American Drycleaner - April 2023

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There’s plenty of advice about how owners and leaders can improve their workplace culture, but what’s the for building an atmosphere that attracts the best and keeps them loyal?

15

APRIL 2023

Deciding on which online marketing tools to use to reach your customers can be, to say the least, confusing, with the danger of wasting time and money always a concern. We examine ways dry cleaners can get their message out both e iciently and cost-e ectively.

HUNG UP ON THE HIDDEN HANGER?

If you need a little help finding this month’s hanger hidden on our cover, here’s a clue. Good luck!

(Left Photo: © IgorVetushko/Depositphotos

Right Photo: © Wavebrakemedia/Depositphotos)

The View from Inside

For many dry cleaners — or any business leader — it can be difficult to get an accurate view of your company from inside. The day-to-day work and stresses can become all-encompassing, and it can become challenging to see the business from the point of view of both the employees and the customers. To attract and keep both of these groups, however, it’s essential to take the time to truly understand how the business is seen and how it works on both fronts.

Our first feature this month is “Culture Makers and Culture Killers.” There’s no end of advice available — as well as coaching and consultation offers — for business owners who want to improve their workplace culture. In this article, we look at the state of the “culture making” industry, as well as how small to mid-sized companies, such as the majority of dry cleaners, can move the needle to draw in quality employees and keep them for the long term.

Our second feature, “The Building Blocks of Online Marketing,” looks to shed some light on what can be a confusing number of choices that face dry cleaners when it comes to getting the word out to their customers. While many business owners dread the costs and the unknowns of experimenting with various online marketing tools, the truth is that some of the most powerful options are free and take very little time to put in place and maintain.

This issue is the month for our “Your Views” survey, as well. We’ve asked our respondents their opinions about building for the future and their possible upcoming expansion plans. After a couple of years of downsizing and simply surviving, many cleaners are seeing a much brighter future ahead of them.

There’s also exciting news in our “Around the Industry” column about the next Clean Show, which earlier announced that it was skipping a year in its two-year cycle to sync back up with the global exhibition schedule after being delayed by the pandemic. Get ready for its next showing in 2025!

Read on for tips about how to best approach what’s next for your company!

American Drycleaner (ISSN 0002-8258) is published monthly except Nov/Dec combined. Subscription prices, payment in advance: U.S., 1 year $50.00; 2 years $100.00. Single copies $10.00 for U.S.

POSTMASTER, Send changes of address and form 3579 to American Drycleaner, Subscription Dept., 125 Schelter Rd., #350, Lincolnshire, IL 60069-3666. Volume 90, number 1. Editorial, executive and advertising offices are at 650 West Lake Street, Suite 320, Chicago, IL 60661. Charles Thompson, President and Publisher. American Drycleaner is distributed selectively to: qualified dry cleaning plants and distributors in the United States. The publisher reserves the right to reject any advertising for any reason.

© Copyright AMERICAN TRADE MAGAZINES LLC, 2023. Printed in U.S.A. No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher or his representative. American Drycleaner does not endorse, recommend or guarantee any article, product, service or information found within. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of American Drycleaner or its staff. While precautions have been taken to ensure the accuracy of the magazine’s contents at time of publication, neither the editors, publishers nor its agents can accept responsibility for damages or injury which may arise therefrom.

Publisher

Charles Thompson

312-361-1680

cthompson@ATMags.com

Associate Publisher/ National Sales Director

Donald Feinstein

312-361-1682

dfeinstein@ATMags.com

Editorial Director

Bruce Beggs

312-361-1683

bbeggs@ATMags.com

Editor

Dave Davis

312-361-1685

ddavis@ATMags.com

Digital Media Director

Nathan Frerichs

312-361-1681

nfrerichs@ATMags.com

Production Manager

Mathew Pawlak

Advisory Board

Jan Barlow

Mike Bleier

John-Claude Hallak

Monika Manter

Wesley Nelson

Kyle Nesbit

Fred Schwarzmann

Vic Williams

Wayne Wudyka

Contributing Editors

Dan Miller

Diana Vollmer

Martin Young

Office Information

Main: 312-361-1700

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ADC@Omeda.com

www.american drycleaner.com

Dave Davis

Building for the Future?

