We decided to catch up with some of our customers. We wanted to see how they were coping with the coronavirus pandemic. We caught up with Billie who owns and runs Chelsea Green Valet, based in London. Billie discussed the impact of the pandemic on her business and her favourite features within CleanCloud.
Ok, so we are Chelsea Green Valet, we’re based in Chelsea. We have two segments to our business in both retail and trade. Our trade business is focused around servicing spas, hotels and leading hairdressers in London. The retail part of our business is not just the traditional side to dry-cleaning, we provide a wide selection of services and also specialise in elements such as vintage couture cleaning.
We have been in business since 2008. I used to work in quite corporate environments, and then I had my first child and wanted a good business. My mother had a dry cleaning business and she convinced me that the spot was great and that she could make it work. Initially I was quite skeptical, but I definitely made the right decision.
I was with a different provider before CleanCloud and it really didn’t work for me. I wanted to manage my business better, and that is why I decided to go for CleanCloud. Generally I wanted to be able to manage my accounts better by being able to identify our top customers and target them accordingly. CleanCloud assisted with this process as they are a completely comprehensive software, allowing me to keep track of every part of my business easily. This is one of my favourite parts of CleanCloud.
The fact that I am able to break down and analyze my business closely, in terms of back-office and management accounts is incredibly useful. Also I am able to see what items are our best sellers and segregate our top customers. I can look at the business in really intricate detail. My staff find it easy to use and very user-friendly, we just get along really well with CleanCloud.
Another feature that I love is the SMS service. This enabled us to quickly let customers know that we were still trading as people were unsure about which services were closed.
COVID-19 has affected my business in good ways and bad ways really, as to be expected. We have been able to gain new customers, due to the unfortunate circumstances of other competitors closing. We also have been able to trade throughout lockdown due to our business being an essential service. I think the area I operate in also had something to do with the necessity of the business, as people weren’t able to have their usual home service e.g. cleaners. Also, I know that due to schools being closed, and homeschooling the housework was too much for many people so Chelsea Green Valet came to the rescue.
The main difference that I have seen is that my productivity is brilliant. The fact that I can analyse the business has enabled me to make changes that another provider would not have helped with. I love CleanCloud.
