Dry Cleaners in Crouch End: Meet The Masters
If you are looking for dry cleaners in Crouch End look no further than our master cleaner, Rashid. We stole a second from his busy day to let us in on why his dry cleaning and laundry services are a local favourite.
Childhood nickname: Rashid
Best present ever received: A German watch from my wife
Favourite snack: Grilled prawns
Can often be found saying: ’How are you?’
How did you get to where you are now?
When I first came to London, I started out at my uncle’s dry cleaning shop. After learning the business, I set myself a target of 5 years to start my own. I always enjoyed dry cleaning and the training built my confidence so I didn’t need to look anywhere else. After 1 year my uncle helped me buy a house and four years later I opened my own dry cleaners in Crouch End. After another 5 years I bought another…I have 3 cleaning centres now (laughs).
Impressive! So how long have you been dry cleaning for?
I’ve been dry cleaning for 15 years!
What four things would you say a successful dry cleaner must have?
Punctuality of course. Also management, you need to know how to manage everything and be able to plan ahead. There are always deadlines and time constraints, so to be successful you need to be able to manage time as well as your operations team. You must have trust also, if your staff know that you trust them their confidence will grow [that’s how I grew], and they’ll have the ability to be as successful as you are. The last thing I would have to say is hard work, you don’t get results without hard work.
What gives you the most satisfaction from your dry cleaners in Crouch End?
Doing a great job. When you have a regular customer you know that you’re doing a good job because that customer appreciates your services and relies on you. You know for sure that you’re doing a great when that customer recommends you! A recommendation is a very big compliment. My customers trust both my cleaning and my advice. I am honest, if something doesn’t need to be dry cleaned I will tell them, I will always tell them if I’m going to do something that they can do at home. I also don’t charge too much, you won’t hear me saying “this will be extra” because if it’s my job I will do it, so it makes me proud when customers keep coming back because I know they are satisfied from the service I provide. When people forget to empty their pockets and leave money in their clothes we always inform the ihateironing team to let the customers know what we found before returning it with their order. One time the team notified a customer who was so impressed he said he’d never received money back from a dry cleaner before! (laughs)
Where has your work ethic come from?
My uncle. He has always inspired me. We used to be very poor but he worked really hard and he is well off now.
Why do you think your dry cleaners in Crouch End has been so successful?
One day I had a service wash order for a nursery who needed their order back in the morning so we knew we had to finish everything the same day so It could be delivered back first thing. We usually close at 7pm, so I let the team go and stayed until half 9 to get the job done. Customers like dedication to their orders, they can tell that you’ve tried hard to meet their needs.
What do you think customers love most about your services?
I think they love the fact that I’m honest, fair and transparent. We’ll give them a service that they love but if we ever can’t do an order we don’t leave them in limbo, we don’t make fusses – we’re straight forward.
How do you get the best results from your team?
I look after them well. I take my operations team to dinner once a month, or sometimes we’ll have a gathering or a BBQ. I’ll buy lunch or if they’re working late I’ll bring food. I make
my staff feel at home and look after them, not only in the shop but also outside the business.
What do you enjoy most about working with ihateironing?
I was one of the first partners to work with ihateironing. Back in the day we used text messages and everything was manually operated – it’s changed so much since then. (laughs) We never had the apps and technology we had now and Matt (the CEO) used to manually collect and deliver orders himself. Now we’ve grown together and the relationship I have with the customer service team is very good, I have a strong bond with the team. They always get in touch with any updates and are so easy to communicate with, they make the job so much easier. I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with ihateironing as they’ve allowed me to expand. We’ve grown together, I almost feel like it’s my company- like I’m a co-founder (laughs).
How much longer do you see yourself in the industry?
I’m getting older now (laughs) so maybe 10/15 years or so, but I enjoy it!