How to Choose the Right Commercial Laundry Service

Being in the hospitality or food industry alike, there is one business priority that outweighs the rest; customer satisfaction. Leaving your customers impressed and satisfied is the best way to ensure that they will recommend your business to others, leave good reviews online and visit you again. It is them, afterall, who you are providing a service to and looking to please.

One such way to increase customer satisfaction is through the cleanliness of your commercial linen. Whether table linens or hotel laundry, people appreciate fabric that is clean and fresh. When it is not, many will be off-put by this, creating a negative view of your business even if your service goes above and beyond.

This is why it is important to choose and use a reliable and quality laundry service. We’ve put together a detailed list on what you should be looking out for when choosing the right one.

Cleaning Commercial Linen: The Considerations

Competitive Prices

Of course, as when hiring any form of service, it’s important to consider and compare prices when you look around. There’s no point in deciding on a company to go with based on idyllic appeal alone, only to find out that the cost of their services is not within your budget.

Similarly, though it’s important to look around for competitive prices, remember that the cheapest isn’t always the best. Sometimes high affordability can represent low quality. This is why it is important to take everything we’ve listed into account, alongside costs, in order to determine which is the most cost-effective, rather than simply the cheapest.

Whilst some companies will offer lower costs in order to appear favourable over competitors, their prices will still be relative to the services they offer, so don’t be fooled by incomparably low prices.

Pick-up and Delivery Options

If you’re outsourcing your laundry, it’s likely that one of the reasons you are doing so is to manage your staff’s available time elsewhere in the running of your business whilst your linen is being cleaned, rather than having to do so in-house.

In which case, it seems counterproductive if you choose a laundry service that doesn’t offer pick-up and/or delivery services and instead requires you to handle this yourself. 

Before deciding on a laundry company to use, then, see what delivery services they offer.

It’s also worth looking at their proximity to where your business is located. If you own your own commercial linen and are simply looking to outsource your laundry, then it will be much more convenient for you to choose a company that is local. However, if you source your linen from a company that both rents and launders it, then they may wash your linen miles away from you, but maintain inventory in a centre nearby, allowing you to have a reliable stock of clean linen whenever you need it.

Here at Stalbridge Linen, for example, we have multiple sites located across Britain, allowing us to offer national delivery no matter where your business is located.

Quality of Service

Just because you plan to rely on an independent company to launder your linen doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be kept in the dark about their processes when doing as such. It’s important to be reassured that your linen is being professionally cleaned and cared for to a high standard, without compromising the quality of what’s being washed.

For example, if you have hotel linen that needs to be washed, do they have hypoallergenic detergents and fabric softeners, which help to prevent irritation to guests with skin sensitivities? Or, if you have chef whites that need to be cleaned, are they aware of the delicacy that must be taken when cleaning these and do use the appropriate methods, like steaming?

Just as you want to present the best service to your clients, your chosen laundry company should offer the best service to you. A professional laundry company will use the best equipment, have appropriate knowledge of the different methods to clean different items and put this into practice. They should also offer more than simply laundry - this may include the chemical treatment, pressing and folding of your items.

Customer Support

When outsourcing your laundry, it is important to establish a good rapport with your chosen company. They need to know exactly what you want and expect from their services, while you need to know that they can meet these expectations and be available to help with any queries or issues that you may experience.

This is why it’s important to understand how reliable and prompt the customer support is at a company before you decide to use their services. Expressing your interest and expectations before conclusively deciding that you are going to go with a specific company will allow you to see what their response times are like, in order to gain an idea of how well they would respond in the future.

Don’t be afraid to ask about the support they offer, either. By getting complete transparency about the ways in which they could help you, you can see if they are compatible with your needs. This way, you also have written confirmation from them on how they strive to help, just in case you do use their laundry services and require such assistance that isn’t given later down the line, despite it being promised.

Here at Stalbridge Linen, we pride ourselves on our customer service - which is reflected in our score of 87.5% in our latest customer satisfaction survey!

Company Reputation

One of the best ways to determine whether or not a company is reliable, trusted and offers good service is by looking at their reputation. Looking at reviews on their website (if there are any) and elsewhere online (such as Google reviews) allows you to see what other people think of a company’s quality of service and if they would recommend them to others.

Furthermore, if the company is a leading name in commercial linen hire and laundry services and has been in business for longer than many of its competitors, it can be said that they‘re likely to be one of the best in the business. Of course, the biggest isn’t always the best, however the fact that a company has comfortably grown and lasted for so long, and has an established clientele, reflects their ability - success doesn’t happen without reason.

Warranty

Companies that offer dry cleaning and laundry services are required to take reasonable care of any items that you leave with them. However, in the case that something goes wrong, it isn’t guaranteed that your items will be protected if there is no warranty in place.

As such, it’s a good idea to double check what warranty a company offers before hiring their services, especially when you have large amount of commercial linen that needs to be cleaned. Should something happen to these when they are in the care of a laundry company, you would be losing a large expense from having to replace these assets.

If a warranty is offered, then you have the reassurance that you’ll be compensated in the case that an accident does occur which results in your items being damaged, misplaced or lost.

If you hire your linen from a company that also offers laundry services, such as those we offer here at Stalbridge, then this is not an issue you have to worry about as much, since we’re able to provide you with fresh linen from our stock as and when it’s needed.

Linen Hire and Laundry

If you’re looking for high-quality linen, Johnsons Stalbridge Linen Services offers specialist hotel, kitchen and table linen rentals and laundry services throughout the UK. Whether you work in the catering or hospitality industry, you can rest assured that our quality linen will leave a lasting impression on all your customers.

Our wide selection of products ranges from chef’s clothing to luxury bathrobes, crisp white bed linen and soft serviettes. We will also launder your linen for you should you require it, delivering all items direct to your door once they have been professionally cleaned by our dedicated team.

Rest assured that all our linens are subject to comprehensive quality control checks, ensuring they’re returned to you in as good as new condition after every clean.

So, if you’re in need of professional linen hire and laundry services, look no further than Stalbridge Linen Services. Get in touch with us today for your free quote. With over 40 years of experience, you can rely on us to provide you with the flawless service you provide your own customers.