How A Cashless Card System Can Make Doing Laundry Easier

Do you own a laundry services business? Are you trying to find new payment methods for customers to help increase your revenue? Well, a cashless card system is one payment technology many business owners are beginning to adopt.

A cashless card system is an excellent investment for any laundry service. By eliminating the need for coins and bills, this system can save time and hassle for both customers and staff.

In addition, a cashless card system can provide valuable data about customer habits. This data can be used to improve the laundry experience.

If you’re trying to decide if you should use a cashless card system as one of the payment methods, here’s what you should know about how it can make running a laundry service easier.

How a Cashless Card System Works

A cashless card system uses an RFID card or key fob to allow customers to start machines and keep track of their balance. Customers add value to their account online or at a kiosk, using their card or key fob to activate machines. The customer’s account is automatically debited for the wash or dry cycle cost when the cycle is complete.

The Benefits of a Cashless Card System

Using a cashless card system for your laundry business has many benefits. Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that it eliminates the need for customers to carry coins or bills. This can save time for customers as they no longer need to search for change before starting their laundry. In addition, it can save staff time as they will no longer need to provide change or count bills at the end of their shift.

Another benefit of this system is that it provides valuable data about customer habits. This data can improve the customer experience by tailoring promotions and discounts to when customers are most likely to do their laundry. For example, if you notice that many customers do their laundry on weekends, you could offer a discount for weekend laundry service.

Choosing a Cashless Card System

Finding a trusted vendor within commercial laundry equipment services is one of the first steps for implementing a cashless card system. It’s also essential to ensure that the company has been in business for several years. You want to be sure they are reliable and trustworthy.

Once you’ve found a vendor, you’ll need to decide on which type of card system you want to implement. There are two main options: magnetic stripe and contactless smart card.

A magnetic stripe cashless system uses cards with a magnetic stripe on them. These cards are very similar to credit cards and can be used anywhere that accepts credit cards. This system is often used by small businesses that don’t have an extensive inventory to track. Magnetic stripe systems are also inexpensive and easy to install. Yet, they don’t offer many features and capabilities compared with other types of systems.

On the other hand, a contactless smart card cashless system uses plastic cards with an embedded microchip. This is unlike traditional credit cards that have a magnetic strip. Contactless smart card systems are becoming more popular due to their many advantages over traditional payment methods.

No matter which cashless card system you choose for your business, you want to guarantee that it’s the right one based on your customers’ needs.

Cashless Payment Can Help Your Laundry Services Business

A cashless card system can take your laundry services business to the next level. Using this system can benefit your customers and staff. It can also provide valuable data about customer habits to improve their laundry experience.

If you’re looking for ways to enhance your laundry service business, investing in a cashless card system is smart. Contact us today to learn more about this and other payment methods!

The Many Benefits of On Premise Laundry

Have you ever thought about how much time businesses might waste in a given month? Every business owner knows that time is money, and wasting time can quickly lead to declines in revenue.

Nobody wants to see revenue drop from one month to the next, but how can business owners save time in a way that also helps them save money?

People who own hotels, healthcare organizations, health clubs, or veterinary hospitals can use on premise laundry to save time and money. If you’re in the business of commercial property management, having laundry services, on-site will be a big draw for new tenants.

The on-site laundry will help tenants avoid the inconveniences that come with doing laundry at an off-site facility.

In the article below, you’ll find a list of the many benefits of on-premise laundry. Once you review these benefits, you’ll quickly see why having a commercial laundry facility on-site is the right move for your property. Continue reading this article to learn more.

Business Owners Get Oversight of Their Laundry

A business owner who has to wash dozens of pieces of laundry will enjoy the quality control that comes with on-premise laundry. The business owner will be able to use the detergent they prefer. They will also rest easy knowing that their laundry is going into high-quality machines.

Plus, the business owner will be able to confirm their laundry isn’t being mixed in with any other people’s laundry.

On Premise Laundry Is a Major Cost Saver

When a business has to outsource its laundry needs, the business incurs additional costs.

