Talking Business

by Emily Landes

When William E. Bloomfield started Web Service Company in 1947, the laundry service company was family run and emphasized service and providing quality washers and dryers to multiunit buildings. Sixty years later, much remains the same. The company is still privately held and is now headed by William E. Bloomfield, Jr. It also holds numerous customer service awards and puts only Maytag and Whirlpool appliances in its laundry rooms. One thing that has changed is Web’s size. The company that Bloomfield and his wife started out of their home in Los Angeles is now managing laundry rooms in more than 30,000 multiunit buildings throughout California, Hawaii and Nevada. The company estimates that two million people do their laundry in a Web room every week.

Of course, those who don’t know Web’s history probably think the name has something to do with the internet, since Web is one of the most technologically savvy laundry services in the country. The company offers a program called Laundry Alert, used in the Fillmore Center and Stanford University laundry rooms, which allows residents to check on the availability of washers and dryers from their personal computers. If all the machines are taken, the resident can ask to be alerted electronically when one becomes available. “People in the past would have to guess when a machine was available,” asserts Steve Jungclas, Web’s vice president of sales for the Northwest region. “Now they can be alerted five minutes before a cycle is up and it’ll say, ‘Ok, your machine is ready. Go.’” After the resident has put the laundry in, the service will also send a notice when the cycle is done.

Another high-tech Web product is a card system that allows residents to get rid of their rolls of quarters, and instead put money (via cash or credit card, depending on the system) on a debit-like card that can be inserted into Web’s washers and dryers. Jungclas says that these card systems can cut down on vandalism and theft in laundry rooms because the cash or credit add-value machine is kept in a secure, monitored location like the property manager’s office, and there is no money at all in the machines themselves. But, property owners should be aware that moving all the cash to one spot doesn’t necessarily stop the most determined laundry room thieves. Jungclas noted that in one of the company’s Las Vegas laundry rooms, robbers broke into the property in the middle of the night, tied chains around the add-value machine and used a truck to rip it right out of the wall. But short of a few off-the-wall robberies, Jungclas says he has heard only positive comments from residents and owners who install the system.

As Web has long prided itself on great customer service, it is no surprise that the company has also used its technological know-how to give its clients the quickest possible service. Not only does Web’s Hayward office have a customer call center that Jungclas describes as looking “kind of like Star Trek,” the company is also currently in the process of installing GPS systems in its service trucks. When this new system is in place, maintenance staff will be able to see where service calls are coming from and hit as many as possible while in the same area.

Jungclas feels that it’s not just Web’s quick service, but also its quality employees that have led to the company’s many service awards. He looks for potential staff members who will fit in with Web’s “family environment” and says Web makes a commitment to its employees that is evident in the lengthy tenure of most of its staff. Most of his sales team has been with the company for 15 years and other staff members in the Hayward office have been there for 30 years. The lack of turnover leads to long and deep relationships between Web’s sales and operations staff and the apartment owners and property managers with whom they work. “We care about our customers, but we also care about our employees and I think that carries over into how we serve our customers,” posits Jungclas.

Jungclas also feels strongly that in order to work with apartment owners effectively, Web Service should be an active member of advocacy groups like CAA and SFAA. “I think that it’s very important that we carry the mantra of the different apartment associations,” he emphasizes. “We think that lends a lot of credence to what we do because we know many of the owners use those forms and go to those associations with their issues. Where I sit, it’s very important that the people who work for me are very much involved and acutely in tune with what’s going on in their associations and the success of their associations.”

In fact, Web Service uses CAA-approved forms for its leases with apartment owners, which are typically between five and ten years. But leases can also be month to month and are very flexible as far as laundry room commissions are concerned. All leases include an initial six-month probation period, which allows owners to get out of their contracts easily if they decide they no longer want to work with Web during that time. Jungclas admits that even with these easy-to-personalize parameters, it can be difficult to convince owner-operators that they are better off with Web in their laundry rooms. “Collecting money is a kind of emotional thing and you want to take that collection out of their control. It’s very difficult,” he contends. But, often, something has gone wrong with the laundry room (be it vandals, thieves or troubles with another service) to make owners interested in a new service in the first place, and Web’s sales people emphasize how the company removes the challenges and tasks associated with running a laundry room from an owner’s lengthy to-do list.

Sales staff also emphasize, especially in San Francisco, that a Web laundry room can be a more energy-efficient (and thus cost-saving) laundry room. The company loves the Maytag Neptune, which is a front-loading washer that uses 18 gallons of water per load rather than the 31 gallons a typical washer needs. In addition to cutting down on water and sewage bills, owners also get a PG&E rebate for having the Neptune.

Web’s green focus, plus its technological acuity and commitment to service, put it in a good position to grow in all three of the states where it currently thrives. Jungclas says the company has no plans to expand outside these regions, as doing so might decrease the quality of the service that its clients have come to know and expect. But he does think the company will continue to grow in the regions where it is already established. Jungclas feels the roots planted by William E. Bloomfield back in 1947 will continue to be fruitful for the company that bears his name long into the future.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or SF Apartment Magazine. Emily Landes is the managing editor of SF Apartment Magazine and Rental Housing. Copyright © 2007 by SF Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.