Dry cleaners often shape their companies in response to fluctuating economic conditions, expanding when there’s opportunity, and shedding underperforming storefronts in lean times. For this American Drycleaner “Your Views” survey, we asked our respondents to think about the future size and shape of their companies.

When we asked our audience to compare their business today to where they were before the pandemic, the responses were, for the most part, promising, with 28.6 percent reporting that they have “fully recovered,” and 21.4% saying that they were “well ahead” of their 2019 profits. More than a quarter of respondents — 28.6% — say they are “slowly coming out of the dip,” while 17.9% report they “still aren’t seeing signs of recovery,” and 3.6% are continuing “to trend downward.”

With better numbers for most, there looks to be an encouraging trend toward growth in the coming months. When asked what they see for the size of their business in the coming months, 24.1% said they were “open to expansion opportunities,” and 17.2% are planning “to make a big push to expand.” Things are the “correct size for now” for 44.8% of our respondents. Of the rest, 10.3% are “considering downsizing,” and 3.4% believe they are “much too large for our current customer base.”

When asked about their top priority when it comes to building or maintaining their businesses, our respondents have different strategies. Some of these included:

• Building by only going after (and accepting) the proper “right fit” customers for our routes. We just installed many new presses so that our plant is ready for the next 20 years.

• People are key right now. We would like to grow, but finding enough help is a challenge.

• Building relationships; not only with customers but also with team members.

We also asked about their focus for increasing business. Half (50%) said they were putting emphasis on expanding route services, while 21.4% were working to attract more walk-in customers at 7.1% are looking to offer new services for customers. Some (14.3%) were planning on focusing on each of these activities, and 7.1% answered “other,” adding they were looking to maintain excellent quality and market more to the commercial laundry side.

How do you see the size of your business in the coming months?

We plan to make a big push to expand We are open to expansion opportunities

We are the correct size for now

We are considering downsizing

We are much too large for our current customer base

Compare your business today to where you were before the pandemic.

We are well ahead of our 2019 profits

We have fully recovered

We’re slowly coming out of the dip

2019 profits We have fully recovered

We still aren’t seeing signs of recovery

We’re slowly coming out of the dip

We continue to trend downward

We still aren’t seeing signs of recovery

We continue to trend downward

Our respondents were also planning to put into action the lessons they have learned from the past few years. Some of these lessons included:

• Maintaining our pre-Covid standards and services and keeping a top-level employee base. By not reducing our services, we have grown through acquiring customers from our competitors who have reduced their services.

• You have to continue marketing no matter what the situation is.

• The dynamic of traditional drycleaning customers changed, and we stepped up and are meeting the new needs of our customer base.

The American Drycleaner “Your Views” survey offers a current snapshot of the trade audience’s views. The publication invites qualified subscribers to American Drycleaner emails to participate anonymously in the unscientific poll each quarter.

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Culture Makers and

Hard work, not shortcuts, is key to building a quality team

By Dave Davis, Editor

Over the past few years, there’s been no end of advice about how business leaders can build a “positive workplace culture” — to the point where “culture coaching” has become a multibillion-dollar field globally.

Part of what’s led to this consulting industry is the desire by many business owners to find a way to build or repair that “team spirit” quickly to become a company that attracts the best applicants and keeps valuable employees for the long term.

But are there ways to make the path to a successful culture shorter?

THE “SECRET”

For Sean Abbas, the “secret” to building a great workplace culture isn’t much of a secret at all.

“If I had to break culture down, it’s the byproduct of good leadership,” he says. “It’s a byproduct of caring leadership, and it’s a byproduct of high expectations.”

Abbas is president of Threads Inc., a software company he co-founded to help organizations review employees and manage performance. He has spent many years studying this facet of business, and believes that there’s no substitution for doing the hard work.

“There’s no shortcut to culture,” he says. “But we’re Americans, man — we want to know how we can write a check to get that culture.”

And a lot of businesses are writing that check. According to a 2019 report in the Harvard Business Review, companies spend on average $2,200 per employee on efforts to improve the

culture — with much of that going to consultants, surveys and workshops. The results? Only 30% of human relations (HR) departments reported a good return for that money.

Part of the confusion about cultivating a positive culture comes from companies who have a vested interest in presenting themselves as “the best places to work.”

