Today’s laundromat customers prefer to use their smartphone for purchases and have come to expect to be able to pay for goods and services via mobile device. Mobile-pay is a great option for laundry purchases because it is fast, secure, easy and convenient. However, if you’re using a mobile-pay only system, you could be missing out on the benefits of a complete card payment system. CCI’s complete card systems allow you to accept mobile payments, credit/debit payments and can even work with existing coin laundry machines. In addition to accepting payments, CCI FasCard and LaundryCard systems offer benefits that will take your laundry business to the next level. Here are five reasons to consider investing in a complete card system over a mobile-pay only system.

1) Increase in ‘Float’ and Loyalty

With a CCI system, customers can add value to a loyalty account and have the choice to purchase a flat amount or preconfigured value packages (i.e. Buy $10, Get $11). With loyalty accounts, not only will customers be encouraged to pay you in advance, you now have them obligated for that amount of money in service! The more they add, the more loyal they will be to your business.

2) Loyalty to Your Laundromat, not a Payment Company

CCI’s FasCard system has an app that acts as a loyalty card. Customers who use the app will no longer need to own a physical card but can instead use the app in the same way. They can take advantage of any of the loyalty programs you offer, and the app will keep track of it all. If they forget their loyalty card one day, they can use the app, because the functionality between the app and physical cards is interchangeable. For some mobile-pay only systems, if customers add money to their account, they may be able to use that at several different laundromats, therefore their loyalty is to the mobile-pay company and not your specific laundromat. With CCI’s system app, the customer’s float is your money and can only be used at your business, so their loyalty stays with your laundromats.

3) Marketing Tools for the Laundry Industry

CCI FasCard and LaundryCard systems offer advanced marketing and loyalty programs. Loyalty programs include Loyalty Points, Bonus Packages, Free Dry, Group Discounts and more. Utilizing the integrated marketing programs will help you attract new business and encourage loyalty with your current customer base. Mobile-pay only companies make a one size fits all product that doesn’t take into consideration the marketing and management that goes into a laundromat business. CCI was born from over 40 years of experience in the vended laundry industry and designs all products with both the operator and end user in mind.

4) Remotely Running Your Laundromat

Managing your laundromat with a CCI system is simple and can be performed from any web browser at any time. You can remotely control, view and configure your laundromat in real-time. Run profit reports, see usage statistics and sales data for each machine and change vend prices all from your smartphone, tablet or computer!

5) Hands Off Employee Management

Managers can create, edit and monitor one-time and ongoing employee work schedules in a FasCard or LaundryCard system. Your employees can use the system to view upcoming work schedules as well as clock in and out for shifts. Our task scheduler ensures employees are reminded of what they are supposed to do and lets you run reports on what tasks are not getting done.

CCI’s solutions give store owners additional tools to increase success in one integrated system. If you’re a laundromat owner or investor looking to set your business apart from the competition, contact us today to learn more about our payment solutions and how investing in the right technology can benefit your laundromat business!

Marketing is a large component of increasing business for your property. Having a marketing plan in place will help you attract renters to your property and turn them into residents. Here are five steps to developing a winning marketing plan for your property.

Perform a SWOT Analysis

Make a list of your property’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Define the amenities and services that offer value to your residents and give you an advantage over competitors. Outdoor spaces, extra storage, ample parking, a modern laundry room, smart technology, a fitness room, and new kitchen appliances are examples of value added amenities to advertise.

 

Describe Your Target Audience

Look at your current residents and what they have in common. Analyze your competing properties and their residents. Decide what your ideal resident looks like. Define the demographics, lifestyle and motivations for the market you are trying to reach. Consider what that ideal customer will be looking for in a property.

 

Set Marketing Goals

Make your goals measurable and time specific. If you want to reach prospective residents on social media, make the goal clearly defined by saying you want to reach X number of followers on X social platform by X date. If you want to increase sales, you can make it quantifiable by saying you want to increase new leases by X percent in the next X months.

 

Define Your Strategies

What marketing strategies will you put in place to reach your objectives? How will you market to your target audience at every step of the sales process, from those who aren’t aware of your property to those that are ready to sign a lease? Consider print, email, online advertising, direct mail and promotional products.

