National Clothesline

Frequent drycleaning customers tend to be loyal and are prone to judge cleaners on the quality of their work, according to results from the FabriCare Foundation’s 2002 Drycleaning Usage & Consumer Attitude Survey.

The extensive study also revealed that, even though proximity plays an important factor in the minds of drycleaning customers, many are often willing to go the extra mile for better final results.

The FabriCare Foundation, an organization that seeks to benefit the drycleaning industry and its professionals through research and educational projects, undertook six months of research to examine in depth what it takes to capture and keep drycleaning customers.

An industry survey of this type and magnitude hasn’t been attempted since 1993 when the International Fabricare Institute conducted its own consumer attitude survey, also known as the Gordon S. Black Corporation Report.

In an effort to be thorough, the Foundation broke its research survey down into three phases, beginning with a small focus group that consisted of heavy drycleaning customers. The second phase of the project followed a much larger group of users through Internet interviews. The survey concluded with national telephone interviews of both users and non-users of drycleaning.

Special emphasis was placed on heavy users, so upper income zip codes in the United States were targeted for most of the phone calls.

Some of the survey’s other major findings were:

• Three out of four heavy drycleaning users only use one establishment and only 14 percent of all users had switched drycleaners in the past year.

• Roughly half of the customers considered price discounting as unimportant.

• On the major quality attributes of drycleaning — such as stain removal, garments looking and feeling new, etc. — cleaners scored exceptionally well with mean scores of circa 8.5 on a 10-point scale.

According to the FabriCare Foundation, the survey’s results revealed several other interesting bits of information relevant to cleaners, including how many frequent drycleaning users never have to wear any business attire at work and how consumers view drycleaners and the environment. The report also outlined which offers were most effective with respondents. So, even though drycleaning customers have a tendency to be loyal to cleaners, the survey’s final tallies suggested that customers can be persuaded to switch cleaners with the right offers.

In particular, there were three promotional concepts that generated a great amount of interest with the biggest spending customers.

In an effort to let cleaners capitalize on the potential business opportunities and marketing implications inherent in the survey’s findings, the Foundation is offering three different ways for cleaners to obtain the Consumer Attitude Survey’s results.

Cleaners who make a $100 donation to the Foundation may obtain a copy of the 25-page Executive Summary. The full 99-page report, which includes the Executive Summary, is available for a $300 donation. The Executive Summary, full report and all the raw data are available to individual drycleaners who contribute $2,500 to the Foundation. All donations are tax-deductible.

Donations can be sent to: FabriCare Foundation, P.O. Box 548, Kenosha, WI, 53141-0548.

Trade associations or allied trades that are interested in obtaining the information should contact Foundation President Bob Shirley at (800) 617-0098 for more details. The 2002 Drycleaning Usage and Consumer Attitude Survey was sponsored with the help from IFI, Laidlaw Corporation and R.R. Street & Co., Inc.