While on-premise laundry isn’t free to the business owner, it is considerably less expensive than hiring a third party to do the laundry. If you’re managing a commercial property, you can use this as a selling point to attract tenants.

Speedy Laundry Services

Businesses need their laundry to be clean in order to provide the best possible service to guests. If a business has to send its laundry to a third-party laundry provider, there’s no telling how long it can take before the laundry comes back.

With on premise laundry, the company’s employees only have to go a few steps to do laundry and retrieve it.

You can do businesses a favor by providing them with on-premise laundry. This added perk will help the business get its laundry clean quickly and get back to work faster.

Reviewing the Benefits of On Premise Laundry

Now that you’re familiar with some of the reasons, you’re ready to start looking for a laundry room equipment provider.

Be sure to find a provider that uses modern equipment. Also, make sure the provider has a service team ready to keep equipment up and running. If you want to learn more about finding the right on premise laundry provider for your property, reach out to the experts at FMB Laundry.

How the Clothesline Mobile App Will Make Laundry Days a Breeze

The laundry services and dry cleaning market is expected to be worth US$ 14.41 billion by 2028. This fact indicates the high demand for these services, and if you have a laundry room in your building, there is an opportunity to make a significant amount of money. One way to maximize your profits is to use the Clothesline laundry app.

But how can the Clothesline mobile app modernize and streamline your building’s laundry room procedures? If you’ve had the same laundry room processes for a long time, you may be unsure about making changes in case they make things more complicated.

That’s why this brief laundry app guide will highlight the multiple benefits that you can bring to your residents with our intelligent software.

Read on to learn more.

Cashless Payments System

One of the most convenient Clothesline app benefits is that your residents can add money to their laundry room accounts using credit or debit cards. You will also no longer need to collect coins from the machines, and you won’t have to spend time adding up your week’s income from your laundry room.

This is because you’ll be able to see a full report on our online system. You’ll then have more time to get on with other tasks for running your building while the laundry room takes care of itself.

Less Laundry Room Downtime

When your laundry room isn’t in use, you are missing out on revenue. But, when your residents are using our laundry app, they can see when machines are available and when their loads are dry. This means they can collect their clothes rather than blocking a machine that another resident would like to use at that time.

Your laundry room can then function more efficiently at all times as the Clothesline app helps to keep the flow of laundry users steady throughout the day.

Increased Laundry User Satisfaction Levels

Many people already use apps in their daily lives, and using the Clothesline app is simple. As your residents will know precisely when the laundry room is available rather than having to continually check if a machine is free, they’ll have more time to themselves. Residents will also be able to plan their day around their booked laundry slot in your building.

As 43% of customers would be willing to pay more for convenience, this can be a fantastic selling point that can help boost your building’s revenues.

Clothesline Mobile App Is Easy to Set Up

You may think getting all these advantages would mean the app is difficult to set up. You’ll be glad to hear this isn’t the case. You can download our app from the iPhone App Store or Google Play and set up an account.

Within minutes, your residents could be benefitting from using the Clothesline app in your building.

Contact FMB Laundry Today

When using the Clothesline mobile app, property managers can look forward to generating more money while dealing with fewer issues.

At FMB Laundry, we specialize in helping you maximize profitability while improving your residents’ experience when using your laundry room. We look forward to demonstrating how our app can help modernize your laundry room processes for the benefit of all parties.

To learn more about our many laundry app benefits, contact our team today.

How To Get The Perfect Commercial Washer Installation

Did you know that the vacancy rate of rentals in Maryland is almost 6.3%?

If you’re a Maryland property manager, then one way to ensure you attract tenants who will stay for a long time involves convenient amenities. A commercial washer is one of the most essential staples. However, it can be difficult finding a vendor that can do a reliable job.

Keep reading to learn all about how to get the perfect commercial washer installation.

Spend Time Reading Reviews

It pays to look up online reviews when trying to narrow down a large pool of potential commercial washer installers. This is one of the best ways to learn about the pros and cons of hiring a specific vendor.

