What should we do?

[Anonymous]

Our new, clean mat has all front load machines. Our smallest is a 20#. We price it at $1.50, but our competitors are at $1.25 for their smallest machine which is a top loader (10#+-). We are not retaining customers because they say we are too expensive. However, we are not. We are giving much more value for their money, and have a much cleaner and nicer mat. We even have plasma TV's.

What do we do? Drop prices? Tear out machines and buy some top loaders? Is there any marketing that can overcome the false perception?

Any input is appreciated.

[amartlock]

Is your mat attended or unattended? If attended, you should have the attendant on a marketing campaign to educate the customers on the value. Try lowering the price to $1.25 for a couple of months, then once the customers are comfortable with the frontloaders and appreciate their value, raise the prices back up.

If unattended, my feeling is you should at least have some toploaders as no matter what you do, some customers like to use these machines.

[E&R]

Have you try...

1. to verify that you're losing market share? We always will have some customer who wants to pay less. On the flip side, if most of your customer are on fixed income, pricing may be the most important factor and they could care less if you have no TV or a regular or a plasma TV.
2. Special pricing (lower) on Tues, Wed, and Thursday. Have you tried time of day pricing? Charge more for hot wash ...Customer understands it cost more to wash with hot water.
3. Match competitors pricing only on smallest washers.
4. Advertise to let customer know the positives of your mat.
5. Possible costs reduction
Washers:lower water level, lower hot water temperature, reduce hot water usage in warm cycle (on water valves:3/8 diameter hose on hot and 3/4 diameter hose on cold), remove additional rinses, shorten wash and rinse time.

Dryer: without changing the dryer time: lower dryer temp., increase cool down period, clean lint screen often, provide adequate makeup air

Other: review all other overhead cost.

[ajay]

how do you know for sure you're losing customers? maybe you're losing die hard TOP-load customers? If the only reason you're losing customers is because you don't have top loading washers then buy few - like max 5 depending on your store mix. how about a chart with your prices and their along with your feature and theirs. be cautious of playing the price war game. do not lower temperature - they'll know!! reasonable price for great quality. They'll come. You'll be surprise how much money these "fixed" income people have to spend on "nick nacks".


ajay

[pete f]

you made a major mistake that is condoned by distributors. It is your money at stake, not theirs.
the top load washer is the most widely used washer in the USA. The distributors sell on how much they cost to operate and up sell to only fronts, saving you money. In the end you have to offer a reduced price per pound vend price ( but think of the water you are saving) FACT: the customer could care less how much water you save.

A thought.. you could put in top loads, get 1.25 a wash, 12# each load, so your 20# washers at 1.50 are less than 1/2 of what you would make off a 1.25 top.
My grandmother was a math teacher, my mother was a math teacher, i got "A" in math. I am bad at word problems, but this is not very hard to figure. Trade some 20's in for tops,. price the tops at 1.25, then price the 20's for $2.00 you make money all ways!

Plasma TV's ?? what is THAT for??? I bought a used TV for $12 for one mat and customer are quite happy with it, the rest of the mats have just a radio.
Welcome to the real world. We are THINKInG after X-mas the prices will go down on plasma so we might splurge our winnings on one to put in our living room. . Put one in a mat?? Who gave that idea?

[Anonymous]

Re: the plasma TV -

Several of my mat customers have commented that they come to mine primarily because it is relatively peaceful. A common comment: "You run a nice place...I like it because it is quiet. Don't put in a TV!"

Not trying to knock you for having a plasma TV, just sharing a different perspective.

- John

[dzender]

It all comes down to training the customers. You say the other place says you are too expensive? Who the hell are they?

I take it the other mat is attended ... if you are not, best get so pronto.

[David]

Is there any marketing that can overcome the false perception?
Any input is appreciated.
Without installing machines, marketing is the approach I would use. Spend some time at the mat talking to your customers. Expound the pros of using front load washer. Put signs up explaining pros over tops. Show price comparisons. 12lb/$1.25 = .10 per pound vs 20lb/$1.50 = .075 per pound.

Fronts are more enviromentally friendly. They wash in less water.

Fronts wash better. They tumble instead of soak.

Fronts extract better, saving on dry time.

Fronts hold more clothes, thus wash for less money.

That's all I can think off off the top of my head. Anyone else want to offer pros?

[Winston]

More advantages to front loaders:

They use less detergent.
The clothes are locked in during the cycle, so no one can "mess with" them.
There is less wear on the clothes. Agitators beat and abraid the clothes, while front loaders lift the clothes and drop them into the water.
Most front loaders have two wash cycles and three rinses, while top loaders have one wash, one spin and spray, and one rinse.
You can load fabric softener as you start the washer. It will be dispensed automatically at the right time.
The front loader won't go out of balance.
A greater variety of items can be washed successfully in a front loader: tennis shoes, pillows, heavy denim jackets, blankets and comforters.

Having said all of this, I recently observed a customer loading about 10 pairs of jeans into a top loader. I offered to pay the difference to wash them in a front loader. His answer... maybe next time.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone.....

