What to expect from your Dry Cleaner

Today we will discuss what you should expect from your dry cleaner, and what your dry cleaner should expect from your!

Dry cleaners com in all shapes and sizes, from small plants that employ only a few people, to large warehouse size operations that employ dozens of pressers.  And some cleaners are only a store front, and send their dry cleaning elsewhere.  It may be to a plant they own, or they outsource it to another cleaner.

You should first and foremost expect a polite and friendly greeting from the counter service personnel.  Now they may or may not always remember your name, they do see a number of clients each and every day.  Second, the CSR should ask if you have any spots or stains that need special attention.   In most cases, the CSR should go through the order with you to make sure you both know exactly what you are leaving.  You should receive an itemized receipt in return.  Now, I know that some clients prefer to drop off their bag and be done with it.  That is just fine, because it is that customers preference.  We have a number of clients who prefer to do it that way.

Now as to what your dry cleaner should expect of you.  Please be honest.  What I mean by that is, tell us if you tried to get a stain out by yourself.  Or if it has been on there for several weeks, please do not tell us that you just did it.  The length of time a stain is on a garment is important.  We will cover it more in another post.  And please, please, do not mark spots with TAPE.  Most household tapes will leave a permanent mark, especially on delicate fabrics like satin or silk!

When you pick up your clothing, it should be pressed, neatly packaged, and ready for wear.  How your dry cleaner packages your clothing, makes a great difference.  Too many garments per bag results in wrinkled cleaning.  A good rule of thumb is no more than three to four garments per bag.

All of your buttons should have been checked, tightened if necessary, missing collar stays replaced, the list goes on.  But your order should have been carefully inspected, to ensure it's wear-ability.  Of course, sometimes we do miss a button or a collar stay, we are after all human.  If that happens, ask us kindly if we could fix it for you.

John Elwell is a veteran dry cleaner with over 25 years of experience.  He is currently Vice President of Cambrian Plaza Cleaners Inc.   You can find out more about them at,
www.cambrianplazacleaners.com