“Look at the big examples that are peddled in front of us as the ‘Unbelievable’ cultures,” he says. “Pay attention to what they’re doing. They are packaging their culture and advertising to you like they love and care for their employees.”

Abbas believes there’s a simple reason for this approach: “They do this because, if you’ve got a flying decision to make, and if it looks like the employees are having fun at Southwest Airlines, you might choose that airline over another one. Or if you think Zappos treats their employees great, and they have such a great time at work, will you choose to buy your shoes from that online retailer versus another online retailer?”

Business owners such as dry cleaners will be better off, Abbas says, if they take the time to look at the real motives behind these messages: “At the end of the day, we have to understand that most of the messaging around culture coming from another business is 100% marketing. They are trying to get you to make a buying decision.”

One of the main problems with this type of marketing, he says, is that it provides a false narrative for leaders who genuinely want to improve or maintain a positive workplace culture.

“A common mistake that I see for smaller businesses is that they think it costs money,” Abbas says. “They think that it takes a budget for culture, happiness, enjoyment, and it doesn’t. It takes effort, and it takes hard work. I believe that it’s intangible things that are going to take effort,

Every drycleaning company has a culture, but is it one that brings people in or drives them away?

Culture Killers

(Photo: © IgorVetushiko/Depositphotos)

and they’re going to take investment from you of your time. But, ultimately, it’s not as expensive as what people think it is.”

THE TRUE PICTURE

These efforts often fail, Abbas says, because they don’t tackle the issue that truly makes a difference in improving a company’s culture, no matter the age or demographics of that company’s workforce.

“Human beings want what they’ve always wanted,” he says. “You hear about businesses that have coffee shops, free drinks, health insurance for pets, and on and on, and leadership began to equate all that stuff with happiness or satisfaction. The reality, however, is this: The No. 1 reason that people quit or leave a business is because of a supervisor or the leader. It’s still the No. 1 reason — and it’s always going to be the No. 1 reason — but we have convinced ourselves somehow that people leave because we’re not buying and providing them with enough stuff.”

Brandee Christensen, culture and support manager for Gunderson’s Cleaners in Appleton, Wisconsin, believes her company places the correct emphasis on what it takes to build a positive atmosphere for its team members.

“For us, our culture means really being focused on our internal team,” she says. “I think they need to be heard, valued, and appreciated.”

The very way a company’s leadership views the team factors into this mindset.

“For us, it means it’s a way that we interact with our internal customers — our team — and external customers,” she says. “We’ve grown to understand that we can’t

expect great service to external customers if we don’t give exceptional service to our internal customers.”

Communication is key, Christensen says, to showing that leadership is truly listening to the team.

“We have realized that even if we think the requests of an employee might not seem important to us, they wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important to them,” she says. “So, we try to take all of our communication seriously and treat them as the first person who matters in our day.”

WHAT DO EMPLOYEES WANT?

Much has been made about the changing face of work and the impact that younger generations have had on leadership styles. For Abbas, however, the core of great culture is still the same as it always has been for successful leaders — and a vital part of that is feeding a team member’s sense of achievement.

“In a lot of ways, what employees want has really not changed at all,” he says, “and that may surprise people. I think that employees want good leadership. They want to win. They want to talk about winning and success. They want high expectations. If you think about it, if you wake up and do nothing during the day, and you have no expectations of yourself, you’ve literally just wasted the day. How does that make you feel?”

Great employees — those who are motivated and engaged — want to be around like-minded team members, as well, Abbas says, and if leadership recognizes this, it can be a game changer for all involved.

“If we do leadership correctly, wages can far exceed what the going rate is,” he says. “If you really are doing leadership right, you’re finding 10 people who are exceptional, and you’re paying those 10 people $30 an hour. If you’re not, you can have 35 people — five who are exceptional, 20 who sort of don’t care, and 10 who literally suck the life out of the organization — and pay all of them 12 bucks an hour.”

BUILDING THE TEAM

The process of building a winning team starts at the very beginning, during the interviewing and hiring process, Christensen says.

“In my experience of hiring and retention, the worst thing that you can do is not be prepared for an interview,” she says, “to not talk about the culture and values. By having those personal conversations about what we believe in, and how we’re going to move their career forward, we can give them the best experience — even if they’re only going to be here for a couple of years. It’s easy to miss that in the initial interview, and during the onboarding process, as well.”

