each order is individually placed into the
counter bag along with its invoice (with its marking tags if my
system is utilized).
Two or more orders should never be placed
into the same counter bag for subsequent marking since this
procedure leads to errors and unwanted claims. However, if the
customer has an unusually large number of garments to be
deposited, the CSR should ask for permission to prepare the
invoices later in the day when the business calms down, and the
receipts could be mailed, faxed or retained for the customer.
In the process, if the stain was not noted
on the invoice and customer’s receipt, the spotter is not
precluded from working on it.
However, if it is anticipated that the
attempt to remove the stain would lead to a claim for damage to
the garment, the spotter should not continue removal until the
customer is contacted for permission. The conversation with the
customer and the grant of permission to continue should be
recorded on the invoice and dated.
By spending more time with the customer,
pinpointing problems thoroughly and immediately and getting the
order marked-in as soon as possible, your work will breeze
through the plant smoothly and efficiently, and your claims and
headaches will be greatly reduced.
Efficiency in the customer service area
Here we must begin with the fixture and
accessory layout. It seems that most of the emphasis is placed
upon efficient plant layouts and workflow configurations to
achieve the utmost job production efficiency.
Although this objective is essential to
attain desirable profits, cut production time and boost plant
employee morale, we must not forget where everything begins and
ends, where not only is “time of the essence,” but
also where tension and pressure can become insurmountable and
customer service representative morale can be destroyed
quickly.
Too many steps to take from Point A to
Points B and C can be just as unprofitable and unproductive in
the customer service area as in the plant. Just as an efficient
plant layout can reduce the number of workers, the inefficient
customer service area layout can actually increase them.
The mark-in operation should be located
only in the customer service area, but it may be located in the
plant area when outside work is brought in for processing.
For the operation of the customer service
area exclusively, marking-in should be an integral part of that
operation and be located there. Why take those extra steps to
prepare an invoice and mark-in the garments? Why send the
customer to a different location in the customer service area
for delivery of an order? Therefore, the counter is the most
important piece of furniture in the customer service area, and
it should be designed as a total work station.
The work station counter should be at
least seven feet wide with the section for receiving and
delivery of orders being four feet, six inches wide and the
mark-in area being two feet, six inches wide with the
mark-in area having a 10-inch high bulkhead around it to
divorce it from the other section.
When customer service area traffic is
excessive, two CSRs can be employed at one work station counter
to maintain continuity of receiving, delivery and mark-in.
We must not forget that the mark-in
operation is essential for prompt processing of orders received
in order to maintain prompt delivery on time when promised. I
have observed many times that too many counter bags containing
orders received for mark-in were piled sky high waiting for
mark-in as late as the next morning.
If the customer service area is not busy,
and you have no other customers to wait on, the orders received
are placed in the mark-in section of the counter and
tagged/checked immediately.
Tagged garments can be separated into
several groupings such as “regular” and
“special” service drycleaning, shirts, laundry with
starch or no starch, wetcleaning, pre-spotting, etc. These
classifications are placed into separate bins or bags stretched
over steel frames and labeled according to the grouping.
An auxiliary counter, about three feet
wide, can be located at the end and adjacent to the work
station counters to be used for overflow receiving and tagging
or for a store supervisor’s desk. The area behind the
auxiliary counter would be the bag storage area for lots ready
for processing.
If the customer service area is deep and
wide enough, the tailoring department and fitting room should
be located to the side and in front of the work stations.
Locating the tailoring department in the customer service area
will definitely promote that form of business.
Finally, if the customer service area is
deep and wide enough, a set of double deck storage racks, with
one rack for orders of long garments and another rack for
single-piece orders is recommended. Orders are filed
numerically by the last four social security numbers, address,
etc.
No computer reference is necessary, and
all the orders received during the month for the same customer
are filed together rather than all over the conveyor. Delivery
is swift and accurate. A diagram for installation of this rack
system can be found in my National Clothesline column for July,
1998 (available from the editor upon request, or on computer).
If the customer service area is small,
then you must use an up-and-down storage conveyor with bar
coded reference for computer access to storage location of
orders.
Note: My spotting video,”The Caplan
Method of Stain Removal,” which includes my comprehensive
text (edited by Hal Horning) and the handy spotting board
reference, is available in English, Korean (video only) and
Spanish from the Golomb Group, c/o Dennis McCrory, 7664 Plaza
Court, Willowbrook, IL 60521, phone (800) 679-5856. 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. Each
method of spot removal is thoroughly discussed and
demonstrated. Bleaching and use of digesters are explained in
addition to basic textile chemistry.
Also available from the Golomb Group, in
English and Spanish, is my video on step-by-step shirt
finishing which includes my comprehensive text in loose-leaf
form outlining each procedure for single-operator and
two-operator cabinet shirt units. Both units are demonstrated
using a cabinet sleever and single, or triple, heated collar
former. This procedure was developed by me for top quality with
no touchup (regular sizes) together with maximum production
without overexertion by its operators. Avoiding shrinkage,
wilting and dipping of the collar, together with its proper
“breaking and forming” on the heated collar former,
are all demonstrated. Both the collar and front buttonhole
placket, the two thickest parts of the shirt, are totally dried
under the press head with no loss of production.
Attractive detailing and packaging of the
hangered shirt, padding, steam pressure and timing are all
discussed. A unique wash formula to give whiter whites,
brighter colors and complete removal of grease and body oils is
included in the loose-leaf text book.
Stan Caplan has over 35 years experience
in his own high volume dry-cleaning, laundry and tailoring
plant and two package plants with adjoining coin-operated
laundry and dry-cleaning. He is a former chief instructor at
the International Fabricare Institute, The Southwest
Drycleaners Association School, the Illinois State Fabricare
School, the Michigan Institute of Laundering and Dry-cleaning
School, the Mississippi Fabricare Association School and
Louisiana Fabricare Association School, the Pennsylvania
Drycleaners and Launderers Association School (now
Pennsylvania-Delaware Cleaners Association), the Johannesburg
Cleaners Association School (South Africa), the Hyatt-Regency
Southeast Asia School (Singapore and Hong Kong) and numerous
short courses in all areas of the fabric care industry
throughout the US and Canada. Stan offers consulting, training
and engineering services in all areas of the fabric care
industry from customer service area to the boiler room. His
total system (TQM) encompasses maximum efficiency, economy and
product excellent quality. Stan can be reached at 3601 Clarks
Lane, Suite 307, Baltimore, MD 21215, phone/fax (410) 358-0870.;
his e-mail address is:
stancap100@aol.com.
