National Clothesline

If a drycleaner is skilled enough, he may foster a reputation of being a magician of sorts, making seemingly impervious stains disappear overnight. Customers don’t understand how. All they know is they bring in wrinkled, soiled clothing with a missing button here or an ink spill there and — presto — the clothes come back spotless and as good as new.

Yet, what would happen if those customers could perform a little of their own magic by shelling out $50 for a device that promises to remove most stains? Applica, Inc. has recently released such an item — the Tide Buzz Ultrasonic Stain Remover. (See the front page story.) It’s a small wand that emits sound waves which break down many stains that have been sprayed with a clear Tide solution. Applica claims its gadget can handle red wine, lipstick, grease, ink and blood spots, to name a few.

At first glance, it seems unlikely that Tide Buzz can take away a lot of drycleaning dollars. After all, most people prefer drycleaning because they don’t want to launder their nicest outfits at home. If the wand finds a niche, it will probably be in homes where children are prone to stain their favorite t-shirts and blue jeans. Most of the time, such clothes aren’t typically taken to the cleaners anyway. As further consolation to the industry, Applica also claims that it will not market Tide Buzz as an alternative to drycleaning; apparently, they won’t even mention the “d” word in their ads like other products have done.

However, that doesn’t mean Applica’s new product can’t inflict a little damage on cleaners’ reputations. In the next few months, the media will buzz often with reports on the effectiveness of Tide Buzz. The stories will probably offer mixed results: some stains will be completely gone and more difficult ones that aren’t treated immediately will likely find much less success. Regardless, consumers will remember the positive stories the most, especially if they recently took a stained garment in to a cleaners and the problem was unresolved. If one of your customers believe they can get better results using a “magic” wand at home, then they will become less active in your computer’s database, opting to try their own luck with stained clothing.

There is still a large gap between professional cleaning and household laundering, to be sure, but you can bet that some consumers will now perceive that gap to be shrinking. Drycleaners can no longer afford to simply rely on having an image of being “wardrobe wizards” who can work magic on tough stains. Now more than ever, it is time to focus on increasing your production quality in every aspect. Your customers will be a little harder to impress from now on..

It is said that a rising tide will lift all ships, and that gives hope that the rising tide of the economy will lift the drycleaning industry. Flat or declining revenues and increasing costs have run many cleaners aground with few options besides abandoning ship. Even a rising tide won’t save your ship if it is leaking. It will sink anyway, just in deeper water. But if you spent your time in port repairing the leaks, you should be ready to sail.

Now, there is no guarantee that an improving economy will cure drycleaners’ woes. But if more people have more money to spend, shouldn’t they spend at least some if it on drycleaning? The answer is yes — if you give them a reason to. To do this, first consider that there are two groups of customers out there — those who are yours and those who are not.

The first group is easier to reach. After all, you see them regularly. For ideas on how to get them to spend more with you, see Dennis McCrory’s column on page 16. The second group is tougher. They may be somebody else’s customers. So they already know the value of drycleaning. Can you convince them that you provide a better value? Others may be “lapsed” drycleaning customers who dropped the drycleaning habit to cut back on expenses. They need to be brought back into the fold — reminded how good they looked (and how much time they saved) when they had their wardrobe cared for by a professional. Then there are the people who have never been drycleaning customers. Some of them never will be, but others may be coming up in the world and are ready to be introduced to your services.

A rising tide may lift your ship, but it must be seaworthy and you need to chart your course in order to get anywhere.