Sometimes it seems Classic Cleaners specializes in stories.  With wedding gown cleaning and preservation a specialty of ours, we feel as if we’ve been part of the “wedding party” for many brides, both before and after their big event.

Quite often, as members of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists, Classic Cleaners professionals have helped preserve bridal gowns for daughters and even granddaughters to wear.  Rarely, though, have we come across a story with as many chapters as the one about the dress owned by “Magee” (Margaret) Land.

Magee at Mardi Gras, 1977

Chapter I:

It all started in February, 1977 at the New Orleans Mardi Gras debutante ball, when The Dress was worn for the first time by Magee, then a college junior, as one of the princesses at the Ball.  Mardi Gras princesses, according to tradition, were escorted by masked gentlemen; Magee’s escort was her uncle.  Her date: Casey Land from Danville, Indiana.

Magee and Casey Land's wedding 1979

Chapter II:

Two years later, on January 6, 1979, The Dress made its second appearance.  Remade with an overlay by Juliette

Coutures of New Orleans, this time Magee wore it as her wedding gown, beautiful bride of Michael Casey Land.

Chapter III:

Fast forward to New Year’s eve, 2010. The Lands now have two beautiful daughters, Tara and Meagan, and son Hunter. Meagan is being married in The Dress, altered by

Joyce Hittesdorf of Something Wonderful and restored to pristine white by Leon Neal of Classic Cleaners.

Magee's daughter's wedding New Year's Eve 2010

Chapters IV, V, and ?:

Future plans for The Dress include daughter Tara and Hunter’s girlfriend Anna.  From there, who knows?

The ongoing story of The Dress has been made possible through MuseumCare™ preservation, the advanced process used by Classic Cleaners, and the only one endorsed by the Association of Bridal Consultants.

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

“Pants are one of the most common types of clothing worn by both men and women,” remarks Buzzle.com. Referred to as trousers in the UK, Buzzle.com adds, pants are also known as kex, kegs, slacks, strides, and breeches.

Whatever you call them, with hundreds of thousands of pairs of pants coming through our doors every year, at Classic Cleaners, we know precisely what the challenge is with pants – the crease. While our customers specify their pants-pressing preferences, no one has ever requested more than one crease per leg.  More often than you might suppose, however, poor pressing at home or at a former dry cleaning establishment has resulted in two, or even three, crease marks on each leg of an unfortunate pair of pants! (A second sort of damage we see is scorching, resulting from holding an iron for too long a time on one spot in order to lock in the crease.)

Pants tend to fall into two general categories: flat front or pleated. Both kinds come in a variety of styles, with or without cuffs, pocketless or with a variety of pocket types.  Susan Wright of New Mexico State University tells it like it is when it comes to pants: “Gathers or pleats at the waistline emphasize a protruding abdomen,” she says, adding “Fitted legs are unflattering for the too-thin as well as for the too-full figure.”

At Classic Cleaners we don’t offer fashion advice.  Some customers prefer flat front pants, some pleated.  There are two things no one wants, however:

• Discoloration of the fabric around the pleat mark
• More than one pleat per leg

At Classic Cleaners, therefore, what a “no crease” pant request means is that no press is put down on that pair of pants.  Instead, the pants are hand-pressed through the center of each leg.

Whatever your pleat preference when it comes to each pair of pants, from khakis to tuxedos, at Classic Cleaners, what you ask for is what you get!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

As our customers know, “specials” aren’t just once-in-a-while affairs at Classic Cleaners.  In fact, there’s a new special offer every month of the year! November’s special, for example, is outerwear, and in December, we’ll be offering 25% off table linens.  Specials, you see, are just one more way we have of showing our appreciation to our loyal fans.

In the Mensa book of puzzles, Lateral Thinking & Logical Deduction, there’s a riddle about a dry cleaners that offered a “special” on business clothing.  We thought it would be fun to share the riddle with our blog readers:

A dry cleaners was having a one-day sale offering a 20% discount on business clothes. That day, customers brought in trousers, jackets, and skirts.

   1  more customer brought in only jackets than those who brought in trousers only.

   9  customers brought in trousers only.

 15  customers each brought in trousers, jackets, and skirts.

 26  customers each brought in skirts and jackets, but no trousers.

 13  customers each brought in jackets and trousers, but no skirts.

  5  customers each brought in skirts only.

 The same number of people brought in trousers and skirts, but no jacket as those who brought
in only jackets.

Can you figure out the total number of customers who took advantage of the dry cleaning “special” that day?

(If you’ve figured out the answer, simply put a comment at the bottom of this page, or turn in your answer with your next Classic Cleaners order.)

Hint: Our neighbor the math teacher advises using a Venn diagram to solve the riddle.

If you’re stymied by the Mensa riddle, at Classic Cleaners, we have a much simpler set of numbers for you to keep in mind:

For every $200 you spend within a six-month period, Classic Cleaners will give you $10 off your next order.  Best of all, there are no forms to fill out.  You’re automatically enrolled!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

“Good customer service is the life blood of any business,” remarks Martin Day in the eMagazineForCustomerServiceProfessionals. “A customer satisfaction survey will help demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve the service you provide.”

Classic Cleaners certainly agrees.  Over the Indianapolis dry cleaners’ 25-year history, Classic Cleaners management has continued looking for ways to serve its customers in new and better ways.  In fact, this very month, each Classic Cleaners customer can earn a $10 dry cleaning coupon by filling out a seventeen-question online survey.

Martin Day points out to his customer service professional readers that customer satisfaction survey information can work in two directions:

• Customers to business:  The business obtains valuable market research data.
• Business to customers:  The customers become aware of aspects of service they perhaps didn’t know about.

In the case of the Classic Cleaners survey, information might function as a 3-way street:

1. When the results are tallied, Classic Cleaners managers will know more about the demographics of their customer base – what age groups are represented and how long customers have used Classic Cleaners for their dry cleaning and laundry needs.
2. Customers will be informed (or reminded) of the “Classic Rewards” program.
3. Central management and field managers will be able to discuss in detail with front desk customer service representatives and with route drivers whether customers have any concerns with the appearance and cleanliness of the stores, the friendliness and patience of the front desk representatives, and with the timeliness of order completion.

It’s interesting that the survey does not emphasize all the uncommon “extras” Classic Cleaners provides to its customers, including the lockers, the heat stamping that avoids the need for punch tags, the expert alterations service, the restoration of heirlooms, and the fluff and fold service.  The customer satisfaction survey would have needed to be far too long and complicated to include all the “extras” Classic Cleaners customers have come to take for granted!

Perhaps the most important statement on the survey is the one about which Classic Cleaners hopes its customers will all answer “strongly agree”:

“The customer service representative made me feel appreciated for visiting Classic Cleaners.”

If you haven’t already done so, won’t you take our survey?  Click here

By Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team