Q1 2020

Crash & Burn: What Not to Do On Social Media

By Harry A. Kimmel III, APR PRSA
DLI Communications Director

Negative comments and reviews flooded a drycleaner’s Facebook account after a local news station aired a segment criticizing the business’ inability to return garments. In the report, a 72-year-old cancer patient described her 25-plus attempts to get her $1,600 fur coat from storage, ending with a report that the owner told her he was “too busy to care” about her coat.

Customers began commenting and spreading rumors on Facebook that the business, open since 1934 and encompassing five locations, would soon be closing. A few negative reviews here and there are to be expected by any business and can be promoted as an opportunity to learn from mistakes as the business projects a resolve to try harder. When a negative news article launches a flood of negativity, including a deluge of people saying they won’t do business with you any longer (on camera and online) the situation becomes a full-blown crisis.

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Q1 2020

Defend Your Business Through Self-Reinvention

By Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems

Maybe you haven’t realized this yet, but business has an evil, cruel underbelly.  The secret to success in business is to provide quality and service at a palatable price.  This is true regardless of your product. Customers want you to do it right, do it fast, and do it cheap.  Maybe that’s too crude for some, so I led with: they want good quality, good service at a price that they think is affordable.  You can pick any two, and it won’t be so difficult.  Doing three is the challenge.

For most school systems, 65% constitutes a passing grade, just barely.  If doing two out of three is your choice, you pass but just barely with a 66% grade.  As Meatloaf said, “Two outta three ain’t bad.”  But it isn’t great, either. However, three out of three is a Herculean task, let me tell ya!

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Q1 2020

From DLI’s President: It’s Time! Yes, It’s Time!

By Dennis Schmitt, DLI President

Time for what you ask?  It’s time to say THANK YOU to all the dedicated women and men that have given so much for the dry cleaning and laundry industry.  This association was formed 136 years ago by drycleaners FOR drycleaners. Millions of hours are donated by men and women who leave their businesses behind and go to the meetings for the betterment of the association, many of them on their own dime.  When the board members leave their families for the meetings or conference calls they are not working on their business, but on yours. The board exemplifies working together on several topics with lengthy discussions by using each individual’s strengths.  Its amazing the drive and determination the board has to keep us on the edge of success. TO ALL THE PAST AND PRESENT DLI BOARD MEMBERS, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

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Q1 2020

DLI Graduates Complete Fall 2019 General Course and Two Standalone Courses

DLI’s School of Drycleaning Technology trained 15 students in its 377th General Drycleaning Course, composed of a five-day Introduction to Drycleaning Course, October 21-25  and ten-day Advanced Drycleaning Course, Octobert 28 – November 8. Eight more students graduated a special standalone one-week Introduction to Drycleaning course, August 19-23 and four students graduated a special two-day Stain Removal Course, September 26 & 27. Founded in 1927, DLI’s School of Drycleaning Technology has helped shape the careers of thousands of drycleaners worldwide. In these courses, students learned about:

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Q1 2020

DLI’s Drycleaning Encyclopedia Offers Full Knowledge Base

Web interface and mobile app for the Encyclopedia of Drycleaning bring the entirety of DLI’s vast stores of knowledge and research to members’ fingertips.

Members know they can turn to DLI whenever they have a question about any facet of running a drycleaning business. After more than a century of helping operators succeed, the association has witnessed and handled nearly every situation a fabricare professional might encounter—and what’s more, it has researched and written about it.

DLI’s comprehensive reference, the Encyclopedia of Drycleaning, is the repository of that knowledge. Included in Silver-level and higher memberships, the Encyclopedia of Drycleaning is a members-only feature that contains the many thousands of articles, advisories, and other releases DLI has produced over the decades.

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Q4 2019

Air Compressors and Compressed Air Systems

COMPRESSED AIR SYSTEMS and components will be the subject of this series of articles. In drycleaning and laundry, compressed air is mostly used to expand and/or contract cylinders to actuate valves and position parts of machinery (the head on your pants press or the buck on your shirt unit). In addition, compressed air is also used to “blow out” moisture and debris from fabric on your spotting board, and on far too rare occasions, dust and lint from the surface of machinery.

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Q4 2019

Management Can Drive You Crazy

By Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems

A long time ago, someone probably told you, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”  It’s the kind of wisdom everybody knows, but still you must hear every now and again as sort of a reminder.  It’s true, you know.  Two wrongs, never make a right!  But guess what?  Employees think two wrongs do make a right and they try to get us to believe they are right.  This is one of the reasons why management makes us crazy.  Here are some examples: Continue reading “Management Can Drive You Crazy” →

Fourth Quarter 2018

Paving the Way: A brick in DLI’s Legacy Lane can honor any person, company or accomplishment that helped advance the dry cleaning and laundry industry

Sponsored walkways have long been a great way to honor the influencers of a particular industry. Recognizing the people and companies who have given their all to excel in the vocation or métier, such walkways offer gratitude for work that elevated the industry to the benefit of everyone that followed.

 

DLI launched its own memorial walkway, Legacy Lane, in 2005 during the 2005 Clean Show. Inspired by the bricked walkways at the churches, parks and playgrounds of his hometown, Columbia, Maryland., “We thought it was a neat idea, and wanted to do the same for the association,” says Jon Meijer, DLI’s Director of Membership.

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