How to choose a drycleaner: Part Two

Consider the time and commitment that the average person invests each time they visit a salon for hair care or body work. A good drycleaner recognizes your investment in your wardrobe and needs your understanding of the often-difficult task it is to protect that investment. Mutual respect and an eye toward the same goal combine as important ingredients for a successful relationship.

There can be great disparity among drycleaners – as with restaurants—and there are many different attitudes toward perfection. You know what your comfort level is. Assess yourself, decide what is best for you, and then set out to find the drycleaner that offers you the best fit.

You are now officially warned: there is no requirement, license (other than a business license) or certification to become a drycleaner – all they need is a sign!

Factors in the decision:
Selecting a drycleaner is a personal issue. In considering your drycleaning needs, you must find the balance of several elements: convenience, price, quality, serviced offered, customer care and expertise. How these items are prioritized vary with every person. Take a moment and consider each factor.

Convenience:

• Remember that rush our, both morning and night is a high traffic time at your dycleaner’s counter. If time is a consideration, ask if the cleaner promotes a quick-drop method.
• Is free parking and easy access available?
• If you pick up and drop off on the way to work, consider these issues: some clothing can fade if left in direct sunlight for an extended period. The heat of a closed car can diminish a crisp finish on your clothing. Security may also be a consideration if clothing is visible in your car.
• Flexible hours
• Pick up and delivery service.

Price:
Price is usually dictated by quality. Do you wear clothing that demands hand ironing and excellent spot removal at a higher price, or will a discount cleaner satisfy your needs? If you opt for the cheaper cleaner, I don't believe it is fair to hold then responsible when they ruin your white designer shirt. They are cheap because they cut corners, and the buyer should beware!

Quality:
This goes along with price. In drycleaning, you usually get what you pay for. Fine drycleaning requires constant training for every position in the cleaners. Everyone from Finishers to the Drycleaner and the Customer Service people need to be kept current in order to maintain quality. The changing nature of chemicals, and textiles require it!.

Responsiveness:
When you have a complaint about quality, you have a lost garment; you need something in a rush; or you need a special favor, such as a quick repair or special delivery you’re your drycleaner there for you. Whether discount or custom, your cleaners should “bend over backward” for you. Expect no less.

Choosing a drycleaner is as personal as your wardrobe. When it comes to drycleaning there are tangible differences. I believe that if you do enough drycleaning, you will eventually have a problem. It may or may not be the cleaners fault - often the manufacturers are at fault and the cleaner is blamed. What sets a drycleaner apart, is how they handle the issue and if the customer is happy (as possible) with the outcome.

In the final analysis, you need to do the taste test yourself.

How to choose a drycleaner: Part One

Most people have little idea how involved the dry-cleaning process is and, really, why should they care? I believe you need to know enough to ensure you have control over your clothing investment.

The process of dropping your clothing at the drycleaner is not as simple as it first appears. It is the drycleaners job to make it look simple. It starts with a skilled and caring customer service person. Quality will depends on the skilled and diligent production workers. Caring for textiles is a labor intensive, people intensive business. Proper care for your clothing requires continuing education and awareness on not only the cleaner’s part – but on your part, as well.

With that in mind, here is a brief outline of what happens when your clothes go to the cleaners and what you should be on the lookout for.

The Process:
From the moment you walk into your drycleaner or give your items to your personal drycleaner (at your home or office), the process begins.

At the counter: You want the customer service person to be responsive when you point out a stain or discuss a problem. They should inspect the clothing for a proper count of what you are leaving at the very least.

There are generally 2 methods for accepting items:

1) A detailed inspection and pricing in front of the customer of every piece. For a large order this may take considerable time (well over 15 minutes!). Very small, and often lower end or discount cleaners will often inspect and create the final invoice in your presence – I believe this is an indication of the lack of trust between the drycleaner and customer. I would take it as red flag. A company that must ensure their price upfront or that a hem was loose on arrival, will not be able to build the level of trust needed to provide delivery service, THE BIGGEST VALUE YOU CAN GET FROM A CLEANER! However, this is fairly common. If this is your drycleaner, be sure they are reading the care label, discuss any unusual aspects and alert you to any stains. They should also check all pockets and return any items found to you.

2) More common (and I believe preferable – time is money after all!) is a mini inspection with a mini ticket issued. The items are then inspected thoroughly after you have gone to do something else.

Marking or Detailing the Order:
Before cleaning, all items must have an identification affixed. Then a technician will do a second inspection and make some basic decisions: Whether the item can be cleaned in a drycleaning machine, which stains need to be pre-treated, the length of the cleaning cycle necessary to remove soil and stains; the length of the cycle with regard to fragility of the item; possible air drying to control shrinkage, and the type of solvent. There are currently 6 major solvent used. Most cleaners use at least 2, water and their solvent of choice. If chemicals are important to you, solvent may be a factor in your choice.

