Soap Fetching Stick

 

As a good operator of a laundromat or laundry room, you should always keep an eye out for ways you can help your customers. Sometimes the way you can help them is with an idea that you've never thought about...until you physically see the need for it.

"I saw a customer put the money in the soap dispenser and push the coin slide in," said Larry, a laundromat owner in Wisconsin.
"The box fell in the back of the chute and this customer had larger hands and couldn't get his fingers inside far enough to reach the box and slide it out. I got a wood stick from the back and used it to slide the box forward and get it out for the customer," Larry explained.

"I've gotten refund requests from other people who said they had a box get stuck. When I would get there and check the soap machine the box would be gone. That person probably put the money in and the box would fall and be sitting there, and then somebody else probably saw it and took it out when they were getting their soap and got a freebie."

To solve the problem of people not being able to get their hands inside the machine, Larry came up with the "soap fetching stick," which is a wooden paint stick with a magnet on one side so it sticks to the machine.

I asked him why did he decide on a paint stick.

"It was just the smoothest, nicest little piece of wood I could find that would slide inside easily." 

I also asked him how many paint sticks has he gone through.

"None. I put one on each machine and no one has taken it yet."

The "soap fetching stick" is a simple idea, however it says to the customers that this owner is always looking for ways to help them by having this available.

Pretend the old adage is true that a happy customer will tell five people about their positive experiences, and an unhappy customer will tell 50 people about their negative experience.

If this stick is used only 10 times a year, is saves 500 potential bad reviews by word of mouth or social media with a potential loss of revenue from customers trying another location, to 50 people hearing positive things about your facility. If only five of those fifty become twice a month customers, how would that affect your bottom line?

Good idea Larry!

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy