3 Things Needed in Your Job Ad to Hire Workers

 

3 Things Needed in Your Ad to Hire Workers?

Everyone in every industry is screaming for help.
Our supply chain in many industries is disrupted because companies can’t get people to fill jobs.
This has led to lots of advertising for companies to use certain online or mass media recruitment services to get their hiring message out to candidates. No matter what you use to recruit, your message must have three things in order to break through the clutter and appeal to job candidates:

1.  1. You have to say how much you are paying. The old days of thinking “we talk money at the time of offer” has long been gone. Candidates hear messages about $15 per hour minimum wage in the news. They know their industry and what their peers are making, don’t think they don’t because all employees let it slip how much they make at some point to someone. Candidates know where opportunities lie in their industry. Don’t insult them by saying things like “we offer competitive wages.” What they think is a competitive wage is different that what you think it is. In a negotiating situation you often try to not be the first person to throw out a number. In recruitment it is an advantage. You will get those people from a competitor that might be making less than you are offering and will love the raise. You will also turn off people making more money for doing the job you are looking for, however you combat that by reading point number two…

2.  2. List all of the unusual benefits the person gets. Health, 401K, long term disability, etc. are all great benefits, but they don’t attract the majority of the candidates. Maybe your company is near a pond that has hiking trails or is available for fishing. Maybe you offer auto oil changes by having a mobile service come to your parking lot. Perhaps you have an employee lunch program. There can be many things that you might not think would be what people are looking for, however it could be the straw that tips the balance. IF two jobs are equal but one job offers free lunch, that company will get the employee. If the candidate that is making more than the money you are advertising, but they don’t get the benefits you are talking about, they will at least call you because they figure if they can get salary equal to what they have now AND GET THE EXTRA BENEFITS they think it will be better because they are getting more than what they are getting somewhere else. This leads to point three…

3.  3. Often times people leave a job because they feel they don’t get recognition from managers and co-workers.  Talk about all the ways your company does that. Is there a quarterly meting where awards are given out. Does the president have an open door policy? What kind of rewards are there for people that offer good ideas? What protections are there for candidates that are whistleblowers or offer controversial ideas? Let candidates know they will be appreciated and they will come to check out your company.

Good luck in your search! Save some good people for the rest of us!
On second thought, get all the good people you can right now and make your company strong!

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

Dryers Not Heating: Clean Sail Switch

 

Having a problem with dryers not heating or not heating consistently?

"Sail Switch Open or Closed" errors?

If it isn't a mechanical problem, or dirty sensors
(click link to read that article: dryers-not-heating-clean-sensors.html),

then take a look at the sail switch and damper.

What is the sail switch? It is a safety feature that turns off the heat source (or the dryer itself) if insufficient airflow is detected in the dryer vent.

In short the sail switch is usually a micro mechanical switch that is connected to a metal damper over a hole. When the damper closes the gas flame comes on and heats up the air and the dryer gets hot. If there isn't enough air then the dryer doesn't operate. The trick is the sail switch needs a vacuum to pull it closed over the hole. In order to create a vacuum you need good airflow.

If the edges of the hole, or the damper, are dirty then they don't make a tight seal and no vacuum is created. The damper doesn't close, thereby not clicking the sail switch to let the dryer control board know there is proper airflow and to ignite the gas.

The dampers should be checked and cleaned on a  regular basis, MINIMUM when you pull off the front panels to clean your dryers. If you don't pull the front panels off regularly you'll have to clean them more often.

The sail switch and damper can be found on several different areas on different models of dryers. Some are inside the lint compartment, others on the back of the dryer in the open, some are on the back or side of the dryer under a panel. No matter where it is located on your dryer the principal is the same. In the example I'm using an older Maytag stack dryer.

This is the damper. Some models are round, some are square or rectangle shaped. This one is located inside the front panel, in the middle of the dryer, below the top pocket, next to the lint trap.

Notice the dirt on the edge of the damper.

If you move the damper back you see the dirt around the hole the damper closes over. This much dirt is plenty for the damper to not make a tight seal around the hole and therefore no vacuum is created.

This is the same damper as seen from the inside of the lint tray holder with the lint tray removed.

Notice all the dirt and dust around the edge of the hole and on the back of the damper. I removed some dirt so you can see the contrast.

Take a rag and wipe off the dust around the edge of the damper and the inside of the damper. You can use a damp cloth with water or whatever cleaner you prefer, however make sure the damper is COMEPLETELY DRY before starting the dryer, otherwise you will have dirt sticking to the clean areas and have to start all over again because you will have created the very problem you are trying to solve!

