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 Many companies in the textile rental industry are in the process of creating a more positive image for themselves. Here are some tips plus a case history of Morgan Services' efforts. By S. Clifford Weller To be successful, a business must develop and maintain a positive company image. The avenues of communication available to do this: advertising, promotion, publicity, and your employees must answer key questions important to the customer to be effective. While customer loyalty is most often maintained through quality control, a positive image of the supplier and its industry can create customer interest in doing business initially. Shaping this image is advertising's most important function. A company's image is also influenced by the potential customer's attitudes toward the types of services and products offered and public relation efforts. After services and products are purchased, the image is influenced by the customer's personal contact with representatives and overall experiences with the company. The process of building an awareness of an industry and a company must be a long-term effort to be beneficial. The industry's image Textile and apparel rental companies operate across a broad market, one in which advertising to reach the entire market often isn't feasible for individual companies. In addition, rental companies are service companies — they don't manufacture the products their customers use and therefore must rely on the image created by the products' producers as well as their own service image. But this can be a boon to the rental services industry. By making references to advertising by industry suppliers in trade magazines, rental companies can gain the benefit of exposure to target markets that they often can't afford on their own. Such advertising often is the first encounter a customer has with an item that can be rented as well as bought outright. Over time, it helps shape the customer's ideas and expectations about any rental company in that industry. For example, the advertising and promotional material of National Car Rental states that it "features" G.M. cars, just as Budget Rent-A-Car features Lincoln-Mercury and Hertz rents Fords. The car rental companies are relying on a positive image of the car manufacturers and they're piggybacking on the large amount of advertising by car manufacturers to increase the credibility of their rental service. The greater the degree of positive identification and the greater the relevance of the services to potential customers, the greater the likelihood that a company will use a rental service instead of another method of satisfying its needs. For the textile and apparel rental service industry, that means renting textiles and garments instead of buying them. Similarly, an image can be projected through an industrywide campaign. For example, the American Gas Association has promoted the slogan "Gas — America's Best Energy Value" and has established the blue flame as a symbol of productivity and efficiency for both local gas utility companies and the manufacturers of equipment. This logo appears on a broad array of printed business communications of the companies of both industries. The blue flame is well-recognized in commerce and industry today, each use of the symbol complements the other. The company's image In addition to an awareness of the industry, a rental service must develop and maintain a positive image of itself. When the image is on target, the customer will empathize with the company and feel more positive toward it. As a result, the new services offered by the company will be more readily received and more hilly appreciated. Unlike manufacturers, textile and apparel services must target their image-building efforts to two audiences:
It's important that both groups strongly identify with the rental service company. The company should project an image of itself and its services that appeals to and is consistent with it primary target market, whether it's a geo graphic area, a customer segment, o another industry. The more the target market positively identifies with the company, the more likely textile and apparel users are to choose that company over its competitors. Unless absolutely necessary, a company's image should not change over time, but rather be reinforced. Eventually, a customer will view the company as one he's been familiar with over a long time, one he trusts, and one he regards highly. One unique element the textile and apparel rental services industry has is the constant customer and employee contact with the route representative. The rapport that a knowledgeable and motivated route rep can build with both small businesses and individual companies within a large national corporation can be invaluable in reinforcing a positive company image. Developing a positive company  To improve its image, a textile and apparel rental service company can follow steps used by today's product marketers.
The benchmark 1988 study by Earl Wilson and Associates for the Textile Services Promotion Council (TSPC) identified nine key factors of concern to target users of uniforms, dust control mats, and textile products. This study plus market research conducted by the Institute of Industrial Launderers (IlL and TRSA provide individual rental companies with the kind of information they need to create a unique and positive image in the minds of prospects and customers to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Companies should also research their own image. If the research indicates that the current image of the company is positive the image should be maintained and strengthened. If it is poor, the image should be improved. As the business world becomes more complicated and more tightly interlocked, the quality of the business-to-business relationship becomes more important. Businesses want to deal with a company that is worth doing business with and easy to do business with, and quality and service are becoming the most sensitive measures. A case study: Morgan Services Inc. About 15 years ago, when Richard Senior became president of Morgan Services Inc. in Chicago, the company began an evolution to improve its octogenarian image. The process started with creating a new logo and truck design. This ultimately led to the company's new mission. Based on the premise that quality is in the eye of the beholder, Morgan set out to become the best company in its service area in the eyes of its target customers. "The management of the company used to ask, 'Is it good enough?' Now we ask, 'Is this the best?'," Senior says. Morgan first developed its quality review system to identify and eliminate the causes of poor quality and to improve customer retention by providing top quality. The program was designed to be ongoing and comprehensive for two reasons:
Because activities at the customers' places of business and on the routes affect the plants' ability to provide top quality, the company began a training program to cultivate its "service representatives" (formerly called driver-salesmen). Nearly all 120 of Morgan's service representatives were brought to Chicago over a three-year period for a three-day orientation/training program. "These sessions were held at convenient resort locations that fostered idea sharing and relationship building between the individuals and their company," says Bob Buchholtz, manager of market development Senior related the company's philosophy to each class of approximately 20 service representatives and other employees. He explained their role in achieving the service image the company set out to build. Taking a chapter from The Competitive Edge by Ron Zemke and Dick Schaaf, Morgan's centennial booklet illustrates the extent to which employees should go to satisfy customers: "A customer calls with an urgent request for linen. He's miles away and delivering his $10 order will cost, with overtime, about $45. To make matters even worse, he's not even a particularly large customer. What do you do? If the only way to satisfy the customer is to make the delivery, you make the delivery." Morgan considers pleasing customers an important part of building the right image. Morgan has now completed the delivery fleet redesign, and its quality is evident from its Truck of the Year Award from TRSA. In addition, all service representatives have been through "basic training" and will attend refresher courses in Chicago at least once every five years. Today, Morgan's task is to carry the message to more of its target customers. Along with the company's own target market brochures, sales and service representatives are using The Silent Force, an eight-page special advertising section prepared by TSPC, to promote its image. Morgan is an active member of TSPC's promotional council, the Textile and Apparel Services Council (TASC), which is in the midst of a two-year campaign designed to increase the business community's awareness of rental service. Morgan Services also plans to expand its business service support from broad-based linen supply to specialized uniform and medical clinic services. A key success factor will be how well the company maintains its positive image in the first decade of its second century of service. Clifford Weller is TRSA's former manager of Sales and Service |