 

Build a Plan

List which marketing strategies you are going to implement at each stage of the customer life cycle, from a cold prospect to a hot lead. For example, you could use social media advertising to build awareness, email marketing to those that have taken a property tour and promotional gifts to those ready to become a resident. Make sure your strategies are aligned with your marketing goals.

Our FasCard system for multi-housing properties is a great way to market to potential residents. FasCard gives your property a valuable amenity and helps attract new residents to your property. Our “Roll into Rent” feature allows you to advertise your property with “Free Laundry” and our Smart Technology adds a cutting-edge service to your property’s laundry room.

Want to learn more about how FasCard can add value and an additional revenue source to your property? Let’s Talk!

Even if your apartment complex or other rental property is one of the best in the area, a decent amount of resident turnover is both healthy and expected. As such, attracting new residents to your property is always at the forefront of a property manager’s mind. Below are some effective strategies for enticing new residents to rent at your property.

Superb management

First and foremost, you need to establish an excellent property management team. A team that makes residents feel welcomed, heard and cared for is your most valuable asset in attracting new leaseholders to the complex.

Online reviews

When you have an excellent management team, positive online reviews should come easily. Don’t be afraid to send out automated emails encouraging residents to review your property on your Google Business page, Apartments.com or similar sites. When potential residents are trying to decide between your property and another, positive online reviews could be their deciding factor.

Lease specials & incentives

One thing that can be the deciding factor on whether or not a potential resident chooses your property is the lease specials and incentives you offer for new residents. Many properties will offer 4-8 weeks free, Visa gift cards or other rewards for simply signing a lease. This can greatly reduce moving costs and draw in new residents. You can also advertise “free laundry” by utilizing a FasCard system in your laundry room.

Social media

Potential residents may use social media to get a better sense for your property. By posting frequently on social media, you can show off your property as well as specials and events.

Pet-friendly community

Today, most newer properties have adopted a friendly outlook on pets. Pet parks, dog washing stations, and reasonable pet fees or deposits can help bring in new residents. Consider revising your pet policy if necessary and you’ll expand your pool of potential residents.

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Event marketing

Sponsor or organize fun events in your area and set up a booth where attendees can learn more about your property, get free swag and even schedule a tour. Even if they aren’t in the market for a new place, there is a higher chance they will remember your property when they start their search.

Unique amenities

Unique amenities such as pet parks, spacious 24-hour gyms, large outdoor lounge spaces, card laundry machines that can be controlled via smartphone, private garages or storage spaces, and package lockers can push your property above the rest.

Integrating technology conveniences into your property can reduce costs, save time and give your property additional revenue opportunities. Adding technological enhancements is a great return on investment and will take your property to the next level with current residents and marketing to potential renters. Here are our top ten technology-based amenities to consider adding to your multi-unit property.

Leasing Documents

Reduce paper by putting leasing applications and renewals online and allow your renters to sign documents electronically.

Paying Rent

Allowing online payments makes collecting rent and utilities easy. Give renters the option to set up recurring payments making it easy for on-time payments.

Maintenance Requests

Give renters the ability to put in 24/7 requests for maintenance online and submit pictures if applicable. This reduces the amount of calls coming into the property office and makes it easier for you to manage maintenance priorities.

Keys and Locks

Consider replacing mechanical locks with keyless locks that can be opened with a smartphone. This gives your property better security, makes it easier to change locks when there are resident changes and saves you money by eliminating the need to make and copy keys.

Package Deliveries

Package lockers are electronic lockers used for package deliveries. Adding package lockers saves you the time of receiving and distributing package deliveries and offers your residents a secure delivery place for their packages.

USB Outlets

Almost all of your residents own a smartphone. Adding outlets with USB ports for charging devices provides a convenient, tech-based amenity for your residents.

Thermostats and Lighting

Installing smart, programmable thermostats and light bulbs makes it convenient for your residents to control utilities in their unit from anywhere, at any time and reduces energy costs.

Doorbells

Installing video monitoring doorbells makes it convenient for your residents to answer their door from their smartphone and provides enhanced security for both your residents and your property.

Wi-Fi

Providing a fast, reliable Wi-Fi connection for your residents is a must. Having high speed and reliable internet is probably one of the most important amenities among renters.

Card Laundry Machines

Installing a card payment system in your laundry room gives your residents flexible payment options when doing laundry and allows you remote management of your laundry room. With the addition of a card system, your laundry room can become a great source of additional revenue for your property. CCI’s card payment systems can be controlled with a smartphone making doing laundry quick, easy and stress free for your residents.

Having a common laundry room is an attractive, convenient amenity for your residents and can make your life as a property owner easier. Here are some advantages of having a community laundry room versus laundry machines in each unit, from both the perspective of the laundry user and a property manager.

Benefits of a Laundry Room For Residents and Guests

• More Space: Multi-housing units typically don’t have a lot of square footage to spare. The place where laundry machines would go could be used for extra storage or an additional closet.
• Less Stress: Renters don’t have to buy, move and connect machines or perform repairs. CCI’s FasCard system takes the hassle out of doing laundry by providing a smartphone app to manage laundry cards, remotely check machine availability, request cycle completion notifications and make mobile wallet payments!
• Multiple and Larger Loads: Residents save time by being able to do multiple loads at once in a laundry room versus one at a time in-unit. Also, full size machines might not fit into multi-housing units. With full size machines in a laundry room, renters have the ability to do larger loads and wash bigger items such as bedding.
• Saves Money: Residents don’t have to spend money on buying a washer and dryer if it’s not provided by the property, they only have to spend money in the laundry room as needed.

Benefits of a Laundry Room for Property Owners and Managers

• Save Money: Having machines in each unit uses more water and energy, which requires more plumbing and electrical setup. Having a laundry room can save you money on utilities, connection requirements, as well as the cost of buying machines for every unit.
• Less Maintenance: With in-unit laundry machines comes a greater risk of flooding and water damage, which requires timely repairs. If maintenance is needed in a laundry room, repairs are centrally located, making damage quick to detect and repairs more efficient.
• Save Time: CCI’s FasCard system eliminates coin completely and allows you to manage your facility’s laundry room remotely from any smart device. Seeing real-time profits and sales data for each machine without having to collect coins saves you time.
• Extra Income: A laundry room can generate additional revenue for your property. By adding card acceptance with CCI’s FasCard system, you can increase profits by selling cycle upgrades, raising vend prices incrementally and growing your community through marketing programs.

Today’s multi-housing laundry rooms look very different than facility laundry rooms of the past. Property managers who are looking to transform their laundry room into a modern amenity for their facility are turning to the FasCard system. Implementing this system into your laundry room gives you the ability to provide your residents with benefits that will bring value to your property and take the stress out of running a laundry room!

Technology has made just about everything in our lives more convenient and that includes the management and use of multi-unit laundry rooms. Having modern amenities in your laundry room such as online monitoring via smartphones and card payment systems will bring value to your property and set your property apart from the competition. As an owner or manager, introducing automated systems into your laundry room will save you time and money and reduce the stress of running a laundry room. In this blog post, we’ll show you how bringing technology into your multi-unit laundry room will turn it into a profitable and valued amenity of your property that is easy to manage.

Remote Management

Installing CCI’s FasCard system in your laundry room gives you the ability to manage cash and collections, provide immediate customer service, configure vend prices, implement marketing programs, run sales reports and monitor the status of equipment – all live and remotely from your smartphone or laptop! Having web-based management means accessing your FasCard system is simple and can be performed from any web browser so you can manage your laundry room at anytime from anywhere. With FasCard you can accept cash payments and resolve problems without having someone physically there. If a tenant or guest has a problem with a machine, you can simply log into their account and refund their money.

Card and Coin Auditing

Using FasCard in your laundry room allows you to audit both coin and card sales on any specific machine. This will give you the ability to not only track the success of your credit card sales but monitor the number of coins in each machine. You can configure FasCard to send you email notifications when coin boxes reach capacity so you collect only when you need to. If you are having someone else collect for you, you can receive an email notification that details the coins collected from each machine once your collector has finished. Having less cash in your machines will reduce theft and you’ll always know at any time how much money is in your laundry room. FasCard isn’t just a card payment system; it introduces a holistic solution to running your laundry room.

Flexible Payment Options

Installing FasCard in your laundry room makes the experience of doing laundry easy, quick and stress free. Whether a customer prefers using currency or credit/debit cards, FasCard provides the ultimate in convenience by accepting all types of payment. Customers can even insert some coins and swipe their card for the balance. By adding card acceptance, you are make it easier for your customers to use your laundry room, encourage more use of your machines and therefore produce more revenue for you. No longer do your residents have to obtain coins and cash or deal with the hassles of coin dispensing equipment. In addition, our F2 Card Reader makes it even easier for your customers to pay for their cycles.

Smartphone App

Residents want to complete their laundry as quickly and efficiently as possible. With FasCard, instead of your consumer having to revolve their schedule around doing laundry, the laundry card system makes it convenient for them to do their laundry and easily fits into their busy schedule. Smartphones play an integral role in our lives and FasCard includes a smartphone app for today’s latest devices. From their smartphone, your customers will be able to create an account, add value, manage loyalty cards, check machine availability, request cycle completion notifications and even start a machine! No longer do your residents have to make unnecessary trips to the laundry room to check the status of machines, sit around and wait for their cycle to complete or risk loss of clothes sitting in the machines for hours.

CCI’s systems will give you the technological tools to create a modern laundry room that is a valuable business, easy to manage, and meets the needs of residents and guests. Our FasCard system is a perfect fit for multi-housing applications such as apartment buildings, hotels, condominium buildings and residence halls. If you’re a property owner or manager looking to get more out of your facility’s laundry room, contact us today to learn more about our FasCard payment solutions and how investing in the technology can take your laundry room to the next level!

The challenge of multi-housing or community area laundry rooms

Managing a laundry room in a single home is difficult enough. Now imagine putting hundreds of these single family homes together in an apartment building and limiting the laundry facilities to a few rooms. In this case, the problems of managing a single family laundry room are multiplied exponentially. This is the what multi-housing laundry managers face each day of the week.

It’s true that merely keeping everything merely running in a multi-housing building’s laundry room is a tough enough task; there’s coin collection, keeping up with a laundry route, machine maintenance, refurbishing or remodeling where necessary, shopping for the best rate on liability insurance, and bonding your employees.

Of course, there are inherent problems in any self-service business, and specifically for the laundry room, these take the form of broken machines, stolen vends, and displeased residents as some of the most common.

Yet even with all the possible negatives—which to be sure are few compared with the realities of managing a multi-housing facility—the positive, profitable windfall of having clean and convenient community-area laundry rooms equates to more money for the multi-family property. Set up a laundry room that meets or exceeds your residents’ needs, with the latest consumer demands (such as doing away with quarters), and these community amenities afford a property an attractive on-site asset. Clean laundry facilities are a boon to both current residents and potential renters.

Why is managing a multi-family laundry room so difficult?

Many apartment owners and managers are not as concerned about their laundry facilities as they are keeping their residents in units, finding new renters, and preventing vacancies. This is completely understandable, as utilities are sometimes packaged together in one bill, making it difficult to connect the dots to see much cash a community laundry room is actually netting.

This is especially the case when you add a laundry route operator to the equation. Laundry route operators collect coins and perform maintenance, yet laundry routes are infamous among top laundry insiders for having more than downsides and disadvantages and upshots, not the least of which being dubious profit splits with the multi-family facility.

Many managers of multi-housing apartment buildings realize the potential upsides of having a comfortable, safe, and profitable laundry room, and will do everything they can to make their laundry rooms seem more appealing to residents. Laundromats often set up shop near large urban areas with high concentrations of multi-family dwellings and apartments. More often than not, however, managers of multi-family units will outsource the actual collection and maintenance of their machines to a corporate laundry route with outside contractors whom they hire as laundry route operators.

The self-service laundromat industry has faced a revolution; the way, rate, and frequency with which residents interact with traditional community laundry rooms and storefront laundromats is changing drastically. Many community laundry rooms are following popular new industry trends, including comfort amenities like digital laundry payment for cashless machines, a more capacious and inviting ambience, free WiFi, children’s areas, and features like loyalty programs, which allow residents to add value at any digital card reader to win free cycles, receive group discounts, and big bill bonuses (buy $50, get $55).

