Page 24 - Clothesline - November 2020

PAGE 24 / NATIONAL CLOTHESLINE / NOVEMBER, 2020
THE ROUTE PRO

BY JAMES PEUSTER

Cleaners must decide to grow or go

his is the beginning of my 20th tion to try to make it more efficient; vans during 2020 while others com- James Peuster is a consultant who special-
year in the industry, and boy has however, when you do as many ride- plain to each other about being down. izes in route development, management
Tthe industry gone through many alongs as we have, you will see the Time is running out in some markets and maintenance. He offers onsite con-
changes since 2001. good drivers know the better ways to as aggressive cleaners are taking more sulting as well as ongoing coaching across
From environmental changes to go. You can go with automatic cus- and more market share away from you the country. He also has cost groups to
restoration to routes, the drycleaning in- tomer service options, but without a and their competition. Don’t just sit monitor route efficiency. For information,
dustry has evolved and dissolved. The in- face-to-face presence and personalized there and blame Covid — do some- call (816) 739-2066 or visit
dustry had been hit hard by the 2008 touch, your attention to retention is thing about it and look for growth. www.theroutepro.com.
recession, as well as 2020 with Covid. limited.
Many new players have entered our Finally, if door hangers and direct
world and some of them disappeared just mailings worked consistently, then
as quickly. Point of sales have adjusted ac- there would be no need for route devel-
cordingly while marketing and margins opment. However, we all know how
have become more important than ever. well that works and the average acqui-
But there is one thing for sure: sition cost of a new customer.
Routes are where the best cleaners are Those who are growing have driv-
thriving. ers who don’t act or think like a typical
The hard part about being a consult- driver. From their appearance to their
ant is many operators are sitting on a attitude, route drivers are running a
pot of gold and yet are trying hard not store on wheels and must be hired,
to grow by their own undoing. Many trained and motivated to do so.
don’t want routes to succeed while oth- Cutting back on development and
ers are holding onto the hope that expectations will lead to your routes
stores will rebound. not growing. Those who do this end up
Many of you made quick adjust- with routes that are over 100 miles a
ments to your systems based on hope day of driving with limited customer
or theory instead of the best practices service interaction.
out there. It’s time for many of you to decide if
No matter what you do, there is one you want to grow or go.
ingredient that makes or breaks your The bottom line is that failure to
routes, and that’s the driver. focus on the development of your route ANDY’S CLEANERS in Oak Ridge North, TX, purchased a Union HL 860K
The route driver is the driving force personnel will lead to failing to develop running K4 solvent from Gulf States Laundry Machinery. Owner Andy Le and
behind sales, customer service and effi- your routes. I continue to watch and his wife Lisa Tran (left) are pictured with Matt A. Lipman from Union Dry
ciency. Sure you can count on optimiza- work with cleaners who have added no Cleaning Products.

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