First, we are attended and in fact have great employees who are very helpful and our mat is always spotless.

The plasma TV's were due to a space issue and also because they look really cool. We wanted to send a message that the neighborhood we were in finally had an awesome looking mat. The others in the area are a mess, and we felt the neighborhood deserved better.

The customers we have are very loyal because of how modern and cool the mat is, but like I said we are losing the perception war on price even though we are giving alot more for the money.

In any event, thanks and I will let you know how we make out.... Keep the ideas coming if you have any more.

[pete f]

Our new, clean mat has all front load machines. Our smallest is a 20#. We price it at $1.50, but our competitors are at $1.25 for their smallest machine which is a top loader (10#+-). We are not retaining customers because they say we are too expensive. However, we are not. We are giving much more value for their money, and have a much cleaner and nicer mat. We even have plasma TV's.

What do we do? Drop prices? Tear out machines and buy some top loaders? Is there any marketing that can overcome the false perception?

Any input is appreciated.


You have plenty of response and ideas. I only know to listen to customers, it is all about what they want. I had not thought this, but perhaps your new store may not be needed in the marketplace you are in? People walk into my new store and thank me for building it. If you are in a highly competive situation, you will have to match pricing and machines to get your customers. They are used to the mat down the street, so when they come in your door they want the same, only newer. As I have said, they don't care about water usages, spins, etc. Emulate the comp, only do it better.

[Kitty]

Can you add tops to your equipment mix without too much trouble? I agree with Pete, you should have a few. Think about it, many patrons need to soak a few items, clean a few red items or launder a few delicates.. they cannot in your establishment. They probalby would not think twice if your vend were higher if they had the conviences of the services of what they need.


In addition to adding some top loaders for your customers think about adding an extra incentive for your customers to come into your store ~ a wash club loyalty program something like come in a dozen times get the thirteen wash free. We would not make that wash be a mere top loader give a way, we made the program work to give the customer a "free wash" whatever they were to wash that day up to a certain dollar amount to give the program the most bang for the customers buck!!! We kept the cards on file and promoted the program... we boasted that we wanted to give away Free washes to our customers.

The attendants were expected to be customer friendly and talk to the customers and keep a clean mat, you want them to promote your services. Add video games, vending and change when needed.

We gave away laundry bags and ran promotions for free washes when people put there names and addresses for tracking purposes as well.

I would not drop prices!

[Maywood2]

Hi Pete. Wanted to link your comment to my situation -- You said:

If you are in a highly competive situation, you will have to match pricing and machines to get your customers. They are used to the mat down the street, so when they come in your door they want the same, only newer. As I have said, they don't care about water usages, spins, etc. Emulate the comp, only do it better.

Wondering what you think if all the competition are coin stores and you'd prefer to do a card store... Do you take the plunge and hope that it's not too different from what they're used to?

(And I'm back from my mini-break, so we can continue our other conversation in a day or so.)

Thanks!
John

[pete f]

Hi Pete. Wanted to link your comment to my situation -- You said:
Wondering what you think if all the competition are coin stores and you'd prefer to do a card store... Do you take the plunge and hope that it's not too different from what they're used to?
(And I'm back from my mini-break, so we can continue our other conversation in a day or so.)
Thanks!
John
my last new store was a card store, sits far away from any other card stores, everything is coin. I tried to run it as a card store in pricing, mostly with dryers, and found people rebelled. I priced the drying more similar to how poeple used quarters at the coin store and that solved the problem. I actually lowered the price a slight bit, but becuase it was in 10 min increments at a price nearer a quarter ( .30 ) all complaints about dryers stopped. I started with 14 mins for 45 cents and at least 50% of the customers complined about dryers not hot enough or something like that. Everyone tried to dry loads in 14 mins. After changing the time and price I had many saying how nice and hot they were. I also put in a bill to bill, so like a coin changer, people can put in larger bills and get back all cash and spend what they want. It is kind of a pain, but made the transition easy. I also kept my prices 10 cent, 15 cent below coin stores so they feel like they are getting a deal. My unattened card store has worked out rather well. I do have a cleaner a couple hours a day, and at first I spent many hours there until I had about 70% of customers as repeat.

[alesser738]

We did the exact same thing 45 front loaders and no top loaders. We have probably 5 other mats within 5 blocks of us which offer tops. We originally had 18 lbs front load priced at $2.50 but had tons of complaints so we reduced to 2.00 and everything is fine. We're still .50 cents above the nearest top loader.
On a side note: What cost more to run? a top load vs. a front load (I assume the front load is cheaper?) so i'd personially just match the comp

[laundryboy]

Sounds like a silly reminder, don't forget depreciation and ROI on that frontloader cost!

[Anonymous]

I spent a considerable amount of time this weekend doing the best market analysis ever - I washed laundy at all of my competitors mats. Low and behold there are very few tops in the area, except one 'cheap' mat that has tops for $1.25 but our doubles are only $1.75. Our mat is immaculate. There's is a disaster. I wouldn't wash my dog there.