As you read the reviews, don’t forget to take them with a grain of salt. Since anyone can write a review online, the accuracy could be a bit off. This is why it’s a good rule of thumb to supplement your research in other ways, such as asking for referrals.

Follow Up With Referrals

Since the depth and trustworthiness of online reviews may be limited, speaking with a referral is a great way to solidify your choice of commercial washing facility experts.

If a potential vendor can’t provide you with at least a few recent referrals, that’s a red flag worth heeding. Once you get a referral on the phone, you have a valuable opportunity to ask them as many questions about their experience as you can think up.

Be sure to touch on customer service, the extent of the vendor’s commercial washer expertise, and more.

Ask About Business Experience

Property managers are often judged by their tenants when it comes to amenities and many other aspects of the rental experience. If you pay to install a commercial washer, for instance, and it breaks down within a few days, that’ll reflect badly on you.

This is why you should always double-check the experience of any laundry washer installation business you hire. If they’ve only been in business for a year, for instance, then that could mean their expertise is limited. There’s also the experience of the specific team to consider, so feel free to ask questions before signing on the dotted line.

Once you find the best installers, your tenants will consider you one of the best facility managers.

Are You Ready to Get the Perfect Commercial Washer Installation?

Now that you’ve learned all about how to get the perfect commercial washer installation, you can make sure your tenants are as happy as can be.

You can rely on FMB Laundry for all your laundry-related needs. From installation to smart card systems, we can ensure your commercial property is outfitted to handle any collective laundry load. We also perform maintenance so that your machines run like a dream.

If you have questions, feel free to contact us. We’re always ready and willing to help out our customers.

The Benefits of Smart Laundry Card Systems

With technology on the rise and a coin shortage in the United States, laundry card systems are the way of the future for commercial services. This smart laundry card system is one more way to put you a step above your competition and keep business flowing through your doors.

Already carrying their laundry to another location, customers are looking for places of business that require them to bring and do less. Let’s take a look at how card system options are a way to benefit not only your business but your customers and tenants as well!

Laundry Card Systems

Laundry card systems are a method of paying for laundry services without having to carry cash or change. It replaces the need to stop by your bank or an ATM to withdraw cash or to collect and save your change after every purchase. Instead, customers carry a card or even use an app to start their wash and dry cycles.

How Smart Laundry Benefits Businesses

These card systems have benefits for your business that you’ve probably never realized. Some of those benefits are…

  • Easy Accounting
  • Better Banking
  • Digestible Price Increases
  • Customer Satisfaction

Easy Accounting

With every card swipe, transactions are electronically recorded. Any time you need to, you can retrieve that data from the archive to complete your audit. It’s accurate and easy for your bookkeeper.

Better Banking

Remember the days of emptying out coin receptacles, counting individual coins, and hauling them to the bank? Laundry cards have made that a thing of the past for you. All of your banking is electronic and can be deposited as such!

Digestible Price Increases

Maybe one of the biggest incentives to make the switch to card systems is the ability to quickly increase and decrease prices in small increments. If you want to charge more during peak hours or lower prices during slow times, you can.

Because it’s electronic, price changes aren’t as noticeable. As long as you aren’t charging dollars more at a time, residents and customers aren’t going to care about a few more cents here and there. It may even spread out some of your business so your laundry room isn’t crowded and overrun.

Customer Satisfaction

Your customers and residents want this perk. They don’t want to be collecting and inserting cash and change that are inconvenient and probably carrying germs.

People want a simple swipe or push of a button on their phone for most things in life now. Laundry services are no exception!

If there are refunds that need to be made, they can be done immediately instead of waiting for a check. Their happiness means more business for you. As we know, more business for you means more money.

Enjoy the Benefits

It might be time for you to make the switch to laundry card systems before you fall behind. When it comes to residents making a decision the last thing you want is to come second to someone else simply because their laundry service is more up to date than yours. If your business is laundry, the same applies to you.

We hope this has been educational for you! If you think you may be interested, check out our smart card payment systems while you’re here.

