Upgrading despite these uncertain times
CUSTOMERS have stayed away from many services during the COVID-19 lockdown, making it tough on many local businesses and creating uncertain futures.
Macquarie Dry Cleaners owner Alison Rumble says when people aren’t going to work or play, they not only don’t need so many clothes washed and ironed, they’ve got far more time to do those jobs themselves.
“It’s never been slower, with the pubs closed and the functions not on, everything’s just very quiet,” Mrs Rumble told Dubbo Photo
That left one pressing question: why was the shop was crawling with specialist tradies when many businesses are doing the bare minimum just to stay afloat.
“We were looking at expanding and increasing our capacity and when the business more or less went to about 20 per cent of what we normally do we just got these boys in to work pretty quick.
“We’ll offer the same services but it’ll be much more efficient, the new machines versus the old machines and it increases our capacity as well,” she said.
It’s a remarkable expression of practical confidence when many pundits are predicting global recessions or depressions but Mrs Rumble believes hard work, attention to workmanship and a focus on customers will see their business continue to thrive.
“When we first started with the business we were fairly quiet so we’ve seen it at the bottom end. We’ve worked fairly hard to get where we were and then, bang, it just went down just like that with the COVID restrictions but we just took a long term decision, we weren’t going to let a short-term situation stop our belief that we’re going to get through it,” Mrs Rumble said, conceding the cost of the investment to upgrade was steep.
She said their working ethos was based entirely around customer service, being able to supply the product at the best price they can.
“That’s all it comes down to and the core of our customers are the ones who come back all the time, who are happy and who know that if something goes wrong they can come back and we’ll sort it out.”
She says the whole business works around convenience, and if people weren’t time-poor they wouldn’t have a job because there’s a lot of things that they do that anyone can do themselves but they choose to outsource it.
Other customers need the assistance.
“A lot of elderly people just aren’t capable of lifting things and there can be heavy things in the washing machine and stuff like that, it’s just too hard,” Mrs Rumble said.
“A lot of young people can’t sew, a lot of elderly people can sew but they can’t see well enough to do that anymore so it’s just us meeting the needs of a range of people with what customers want.
“When I went to school everyone learnt to sew, boys and girls but there’s just not the mass of people who know how to sew, a lot of people can’t even put a button on,” she said.
What does she most enjoy about the job?
“Definitely the customer interaction, it’s just great, as long as we do our job right, the customers are very easy to deal with.”