Holiday Vacation - the work goes on

Leaving your business, even for a short time, is like leaving your firstborn child for the first time.
There's a bit of trepidation - can it survive without your constant presence?

Fortunately we live in a new-age of international business.
Between live web/security cameras, skype, and machines computer programmed to let us know how many times each one is run in a day, we can keep a pretty accurate pulse on what's happening at Bubbles - even when we aren't physically in the store.
And little is more exciting than checking those cameras, getting good skype calls, and seeing lots of completed wash and dry cycles.
Perhaps a little "Big-Brotherish" to get a skype call suggesting we use dryer 9 more, and dryer 3 less - since we see that dryer 3 is getting more use than 9 ... but that's what we're here for.

Here's a picture that makes us smile: two great Bubbles employees finishing up an order - all systems a go!

Here's another positive Bubbles business story for the digital-era:
A local business contacted us, via email, to do weekly contract wash for their catering service.
We email back, work out the details with a couple of skype calls, create a contract that both parties sign with digital signatures, and it's a done deal.
No meeting in person, wasted time in the car, or actual face-time ... just agreed upon business services with the help of technology.

A Season of Giving

Merry Christmas from Bubbles!
Christmas in Ukraine is celebrated on January 7th.
To honor the season of giving, Bubbles is giving back to the community.
On January 4th and 5th, ALL walk-in revenue goes to a local orphanage.
This event is co-sponsored by Lviv Radio, and endorsed by several print publications ... which means lots of local, positive press for Bubbles.
Plus, this is a great way for us to involved Project Reach Out (our initial humanitarian efforts that brought us back to Lviv all those years ago) with Bubbles.
A few of the Bubbles workers went to the orphanage to take pictures for the print media endorsement.
So touched by the children and what Bubbles is doing to make the holidays a bit brighter for these little ones, one worker asked that half of her personal week's earnings be donated to the cause.
We have great workers - and Project Reach Out is a great cause.

Honest Change

We've been a little surprised at how honesty is the exception rather than the norm.
Here are three examples:

1. While laundering a recent fitness club's order, 36 hryven (less than $5) of changes was found.

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"What do we do with it?" an employee asked.
"We return it with the completed order."
All the employees seem a little surprised and pleasantly pleased with this response - they are good employees after all.
The money is returned to the client with the cleaned towels and robes.
The fitness club is shocked.
"In the last five years, we have never had loose change returned," they say, "this occurring must be really rare."
Sorry, not so rare at all.
Every day we've laundered their robes and towels, loose change has been found.
Never more than about $5 dollars ... but over a five year period, someone at the previous laundry service definitely filled a few piggy-banks worth.

2. After securing the daily washing order for the previously mentioned fitness club, the wash service who held the contract tried to sabotage our soap.
We buy German-grade industrial soap out of the back of a car from a guy who brings it across the boarder - when in Rome ...
Anyway, our seller got a mysterious call from one of "our employees" switching the ordered soap from non-bleach to BLEACH. Result, a few loads of beige towels are a bit more white.
We get business competition ... but more in the form of lower-prices or better service, not directly damaging the other guy.

3. There are two night workers at the aforementioned fitness club who hand-off the soiled robes and towels. Strangely, when worker B is on duty, and we arrive to pick up the soiled goods, he tells us that their former laundry service is washing the order that day.

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Whatever ... maybe it was the bleached load that deterred the fitness club?
We leave empty handed ... and as we drive away, we get a phone call from the fitness club asking why we didn't pick up the dirty wash.
We explain we were told not to -
Turns out, over the last five-years each night that worker B distributes the soiled goods to the former washing service the dirty towels weigh in 30 kilos more than on other nights. I guess you could say he had a separate 'contract' with the former service to say there was more wash then there actually was, thus charging the fitness club more ... and he got a kick-back from the laundry service.
Worker B lost his job that night.

Join the Clean Revolution!

Here's a copy of a radio add currently playing on Lviv Radio :

English Transcript:
"Join the Revolution to make your life cleaner. 
Clean Clothes, Clean life.  
Wash and dry all of your clothes, including your large coats and blankets, at the laundromat "Bubbles", all within one hour.  
You can use the machines yourself, or if you do not have time, leave your clothes and our professional team will gladly make you cleaner. 
This is a big step to a cleaner Ukraine and a cleaner life. 
You will always remember your first time at Bubbles. 
...Address and website." 


We came up with the "clean revolution" all on our own ... see, those college marketing classes may not have been so useless after all. 
Plus, who doesn't want to join an Eastern European Revolution ... even if it is just for clean clothes?

A Little Something More

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You never know where an introduction will lead... or how doing just a little more than expected will be received.
A small 10-room hotel initiated a contract with us ... we went over to work out details and get the first load.
When we returned the laundered linens, the first thing the owner said was:
"You even washed the bags!"
Of course we washed the bags ... they're canvas.
Plus, we weren't going to put clean sheets and towels in unclean bags ... first impression is everything.
Evidently the previous laundry service never thought to wash the bags as well as the linens.
Not only did we get the contract for the 10-room hotel, but the owner also wants us to do the laundry for several other bed-and-breakfast and rental apartments that he manages around Lviv.
Simple example, and two points noted: 
1. What may seem like a small order can lead into larger orders.
2. Do something extra and unexpected ... like wash the canvas bags.

Window Banner

This is the new banner on the first window of Bubbles.

It is a transparent, net-type, sticker banner that still allows light and use of the window. 

We've had so many people walk by, stop and stare (sometimes for an extended period) and we realized these potential clients don't know what we are ... or that they're welcome to use our services. 

The banner gives a brief description of our services, the machines, and the laundromat concept. 

Synthetic materials ...

Melt in a dryer.
Here's one unanticipated laundromat issue we've run into with Bubbles.
The U.S. has fire standards for clothing and household fabrics (blankets, and couch covers) that don't exist in Ukraine.

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Of course, we learned this the "less easy" way.
The synthetic lining of a couch cover, a coat, and a blanket are the three synthetic mishaps we've had ...
The silver-lining is that our pro-active customer service response has been really well received - customer service is about as foreign a concept as the laundromat itself.
For the inner-lining of the couch cover, we found the identical material (no easy task), and had a seamstress replace it that day (again, no easy task) ... When we returned the cleaned, newly re-lined covers to the client, she was truly shocked that we fixed the problem free of charge, and even more surprised that we were completely honest with her about the incident ... I'm pretty sure we gained a friend.
The melted coat hood was likewise fixed, and the blanket replaced.
Again the customers were so pleasantly surprised about the way the accident was handled that they've already returned with other things to wash.

"Informator"

Here is a copy of an article that recently appeared in Ukraine's "Informator" Business Magazine.

The caption under the image of the two workers running the dryer says, "American 'Bubbles' in Lviv."

We've been delighted with the positive public response and press coverage Bubbles has received thus far.