Everyone has laundry, and many clothes require specialty care. As a result, dry cleaners provide necessary services on which most of us rely. Those who leave clothing with a cleaner expect the clothes to remain safe. As a result, dry cleaners need to carry commercial insurance. A business owners policy (BOP) is usually a good place to start. With this coverage, you’ll gain valuable protection for the clothing in your care. How can you leverage this policy?

Why You Have a Responsibility for Customer Clothing

Dry cleaners promise customers to return their clothing to them, clean and undamaged. It’s that simple. If something happens to those items, you can’t follow through on your duties. Therefore, you might have a responsibility to compensate those parties for their losses.

You might not think a single damaged shirt or bedspread costs a lot of money. But, think about it in the context of a loss to all the items stored in the property. The fact that you probably keep hundreds of garments in the store drives up the value of your business. A large enough hazard could damage multiple assets, sending damage costs skyrocketing. Not only that, a single item lost is a financial loss to the client. Customer service basics show you should offer them compensation.

The Benefits of a BOP

If something happens to items in your care, you can often turn to your BOP to compensate clients for the losses.

Let’s say that one night, a fire breaks out, gutting the business. You couldn’t have prevented it, and now thousands of dollars in client clothing is gone. Most BOPs provide property insurance and liability coverage. This can help you replace items in your care. With this coverage, clients receive money back for the things that they’ve lost.

Coverage can also extend to damage that you cause yourself. Let’s say that one day, you accidentally burn a client’s heirloom table cloth while pressing it. Should that client sue, liability coverage might help you settle for the mistake. It often also helps you cover legal costs that might arise. You won’t have to put your business’s bottom line at stake because of an unfortunate accident.

So, talk to one of our Dallas commercial insurance agents. We can tailor coverage specifically to the needs of a dry cleaner. We’ll help you better understand the coverage from which you can benefit.