A wash-and-dry visit can take 60 to 120 minutes, depending on the load, machines, and how long it takes to move clothes from washer to dryer. The owner can keep machines running and the space clean, but can’t make the cycle finish sooner.
So the useful question isn’t how to make laundry faster. It’s what customers can do with the time they’re already spending there.
For laundromat owners, that time is an operating reality, and a chance to make the visit more useful, comfortable, and connected to the business.
A regular customer is more than a machine user
The Coin Laundry Association (CLA) estimates that approximately 29,500 coin laundries in the United States generate nearly $5 billion in gross revenue annually. Those figures, from the CLA’s Industry Overview, describe a sizable industry built around local locations and repeat visits.
The repeat-customer pattern matters. In the CLA’s Gold Book Research Series-2013 Laundry Customer Survey With Renters Supplement, “regular customers” were defined as households using a self-service laundromat at least once every three weeks. Among 393 phone respondents in that regular-customer group, 75% reported visiting weekly or more often. The study is older, so it shouldn’t be treated as a current nationwide measure. It does, however, document how frequently many regulars returned in that sample. Read the CLA customer survey.
For an operator, the practical point is straightforward: a recurring customer has repeated opportunities to notice what the laundromat offers beyond machine time. They may not know about wash-and-fold, pickup and delivery, a loyalty program, or supplies for sale. And if the visit feels like a chore with nothing to do, there may be little to distinguish one visit from the next.
The room has their presence. Does it have their attention?
A typical waiting area might have folding tables, a few hard chairs, and a television that not everyone watches. Some customers step out to run errands. Others spend the time on their phones. The customer is physically present, but the business may have no practical way to earn their attention, or help them find useful services while they wait.
A QR-based engagement option can offer another choice without adding a screen or asking staff to manage another task. It fits the broader move toward phone-based, self-serve experiences: customers can decide for themselves whether to scan and explore.
Give customers a reason to engage, then a useful next step
CXperks is designed as an engagement layer for physical locations. In a laundromat, a customer scans a QR code at the entrance, near seating, or by a folding table. The experience opens on their own phone, with digital magazines, games, and trivia, no app, download, or login required, and no personal data collected.
That first step matters. Entertainment gives people a reason to engage before the business presents a promotion or request. From there, the experience can direct customers to actions the laundromat chooses to feature, such as:
- Learning about wash-and-fold or pickup-and-delivery services
- Finding the laundromat’s loyalty or punch-card program
- Viewing detergent and laundry-supply options
- Discovering snack or vending selections
- Exploring a referral program
- Choosing whether to visit the laundromat’s Google review page
The point isn’t to turn every minute into a sales pitch. It’s to make relevant services easier to discover while customers have time to look. For the complete ENTERTAIN → ENGAGE → INSIGHT framework, entertainment is the starting point, business actions come next, and anonymous engagement data helps operators understand what receives attention.
There’s a hospitality lesson here. A bare review request can feel like a soup kitchen for complaints: it offers no value before asking the customer to contribute. CXperks takes a different approach, more like receiving warm bread or chips and salsa at a restaurant before a review invitation appears naturally. The entertainment is there for the customer first; any review invitation remains optional and unpressured.
Practical questions for owners and operators
Does this require a certain number of machines?
No particular machine count is needed for the basic idea. A single-location owner can start with a QR code where customers naturally pause. A larger operation may place several codes in distinct areas. The goal is to make the experience easy to find without cluttering the room.
Does it work with coin or card payments?
The engagement experience is separate from the payment method. Customers use their own phone to scan; CXperks doesn’t require a connection to a washer, dryer, or payment system.
What if the location is unstaffed?
A self-serve QR experience can be available without staff explaining it. Keep the instruction short and visible, and make sure the QR placement is clean, accessible, and not in the way of machine use or safety notices.
Can a multi-store operator keep locations consistent?
A shared engagement foundation can make the experience familiar across locations while allowing store-level relevance. Operators can decide which services, promotions, or resources to feature. The CXperks laundromat page describes the use case, including connecting customers with entertainment and local resources during a laundry visit.
How should we measure whether it’s working?
Look at scans, dwell time, content engagement, and action taps. These signals can show whether customers are finding and using the experience, and which content or next steps attract attention. They do not, by themselves, prove revenue lift. To connect engagement to sales, compare action data with your own service inquiries, program enrollments, or sales records over time.
What a thoughtful deployment looks like
Start where customers already pause: near seating, folding tables, the change machine, or the entrance. Use a clear invitation that explains what the QR code offers. Keep the message to one clear next step at each placement so customers aren’t faced with a wall of competing prompts.
Choose content that makes sense for a longer visit, then review it on a regular cadence. Refreshing featured content and business actions periodically can give repeat customers something new to notice, without changing the basic experience each week.
If you include a Google review invitation, keep it open to every customer and entirely optional. Do not offer discounts, gifts, or anything else of value in exchange for reviews; screen customers by sentiment; ask for a particular star rating or wording; or pressure anyone to review while on the premises. CXperks does not write reviews or guarantee engagement or reviews. And Google requires reviewers to be signed into a Google Account to post.
Review Google’s User-Generated Content Policy and guidance on getting more reviews before setting up a review prompt.
Make the wait work harder
A laundromat can’t remove the wash cycle. It can make the time around it feel more considered, and help regulars discover services and programs that support the business beyond a single machine transaction.
For operators weighing where to invest, a QR-based engagement experience offers a practical test: give customers a reason to pay attention, make a relevant next step easy to find, and measure what they choose to do. Start with one location, learn from the engagement, and decide what makes sense to expand.
If you’re a laundromat owner or multi-store operator exploring how this could fit your locations, book a conversation with Scott T. Janney. If you’re a laundromat owner or multi-store operator exploring how this could fit your locations, book a conversation with Scott T. Janney.