FREE Wash at Grand Re-Opening. WORTH IT?

[Sunflower]

I'm planning on having 5 days of free washing on 10 of our new machines. (We recently bought a mat and will be reopening soon.) Here's the "delimma". I think it's a great way to get people through the doors. (People that might not be typical laundromat users...) People that are scared of our place because of its "dirty" past.

I think it's unlikely that a large percentage of folks will wash their clothes for free and take them to home or to their friends to dry. I think they will then use our dryers, or other washing machines. I think it will be a good opportunity for me to introduce people to our new frontloaders--take the scare factor out! PLUS, they will see how clean and nice it is there now.

My husband thinks it's not necessary--maybe even a waste. He thinks they will come sooner or later since we're conveniently located and the only real laundromat for 8 miles (The other has 8 washers... Is that real ;)?)

What do all you veterens think? Necessary or not worth it...?

[Kitty]

For three days after a remodel we ran an unlimited FREE wash promotion, it was a great promotion.

http://www.coinwash.com/mb/showthread.php?t=2737&highlight=unlimited+free+wash

[Ken]

A large chain stores in Chicagoland area always offer 1/2 price wash during the grand opening week.Free wash is hard to control .

[pete f]

I never gave free wash in store openings, well the first customer got one, but that was not advertised.. A nice big sign, banner anoucing NEW WASHERS or something to that affect will do fine.
I am re-tooling one now, and when done my banner will read
NEW MAYTAGS LOTS OF GIANT WASHERS or somethig to that effect.
If you want to host an open house, give free hot dogs, soda, etc that works too. Don't give away what you want to sell.

[Coinwash]

I never gave free wash in store openings, well the first customer got one, but that was not advertised.. A nice big sign, banner announcing NEW WASHERS or something to that affect will do fine.
I am re-tooling one now, and when done my banner will read
NEW MAYTAGS LOTS OF GIANT WASHERS or something to that effect.
If you want to host an open house, give free hot dogs, soda, etc that works too. Don't give away what you want to sell.

I'm 100% in agreement with Pete f here.

Don't give away what you want to sell.

All we did was give away food, hang banners and give balloons to the kids.

[Kitty]

So....:)

It worked for us, did we try anything else, nope, could we have~ Probably....but the amount of customer response and retention was immediate and we had an increase in business of 33% immediately in the first month.

It was a gamble the owner took and good risk for as it turns out today.

[Sunflower]

By the time I buy hot dogs, plates, condiments, drinks, cups, balloons, napkins, etc. I bet it would cost more than giving free washes... BUT I live in a small area.

I'm with Kitty. (Sorry Men~Free hot dogs and pop has never enticed me to use/buy anything. And if I saw a free hotdog sign with my kids in tow I would try very hard to go the other direction before the ones of reading age could figure it out ;))

Give me something I can use, that will make me remember you--like a free wash.

My husband completely agrees with you though--M-E-N!

And the debate continues...

I never gave free wash in store openings, well the first customer got one, but that was not advertised.. A nice big sign, banner anoucing NEW WASHERS or something to that affect will do fine.
I am re-tooling one now, and when done my banner will read
NEW MAYTAGS LOTS OF GIANT WASHERS or somethig to that effect.
If you want to host an open house, give free hot dogs, soda, etc that works too. Don't give away what you want to sell.

[SuperMat]

I used half price, with banners stating so. I limited the amount of time to 2 or 3 weeks so people who did their wash less frequently than once a week might try the store. My thought was that after coming to me they wouldn't go anywhere else, all I had to do was get them in the door. The arrogance of that thought has come down to reality, but I still see many of those first customers today. For the record, I love hotdogs, but I have never eaten a "promotional" hotdog in my life. I just can't grasp how that would entice someone to try a new business, wheteher it is a laundromat, bank, hardware store, etc. It must work though, because alot of places do it.

[Sunflower]

It must work because a lot of places do, do it.

I guess I personally like the concept of a free wash better since I know it would entice me and I am someone with a LOT of dirty laundry. And I would go home and then everytime I chatted with one of my girlfriends for the next 6 months I'd say, have you seen what they did to the laundromat??? WHAT A DIFFERENCE! And they've got big machines in there... I'm going to take my comforters over there and let their machines get beat up over them. You should check it out. For $5.00 bucks you can save your own machine. Totally worth it!

I am (was) someone with the preconceived notion that laundromats are for low-income people or for the unlucky few who have no family or friends machines to use when their's break down. I assume, that if I feel that way then other people do too. I want people to start thinking of the laundromat as a way to save them time and headache. My area is not an extremely low income area (regardless of what the census reports say). The only way I can think to do that effectively is WORD OF MOUTH but for that to happen, I've got to get some other types of people INSIDE the mat.