If you have a round damper you should be able to spin it so you can clean the whole edge.

Don't forget to clean the inside of the damper!

Clean the edge of the hole on both sides.

Clean the area all around the hole on the inside of the lint tray compartment.

This is the outside of the damper when it is clean.

This is the inside of the clean damper.

Inside edge of the hole. Notice the paint discoloration. That is normal.

Cleaning the damper and the areas on both sides of the hole should solve a lot of your "sail switch open" or "sail switch closed" errors.

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy

Wascomat Crossover Error Reset Shortcut

 

Do you ever have washers lock up with clothes inside? Sometimes pulling the plug and waiting five minutes before plugging the washer back in will work, sometimes it doesn't.

If you have Wascomat Crossover washers in your laundry room or laundromat and need to get the door open to get items out, here is an easy way.

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy

Error 1, Error 2, or other numbers and door locked NO water in machine

1. Press and HOLD the Cold, Delicate, and Start buttons for 3 seconds. The display shows "0000" and the LEDs blink above the program buttons

2. Using the Cold, Warm, Hot and Delicate buttons, set the display to read "1234" (Cold changes the thousand value, warm the 100’s value, etc)

3. Press the Start button. If there is not a physical malfunction of the door lock, the door will unlock within 5 minutes

Error 1, Error 2, or other numbers and door locked with water INSIDE machine

1. Press and HOLD the Cold, Delicate, and Start buttons for 3 seconds. The display shows "0000" and the LEDs blink above the program buttons

2. Using the Cold, Warm, Hot and Delicate buttons, set the display to read "1234" (Cold changes the thousand value, warm the 100’s value, etc)

3. Press the Start button. The door will not unlock because of the water in the washer

4. The display shows "10"

5. Use the Heavy Soil and Extra Rinse buttons to change display to “46”

6. Press the start button and pump will turn on. Water should start to drain out

7. Push start button again when water is drained out to turn pump off

8. Repeat step 5 to return display to “10” if door doesn’t unlock when pump is turned off

9. Press the Start button. If there is not a physical malfunction of the door lock, the door will unlock within 15 minutes

 

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

Dealing with Homeless Part B: When You Are IN Your Store

Every laundromat owner will at some time have homeless people squatting (or trying to) in their laundromat. If you are the owner of an unattended laundromat
and you are in your store, or you run an attended laundromat,
how do you deal with this problem?
My article is not meant to pass judgement on, criticize, demean, and comment on any homeless people or their situations, or solve in any way the issue of homelessness.
This article is just to pass along some ideas to help deal with this situation that affects in a very real way the revenues and staff of a laundromat.

Pretend a homeless person walks into your store and sits down.
They are clearly not doing laundry.
YOU ARE IN YOUR STORE. What can you do?

1. Talk to them in a friendly way. Ask them their name. Be polite. Use your gut.
As an experienced owner you can get a good idea from the way people react to simple questions and conversations their mental state, inebriation levels, and if they are potentially up to no good. If you suspect ANY of these things, or they give you any negative attitude, do not engage further and be prepared to call the police depending on what happens further. You don’t want to rile up someone who is high or drunk because that becomes a threat to you and your customers.

2. Ask more questions if they are friendly and talkative. This gives you more information on their situation so if they are truly experiencing a bought of bad luck that lead to this situation you can see how you can help them. You also gain more information to tell the police if you do need to call them.

For #1 and #2 ALWAYS remain calm and speak calmly. Usually homeless people get yelled at by everyone to move along. They are used to people yelling at them and it just causes them to get defensive. Most homeless will just move on if they are asked nicely.

3. Have a consistent policy that you and your staff follow.
I have a policy that if it is cold, rainy, or snowy I will allow a homeless person to come in and sit for 15 minutes to get out of the weather. I will talk to the person and get their name and then explain that this is a laundromat and not a shelter but I will allow them to stay for 15 minutes as long as they behave.
The trick is to be consistent every time you deal with a person you allow into the store to do this. Starting at 15 minutes I tell them they have to move along. Most do with no further urging. If they come back the rules are the same. It gets to the point that if the person comes back they know my rule and before I have to say anything will say to me as soon as they walk in the door “I’m just staying for 15 minutes then I will go.” After a few times of letting them warm up I have found they move on to a place they can stay longer or leave the neighborhood entirely.

4. If I get to know a homeless person and they are polite and social whenever I see them, I will offer to wash their coat and hat for free. When done washing, I ask that they leave and they do. At least they feel better with a clean warm coat. My experience is that they appreciate the small gesture and don’t come back. You would think getting a free wash would make them want to come back more often. My experience is it hasn’t.

