CHICAGO — There’s always a new idea in the drycleaning industry. New equipment, new software, new ways to route deliveries and manage customers without ever speaking to them. Trade shows are built around what’s next, and for good reason. Operators who don’t adapt get left behind.

But this practice of adaptation can have a shadowy side. In the rush to modernize, some operators risk abandoning the very practices that built their businesses and their reputations in the first place.

The personal conversation.

The attention to detail on a single garment.

The willingness to stand behind the work when something goes wrong.

“I think the personal touch is where we can’t risk our reputation on automation and take away the personal element of it,” says Andre Lobato, vice president of La Nouvelle Fine Cleaners, a high-end operation now approaching its 40th year in Denver, Colorado.

Lobato is a third-generation cleaner who has worked his way through nearly every station in the plant over 22 years.

Many industry professionals share Lobato’s opinion about preserving the personal element, including operators whose businesses span generations.

“I keep hearing that our industry is in decline,” says Stathi Afendoulis, owner of Afendoulis Cleaners in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “I disagree. It is in transition, as is the whole of our society and economy, even our world. For 80 years, we have stood the test of time by being proactive and always communicating with our customers. That will never change as long as our family owns the business.”

Gary Maloney, president and owner of Nu-Yale Cleaners in Jeffersonville, Indiana, has been in the business for 50 years. He’s watched the industry transform around him multiple times over, and while he’s not afraid to embrace change when it makes sense, one thing troubles him about how the industry is evolving.

“Talking to people,” he says. “I think it’s a lost art.”

Maloney believes that face-to-face communication offers irreplaceable value. Not texts or emails, but actual conversations with actual customers.

He was once pursuing a commercial account, a facility that needed regular wash-and-fold service for linens. 

“We’re sitting there talking, and the client says, ‘Here’s what I want. Here’s what I need,’” he says. “Then I asked, ‘What are your pain points?’ Oh, my God — the dam broke loose.”

Maloney landed that account.

“This is why you go talk to people,” he says. “They tell you stuff. Either they come right out and say it, or they tell you in their actions and in the things that they evade answering. You can’t pick that up in an email or a text.”

Lobato sees the same dynamic play out on the retail side. La Nouvelle serves an affluent clientele for whom price is secondary to execution, and that relationship depends on real human contact.

“Some people do want to talk,” he says. “We have a little chair, and some clients come in and sit down. It’s like you’re going to a barbershop. We know about their kids, we know about their graduations, we send flowers. It’s being very customer-centric, breaking that barrier and making it a personal relationship.”

Maloney has placed kiosks in half of his stores. He knows they serve a purpose for customers who want 24/7 access and don’t feel the need to speak with anyone on the Nu-Yale team. He still, however, requires his counter staff to greet every person who walks in the door.

“If somebody comes in on Sunday at 5 o’clock in the morning, they’re coming in for a reason,” he says. “They know there’s nobody there to talk to. But I still want that one-on-one communication when we’re there.”

Afendoulis sees a direct connection between personal interaction and long-term success.

“Nothing beats a face-to-face encounter, where you can really learn what the customer wants and exceed their expectations,” Afendoulis says. “The more we lose the personal interaction with our customers, the more difficult our job becomes.”

Come back Tuesday for Part 2 of our series, when we’ll look at the importance of building trust with clients, and how company culture affects both the big picture and the little details.