By Becca Anderson

When you hear the term “Connectivity” with respect to customers, do you immediately think of your POS system and its apps? Or do you picture digital marketing? (Or do your eyes just cross?)

We asked Tony Hadad of SMRT Systems to help us cut through the confusion and figure out what customer connectivity is, and what it can lead to that takes your company to a whole new level.

Describe briefly what SMRT software is like today, and any additional services you offer.

SMRT is a cloud-based POS built for dry cleaning and laundry—meaning order intake, item detailing, barcode tracking, payments, timeclocks, and reporting.

But the bigger story is what is built around it. SMRT includes a driver delivery app that works on any phone the operators already own. There is a customer app for order tracking, route requests, and automated reminders. All of it connected to the same system, so nothing falls through the cracks.

SMRT Marketing—including Broadcasts, Campaigns, Reviews, Social Media, and Ads—sits on top as an add-on for operators who want to do more. But the connectivity story starts with the POS and the apps around it, not the marketing layer.

Expectations have changed

We never really heard about connectivity 20 years ago. Why is it more important today than it was then?

Customer expectations have moved. People track packages across the country in real time. Receiving a text when their order is ready is not a bonus anymore; it is the baseline expectation.

Why is that significant for an operator?

For route operators specifically, a missed stop is a wasted trip, and wasted trips are preventable with automated reminders. Most operators are not running them consistently, and they are absorbing that cost every week.

Can connectivity increase the use of an operator’s services?

There is a discovery problem. Younger customers often do not know their local cleaner offers pickup and delivery at all. Not because they do not want it—they do. Many simply do not realize it is available. Connectivity closes that gap.

The challenge is awareness

What is the biggest challenge for owners around connectivity? What do they ask you?

Owners are busy. Connectivity improvements always get pushed to next week.

The most common question we hear is some version of “Can I automatically text my customers?” The answer is yes, but what matters is whether those texts are tied to real POS data, not just a scheduled blast that fires regardless of what is actually happening.

On routes, two things come up constantly: missed stops and sign-up friction. SMRT’s automated day before and morning-of reminders fix the first. The geofencing-based opt-in in the customer app fixes the second—customers can get on a route in a couple of taps.

But we still see a lot of operators who have not told their customers it exists.

Security and compliance

How do you handle security of the operator’s data? What should an operator expect from their provider?

Payments run through compliant processing infrastructure with card-on-file support. SMS messaging is carrier-compliant, helping messages reach customers reliably while keeping operators aligned with messaging regulations. Customer-driver communication routes through the platform rather than personal phones, giving owners visibility into communications.

Hadad says operators should expect transparency from providers: Where does customer data live? How are opt-outs handled? Is the platform managing compliance—or handing that responsibility back to the cleaner

What are common misunderstandings about SMRT?

Most operators come in thinking SMRT is a POS. The demo usually fixes that.

The more persistent misunderstanding is that their customers will not adopt new technology. That is almost always wrong. The customer app was built to minimize friction. The process includes only what is actually needed to get someone signed up. We have had operators tell us drivers who would not touch a computer picked up the delivery app on their own.

Customer behaviour follows a good experience. The barrier is usually awareness, not customer resistance.

What operators are overlooking

What are users doing wrong? What are they not taking full advantage of?

Route reminders are the biggest gap. These are built in, with minimal setup, and have an immediate impact on missed stops. Operators running them see the difference. Operators not running them are paying for preventable wasted trips every route day.

The customer app is also under marketed by the cleaners themselves. Adding the portal link to a Google Business profile or mentioning it at the counter takes almost no time. Operators who do it consistently see route adoption go up and phone calls go down.

On the marketing side, Campaigns and Reviews do not need daily attention once they are live, but they do need to be checked. Offers go stale. A promotion that made sense six months ago can do more harm than good if nobody has looked at it since. The tool runs, but someone still needs to be paying attention to what it is saying.

The next five years

What will the customer-facing side of the industry look like in five years?

Pickup and delivery will become the expectation, not the differentiator. Operators building that infrastructure now will be ready. The missed-stop problem is solved through confirmation-based systems (customers tap to confirm, drivers only show up where someone is actually ready). That is better for the customer, the driver, and the bottom line.

Real-time order visibility will become standard. And the competitors building AI-driven communication into their platforms, such as automated responses and behaviour-based campaign targeting, are already moving in that direction. Operators whose software keeps up will have an advantage.

Final thoughts?

People hand over their best suits, their coats, things that matter to them to their cleaner. The communication around that transaction—confirmation it was received, an update when it is ready, a reminder when it has not been picked up—is not just operational. It tells the customer the business is paying attention. Most of the tools to do this right are already inside SMRT.

The gap is not the technology. It is operators not knowing what they have, or not taking the time to set it up. That is on us as much as anyone.

Where are YOU in your connectivity journey?
You may have a great POS system for your company. You may have dabbled in sending out email marketing, or using text messages to alert your customers to their order status. But have you explored all that your system can do and implemented the newer tools at your fingertips? If not, you are paying for things you never use, and may find your competitors are pulling ahead of you by making themselves more accessible to customers through better connectivity.

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