(Continued on page 21)

(Photo: © IgorVetushko/Depositphotos)

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STOP BEING INVISIBLE

The Building Blocks of Online Marketing

Dry cleaners have many options when it comes to online marketing — so many that it can seem at times like it’s necessary to pick from an overwhelming array of choices and just hope for the best.

The truth, however, is that having a strategy and keeping the overall objective in mind will connect cleaners to their customers in ways that build business and loyalty over the long term.

By Dave Davis

“Local businesses have had to figure out how to combine what they’re doing in real life, in person, with what they’re doing online so that there’s consistency there,” says Donna

Botti, owner of

Putting the right pieces together to connect with your customers

: (Photo: © AndrewLozovyl/Depositphotos)

Delos Inc., a digital marketing strategy firm based in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.

ONLINE MARKETING VS. TRADITIONAL MARKETING

While there are differences between online marketing and more traditional forms of marketing, Botti believes there are certain basics that should always be observed, and that there should be a clear message throughout.

“Online marketing is really a tactic, not a strategy,” she says. “It’s a different way of reaching your audience, but your message should be the same.”

The most important thing when marketing online, Botti says, is knowing who your customers are. “What are their problems, and how are you speaking to those things? It’s a red flag to me when someone comes to us and when we ask them to tell us about their customer, they say, ‘Well, everyone’s our customer.’ That kind of means that no one is your customer.”

Vague, unspecific messaging will doom your online marketing efforts to being lost in the noise.

“We get so many messages bombarding us daily,” she says. “We’re really good now at tuning out anything that we think isn’t actually relevant to what we’re looking for. You need to be more specific. Are you speaking to your customers? Are you attracting the right people to you?”

One of the advantages of online marketing is that, if you do have a good understanding of your audience, you can reach them in ways that resonate.

“Online marketing, versus other marketing methods, really does allow us to target better,” says Dawn Hargrove-Avery, digital marketing manager for the National Cleaners Association (NCA). “We get to target based on demographic data, interests, behaviors, where they shop, what they read and so on. You definitely can do more pinpoint targeting that you can’t necessarily do with TV, radio and print marketing.”

Dry cleaners should be aware, however, that online marketing creates its own restrictions.

“It limits your physical interaction with customers,” Hargrove-Avery says, “so you have to figure out how to make your message very personalized, so that they feel like you’re talking to them.”

FITTING THE PROFILE

There are more ways than ever to reach customers online — through social media, websites, review sites, email and more. So, where should a dry cleaner focus, especially when first undertaking or revamping their online efforts?

Hargrove-Avery believes that the first step might come as a surprise to many.

“My favorite right now is the Google Business Profile,” she says. “I think it’s a wonderful untapped resource that gets tons of attraction, especially in a local market.”

It’s a free service by the search engine giant, and allows business owners to post photos, hours, maps and directions, reviews, links to the business website, and more. The process isn’t automatic, however. The business owner must claim the profile and upload information to make it functional.

“Utilize it like a social media platform,” HargroveAvery says. “Make the posts, share the offers, post the videos. Make sure the profile is set up correctly and that the map listing is correct.”

Botti agrees with the Profile’s importance, noting that it’s how many people will find a business when they need a service.

“It’s a proximity issue,” she says. “We’re looking at that on our phone, so when I do a search, the search engines know where I am located, and they tend to show me things near me.”

Botti notes that Apple recently launched a similar service: “They just announced something called Apple Business Connect, where you can claim your business on Apple Maps. Since Apple Maps is the default map provider on iPhone, it’s a good idea to be there.”

Both services are free. “You can do it yourself and it’s easy to update,” Botti says. “If you were on holiday hours, for instance, it’s simple to make that change on the profile.”

Business owners who pay attention to these services have an automatic advantage over those who don’t, Botti believes.

“I can’t stress enough how important it is to verify your location with both Apple and Google,” she says. “And then, occasionally update that profile. Google uses many search signals, and sometimes I find some small businesses will kind of drop off the face of the earth. They might have claimed their Google Business Profile and never touched it again. How does Google even know you’re still in business?”

HOME ON THE WEB

Another key building block for online marketing is the company website.

“Having a website as the place where you store all your critical information that you reuse is really important,” Botti says. “Your website should have up-to-date information about your hours, where you are, what you do and who you serve.”

