Rick Drummond says he’s a small fish in a big pond — but a buoyant swimmer — in the textile rental industry. In his sector’s swelling sea of consolidation, Drummond admits that titanic enterprises have pursued him with buyout proposals.
Customers tell him about turning away reps from big-name textile companies which, boasting high-tech plants and low prices, have tried to woo them away from Drummond Uniform Service.
Corporations including Starbucks Coffee Co. and organizations such as The University of Akron shun the big suppliers to do business with Drummond. And 60 percent of his new business comes from customer referrals.
Drummond says he’s attracted the attention of hungry corporations and secured the loyalty of his customers by remembering that, without his customers, he’s nothing. He still services the first client account he landed when he started his company. And he’s lost only about five through the years, because those companies went out of business.
“It costs so much to get a customer, because 80 percent of my business is rental and we buy all the uniforms up front, customizing them especially for that company,” he says. “So when we get a new account, we need to keep it, because we’ve taken the risk by purchasing the inventory.”
As a former management trainee with a large regional textile rental company, Drummond says he was often frustrated because almost every customer had a complaint — often because of lost or stained garments — but he couldn’t make the customer happy because he had no “start-to-finish control.”
Armed with an MBA from the University of Akron and experience as an accountant for Goodyear, Drummond took the cue and launched his own company in 1993, making it his mantra to never come up short on a garment count.
“That’s been one of my strongest selling points. If you can just pick up and deliver the same amount of items, and have it all impeccably clean, you can win a lot of customers and friends. That’s what I’ve done,” he says, noting that he backs up the pledge with a guarantee: If Drummond ever makes a mistake, the customer gets a week of free service.
“I talk to a prospect and say, ‘If your supplier screwed up last week, what did he do for you?’ The prospect says, ‘Nothing — just made an excuse.’ When I tell them they’ll get a free week of service if I ever make a mistake, they’re amazed,” he says.
In terms of assurance for himself, Drummond says that in the beginning, he had no qualms about doing business on a handshake because he knew his service was so good his customers wouldn’t leave.
“That was OK until the numbers started getting bigger and the bankers came into the picture. They said, ‘Maybe you should protect yourself with a service agreement,’” he says.
Still, Drummond wanted to offer “incentive assurance” to prospective customers. So he wrote a six-month trial clause into his three-and-a-half-year service contracts.
“I tell the customer, ‘Let me take the risk to invest in your uniforms, and if the service is good and you have no complaints, after six months, the remaining three years of the contract kick in,” he says. “If they have a complaint during that six months, they can shake my hand and walk away, free from the contract.”
Living up to that surety is Drummond’s impetus, because walking away from the security of a paycheck was no small decision for him when he quit his job several years ago and, with high hopes and shallow pockets, established Drummond Uniform Service.
“I wanted to build something from scratch. But the most important thing to me was running a company where I could be much better than anyone else,” he says, recalling that he made his first deal with no service contract, no plant, no delivery van and no employees. “Here I was, this recently graduated MBA, ironing every single garment in my basement, listening to Dale Carnegie’s tapes on ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.’”
Having since borrowed $100,000 from the Small Business Administration, at Drummond’s 6,000-square-foot facility in downtown Canton, his staff launders and delivers about 4,000 uniforms, 10,000 towels and 600 floor mats each week.
Build it, and they will come
Drummond serves 140 customers, ranging from manufacturing plants and auto repair facilities to food service agencies and physicians’ offices. His biggest accounts include Starbucks (all 16 stores in Northeast Ohio) and The University of Akron — an account he bid on but initially didn’t get.
“I was bidding against some of the biggest companies in our industry and UA went with the lowest price bidder, who ended up dropping the ball. UA came back to us for better service, at our higher price,” he says, emphasizing that his price is higher because he goes the extra mile.
“We give the customer more and I’m able to prove that. I do tell prospective customers that if they’re looking for the low-cost supplier, I’m not their answer, but to call me in a few years when they’re fed up with the other company.”
The profile of his ideal client is a locally owned mom-and-pop business in the Canton, Akron or Cleveland area — a company with fewer than 10 uniformed employees and low employee turnover.
“I seek out customers the big companies ignore. I’d rather have a lot of small customers because you’re able to be more personable with them,” he says. “I avoid customers who are looking for the total low-cost supplier because I’ll never be able to satisfy them.”
Asked about his guidelines for building customer loyalty, Drummond says they’re more like a “cookie cutter approach” to customer satisfaction. But they work, he assures.
1. Size up the customer.
Don’t set yourself up for failure. Ask a prospective customer a lot of questions to determine his or her needs. Based on the answers, decide if you’re the right supplier for that customer.
2. Establish uniform consistency.
Give the customer exactly what he or she wants. Then strive for consistency by developing defined systems for every aspect of your business and following those systems to the letter.
3. Scrutinize for satisfaction.
Stay in touch via phone, face time and customer satisfaction surveys. The more problems you can find, the more you can solve.
4. Don’t get too big for your britches.
Never become bureaucratic in nature. Always relate to customers on a personal level. And make yourself available so they can always reach you on the phone.
How to reach: Drummond Uniform Service, (330) 455-7722