The Importance of Laundry Room Etiquette

There are currently about 35,000 laundromats in the United States. Even with so many available, not everyone has experience using this service.

If this is your first time managing a laundromat, apartment, or dorm with on-site laundry, you may not be familiar with laundry room etiquette.

How can you provide a necessary service without risking complications with tenants? How can landlords encourage tenants to do their part?

Read on to learn more about laundry room rules to share with your tenants or guests.

Come Prepared

Encourage tenants to bring their laundry in a hamper, basket, or laundry bag. Trash bags are wasteful and can clutter up the space at the laundry room. It’s a good idea to write their name on the laundry bag or basket to avoid confusion with others.

Tenants should bring detergent, dryer sheets, lint balls, hangers, and anything else they might need for the laundry room. Remind tenants to bring their own coins if you have a coin laundry room. Tenants repeatedly asking others for coins or detergent can annoy their neighbors.

Keep the laundry room Clean

Picking up after yourself is one of the biggest rules of laundry room etiquette.  While waiting for their clothes to wash, encourage tenants to pick up trash or sweep the floors.

Remind tenants to leave the washer lid open to signal its availability and prevent mold growth and collect their lint from the dryer before they leave. Almost 27% of house fires are caused by a dryer lint buildup.

Be Responsible with Time

Leaving clothes unattended for hours or days at a time is a big no-no. Not only does this prevent another person from using the machine, but mold and mildew on wet clothes can make the whole laundry room stink.

Encourage tenants to plan ahead on laundry day. They will generally need to clear their schedule for about two hours per load. If they decide to leave the laundry room while their clothes are still washing, they must accept the risk that clothes might be moved or stolen.

Don’t Reserve Machines

To save time, tenants might be tempted to “claim” a dryer while their clothes are still washing. This is a rude move. Washers and dryers should be available on a first-come-first-serve basis.

If another person takes the last open dryer, tenants will just have to wait for a new one to open up. Providing baskets or tables in your laundry room allows guests to remove their clothes from the washer while waiting.

Don’t Touch Other People’s Belongings

This is one of the most annoying aspects for tenants sharing a laundry room. If they can see that a dryer cycle has ended, should they remove someone else’s things?

In general, no, it’s not okay to remove someone else’s clothes from the washer or dryer. However, if a guest has waited a long time with no luck, they can carefully remove someone else’s finished laundry.

Encourage tenants to place the clothes neatly on top of a nearby washer or table. It’s a great idea for laundry rooms to have rolling carts available for setting clothes aside.

Tenants should never rummage through clothes, throw them on the floor, or place them in a dryer. They could potentially ruin someone’s delicate items by drying them.

Respect Others’ Space and Privacy

Of all laundry room rules for tenants, the biggest one is to respect others’ space and privacy. If the tenants bring children, they must behave well in the laundry room. Discourage laundry room guests from talking on the phone or watching movies out loud.

Not everyone in the laundry room is a social butterfly. Most people are there to do their laundry and leave as quickly as possible, so they may not be interested in a conversation. It’s polite for guests to read a book, put on headphones, or study while they wait.

Emphasizing Laundry Room Etiquette

Now that you are familiar with the rules of laundry room etiquette, you’re ready to climb Mt. Laundry. Providing this on-site service can boost tenant satisfaction and make your property a more desirable place to live.

Are you a property manager looking to update your on-site laundry facilities? FMB Laundry is your expert commercial laundry guide. Contact us today to learn more!

Tips for Designing a Great Common Area Laundry Room

Have you ever gone down to the basement of your apartment complex, which doubles as a dark storage space as well as a laundry room? These are the kind of spaces where you get the laundry started and then moved back to the sanctity of your apartment, knowing that you’ll have to go a few more times before you’re through. All while hoping that you’ll be able to handle your laundry without exterior interruptions. Apartment complexes benefit from the creation and upkeep of common areas in laundry rooms that make their tenants feel safe and welcome. At FMB Laundry, we know what makes for a quality common area laundry room.