Hargrove-Avery believes that a website is not a “set-itand-forget-it” creation: “Make sure that your website is designed for today, not for 10 or 15 years ago. You need a dynamic website that can be updated, and not a static

website from 2005. Make sure it’s current, visually pleasing and user-friendly.”

While having a website that shows activity is important for giving customers updated information, it’s also a crucial part of search engine optimization (SEO), which determines how high a business appears in a customer’s search results.

“When you update your website with a special offer this month, post on your blog or update your homepage with something new, Google knows it’s current,” Botti says.

Google looks at three different facets of a company’s website.

“They see how well your site works on a mobile device,” she says, “because most people are viewing it on mobile. The next thing is how fast is your site — if your site takes 10 or 15 seconds to load, I’m hitting the ‘back’ button and going on to somewhere else. And then the third thing is the security of your site. Does it have that little lock icon in the search bar, noting that it has an SSL (Secure Sockets layer) certificate? There are a lot of businesses that still don’t have that.”

Many services and website providers allow customers to use a simple “drag-and-drop” design interface to create a

get business from the customers you have, rather than finding new customers,” Botti says. “So, how are you reminding those customers that you exist? How are you putting a bug in their ear about, for instance, seasonal cleaning of something like comforters?”

“Email marketing is not dead, and should be utilized,” Hargrove-Avery says, noting that one of its major attributes is the ability to track its effectiveness. “For email marketing metrics, you can see the open rates and the click-through rate. You can see if people are subscribing or if they’ve unsubscribed. Why did they unsubscribe? Are you bombarding them? Is your content appealing to them? Those are ways that (businesses) can really tell if the online marketing efforts are working.”

There are email services businesses can use to make this type of marketing both more effective and safer, Botti says.

“I would suggest using Mailchimp®, Constant Contact® or other email service for this,” she says. “If you send out 500 emails from a personal Gmail account, you’re going to get blocked as spam. Using a service also allows people to easily unsubscribe, which keeps you in compliance with CAN-SPAM Act. These services also have templates that look good on mobile that you can use.”

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind about a company’s website and email list is that they are about the only online marketing elements completely owned and controlled by that business.

“You own your website, and you own your email list — everything else can go away,” Hargrove-Avery says. “In the next hour, it could just be gone. So, on all your social platforms, you should always be pushing people back to either your email list or your website.”

GETTING SEEN ON SOCIAL

website, but is that the best way to create or revamp a site?

“It’s one of those things that almost anybody can do,” Botti says, “but what’s the value of your time as the business owner? It’s the accountant analogy. You could, in theory, go on the internet and figure out what tax forms you need and so on, or you can pay an accountant to set you up so you can run with it. The website is like that. It’s got to be good on mobile, it’s got to be performant, and it’s got to be secured. With a one-time setup, all that can be accomplished.”

REACHING OUT TO IN-BOXES

The next element dry cleaners should examine is a mature but still viable and useful method of communicating with customers — email lists.

“You want repeat customers, and it’s always easier to

While the previous methods of marketing allow customers to get vital bits of information about a cleaner’s business, social media is a way to connect faces and personality with the company.

“You can show your culture, your employees, and how things work at a dry cleaner,” Hargrove-Avery says. “You can get personal and let the customers come into your place. You can show what happens during the cleaning process. You can talk about your causes — what you support and the things you do in your community. All that creates this sense of loyalty and wanting to be part of it — which makes the customer want to be your customer.”

One of the biggest recent changes to take place in the social media world is the emphasis on video.

“This has been the major change in maybe the last two years,” Hargrove-Avery says. “Everything is video. All the social media platforms have changed their algorithms to adapt and show videos over other posts. And it can be

simple things. If you post a quote, and if you turn that quote into a video, it’ll be seen. If you just post the quote, chances are only 2% of the people are going to see it. Video has changed the way we do things online.”

Video reviews are especially valuable, Hargrove-Avery believes.

“Video marketing — both usergenerated content and employee-generated content — is by far something that everybody should be doing,” she says. “Written reviews are fabulous, but the problem is that some people think you’re sitting there writing your own reviews and putting someone else’s name to it.”

The best part about making videos for social media, websites and other marketing is that technology has simplified it.