5. Offer them some clothes from the lost and found.
Throw out any they leave behind.

6. There was a couple that was homeless that I often saw over the period of several weeks one winter. I got to know them through the steps above and they seemed friendly and the kind of people that were down on their luck. I found out they slept in an abandoned garage around the corner. Offered them some odd jobs around the store that I was going to do. I had them shovel snow, break ice built up on the curbs and sidewalks, paint the garage on the property, even paint the front of the store. Sometimes I stayed around to supervise and other times I left and came back later. In each case they did a good job and I paid them a few bucks.
I noticed two interesting things by giving them work to do. The first was they stayed outside of the store when working. The second was that customers saw them as workers and didn’t know their situation and because they didn’t know they were homeless were not intimidated by them.

 I always agreed to meet them at a certain time to pay them. The third thing I noticed was that once I paid them they left immediately. They didn’t even go inside and warm up.  I admit that I probably got lucky with the couple, however I’ve had homeless people shovel snow, rake leaves, and paint walls on a number of occasions at several locations. When done if they do a good job I pay them a few bucks. Sometimes they come back for another job.
If I don’t have any other work for them they often move on to another area.

7. Some homeless people are mentally unstable. I have had them come inside and poop on the floor, pee on themselves, expose themselves to customers, throw mop buckets at cleaners, even try and attack security guards and staff. If you follow step one and two and the homeless person seems unstable call the police for help immediately. Get them away from yourself and customers. Don't confront them yourself. If they are doing actions like described who knows what they will try.

8. If the homeless person is unstable, keep an eye on where your customers are in the store and know where the exit routes are out of the store. According to studies it only takes 1.5 seconds for a person to travel 21 feet. If the homeless person decides to lunge or attack you have to know where to send people,
and yourself, to get out of the store.

9. Call the police if there is any incident.
Don’t try to deal with a person that is high, drunk, or mentally unstable on your own.

10. Consider taking a self defense class or concealed weapons carry class. Whether you choose to physically fight or carry a weapon is up to you and a different article, however the education provided will help you be more prepared in case you do have to deal with a situation.

Remember:
1. Not all homeless people are crazed, drug addicts, who smell bad and pee on themselves
2. Some homeless people are any or all of the above
3. Regardless of personal issues, any homeless hanging out inside a laundromat do not make the laundromat customers feel safe
4. When customers don’t feel safe they stop coming and that impacts the business
(i.e. revenues go down, staff gets fired, business closes)

I’m not a legal expert, however I’ve dealt with the homeless at over 50 stores that I’ve owned or managed. I hope these tips help you.

If you run an unattended store or are not in your attended store, here are some more tips:
Dealing-with-homeless-when-you-are-there

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

 

Dealing with Homeless part A: When You Are NOT in Your Store

 

Homeless people squatting laundromats is a very real concern for laundromat owners. It can lead to the ruination of your business and loss of jobs for the staff.

For those of you not familiar with laundromats and homeless issues let me briefly explain. Homeless people don’t always stay at a shelter, a job, or someplace where they can get help. Laundromats to them are a place to go inside and get warm. They try to panhandle from customers that obviously have money. They know owners of unattended laundromats don’t always come around to the store, so they figure the odds of them getting kicked out are rather small and they run roughshod on everything in the store. This includes vandalizing the store walls, breaking equipment, doing drugs and alcohol openly in front of customers, breaking bathroom fixtures, sleeping in aisles and furniture blocking machines from customers, acting violently with cleaning staff, basically being disorderly. Any homeless hanging out inside a laundromat do not make the laundromat customers feel safe. When customers don’t feel safe they stop coming and that impacts the business (i.e. revenues go down, staff gets fired, business closes).

Every laundromat owner will have to deal with the homeless at some point in their ownership.
If you haven't yet...you will.
My article is not meant to pass judgement on, criticize, demean, and comment on any homeless people or their situations, or solve in any way the issue of homelessness. 

Lets get some obvious points out of the way first:
1. Not all homeless people are crazed, drug addicts, who smell bad and pee on themselves
2. Some homeless are just people down on their luck and they are trying to change their situation. Please help them if you can
3. Homeless people that have substance, violence, or other issues are better left to professionals-don't confront them

This article deals with unattended laundromats. I give tips for attended laundromats and how to deal with the homeless when you are in the store in a separate article:
Dealing-with-homeless-when-YOU-ARE-IN-YOUR-STORE.html

If you run an unattended laundromat (attended laundromat owners there are some ideas for you too in this article) and you are not able to be in your laundromat, here are some ideas that can help contain or eliminate the homeless from ruining your business:

1. Keep lights on 24 hours. People trying to hide in your laundry look for the shadows in the corners or behind walls and equipment. Keeping the lights on eliminates those shadows, makes the person trying to hide less comfortable when they realize the lights are not going to go off, and it makes it easier for police or anyone to see inside your store. People that are trying to hide, or are up to no good, don’t want to be seen. Keeping the lights on also makes customers who need to stay longer than closing time feel welcome. They might stay until after the doors automatically lock and that makes it harder for homeless to sneak in and stay overnight or cause mischief.

