A popular misconception we’ve heard, frequently, is that laundries are easy to run. As you’ve experienced through your own commercial laundry operations, however, this can often be far from the truth.
What many don’t realise is that in order to remain profitable, efficiency and innovation must be a core part of your business. With the growing cost of resources, alongside the demanding nature of most commercial clients, these can bear heavily on your activities.
Fortunately, it’s not all doom and gloom. We’ve found that with the right practices, you can transform your commercial laundry operations into a more efficient workspace – continue reading to find out how!
Go for a commercial laundry management system
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – commercial laundry management systems can help you save money, time, and resources.
With the right productivity management systems, you can track resource usage, leverage laundry tracking, personnel monitoring, and a range of other functions. Most of these systems also incorporate data analytics, allowing you to optimise cost savings and discover, which areas of your commercial laundry operations can be made more efficient.
Customer portals are also facilitated within certain systems, allowing your clients to place their orders and track and monitor progress online. Not only does this prevent your employees from having to field dozens of calls from customers, but it also improves overall customer experience with your business.
Given that accessing a customer portal is far easier than composing and sending an email or placing a phone call, your clients are guaranteed to save a significant amount of time. Given that the portal will store orders in a central database accessible by your employees, there will be an electronic record of all orders and deliveries – eliminating the chance of human error and inefficiencies.
With a recent study demonstrating that people are happier when they pay for services that save time – compared to those who don’t – you can bet that your clients won’t mind paying extra for time-saving service.
Be proactive about cleaning and maintenance
An area that often gets overlooked in the hubbub of daily activity is the maintenance of commercial laundry equipment.
By neglecting to keep your washers and dryers maintained and clean, this can certainly cost you in the long run. Overlooking the cost of fast repairs, you’re also likely to shorten the lifespan of your equipment and have them operate at half capacity – incurring you additional expenditure and lost efficiency gains.
Establish standard guidelines for laundry processing
One practice that can render your commercial laundry operations both costly and inefficient is the practice of maintaining various cleaning procedures for each load. By stipulating a standard set of practices to be followed from the outset, this can help you save time and guarantee consistent and expedient delivery to your clients.
While there may be specific processes that need to be followed when it comes to cleaning healthcare linen, for instance, you can even make this your standard of washing.
Soften the water you use for cleaning
As most laundry experts, such as yourself, would know, the distinction between hard water and soft water is significant for commercial laundry operations.
By ensuring a supply of soft water in your facility, you can not only reduce the quantity of water required for cleaning but the amount of detergent too. This is because hard water contains a number of minerals and other deposits, which makes its use for washing highly inefficient.
Soft water also works well with all kinds of cleaning substances and is not as harsh on your pipes!
Key takeaways
In order to be the best, making sure your commercial laundry operations are optimised for greater efficiency is a must.
By following the tips set out above and by following best practices, ensure that your business is an indisputable industry leader today.
How else can I make my commercial laundry operations more efficient?
For more insights on how to make your operations more efficient, head to the Bundle Laundry blog today!