“You don’t need to hire some big production company,” HargroveAvery says. “We all have these phones that have these great cameras on them. Ask the person if they could give you a video. If the person is willing to give you a video, they’re giving you permission to use it.”

KEEP IT SIMPLE AND STEADY

Keeping in mind how all the online marketing pieces work together is crucial for success, according to Hargrove-Avery: “Google is a search engine. Facebook is a search engine. Pinterest is a search engine. They’re all search engines. So, making sure you’re using the same business name, the same phone number, the same hours, the same website, the same email, and similar profile words will increase your ranking.”

Most of all, drycleaning owners should make sure that their own efforts stay consistent. While it’s not necessary to master all forms of online marketing at once, it’s important to constantly move forward.

“Recognize the importance of small steps,” Botti says. “You just have to keep doing it. It’s like a

snowball and will build traction. Too often, people say, ‘I’m going to post on Facebook every day, and we’re gonna do a blog every week, and….’ Then, it just falls because you haven’t figured out how to integrate it into your current process. You have to make it part of your process. Get it to where it just happens automatically.”

Hargrove-Avery agrees, urging

owners to start small.

“Pick one or two things,” she says. “Pick your email marketing and Facebook, or pick Facebook and Instagram. Once you master one, you can take that experience and move it to the others. But trying to do it all at once can get overwhelming very fast. So, focus on one or two and pick out of your strategies, and then follow it through to the end.”

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Dates Set for the 2025 Clean Show

Exposition will take place Aug. 23-26, 2025, in Orlando

ATLANTA — The Clean Show, North America’s largest dry cleaning, laundering and textile care exposition, has announced that the next edition will take place Aug. 23- 26, 2025, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

“The Clean Show has proven to be the ideal exposition for industry leaders to find the latest innovations in textile care, ranging from industrial machinery and conveyor equipment to computer software and business systems,” said Show Director Greg Jira. “We’re excited to bring these business leaders, decision makers, product designers and purchasers back together in 2025 to continue to drive innovation, collaboration and growth within this sector.”

The Clean Show attracts professionals from around the globe to see the newest and most technologically advanced products the industry has to offer. The show features networking opportunities, as well as live demonstrations for all segments of the industry. In addition to exhibits, the show offers educational seminars on the latest technology, business management, sustainability, and more.

Details on exhibition space sales will be announced later this year. Returning exhibitors from The Clean Show 2022 will have early access to secure their exhibition space.

The Clean Show is organized in collaboration with five industry-leading associations: Association for Linen Management (ALM), Coin Laundry Association (CLA), Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), Textile Care Allied Trades Association (TCATA), and Textile Rental Services Association of America (TRSA).

“With the momentum of Clean 2022 still pushing our industries forward, we’re very excited to have our Clean 2025 dates and location finalized and ready to share,” says Brian Wallace, President/CEO of Coin Laundry Association and Chair of Clean’s advisory council. “The Clean Show is an essential destination for all five partner associations and for our collective stakeholders. We look forward to working together to bring the best show experience to all in 2025.”

Since 2019, The Clean Show has been a part of Messe Frankfurt’s Texcare Global brand, an internationally recognized exposition brand that brings together businesses

and professionals from the entire textile-care sector, including Texcare International.

CleanCloud, Cobblers Direct Enter Into Partnership

Collaboration will allow customers to offer leather repair services

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — CleanCloud, an all-in-one point of sale (POS) software for the drycleaning industry, recently announced a new partnership with Cobblers Direct, the online spinoff of the shoe and leather goods repair company, The Shoe Hospital. With this integration, North American CleanCloud customers will be able to offer quality repair services for leather goods, including shoes, belts and handbags, without increasing their operational overheads.

The partnership will allow dry cleaning customers to accept leather goods for repair from their customers when they drop off their dry cleaning. The business owner inputs the order into their CleanCloud POS, and uses a prepaid shipping label to mail all items to Cobblers Direct once or twice a week depending on quantity. The dry cleaner owner keeps a portion of the sale value, providing an additional revenue stream.

In their announcement, the companies say there is no need for additional training for dry cleaners. All questions and communication with the customer relating to repair services are handled by Cobblers Direct. Customers can also scan a QR code and chat in real-time to a Cobblers Direct representative.

