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For customers, laundry is not just about clean clothes — it is about trust. They expect garments to return fresh, intact and unchanged. As India’s laundry industry grows, it is also confronting gaps in consistency, complaint handling and standardisation. With much of the sector still unorganised, structured systems are becoming essential. Industry leaders now believe that raising common standards, managing disputes professionally and adopting process-driven operations are key to building long-term credibility and customer confidence. Clean India Journal speaks to experts.
They remember the fabric feel. They remember the colour and texture. They will also remember that one stain that should have disappeared. Today’s laundry customer is not just paying for a wash — they are paying for trust.
When customers hand over a garment to a laundry service, they are not just expecting it to come back clean — they are expecting it to come back unchanged.
That expectation carries weight in an industry that is growing fast but is still finding its footing. While the sector continues to expand and modernise, it remains overwhelmingly unorganised. According to industry data published on Businesswire, the organised segment accounted for merely 4.23% of the Indian laundry market in 2020, with the rest operating outside structured systems and formal processes.
For operators across the country, this translates into a landscape where modern players are investing in technology and scale, but much of the industry still runs on individual judgement and manual decisions rather than structured systems.
Academic studies examining laundromats and organised laundry operations in emerging markets have also pointed to persistent service-quality gaps — particularly in defect reduction, process standardisation and complaint redressal frameworks — highlighting that operational inconsistency directly impacts customer retention.
In an era where dissatisfaction quickly migrates from the counter to social media, a single unresolved grievance can escalate into legal notices, compensation claims or reputational damage. The industry’s next leap lies in combining experience with structure.
With these challenges in mind, the session titled ‘Raising the Bar: Standards for the Modern Laundry Business’, held at the Clean India Show, brought industry leaders together to examine how structured processes can redefine everyday business realities.
Handling Complaints
Highlighting the recent transformation in the laundry industry, Anup Poddar, Director of Beepee Enterprises Pvt. Ltd, said, “Over the past few years, the laundry industry has changed more than it did in the last few decades. Customer expectations have evolved, fabrics and chemicals are more advanced, and sustainability and energy efficiency are no longer optional. Today, running a laundry is no longer just about cleaning clothes but operational excellence, consistency, professionalism and above all standards.”
Why Standards Matter
Sharing his observations from visits to laundries across the country, Anup highlighted a critical gap. “Laundries are still dependent on manual decisions, instincts and experience — but not on data, systems or processes. It’s manual intervention everywhere,” he said.
According to him, businesses dependent solely on people struggle, with growth potential remaining limited. “Economies of scale can only be achieved if you are system-driven and not people-driven,” the expert added.
Sharing his experience of handling customer feedback, an operator said, “There are two kinds of complaints we need to be cognizant of — the first is the genuine customer who gives real feedback. First, they will speak on the phone and try to engage you. It is only when they feel they are hitting a wall that they go online and complain.”
The second category, the operator suggested, often consists of people who have never worked with the business. “Very often, the bulk of the complaints are from people who have never worked with you — sometimes even competitor complaints intended to bring your ratings down,” he said.
For such cases, he adopts a simple strategy: ask for order number, store, and date. “Usually, it ends there but for a genuine customer, we go out of our way to handle that escalation. We do not let it reach that stage in the first place,” the operator stated.
Breaking Anxiety
Panellist Chirag Bhatia, Director of Cleanovo, emphasised that to handle customer complaints, what the industry needs is structured thinking.
“As business owners, we are almost like children,” he remarked, comparing the anxiety over complaints to exam anxiety. “Just as parents break down exam stress into manageable steps, business owners must break down complaint anxiety into frameworks,” the expert said.
Instead of reacting emotionally to compensation claims, Chirag advised operators to create structured processes to handle them. “Every claim, every complaint that is passed on to you can be broken down. The idea is to convert individual approaches into standardised systems applicable across customer categories — new customers and loyal ones — with differentiated but structured handling,” he added.
Standardisation
As the laundry sector evolves, industry-wide coordination and standard-setting are becoming increasingly critical.
Chirag pointed out that one of the key industry challenges is the wide variation in operational practices. “Different businesses follow different working styles, and there is little consistency in terms and conditions. Some offer full compensation on claims, others offer 50%, and others follow entirely different approaches. Due to lack of standardisation, customers often feel confused and unresolved. In some cases, customers perceive that dry cleaners are unwilling to address claims fairly,” he explained.
The expert further outlined the intended impact of such standardisation — reduced legal vulnerabilities, clearer responses in case of disputes, and overall clarity within the industry.
For business owners, having a structured framework would also improve operational efficiency. “Compensation payouts directly impact the annual profit and loss statement and therefore must be handled systematically,” added Chirag.
Dispute Resolution
Speaking about dispute management, Anup, who is also an office bearer of the Dry Cleaners & Launderers’ Association of India, informed that over the past eight to nine months about 10 to 12 cases involving disputes between laundry operators and customers have been addressed. In some instances, customers had taken complaints to social media, and posts had gone viral. These were subsequently resolved, with the posts taken down.
“Hence arbitration is a very powerful tool to end complaints and ensure customer satisfaction even when disputes arise,”
said Anup.
