Listen to the FIRST 10 SECONDS! Nick Bernaiche with Clean n Green shares his two prong approach which led to his exponential growth in laundry pickup and delivery. Find out how he produced more laundry without increasing his payroll, why you need a system in place before you grow, why he loves Zombie Mats, how he grows his wash and fold business without spending too much on marketing, and how wash and fold pickup and delivery sells itself.
Speaker 1: 0:00
We have a service that can actually change people’s lives when you have something that, that is that good that you’re selling, it should sell itself. Everybody will think you’re a genius when you’ve got 30, 40, $50,000 a month coming in. When I think about the potential out there, how much laundry’s out there to go get and do at the end of the day, it’s , it’s like a blessing to be in this business, cuz it’s just fun.
Speaker 2: 0:24
Welcome to state of the laundry industry with laundry, Matt episode 24, creating a system for exponential growth in laundry pickup and delivery. Starring Nick bene with clean and green . You guys are like such a huge, and I think a big part of that is you’re doing such a good job with on the retention side as well, just doing a quality job, but on the pickup and delivery. So you’re doing well, but it is, you know, right about, about the same amount for, I’d say the first year and then 2021, just when off the hook. And I’m not talking about like twice as it looks like it’s about, I don’t know , like five times as much. I mean, it’s just going up and up and up and it’s still on an upper trajectory
Speaker 1: 1:08
That is factor of a few things. It’s 2021. We really started pushing into it, you know, with the pandemic, I thought we were gonna need to have another revenue stream just to kind of pad things out while we went through that rough period, even 2020, we were , we were kind of like going slow with it cuz we were only doing Mondays and Thursdays. And I remember I was kind of working with you to improve a few things. You told me that you gotta start doing it five days a week, at least Monday through Friday. And yeah, ever since we did that, customers have a lot more choice and we’re just getting a lot more people just trying it out. We why into the radius to the surrounding eight towns and we made it five days a week. So it’s a lot more convenient for a customer to kind of pick and choose what they want basically a year of that has led to the numbers that we’re now doing. So now we’re, we’re starting to get into a groove and hopefully those numbers keep going in the right direction.
Speaker 2: 2:01
We’ve found kind on across the board is the rate of growth stays consistent. Mm-hmm <affirmative> the difference is you now you have your base. So exactly. We had a client over in Los Angeles and he goes, this is great. You know , things keep going up and up like, but when does that end <laugh> and it’s like, well it hasn’t really ended yet. You know, we’re we still keep growing. And, and then your washing fold revenue showing that right over here, you know, in some cases 22, 21 is double or nearly double what it was just one year ago, which is so crazy because, and you were doing phenomenal. You’re like, if here’s like the average you’re up here and now it’s even higher.
Speaker 1: 2:35
I’m going, I’m just heading to , I’m trying to get towards super suds level. That’s ever since I saw your guys’ operation. I, uh, I got envious.
Speaker 2: 2:43
I love the , the grow and you’re growing way faster than we did because you know, we started in 2010,
Speaker 1: 2:48
You know, for the first five years, maybe we were doing 5,000 a month, barely scratching to that 10,000 a month mark. Right . We started getting a lot better about our processes and making sure that each customer was happy with what they were getting back retention. And then just you guys getting our website and SEO to the point where, you know, someone searches, they’re finding our website. Even if they look at a couple other ones they’re on ours too , cuz it’s in, you know, that top, top three ranking. So I think all those fact have contributed to where we are now where it’s kind of like what’s that growth chart, the hockey stick growth
Speaker 2: 3:24
Chart . Yeah. We , we had that too where it was kind of flat and then it was kind of incrementally and when it was incrementally going up, it was like 10 or 20%. We were happy. Wow. Business up 10, 20%. And then, then that hockey slope or hockey stick slope kicked in and it’s like, wow, hold on. And it’s really about getting all the ducks in a row and you also have to have that system in place as well to manage that business or else it’s, you know, or not .
Speaker 1: 3:47
Yeah. You gotta have that. You have to have a vision for what it’s going to be. And then think to yourself what would happen if there was double the amount of work in the store right now and how would I handle that? And then start planning for that inevitability because if you’re doing the work well and you’re in a , you know, a good enough market to where there’s enough people that want , want the service, that work is gonna come. So it just literally is consistency and persistence day in and day out.
Speaker 2: 4:16
Kinda like when you walk into different laundry mats, you could tell, does this one have love? I think Brian Gill , he coined the term zombie laundry , Matt , which everybody just knows immediately what that means. And
Speaker 1: 4:26
I love , I love those laundromats . I love those laundromats cuz I get everybody who comes from those. They then come to our store and they it’s night and day. You , you want those to exist. Exactly.
Speaker 2: 4:36
It
Speaker 1: 4:37
Gives people a, a true understanding of the hardware work that you were putting in to make their experience better.
Speaker 2: 4:44
Perfectly said like people make decisions based upon comparisons. And then the same thing is true with pickup and delivery. I’ve seen some people it has today because they go, oh, it’s people are already doing it. There are these big companies out there already doing it. They know more than I do. The customers know the ones that take pride in it versus the ones that don’t. And when there’s competition in a way they are growing the market because they’re , they could be spending money advertising. People are like, oh, I didn’t know. That was the thing. And then when they, they try them and they’re like, oh, it could be better. And then they give you a call and then once they’re with you, they don’t have a reason to leave.