“We know that there is huge demand for local shoe repairs in the market. Utilising a familiar CleanCloud interface, and having access to bite-sized video training content, CleanCloud users will be able to offer shoe repair services for customers adding significant value with minimal effort” says John Buni, CEO of CleanCloud.

“On average, our partners are seeing that about 50% of their shoe repair customers become brand new drycleaning customers. Shoe repair is a great way to grow your business overall. It’s a win-win,” says Stephen Kelly, CEO of Cobblers Direct. “Having decades of experience, we’ve worked hard to make this program as easy as possible for our dry cleaners to use, with the ultimate goal of creating an impactful and unforgettable customer experience to drive loyalty and repeat business.”

During the interview phase, those high-performing team members you value need to play a part in bringing in new team members, Abbas believes.

“Have them participate in hiring — they will never allow (low-performing individuals) into the group,” he says. “You might, because you’re not one of them — you’re not going to have to work with that person every day. But if they have to, they’re not going to let them in. Let them participate in the hiring decisions.”

Abbas says that one of a leader’s most important roles is to make sure the company’s leadership structure is set up with intentionality.

“You have to make sure your manager isn’t a manager just because they’ve been there the longest, or because they know the machinery the best,” he says. “You need to pick leaders for your company — those people who are willing to be servants of the employees who work there.”

The other facet of fostering a positive workplace culture is making sure that employees who are polluting that atmosphere are put on notice to change their manner and habits. This is especially true when these unhappy employees are supervisors or in charge of training new employees, according to Abbas.

“If the person says, ‘You didn’t hire me to be nice to people,’ tell them to get out and start over,” he says. “I can almost promise that you’ll be happier the next day. You’d be better off training these new people and getting them doing it your way as opposed to giving them to this person who’s a disaster for training.”

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

Christensen says that leaders need to understand the role they play in creating the culture of their workplace — and if it can be improved.

“You need to have that self-reflection, and you might have to be prepared to change as a leader,” she says. “If the culture is bad, there’s a reason why. No one leader might be completely at fault, but there’s something in there that you might have to be prepared to change.”

Still, Abbas says, there are few things more rewarding in a workplace than making it a place where people want to be.

“To me, that’s probably the biggest benefit of a great culture,” he says. “It just feels good. It’s so rewarding to the individual, and it’s so rewarding to the leader. And it doesn’t mean that it’s always perfect. It just means that, at the end of the day, you’ve done right by people, and you treat them well.”

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More Jobs, Synthetics and Sales

10 YEARS AGO.

More

People at Work — According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ranks of the employed swelled by 236,000 in February 2013, and the unemployment rate nudged down to 7.7%. Increases came in professional and business sectors, along with construction and healthcare industries. “This report shows a resilient economy continuing to recover,” said Acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris. “February marks three uninterrupted years of private-sector employment growth, with a total of 6.4 million jobs created over that time.

25 YEARS AGO. Barton Bill in Doubt

— As of March 1998, the Small Business Remediation Act — also known as the Barton Bill in honor of its author, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) — had more co-sponsors than any other environmental bill. There were 73 co-sponsors — 56 Republicans and 17 Democrats from 28 states — and there were also plans drawn to launch a companion bill in the Senate. Fabricare experts, however, had doubts that the bill would pass during that Congress, and urged for more grassroots and financial support for future efforts.

50 YEARS AGO. Synthetics on the Rise — Dry cleaners could expect to see more synthetic leathers coming into their plants for processing in the fall and winter of 1973, accord-

ing to Daily News Record, a trade paper serving the menswear industry. Men’s outerwear manufacturers had jumped on a synthetic leather and suede bandwagon, the Record said. Spiraling prices of natural or genuine leather was the most-often cited reason for the predicted rise in synthetic leather and suede production for new outerwear lines, but manufacturers contended that “advances in technology have led to synthetic looks far superior to those of the past.”

85 YEARS AGO. An Upturn in an Overall Downturn — Despite the

slump during the last four months of 1937, drycleaning sales throughout the country increased 12% over 1936, according to a preliminary report by Dun & Bradstreet Inc. The 1936 sales, according to the same report, were 15% better than in 1935. American Drycleaner editors believed this was a record of healthy growth and, while the full effects of the depression in 1938 wouldn’t be known for a few months, reports were that cleaners were enjoying steady sales, especially in light of a sharp drop in retail buying.

— Compiled by Dave Davis, Editor

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