Two years ago, many Chinese had their clothes cleaned at laundries near home, but more are turning to Edaixi, an Uber-style laundry pickup app developed by China's biggest domestic washing brand Rong Chang (RC).
The convenience of Edaixi for busy white-collar workers in cities like Beijing has attracted thousands of users overnight, but keeping those clients is another issue.
Guo Xiaoyu published her first experience of using the app on the Sina Weibo social network: one of her precious overcoats worth 3,000 yuan had shrunk after dry-cleaning. "I won't use this service any more, I swear!" Guo complained.
A national dispute mediation service ruled that Guo would get 500 yuan compensation, 20 times the washing fee. However, Edaixi bought her a new coat from Korea instead.
And Zhang Rongyao, the creator of Edaixi, invited Guo to the company's headquarters to address the staff on the "user experience."
This focus on 'user experience' has cut the complaint rate to 0.1 percent, said Zhang.
A dominant player in the laundry market, RC has sold washing machines and skills to franchisees for the past two decades.
"We are so far removed from users that we can't deal with disputes in franchises. With Edaixi, we can monitor every part of this O2O (online to offline) circle. Some users demand way too much in compensation, but we try our best to keep complaints at bay," Zhang said.
When Zhang started RC in 1990, the 22-year-old college graduate only dreamed of creating jobs for his family.
By 2000, RC owned 110 outlets around the country. Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong considered investing, but pointed out two problems: RC failed to meet all clients' needs and its business model was asset-centered with most investment going to rent and machines.
Goldman Sachs's analysis stirred Zhang into transforming the business. At the crossroads of investing more in the laundry industry or diversifying, Zhang chose the former.
"I am not willing to see Rong Chang end up being an e-commerce company that takes no responsibility for service quality," Zhang said.
The same year, RC cooperated with Sina Corp to offer a laundry service online. Two years of study in the China Europe Business School had deepened Zhang's understanding of the Internet's role in business.
Twenty-five years after starting RC, Zhang came up with a catch-all app - Edaixi.
With this on-demand laundry app, users are not bothered by parking issues, complicated washing procedures and opening hours.
The success of RC has drawn the attention of rivals and other traditional enterprises.
"Some CEOs use Edaixi's example to ask why they shouldn't build an Internet service," Zhang said.
Edaixi's success lies in the user-centered value and it also involves three elements: affordability, convenience and entertainment.
"Edaixi is cheap and fun. It costs you 99 yuan (16.2 U.S. dollars) for one bag of clothes," said Wang Hong, who won the title of "Bag King" for putting 33 items in one canvas bag.
Zhang has been to more than 30 countries to learn from other firms how to improve the user experience.
The first lesson was high washing standards.
Though Edaixi outsourced the actual washing, it set strict requirements.
"We choose the best laundry in each community - eco-friendly equipment, at least two years of operation and staffed by skilled professionals," said Zhang.
With 100,000 orders daily, delivery is also a major consideration.
Zhang figured Edaixi could recruit people in the community, mostly women in their 50s, 60s and 70s, to do the pickup and delivery.
"Most of them are retired, but this earns them money and gives them exercise. Their faces are familiar to users and they are friendly and safe," Zhang said.
The community employment also gives the workers flexibility.
In May, Edaixi will aim at the high-end market and expand its service range.
"A service for providing elderly people with home-based care is in the pipeline. Whatever service we create, user value is the core of our service," said Zhang.