2. Develop a good relationship with your police precinct community liaison officer. They can sometimes offer advice to you, and more importantly let officers know to look into your store more often for drive by patrols

3. Keep a key in a key lock box outside and let the police and fire department know they have access. Most police precincts and fire houses have a list of businesses that have a lock box and the code to get in. If there is ever a problem at your store they can access this key for entry rather than break the door or glass if they need to get inside and attend someone or kick them out. It also is a nice way to surprise someone who thinks they are safe inside your store because the doors are locked and they can’t be forced out. If police officers have a key and use it to come inside, that person will not come back and try it again

4. Usually when officers have to remove someone from an unattended business they need to contact the owner first for permission. Give written permission to your local police precinct that they have your permission to warn, kick out, ticket, or arrest any trespassers and homeless in your store when you are not there. Some police departments have a policy like this in place with standard forms that you need to fill out. Other communities do not. Check your community to see if law enforcement has any local policies like this.

5. Obtain a legal looking “No Loitering” sign that has the local statute against such behavior printed on it. Law enforcement officials are smart individuals and they understand that if they kick out a homeless person the homeless person will just come back. So they will check on the individual and sometimes just let them stay inside of they aren’t causing trouble. The officer might tell you they couldn’t do anything because there wasn’t a “no loitering or trespassing” sign posted. If you post the sign it helps the police because if the homeless person tries to say they can be in the store because there is no sign, the officer can point to the sign. Argument over.

7. A couple of enterprising owners have a church group come in and do free washes for the homeless.
The provision though is the homeless have to stay and listen to the preaching. That drives some homeless out after a time or two. When they move to coming to your store on another day, move the church group to another day too.

8. When possible have your cleaners come at different times on different days. Homeless people, and thieves, watch your store and know your routines. Break up those routines and you throw off their patterns when they think they can come to your store and camp out.

9. Make sure your security cameras work!
Watch them and get a feel for when homeless might be coming in.

10. Have a security camera or Bluetooth device that allows you to speak and be heard inside the store. Put these devices near where homeless camp out in your store. If you see someone hanging out, make “official sounding” announcements like:
“It’s 10pm. The laundromat is now closed. 
Please finish your laundry and have a good evening.”
“This is ABC security company.
Please be advised you are being monitored while in this store.”

“The laundromat is closed.
Please go to (insert name) shelter located on (blank) street.”

If the store is closed you can also have some fun with these speakers.
I’ve scared away homeless that were trying to sleep inside stores by making scary voices (“Get out”) annoying noises, and even pointing out something the person is wearing (“hey you in the bears hat”) or has possession of (“you with the backpack”) so they know THEY are the one that is REALLY being watched.

11. Have a nice poster with the different resources homeless people can take advantage of. Make sure it has the address, or better yet a map, showing where these services are located. Besides the homeless people, customers can also read this information and point out to homeless where they can get help.

12. Call the police. They are the professionals. Let them handle it if the situation is in any way potentially dangerous.

Homelessness in this country is a very serious problem. One that requires our help and understanding for the people that are in that situation. We need to have sympathy, empathy, and treat them with basic respect. 
This article is just to pass along some ideas to help deal with this situation that affects in a very real way the revenues and staff of a laundromat.

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

Everet's March 2022 Laundry Newsletter

 Everet's March 2022 Laundry Newsletter

I have had a lot of laundry owners ask me questions about dryers recently. Below are links to four articles I wrote. Click on the link to read an article. If you have any questions please let me know.

Thanks for reading!

EV
A Heck of A Nice Guy

How cleaning dryers can MAKE you money!
Clean-dryers-make-you-money
 
Having trouble with dryers not heating?
Here is tip #1 to fix the problem
dryers-not-heating-clean-sensors.html
 
Front dryer panel treasure find
front-dryer-panel-treasure.html
 
Difference between Axial and Radial airflow in dryers
difference-between-axial-airflow

Resetting MFR Cycle Counter

There are still many Maytag MFR washers in service at laundromats and laundry rooms all across the country. If you are a new laundromat owner or new laundry room attendant here is a tip in case you see a similar message on the screen of your MFR washer. Don't make an appointment for a service call before you try the following tip:

IF you SEE THE ABOVE PICTURE or any similar message here is how you can possibly fix it:

Take the flat ESD key into lock at the top left of the washer.