The bottom line is that our prices are competitive with only 1 exception and that is an unattended mat (different than the one mentioned above). Our is attended. So, now I will formulate a marketing plan and move forward educating the consumer we are the best price in town. The main issue I discovered is in the industry verbage of "double" triple". Hence, I need to show the consumer on a per pound we are the best price, etc etc.

Nothing like a little hard work (and help from you guys) to get me on the right path.

[pete f]

We did the exact same thing 45 front loaders and no top loaders. We have probably 5 other mats within 5 blocks of us which offer tops. We originally had 18 lbs front load priced at $2.50 but had tons of complaints so we reduced to 2.00 and everything is fine. We're still .50 cents above the nearest top loader.
On a side note: What cost more to run? a top load vs. a front load (I assume the front load is cheaper?) so i'd personially just match the comp


They cost about the same to run if using hard mount 18#. The revenue per pound is higher from a top in mnay cases.

[Monarch]

You have a computer. Try some graphics. A picture of a top load machine, next to it a pile of clothes the size of the load it will do, with the weight underneath and next to that the $1.25 price. THEN put a picture of your machine, and a pile of clothes that it will do with the larger weight underneat and the $1.50 and then a notation. WHICH ONE IS THE VALUE?".

Just a suggestion, the graphics will speak louder than all the talk an attendant or you can do. As to some always crabbing about price, you tell me nothing new. Laundry Owners seem to pick up that trait, and pass it on to us. "What do you mean a coin box will cost $25.00( or whatever choice they have made) I can get it here for $18.00!!"
Couple of hours go by and they call back to order the box. Either they could not beat the price or found that the cheap box had a cheap lock and the one we offered had a higher security lock and that is what they needed. They were just trying to see if we would yield on the price. I wonder if your customers may not be pulling the same with you?

[Kitty]

You have a computer. Try some graphics. A picture of a top load machine, next to it a pile of clothes the size of the load it will do, with the weight underneath and next to that the $1.25 price. THEN put a picture of your machine, and a pile of clothes that it will do with the larger weight underneat and the $1.50 and then a notation. WHICH ONE IS THE VALUE?".

Just a suggestion, the graphics will speak louder than all the talk an attendant or you can do. As to some always crabbing about price, you tell me nothing new. Laundry Owners seem to pick up that trait, and pass it on to us. "What do you mean a coin box will cost $25.00( or whatever choice they have made) I can get it here for $18.00!!"
Couple of hours go by and they call back to order the box. Either they could not beat the price or found that the cheap box had a cheap lock and the one we offered had a higher security lock and that is what they needed. They were just trying to see if we would yield on the price. I wonder if your customers may not be pulling the same with you?


This is an excellent instore marketing concept whether you are tyring to show value away from your competitors or away from your own top users. Front load washers are higher revenue producers and more efficient. Track your sales well after this to see if you were able to transfer your own customers or bring in new customers. This type of in store promotion may be suitable for the local paper and outside window for passerbys to increase new customer traffic.

Good luck

[Buddy_Amoroso]

Our new, clean mat has all front load machines. Our smallest is a 20#. We price it at $1.50, but our competitors are at $1.25 for their smallest machine which is a top loader (10#+-). We are not retaining customers because they say we are too expensive. However, we are not. We are giving much more value for their money, and have a much cleaner and nicer mat. We even have plasma TV's.

What do we do? Drop prices? Tear out machines and buy some top loaders? Is there any marketing that can overcome the false perception?

Any input is appreciated.


I think a clean mat, good machines and a friendly staff goes a long way. You will not be able to make everyone happy.

It appears that you take great pride in providing these things for your customers.

Your business strategy is to provide the best mat in the area and have your customers pay a premium for these services. This strategy will work. Hang in there and don't panic.

You might need to educate your staff. Many time your employees can be your worst enemy. One person tells then that you are too high and you need top loaders and that is all they can focus on. Bring your staff to your competition and ask your staff do you think we should charge more than these guys do? Explain to them the different between a top loader and side loader.

Bottom line is that you have a good store and if you can hold on you will make it.

buddy amoroso

[Anonymous]

you made a major mistake that is condoned by distributors. It is your money at stake, not theirs.
the top load washer is the most widely used washer in the USA. The distributors sell on how much they cost to operate and up sell to only fronts, saving you money. In the end you have to offer a reduced price per pound vend price ( but think of the water you are saving) FACT: the customer could care less how much water you save.

A thought.. you could put in top loads, get 1.25 a wash, 12# each load, so your 20# washers at 1.50 are less than 1/2 of what you would make off a 1.25 top.
My grandmother was a math teacher, my mother was a math teacher, i got "A" in math. I am bad at word problems, but this is not very hard to figure. Trade some 20's in for tops,. price the tops at 1.25, then price the 20's for $2.00 you make money all ways!

Plasma TV's ?? what is THAT for??? I bought a used TV for $12 for one mat and customer are quite happy with it, the rest of the mats have just a radio.
Welcome to the real world. We are THINKInG after X-mas the prices will go down on plasma so we might splurge our winnings on one to put in our living room. . Put one in a mat?? Who gave that idea?


I always like reading your posts. You have lots of common cence.