Executive Summary
Sarni Dry Cleaners is a family owned company located in Boston. The company offers a variety of services with the major ones being dry cleaning and clothes altering services. The company’s main strengths includes the existence in the industry for over eighty years maximizing the experience as well as the availability of adequate stores and delivery vans to cater for a wide market. The main weaknesses is lack of quality customer service and advanced technology to cater for the growing market demand. The availability of wide market as a result of families’ limited to do own laundry is the main opportunity while the threat of new competitors and changing technology may affect the company progress. As a way of achieving the growth of Sarni Dry Cleaners, several long term and short term objectives are defined in this plan as well as the success factors that will help in achieving the set goals.
Company Background
Sarni Dry Cleaners is a family company owned and run by the Sarni family since its inception in 1929 in Boston. Founded by James Sarni, the company transformed into a modern facility under the management of the family’s third generation who have successfully transformed the dry cleaning services providing pickup and delivery services, thus enhancing customer services. The company provides quality dry cleaning and tailoring services including clothes alterations among other services among other major services. With the aim of providing quality services to the customers, Sarni Dry Cleaners pioneered the pickup and delivery services in Boston, thus increasing their market share and competitive positioning in the region. Currently, the company has nine stores in Boston that provides over fourteen types of services at a premium price. In addition to providing dry cleaning and alteration services, Sarni Dry Cleaners also offer exclusive home and office cleaning.
Vision and Mission Statement
Sarni Dry Cleaners has successfully provided efficient dry cleaning services, with a core marketing slogan stating their ‘three generation experience in providing dry cleaning services. This forms a basis for the company’s core mission which is to ensure efficiency in dry cleaning through ensuring same day delivery with free and efficient pick-up and delivery services to ensure quality customer services.
The company works with a vision of providing top quality dry cleaning services on the same day, with free delivery and pick-up services. The company has strived to achieve this vision through the provision of adequate facilities which includes eight stores in Boston, Everett and Lynnfield, and five state of the art vans for pick-up and delivery services.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
The company has market experience on what the customers wants. Sarni dry cleaners has been in the dry cleaning market for over 80 years and this has enabled the management to monitor the changing market and industry trends.
The company also offers a variety of services making it more diversified. This is facilitated by the availability of adequate resources including dedicated employees and a fleet of picking up and delivering services. In addition, the company has over nine stores around Boston, thus covering a wide market and provision of efficient services to the customers.
The company also has implemented various eco-friendly measures such as recycling and use of environmentally friendly detergents.
Weaknesses
The quality the services provided by Sarni is limited, according to the customers’ remarks on the same. In addition, the company lacks modern facilities since they have been using their facilities for a long period, making them old and inefficient. Customer service is also poor at the stores due to lack of basic skills in customer services management. There is slow decision-making process especially on strategic issues as the company is owned and run by the family members, making majority of decisions being made by the family members in the management position.
Opportunities
The demand for dry cleaning services provides an expansion opportunity for Sarni dry cleaners. This is attributed by occupation of various people at work, thus giving them less time to do laundry, in addition to the need to have the linen re-adjusted or re-modified from its original state.
Presence of environmental legal requirements that are easy to implement. Adherence to the sustainability measures through the use of eco-friendly dry cleaning practices provides an opportunity for expansion.
Threats
The dry-cleaning business has a high level of competition ranging from family-owned and run, to independent stores. Some of these competitors are more advanced, especially with some companies having modern technologies that Sarni dry Cleaners doesn’t have. The emergence of modern technology further poses a threat to the company due to the initial costs of buying such facilities and this could negatively affect the company’s financial returns.
Long-Term Objectives
Install modern equipment to facilitate quality and efficient services to the customers. Such equipment include easy to operate dry cleaning machines and clothing alterations and restoration, thus ensuring the same day services is upheld.
Strategic Analysis and Choice
As a way of achieving the long term objectives, the company needs to maximize their strengths and utilize the company resources as a way of achieving success. This strategy falls within the third quadrant of the grand strategy selection matrix. Based on the company analysis, Sarni dry cleaners could improve their performance by utilizing their human capital and many years of experience to compete with the upcoming dry cleaning companies. This will however require the expansion if internal resources such as improvised equipment and efficient human resource.
Short-term objectives and tactics
Implement employees training program as a way of enhancing customer services within the establishment. This is based on the current customer reviews most of who have complained of low customer services within the stores.
Change the provisions of the coupons to attract more customers and utilize this tool as the main marketing and promotion strategy. The current coupons offers 5 dollars discount on every 100 dollars spent on dry cleaning, inclusive of free drop off services. However this has not attracted many customers, thus prompting the need to rise the percentage discount on offer.
Critical Success Factors
The success of any organization is highly dependent on the duration of the implementation of the set strategies as well as the application of suitable method of reducing the company’s weaknesses. Based on the competitiveness nature of the dry cleaning industry, there is a need for Sarni Dry Cleaners to carefully and efficiently implement the set strategies as a way of achieving expected productivity in the near future. The key success factor is the immediate implementation of training programs with the aim of improving the customer services. Effective customer service is an essential tool used to ensure that customers are satisfied, thus improving their experience. This is the key strategy that most companies use to create customer loyalty as well as promote word of mouth marketing to friends and families. Being a family oriented business with years of experience, Sarni dry cleaners is likely to benefit from this strategy especially since already have competency in dry cleaning and environmental conservation.
Controls and Evaluation
Evaluating the success of this strategic plan is highly dependent on the reviews of both the employees and the customers. CURRENTLY, the customers are satisfied by the dry cleaning and delivery services provided at Sarni dry cleaners. However, there is little concern on the customer services offered, and the improvement in this issue will be evaluated based on the customer rating in the short run. In addition, several customers have expressed their dissatisfaction on the current premium pricing and coupons, prompting the company to reevaluate the pricing strategy to fit the needs of different types of customers.
Works Cited
http://sarnidrycleaners.com/
Wiedemann, Lucas. Business Strategies and Value Chain Management. Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2013.