Light It Up

Keep your space brightly lit. This will add to a sense of security. We like to consider what color walls are suitable to the area and the building’s ethos, too. Something bright and soft is usually a safe bet. To add some flair, we might consider throwing up a string of soft bulbs or two.

Fill the Space Accordingly

We don’t think a closet-sized laundry room is practical, especially if you have more than one tenant. We prefer a bigger space, wide enough for several machines, folding space, and maybe even tables and chairs. Topical magazines are a nice touch and communicate that this is a space to relax while the laundry is being cycled. Consider, too, the ratio of machines per number of tenants. The last thing you want is neighbors waiting on each other before they can get their wash or dry going.

Keep It Safe and Clean

Security is mandatory and keeping a space that isn’t dingy is a must. You want to make sure that only your tenants can access the room, and that when they get there, there is evidence of it being well-maintained.

Contact us at 410-324-3654 or email us to take care of all of your commercial laundry needs, from hospitals to hotels to college campuses. We’re ready to keep you clean!

How Often Should People Wash Their Clothes?

How often people should wash their clothes has been an age-old debate in the media and behind closed doors. Some people claim that humans have become too sanitized and that it negatively impacts our natural immunity. Others claim that washing clothes often plays a crucial role in public and personal health. What do the experts say?

Office Clothes
Most people rarely break a sweat in their white-collar work clothes. They get dressed, go to the office, and work in air conditioning. Experts suggest people can wear work clothes for an entire workweek before they need to toss them into the hamper or washing machine.

Casual Wear
How often you need to wash your casual clothing depends on where you wore them to and what you did. Casual clothes worn at home can sometimes be worn four or so times before a wash. However, casual wear worn on public transportation or while out running errands should ideally be washed after each time you wear it.

Underwear
Undergarments come into direct contact with the skin and should be worn only once before putting them in the wash. Failure to do so could lead to skin infections, rashes, or hygiene problems. Even socks should only be worn once, even if you only wore them inside the house.

Outerwear
Your coats, jackets, hoodies, and scarves might not need as frequent washing as other clothes. They do not come into direct contact with the skin, so you can often wear them up to four or five times before it’s time to wash them.

Gym Clothes
Needless to say, workout clothes should be washed after every use. That’s because the body breaks into a sweat during a workout and the clothes can begin to smell or even have a rougher or stiffer texture.

At FMB Laundry, we help businesses and residential communities provide residents and visitors with an easy and convenient way to wash their clothes. This reduces the risk of a smelly and unhygienic environment, while also generating additional income for the business. Contact us at 410-625-2010 for more information.

Secrets to Longer Lasting Clothing

They are your clothes. You would think you know them. In truth, however, as often as you have worn them, your clothes have kept some secrets from you. The good news is, as you find out what they are hiding, it will allow you to extend their lives—sometimes almost indefinitely. Make sure you like new clothes when you buy them since using these laundry tips will make them part of your lives for a long time.

Laundry Hacks to Make Your Clothes Last

Some of these may make sense to you, while others may seem counterintuitive. Give them a try and see if your clothes thank you for looking attractive and feeling comfortable a lot longer:

  • Wash in cold water except for towels and soiled whites. Warm water fades, shrinks, and is more abrasive.
  • The more detergent you use, the faster your clothes age. For most loads, a tablespoon will suffice.
  • Turn your dark clothes inside out as well as your clothes with decals. Colors rub against other exteriors and fade.
  • If you have a stain, soak it in cold water and spray it. There is no need to add more detergent for the whole load.
  • Take your time drying wet clothes. Use the “delicate” cycle, which ensures lower temps.
  • Avoid the dry cleaner, which exposes your clothes to abrasive chemicals. Place delicates in a mesh bag and use cold water and a gentle setting.

Smart Tech Comes to the Laundry Room

While we are discussing smart ways to wash your clothes, you may be interested in knowing that smart tech has found its way to the laundry room. You can utilize washers and dryers by programming your smartphone with the help of FMB Laundry, which provides smart equipment for residents of colleges, multi-family homes, and more. You can check us out on our website or give us a call at (800) 832-6193.