Finishing: This refers to both hand ironing and machine pressing. Pressing by machine results in a firm, often crisp finish (like a man’s shirt). Hand ironing results in a softer finish and is much more labor intensive. An experienced finisher knows which approach will improve unsightly shine, button impressions and hard wrinkles. The finisher must also make many decisions: Should an item be hard or soft pressed, should it be creased? Should the hem be pressed or rolled? Should the linen blouse be starched? These are all daily decision made by a finisher.

Final Inspection: When the garment has been cleaned and finished, final inspection takes place where all tags are removed and the clothes are deemed ready to wear. A plastic bag is put over the order to protect it during storage and on the way back to your closet. Many discount cleaners skip this last step, meaning you will act as the final inspector.

How to Impress Women

PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU PRESS YOUR OWN SHIRTS!
We can tell if you don't get your shirts professionally laundered. They just don't have that crisp finished look. The lines on the side or arms are a dead giveaway, or maybe its that slightly fuzzy look that gives it away. These days lots of guys are wearing funky dress shirts over jeans. Its a great look! But if its wrinkled (not the wrinkled look - big difference), we wonder "why can't he spend $3 to get a shirt pressed? His time must not be valuable."

I was recently fortunate enough to attend a networking group that consisted of (mostly) very successful (read millionaire) Internet businessmen. It was a fascinating experience! They were all there to network and get ideas from each other. It quickly became clear that they were driven to be successful in ALL aspects of their lives. Many were married and work life balance was discussed more than once. At one point they got so specific as to ask the question "how can I make sure my wife (partner, etc) feels loved when I work such long hours and travel frequently?"

Now as a woman, I have heard this story countless times from the other end of the conversation. I found this discussion really impressive. One recommendation struck me as brilliant in its simplicity; no matter whether both partners work or not, get a house keeper. If you are never home and never clean or do dishes etc. resentment will build in your partner. But if you are home - it is more important to have quality time, rather than spend it cleaning toilets.
Wow! So simple and so true

After the epiphany of the house cleaner, I started questioning how many of them used drycleaners, and of those that did, did they have pickup and delivery service. Actually, I could tell right away that most of them did not use a cleaner. Most were wearing dress shirts and it was apparent that they (turns out it was their wife) did the laundry.

Now the age range of the group was 25 - 50 and the over 40 crowd seemed a little more savvy about drycleaning. However many of the younger ones had never even consider it. When I asked if they could think of a more tedious time consuming chore than laundry, I got the impression most of them didn't do their own laundry. Suddenly a light went on - while they already had a housekeeper, they could also get the laundry sent out. What about sheets? Khakis?
They found a new way to be successful and a hero at home! And it was simple.

These were entrepreneurs that made their living by selling their ideas - that pretty much applied to everyone there. How they looked would be key to making a sale to investors, customers (if they met them in person) or their wives. And every one of them wanted to look as successful as they were (Don't get me wrong there won't be any suits anytime soon) and make life better for their family.

What is important in life? All these success stories put their family, their time and their image at the top of the list and that is exactly what a drycleaner can do for you.

Who am I?

For my first entry I thought it would be good to explain how I became the online drycleaning authority. Not everyone who works in drycleaning is a dryclean expert

I am the owner of Ablitt's Fine Cleaners in Santa Barbara, California. Ablitt's is one of America's Best Cleaners and an industry leader. We have over 25,000 active customers at any given time and, because of our spectacular location and proximity to Hollywood, have hundreds of very well known names on our list.

While my Father founded Ablitt's in 1984, drycleaning has been in my family for generations. My grandmother and grandfather met while working at her father's dryclean shop in Washington State. Each generation appears to have tried to go in new directions, but we cannot escape our family heritage. I personally went out and got a ton of education: BS in Engineering from UCLA and an MBA from Thunderbird (AGSIM). I even worked as an engineer and then in corporate finance at Allied Signal for the legendary Larry Bossidy. I am proud to say I am both published and have a patent. I am also happy to be home now!

Besides being born into drycleaning and working in it every day, we attend or hold some sort of training meeting every month. For example, our operation manager was just in Germany at the world famous Hoenstein Institute, there is a convention this weekend, I just visited a CO2 cleaners in Denver, we have trainers in quarterly, and we are having cleaners from around the country visit to study our route model next month.

I am a big believer in continuous learning. Both at work and at home. The only problem is that often we don't realize how much we know. I was recently at a meeting with a bunch of Internet folks. Talking with them (most didn't think they had a need for a drycleaner - more on that later), I realized that maybe, just maybe, I had something to say that at least a few people would be interested in.