Turn key to right until it stops.

DON’T FORCE KEY!!!

Press the Quick Wash button until the black arrow is next to "Service"

Press "Delicates & Knits"

The Service Tool Box appears

Press Quick Wash button until arrow gets to "Reset Service Counts"

Press "Whites" button until "Yes" appears next to Reset Service Counts

Press Quick Wash until arrow is in front of "Exit" then press Delicates & Knits

Screen returns to "Main Menu"

When screen looks like the above picture, turn the key back to the left and remove the key.

DO NOT FORCE THE KEY!

Price menu should appear.

You are done! 

Thank you!

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy

Fixing Maytag MHN30 Common Errors

Maytag MHN30 Front Load Washers:

What to do in case of:
ZERO MINUTES or SUDS on screen and lots of water or soap in machine

1. look on the screen
2. if it says "zero minutes" then machine was unbalanced either by too much clothes or something stuck to the inside of the tub
“Suds” means TOO MUCH SOAP was used
3. both are usually customer error so up to you about refunds
4. open door
5. redistribute clothes inside washer or spread out amongst multiple washers
6. open access panel on top

7. press down  white button twice (don't hold button down) screen flashes random numbers

8.  hold down right button on bottom row of the front panel until entire display flashes

9. press middle button in top row on front panel

10. close door

Door locks washer spins for 5 minutes.
Clothes should be spun out.
Explain clothes did get washed just too much soap or unbalanced load to spin out
11. spin clothes again if needed
12. look in soap drawer and scrape out all leftover soap

Maytag Washer MHN30 OUT OF ORDER,
 F29, F22, F28 or other "F numbers"

1. look on the screen 
2. have customer switch washers if beginning to wash or spin out if ending
3. open door (there may or may not be water inside)
4. open access panel on top

 

 5. press down  white button twice (don't hold button down) screen flashes random numbers

6.  hold down right button on bottom row of the front panel until entire display flashes

7. press center button in bottom row on front panel.
Door locks and washer does 10 minute test cycle

 8. If “F Number” returns after test period then there is an issue. Check service manual for codes and how to fix it.

 Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

Fix for Broken Toilet Tank Lid

Have you ever checked on your laundromat restroom and seen something like this?

Frustrating isn’t it?

You might wonder why toilet tank lids are being broken in the first place and why you as a laundromat owner should even care about this issue.

“I found my toilet tank lid broken three times in a year,” said owner Mike F.

“I wondered what was happening to it.

As it turns out it was a mixture of kids horsing around and standing on the toilet and being stupid. Some other people were using the tank to hide drugs for someone to pick up. Other people were having sex in the bathroom and somehow using the toilet when the lid broke. I got sick of it always being broken. I left the lid off for awhile.”

How many have just left the lid off?

How many of you replaced the whole toilet for lack of finding a correct size or model tank lid?

Maybe you tried the generic square tank lids that are sold at some hardware stores.

Whatever you have tried in the past, there are some owners that have come up with a simple, common sense solution:

Use a “L” bracket from a shelf and bolt it to the wall above the tank.

The bottom half of the bracket is against the top of the tank and holds it in place like the picture below:

Having the bracket alone might give someone pause at first before attempting to move the lid, however if they figure out all they have to do is pick the lid up and bend it backwards toward the wall you will have another broken lid on the floor.

The addition of the bar rail going across the top like one owner did, helps negate that because you can’t bend the bracket back as far to lift the tank lid off. It also looks more sturdy visually and that will scare off a few more would be vandals.

“There is one additional thing I do to help secure the lid,” said owner T.S. who owns multiple stores.

“I add some of the corner lid rubber bumpers from topload washers to the bracket in between the tank and the bracket. That helps keep the tank from sliding and secures it. It also helps keep the noise down if the tank moves because the lid doesn’t scrape the metal bracket.”

Mike F. used a similar method.

“I found a lid from a discarded toilet in an alley that looked like it would fit and it did. This time I secured the top of the tank with a four inch wide L shaped shelf bracket with some rubber insulation from a section of pipe insulation under it. So far no one has messed with it.”

As an owner you may have never had to deal with this issue. If you ever do have to deal with it, here is a possible solution thanks to these two owners.

 Thanks…or should I say “tanks” for reading.

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy