ED 47: January-February 2013

ma r k E t in t E l l i gE n C E
Taking you To The cleaners
aspecialist dry cleaning Jeeves
brand with outlets in major cities around
the world including London, New York,
Tokyo, Hong Kong and Jakarta, has
finally landed in Singapore. However,
a large part of the business challenges
in setting up shop in Singapore and
Malaysia has revolved around staffing
and training issues.
Jeeves, a dry cleaner focused on highend
clothes, fabric care and discreet,
attentive service uses perhaps the most
sophisticated dry cleaning, washing and
ironing machines in the region, often with
custom-made cleaning programmes,
and it is important to retain the staff
who are properly and knowledgeably
trained to use the expensive equipment.
Clearly a revolving door policy is not
going to work for such a business, so
Jeeves is concerned with creating a
pleasant working environment based
on mutual respect with salaries which
commensurate with experience and
training.
This is not only an issue at the shop
floor level, but also at Jeeves’ various
retail outlets where counter staff must
be educated to understand the full
range of dry cleaning needs so as to
consult customers at the point-of-sale.
Jeeves therefore gives all counter staff
a month-long stint working at the dry
cleaning factory in order to gain firsthand
experience at every stage of the cleaning
process. It is an approach which pays
dividends: when a customer enters the
shop, they get an immediate sense that
their garments are in expert hands.
Strength however, can also be a potential
‘liability’ though in a business where
training and experience is paramount.
Building a business by washing dirty laundry in public
Singapore employs one of the
top dry cleaning experts in Europe
as their regional operations manager.
This manager, armed with about 30
years’ experience in the dry cleaning
businesses, runs all aspects of Jeeves
operations including staff training. But for
a business like Jeeves, it is important for
it to not rest on one single individual, so
the training of a secondin-command
is also in the
works, and this individual
may eventually also
become one of the top dry
cleaning professionals in
Asia.
Another challenge lies
at the branding and
communications level.
Because there are only two
ways in which a customer
can know that Jeeves’
services are ‘different’ from
other dry cleaners: firstly
from seeing the (factory)
‘process’ and secondly
from seeing the returned
garments themselves.
Obviously, it is impossible
to bring customers on
a tour of the cleaning
facilities to witness the
state-of-the-art cleaning
procedures at first hand,
so Jeeves’ marketing and
communications has been
tasked with getting this
message across. They
have to draw a distinction
between the usual cleaners
and Jeeves in the eyes of
the aunties, housewives
and working mums, a feat
that poses considerable
challenge especially in a relatively mature
market.
Using Singapore as a platform, Jeeves
hopes to ‘clean up’ the regional dry
cleaning industry with its commitment to
premium quality service delivered through
its services and staff perfected through
proper training.
Ja n | FE b 2013
En t r E p r E n E u r s’ Di g E s t
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