6 Convenience Features Laundromat Customers Love

 

 

 

Doing laundry at a laundromat is not usually considered a fun exercise. For most, it’s a chore. Many laundromats are making this chore more bearable with great convenience features for customers. Here are some of the top must-haves to help your laundry stand out for convenience.

Charging Stations:  Just about everyone has a mobile device and when power runs low, people are always looking for an outlet.  Designated charging stations with USB inputs will be a welcome sight to your customers.

Play Area / Reading Room for Children: Children are a common sight at laundromats as their parents do laundry. The parents’ hands are full with laundry (literally and figuratively) and trying to monitor and controlling restless children can be a challenge. A designated play area with coloring and reading books, toys and other safe, kid-friendly activities can be a helpful nod to busy parents. Of course, a play area carries risks and responsibilities for the store owner. Once these are covered, however, a play area can  be a convenience that pulls more customers into the store.

Café: For laundries that have the space, a café can become a secondary stream of income to the laundromat owner. For an existing laundromat, putting one in place can be a challenging and expensive but it might be worth it. It is easier including a café in plans for building a new store. Either way, a café gives customers a respite from doing laundry, provide a bite quick and easy food options that can take the monotony and blandness out of doing laundry

Payment Technology:  Not having to fight with change machines or bring bags of quarters to the laundromat is a convenience many laundry customers really appreciate. Debit and credit cards, mobile payments (think Apple Pay and Android Pay) are now accepted right at the washers and dryers in many stores.

Automatic Sliding Doors: Try opening a conventional door while trying to push a laundry car through. It is not easy. Automatic sliding doors that open to create a wide opening for the customers and their carts and laundry bags should be considered even more than a convenience. It’s almost a must-have. The benefits extend beyond entry and egress. These automatic doors are hands free, opening as they are approached. That’s one less door handle to touch and one less glass surface to be smeared with fingerprints.

Upgraded Bathrooms: Bathrooms are an integral part of any retail business. Providing more than the bare necessities will truly give your customers a sense of being in an environment that cares about treating them well. High speed, hand dryers, baby changing stations and hands free faucets and soap dispensers are touches that can burnish your store’s image.  Most important however, is keeping your restroom sparkly clean at all times.

Jennifer Lujan is Loan Officer at Eastern Funding. With over a decade in the laundry and equipment financing industries, Jen helps vended, on-premise and commercial laundry owners access financing for equipment, acquisitions, new facilities and more. Contact Jen: [email protected]