Many of us have had the painful experience of trying to obtain service from national providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, to name a few. The service experience with these national providers conjures up the following:
- Long on hold times (“Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold.”);
- The inability to talk to a real person;
- When you finally reach a real person, it’s tough to make sure they understand your problem;
- You have to repeat things that you have already entered on your phone;
- And the best part, you get to wait around all day for the service tech to arrive, and when they finally do arrive, they don’t have the right tool or part to fix the problem the first time.
If quality laundry room management service matters to you (and it should), then the choice is very simple. Local laundry service providers can outperform national firms on almost every service and customer service metric. I have spent the last two years working for local service providers and the differences are stark. Here are the most convincing reasons why you should consider a local service provider:
- Service and customer service staffs are knowledgeable of the local marketplace, have a good understanding of a given area’s dynamics, and know exactly who to contact when there is an emergency situation.
- Local customer service staff have the ability to resolve customer issues in a single call. No second and third customer callbacks are required.
- Due to the close proximity of customer service with field service personnel, laundry room service response is either the same day or the next day with local service providers. At national firms, the disparity between customer service (with out of state centralized call centers) and local field service can translate to a service response of 5 to 7 business days.
- Because of their inherent size, local service providers are exponentially more nimble and thus are able to adjust with changes in customers’ scope of work or requests for special services.
- The agility of local service providers also allows for easier implementation of customer-centric technology infrastructure on location that provides customer convenience and results in faster service response times.
- There is perhaps nothing more frustrating than listening to a service provider representative pass blame around when a performance problem occurs. National laundry room management service providers typically come across as faceless entities that don’t particularly care when something goes wrong or even seem willing to own up to their own mistakes. Local laundry management service providers are in a position to operate on a more face-to-face basis with their customers, building relationships and trust. By holding themselves accountable when an issue arises, local providers can further develop goodwill with clients.
- Locally owned and operated laundry management service providers will support local and regional businesses and trade associations that are also supported by their customer base. Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally-owned business, rather than a nationally-owned business, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses and service providers — continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community.
Local Laundry Management Services
When it comes to deciding between a local laundry management service provider and a national firm, the one that’s right for you depends on your specific needs and preferences. However, stellar service should be non-negotiable. Be sure to check on the references of a prospective service provider and don’t be afraid to ask your peers. You should also ask to speak to former customers of the prospective service provider. You will definitely learn something. The most important factors in choosing the right provider are the customer service experience, service responsiveness, and accountability.
At Automatic Laundry, customer service is our number one concern. Our state-of-the-art LAUNDRYCONNECT™ system allows us to see issues with our commercial laundry equipment before they even arise. We are able to dispatch our service team to correct most issues before they even become a problem. Automatic Laundry’s community laundry management services take the guesswork out of your hands and ensures that your community laundry room is always up and running. Contact us today to see how we can help take your laundry facility to the next level.
