As today's world gets busier and busier, people continue to seek
ways to save every minute they can. With work, family, commuting,
exercising, maintaining a household, and all the other jobs that
pop up, time for laundry in the average household is limited.
That's where wash-dry-fold (WDF) services come in. Offering a
wash-dry-fold service can truly add value to your customers and
attract new customers that may have never considered using a vended
laundry. Customers simply drop off their dirty laundry, and an
attendant does the rest. Not only is this service growing more
popular with customers, but also with commercial accounts that do
not have their own laundry facility. Additionally, the idea of
offering a WDF service is spreading quickly throughout Laundromats.
In fact, American Coin-Op. estimates that up to 80% of coin
laundries in the nation offer some type of WDF service. If you
currently do not offer WDF services, now may be the time to ask
yourself if you can afford to stay out of this growing trend.
Of course, as with all new things, there are some factors to
take into consideration before deciding to offer a wash-dry-fold
service; specifically, your target market and competition, staff,
and physical capabilities of your business.
Before deciding whether or not a WDF service would be a
competitive advantage for your business, the first step is to check
out the market and competition around you. Is there a market for
WDF services? Determining your target customer base is imperative.
There must be a market that is both short on time and has the
budget to pay for drop-off service, and/or a market in need of
larger equipment to use for their bulkier laundry. Another question
is, are there already many coin laundries offering successful WDF
services around you? If so, are you willing to put in the work to
compete with them? By checking out the quality of competitors' work
and services offered, as well as taking an in-depth look at the
market around you, you're off to a successful start of determining
whether or not you should offer a WDF service.
Another critical aspect to getting started with wash-dry-fold
services is the importance of having skilled attendants and
protocols for them to follow. Do you have an attendant to devote
solely to perform WDF services? Are you willing to put the time and
money into training them? Or, are you willing to hire more labor to
keep up with the work demand? Having protocols for employees on how
to handle accepting garments, organizing them, and keeping records
of the customer's wants is essential to ensure customer
satisfaction. Additionally, staff must be trained in watching out
for any damage that occurs and take responsibility for it. Both
you, the owner, and your staff must be dedicated to providing the
best WDF service possible in order to be successful.
Finally, you must determine if you have the physical
capabilities to offer a WDF service. If your store is often busy
with walk-in customers during the day, it might be a good idea to
do the drop-off orders before or after closing. Keep in mind, you
will need a designated area to safely store dropped-off laundry. In
terms of equipment, existing washers and dryers can be used, but
there may be some constraints. For example, if you are catering to
commercial accounts, easy loading, high-capacity machines may be
necessary to accommodate bulky loads. If you are looking to invest
in equipment to better serve drop-off laundry for commercial
accounts, Speed Queen larger capacity hardmount washer-extractors
come in 60, 80, and 100 Ib. capacities, have a large door design
that makes loading and unloading easy, and provide a durable and
efficient design. To learn more about Speed Queen hardmount
washer-extractors, visit SpeedQueen.com .
While self-service laundry may be considered the heart of the
vended laundry business, a wash-dry-fold service is "…by far the
number-one extra service for laundries," according to Paul Partyka,
editor of American Coin-Op. By taking some simple steps to get
started with a WDF service, you can gain both a competitive
advantage and additional profit.