What’s the answer?

For more information on these subjects and many more relating to multi-housing laundry, the go-to resource for any multi-housing manager is our whitepaper, Must Know Tips on Managing a Multi-Unit Laundry Room. This whitepaper contains the invaluable tips you need to ensure you’re reaping the most out of your current resources.

Adding amenities like flatscreen TVs may bring in a few extra residents to catch a few minutes of the news while their clothes dry, but what will keep them from frequenting or much less, becoming a patron of, a trendy local laundromat (or, if applicable, using in-unit connections in the comfort of their home)? Is it the loyalty programs that many laundromats offer? Or is it the convenience factor—such as giving your residents the ability to pay with a bank card—that will keep them from taking their laundry elsewhere?

This guide will help answer these questions and will also allow you to determine the steps you need to take to transform your community laundry room from a source of constant worry to a profitable asset. Or feel free to give Card Concepts Inc. a call at 1 (866) 860-1660 regarding any questions relating to multi-housing laundry rooms.  

Reclaim your most profitable asset from laundry route operators

Are you tired of outsourcing your laundry room service to laundry route operators? Giving a set of keys to another company like a laundry route could mean you’re missing out on the majority of profit from your most valuable on-site asset.

Laundry route operators are a ubiquitous presence at multi-housing properties. These large, national route corporations close deals by promising to supply laundry equipment, maintain it, and make regular collection rounds. You may not realize that the machines in your building could be generating thousands of dollars. Route deals typically include a revenue split, with a portion going to the property owner and the rest to the laundry route operator. Sounds like a great deal… Or does it?

Rethink your situation

Well, it certainly depends. What kind of money are we actually talking about here? If the machines are constantly filled to capacity with vending funds, that could translate into a lot of revenue at the end of the month—quite possibly more than the initial investment startup cost, which at first seemed like a no-brainer deal when offered by a laundry route company. You have to wonder, if a sizable cut of the collections weren’t continually profitable—far beyond what fraction route corporations give back to properties—how would a company be able to offer all this?

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And since most laundry route operators are generally very secretive about the amount of money they collect from your machines, you don’t know how much you’re making a week or per month. Not getting the real figures could mean you might not ever know if you made the right decision.

Reroute away from split profits

What if you were able to take back full control of your laundry room, while retaining the convenience of a laundry route operator? 

With FasCard, our premier smart laundry card system, you still won’t have to deal with quarters if you don’t want to. Your laundry machines will continue to have the ability to accept them, but this means that residents will be given the option to choose which payment method works best for them. And with more options to pay comes more sales, and in turn, more profit. 

Reboot with a digital card-op payment system

FasCard is the premier digital card-payment system which becomes your full-service laundry route operator. By making the move away from outdated laundry routes to FasCard, you will be able to:

• Attract potential tenants by increasing the appeal of your amenities;
• Allow current residents to receive wireless notifications about their machine’s progress;
• Adjust the time-of-day vend price in penny increments;
• Choose your own merchant processor;
• Access data from your machines remotely;
• Shut off machines that are being serviced via smartphone;
• Charge more or less depending on water temperature (which offsets utility bills, such as electricity, gas, and water);
• Implement a loyalty card program, which will allow residents to,
  • Load up value using cash or credit/debit cards at self-service kiosks
  • Pay using their smartphones

FasCard allows you reestablish control over your laundry room. With a sophisticated card-operated laundry payment system, you get the benefits of a route, but none of its disadvantages—meaning you get the entirety of the profits, are not subject to the competence of the operators, and you know exactly how much money you’re collecting from your machines. And with its smart phone interface, you have the entire administration of your laundry facilities at your fingertips.

Why split profits with someone else? With FasCard, you can eliminate coin, automate equipment, and regulate revenue.

Our premium whitepaper, “Must Know Tips on Managing a Multi-Unit Laundry Room”, is a must-read for anyone in the multi-housing industry. Get the basics and more advanced tips and techniques on managing your laundry room today. Or, to learn more about FasCard today, give Card Concepts Inc. a call at 1 (866) 860-1660.