(For the record, I am not a big fan of hotdogs. Hmm, a free Latte might entice me though... Hmmm... Hmm...)

[Sunflower]

I like the 1/2 price idea too.

[DaveLevenson]

My store in in a town where you can't serve food without a license from the local health department. Yours may be, too. But I have a license for the soda vending machine. I have considered programming it to give away free soda (it also has bottled water) as a special promotion on a very warm day. My competition has no air conditioning. Inviting people in for a free coke on a hot day, and allowing them to feel the air conditioning might win a few friends, no?

[Sunflower]

That sounds like a good idea!

[kbc747]

The problem with Free in your case is you have to spend a ton of money to promote it other wise the only people using it will be the people who where coming any way and then what is the point, like giving a free tank of gas to a guy with an empty tank when the next station is 60 miles away, bet he would have been expecting to pay. Anyway I like give aways, TV, Camcorders, DVD players, etc. are the way to go. Just have a draw and give them one entry for coming in and one for every washer and dryer they use. Make the prises big and they will love you for it.

[DuboisLaundry]

prizes sound good
and for card stores a drawing for a pre-filled card or cards
I wouldn't care to do food myself, (even though I could in this town) but I would consider catering it, that is, have a local restaurant owner show up for an afternoon with a grill, etc and I'ld pay for it afterwards.

but I don't think I would give away free laundry for everybody who comes in during the grand opening

[pete f]

Ok, here is more thinking.. and I had planned to do this at my grand opening, but never had one. I know you are small town, so setting up the BBQ grill for a day probably won't net you any code violations. I know a store near here,, they set up the grill every weekend and give any customer a dog and soda. ( it is a home decor warehouse) I was going to do all this, but got to busy. My 1st anniversary comes April 1, but I am looking for day off. I know a free feed will work well with the hood. Got to get this done!
The only guy I know that did free wash gave away free wash. Then the customers went to the mat they normally use after that, Small town, I would go with dogs/burgers a grill to please open house kind of thing. People are going to bring you their wash once you open, many are just waiting. Sure, give away to the first person. I like the open house free food format, though admit I never have done it. I know someone who did.;;

[Sunflower]

My husband is winning this "argument". (I hate losing...) Thanks for all the great insight! -Anna

[John H]

My grand opening was on the 4th of July. I had my local Boy Scout troop here in the morning and we had a flag raising/dedication ceremony. I donated supplies to the troop and they cooked hot dogs and sold sodas for the rest of the day as a fundraiser. That's how we got around the health department // it was a nonprofit doing a fundraiser. I had bought a kid's bike at WalMart three weeks earlier that I put on display and gave all my customers the opportunity to sign up for the giveaway on the 4th...the tradeoff was they had to give me their name, address and phone number on the entry ticket. That went into my customer database. Meantime, starting at ten in the morning we had hourly drawings for jugs of laundry detergent of various brands. The winners got to pick out which brand they wanted. One other event that got a lot of attention...up until I opened the laundry I had been playing in a rock band on Saturday nights for the past five years or so. No more time for that lately, though. Anyway, the other two guys and one pretty lady in the band were willing to come here and we played a couple of hours until 5 p.m. That's when we gave away the bike. We played outside so a lot of drive by traffic stopped to listen. Even a cop. The festivities were over at that point and we closed a couple of hours early at 7 p.m.
I'm in agreement with Pete and others on the board about not giving away what we sell. I'm just not comfortable with that. And I'm sure not a fan of free dry. I think there are other ways to generate interest. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I joined my local Chamber of Commerce a couple of weeks before the grand opening, and scheduled a ribbon cutting ceremony with them on the Friday before the 4th (which came on Monday last year.) The ribbon cutting ceremony was covered by the local newspaper and they put a story in Saturday's paper about the ribbon cutting and my upcoming 4th of July Grand Opening.
Grand Opening day was really only a so-so day, business wise, but then, it was the 4th and a Monday. So that's my story.

John
libertylaundryok.com

[Kitty]

I'd have to say, that all in all, the UNLIMITED FREE WASH campaign that I have estimated to be a great promotion is just not my usual "thinking outside the box' marketing program I like to capitalize on. I am usually much more creative and shame on me for sticking to and promoting to the masses such a thoughtless type of promotion. You guys win, I stand corrected, I have swayed from the dark side.

My former employer was old school, 3rd generation laundry man, a member of the lucky "DNA" club. His thought into business was never really thinking too hard about actually doing business or how to compete or how to attract customers.

A Free wash promotion is easy but a very costly promotion, and not a very well thought through plan of action when we see through the pages here many other alternatives to attracting customers. Shame, shame on me for continuing to promote the membership to give services free. I SUBMIT DEFEAT...stand corrected and buy Pete the next bud light. :)

Kitty