Speaker 1: 5:14
Exactly. That’s why I don’t spend too much on marketing either. I let the , I let the competitors do that. And then when their product isn’t good enough then , and they try our service and then they stick with us. This past year has been crazy. The pandemic has just been really crazy for us. It almost like helped us in a way. It made us like really hone in, make sure that we were putting out good, good quality. And that’s kind of like, it’s kind of like a two prong thing. Like I feel like you guys with what you provide in terms to the SEO and point of sale to make everything run smoothly is like the first step. And then the other critical component is just making sure that the quality of the work is there. And that’s kind of what our challenge is now. It’s like we did those numbers with the same amount of people. Wow. Because we improve , we improved efficiency and we hired better people who actually are tuning in and like working when they’re at work,
Speaker 2: 6:08
Oh this is gonna be great. This is
Speaker 1: 6:10
Instead of like hiring three people who aren’t doing much when they’re there and not really paying attention to that, we got like, cause we didn’t want to increase our payroll a ton because we didn’t know how things were going. The pandemic. Yeah . Right. So we just kind of like tightened our belts with the people we had and you know, brought new people in and got rid of people who weren’t working. That’s where all my focus is going. It’s just on building up the team. It’s the most critical part of it all. Like you guys get us the, you know, perspective customer, but then it all comes down to how those clothes are handled and packed and brought back to ’em and when they open it up and they think, wow, this is like, this is a great service. This is actually helping me. Or they open the bag and it’s, it’s not folded well, or it’s not packed well. And it’s in , it’s in a hassle for them to deal with that. Customer’s for , are we not gonna wanna spend 50, 80, a hundred dollars when you go pick up a family stuff? And that’s what the bill is. We’ve had all that growth with zero marketing. So
Speaker 2: 7:06
How are people finding you?
Speaker 1: 7:07
Well, they find us through the organic search, like curbside you’ve your SEO is still working well for us. You know, I test it all the time when I’m in different towns and I go in the incognito and I, you know, search the different keywords and we’re still coming up in that one or two spot, which is, you know, that’s huge.
Speaker 2: 7:25
You’re implementing all these systems in place to keep the customers. Once they come on board , I’ve seen a lot of people. They’re , they’re looking at different like software solutions and it’s like, oh, this tech versus that tech. And I think what you of kind of illustrated in a way is like, it’s the whole picture. You know, it’s not just one piece of the puzzle. I feel almost like sometimes people make a decision on a car based upon the cup holder, the way they’re measuring their decision is based upon the wrong thing. Not looking at the whole car, the whole solution.
Speaker 1: 7:53
If you don’t have a system, then you don’t even wanna bring in customers because you’re not gonna keep ’em it’s it’s like going to a restaurant that just opened and it’s terrible. You’re probably never gonna go back. And then you’re gonna tell all your friends that it wasn’t good, which is gonna be just a death. Now
Speaker 2: 8:09
At our laundrymat , before we had software in place, we had customers how to find their own. So , uh , laundry in the back room and orders were getting mixed up and we realized if we wanted to keep the cut customers , we have kind of same issue that you’re talking about. We needed a system in place and we didn’t call it a point of sale , the curbside software, because that short sells it. It’s kind of more like a business process management solution kind of tracks it from beginning to end and
Speaker 1: 8:33
Well, that’s why, I mean, that’s why we went with you guys when we did, uh , you know, I think it was three years ago and I can came out and I saw your guys place when I was thinking about different point of sale systems, cuz I knew we were gonna try to grow the washing fold . That’s why I ultimately chose you guys cuz of, I could feel that you guys were in the business of trying to improve constantly. And that’s basically what I’m always trying to do is constantly improve. And I like the fact that, and still text you something that I should definitely be calling the tech support for. And I’ll still get an answer from you. Oh this is this. Let me look into it, which you know, we’re a local business and we’re gonna remain, you know, a small family owned local BI business . And that’s why I like working with you guys because it feels like I have like a partner, just those little things like that is why I would recommend curbside because you guys are still the ones running it. You guys care about it. You care about the success of what we’re doing on the ground. Well, that’s why I went with you guys because when I first came and was looking for a point of sale, we weren’t doing big numbers. So thinking about a system where it was gonna be a monthly cost and it wasn’t something I could just buy and have was a little bit daunting, but then thinking about it as being a fixed cost and something that I can grow into, that’s kind of the route that I took instead was I want the system that I scale up to an unlimited amount and basically never have to worry about switching because it’s not, it’s not built for X amount. That’s kind of why I wound up with you guys as well, is the , the continual software updates and improvements. And then just the scalability. We only have one locations. I haven’t even gotten into the thought process of having multiple locations and using it at different stores.
Speaker 2: 10:18
We do have a really cool multi store solution in , in the software where you could just push about it and you could see store two store, three driver could unload it at store one or store two.
Speaker 1: 10:28
That’s what we are , you know, hoping to grow into in the next five years, maybe one, two more stores. And that’s it. Well,
Speaker 2: 10:35
Thanks again for, for being on the podcast. Really appreciate tons of insight. I mean, I think your real inspiration because you took your business, you’ve grown it, you’re helping retain your customers and you could see a consistent pattern. Just see the way you’re engaging with people online in your store, pick up and delivery past customers, current customers. I mean, it’s all about, I think, acknowledging and loving and care of your clients and that’s what you illustrate and your revenue illustrates that too. So it’s , it’s working. Thanks for tuning in to the state of the laundry industry to learn more about the curbside LA point of sale and pick up and delivery solution, go to curbside laundries.com . Don’t forget to click like or subscribe. Thanks again.