Coin-op laundry machines: the bane of property managers?

The laundry room is possibly the most essential amenity for residents who live in multi-unit apartment complexes. This is especially so if a property is not equipped with in-unit connections for renters to hook up their own washer and dryers.

Digital card-op laundry and multi-housing facilities 

For most multi-housing unit managers, it’s become a tacit habit to look the other way when passing by the laundry room—as it’s often a sigh-inducing sight.

Although laundry rooms are sometimes located in inconvenient places like basements, up several flights of stairs, or nearly off the premises, property managers simply cannot avoid dealing with them. And if your property spans several buildings, you may have many laundry rooms with numerous laundry machines to manage.

Why are laundry facilities such a source of irritation to property managers? To put it briefly, coin-operated laundry machines are a lot of work. They are difficult to deal with, something little always seems to be breaking, they can get clogged up. Maybe the coin-mechanism is jammed, but even when it is working—there’s still collections and maintenance to deal with.

You could certainly take care of this by yourself. Or it could mean delegating those tasks to your super. Or you may have a laundry route operator to take care of your facilities. But that’s another issue: laundry route operators.

Premium Offer: Want to learn more about managing your multi-housing laundry room? Download our free premium whitepaper, Must Know Tips on Managing a Multi-Unit Laundry Room and learn all the tips.

 

Laundry route services

Landry route operators can be confusing, costly, and troublesome. Let’s break it down: you pay a laundry route service for an operator to come by and maintain your laundry machines and collect the quarters. They service many different apartment complexes and are scheduled to make rounds at set times each week or month. But laundry routes someones don’t run as smoothly as initially promised, especially if you’re dealing with dishonest laundry route operators, and then you’re left holding the bag.  

And what if some of your machines require service or collection before the next appointment? You have to wait (and lose out on missed vends) while those machines are down, or you can try to hunt down the laundry route operator yourself, which also means lost time. Coins and physical routes—though they do certainly warrant some merit and convenience for certain tenants—to many property owners, are a vestigial leftover from an older multi-housing economy that did not have to reckon with the digital world.

Leaving the coin-op laundry system behind

Today, many property managers have switched to a better way of managing their laundry machines: digital card-operated laundry payment systems. Since the late 1990s, the popularity of card-op laundry payment facilities has been growing at a substantial rate.

This is no certainly no surprise to multi-housing managers, as it’s a simple process to upgrade or retrofit existing laundry machines to be able to accept debit and credit cards. With card-op or hybrid coin-and-card-op machines, you won’t have to remove physical coinage from each machine one-by-one—transactions are deposited instantaneously into your bank account.

Not only is a card-operated laundry payment system much easier to manage physically, it is also more cost-effective in the absence of a laundry route.

Generating profit substantially by increasing prices incrementally

Card-operated payment systems allow you to increase the prices for laundry services incrementally—at as little as one cent step-ups. These smaller increments, implemented over a longer course, make it easier for residents to budget for than the sudden, dramatic 25 cent increase of traditional coin-op machines.

Residents are also more willing to accept smaller increments—more would pay $1.58 cents to run a load of laundry while many of those same residents would balk a $1.75 cent vending price.

In an article by Multi-Housing News Online, an industry expert acknowledged that,

“Most savvy property managers can make more money from a card system, any large regional property, managed by a knowledgeable business person, will prefer the card.”

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The future, today

Most card-op laundry payment platforms operate online, enabling property owners and mangers to view balances and credits, regulate pricing, and even turn on and turn off laundry machines remotely. Hybrid coin-and-card-op laundry payment systems benefit all types of residents; those who are used to the traditional coin-op payment method and those who would rather just swipe a card.

Whether you are happy with your coin-operated laundry machines, or you want to make the transition to card-operated laundry payment systems, the future of multi-housing laundry units is here, and it cannot be ignored.

Card Concepts Inc. (CCI) is national manufacturer of digital laundry payment products, including FasCard, a hybrid coin-and-card payment system, and Laundry Card, a digital card-operated system. If you would like to learn more about card or coin-and-card-operated payment systems for your laundry facilities, give us a call today at 1 (866) 860-1660.