CHICAGO — As drycleaning business owners and managers know, the front office is where customer satisfaction begins — and sometimes where the greatest operational challenges arise. For this American Drycleaner Your Views survey, we asked our readership about the stresses their front offices regularly face and the solutions they’ve found to be most effective in dealing with them.
When asked how their front-office stress levels have changed over the past five years, most of our respondents reported that things are either “mostly unchanged” or have “significantly decreased,” with those answers both receiving 25%, and 16.6% reporting “marginally” decreased levels. Those reporting “marginally” or “significantly” increased stress levels also tied at 16.6% each.
We asked about the strategies our respondents have implemented to reduce stress in the front office. Answers included:
- Increased starting pay rates.
- We are restructuring our training procedure by implementing a comprehensive, multi-phase training program to ensure all front-office employees are properly trained.
- Goal-setting planning and regular structured agenda-driven meetings. Core values followed by all.
When it comes to the biggest external stressors — those outside of their control — our respondents said that the state of the economy is causing them the most tension, coming in at 30.8%. Other stressors included “changing consumer clothing preferences” (23.1%), “price sensitivity” (23.1%), “handling special garments or difficult stains” (15.4%) and “having our customers want to cherry pick what they want to pick up” at 7.7%.
For stressors potentially within their control, our respondents found that employee issues took the top spot by far at a combined 78.5%, with issues here including staff shortages and high turnover, employee training and communication breakdowns. Equipment downtime, customer complaints and suggestive selling all tied at 7.7%.
We also asked how our respondents balanced providing excellent customer service with managing staff workload and stress. Answers included:
- It is important to be upbeat with CSR staff. Engage them in non-work-related conversation and show concern for their well-being. Company-sponsored breakfasts are a perk we provide.
- Automation allows our team to focus on their tasks and have ample time to attend to the customers when special needs arise.
- Proper training — our front staff has mentioned that they want to feel prepared to answer any question that may arise, even in a high-stress/loud environment.
The 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.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].
