Free Dry Promotion
Overview
With the Free Dry promotion, you are enabling a secondary balance on all laundry cards called the Free Dry Balance.
When a customer starts a particular washer, the washer reader adds value to a laundry card's Free Dry Balance.
For example, you can specify that a 60lb washer should add $1.00 to a Free Dry Balance, whereas a 30lb washer should only adds $0.50.
When a laundry card is presented to the dryer, the dryer reader will attempt to deduct money from the Free Dry Balance first.
If that balance is depleted, the dryer reader will then deduct money from the primary balance (i.e the customer's paid balance).
Notes:
- This promotion does not use the concept of points (like other card systems might); it uses actual dollar values that can be used on dryers only
- The dryer is NOT free in a general sense. The dryer has its nominal vend price. Someone cannot walk off the street and start using your dryers for free.
Example:
Operation | Laundry Card's Primary (Paid) Balance | Laundry Card's Free Dry Promotion Balance |
Customer adds $10 to a new laundry card | $10.00 | $0.00 |
Customer pays for a $4 washer which gives out $0.80 towards the Free Dry Balance | $6.00 | $0.80 |
| Pay for $0.30 dryer | $6.00 | $0.50 |
Pay for $0.30 dryer | $6.00 | $0.20 |
Pay for $0.30 dryer | $5.90 | $0.00 |
Pay for $0.30 dryer | $5.60 | $0.00 |
Step 1: Configuring Free Dry Amount
You need to specify how much money a particular washer reader should add to a laundry card's Free Dry Balance whenever that washer is started.
This is done by changing the value of a setting called Free Dry Bonus Amount on every washer reader.
In other words, if your washer readers are already grouped, you can use the Bulk Pricing feature to change the Free Dry Bonus Amount setting on all readers in that group, at the same time.
Or you can configure this setting individually on each reader by using the reader's individual reader settings page.
A example of this setting as seen from the Bulk Pricing page:
An example of this setting as seen from the reader's individual settings page:
Step 2: Enabling (and disabling) the Free Dry Promotion
The promotion can be enabled/disabled store-wide using a setting inside VAC01 (the primary Value Add Center).
Click on the wrench icon to access the VAC's configuration page.
Then click Edit VAC Settings and scroll down to the Free Balance Display setting.
Change it to Free Dry, and then submit the request by clicking Update Settings.
You want to set the Free Balance Display setting to Free Dry.
For more information about the Wash and Dry setting, check the note at the bottom of this article
The system will automatically update all the readers, and other VACs, to enable the Free Dry Promotion on the individual units 1 at a time.
Depending on how many readers you have in your location, this may take several minutes to complete.
Confirming Free Dry is Enabled:
A small fire icon, next to the reader, indicates that the specific reader has it's Free Dry Promotion setting enabled.
You'll want to ensure that all dryers and all washers have this little symbol since both washers and dryers participate in this promotion.
If after waiting several minutes, you are still seeing a reader that does NOT have a fire symbol next to it, that reader is not currently participating in the Free Dry Promotion.
Navigate to that reader's individual settings page, and confirm that it's Free Balance Configuration setting is currently set to Free Dry:
Once the free dry promotion has been enabled, you will see a secondary balance number when looking at transactions via the Laundro Portal.
This secondary balance number is the Free Dry Balance for that particular laundry card:
Customers can also view their free dry balance by placing their card into a VAC card holder, on a VAC that is equipped with a touch screen:
Disabling Free Dry Promotion:
To disable the Free Dry Promotion, go to VAC01's settings page, and simply change the Free Balance Display back to Disabled
then submit the request by clicking the Update Settings button.
Just like when enabling Free Dry, the system will update this setting on the other VACs, and all the readers, 1 at a time.
Once you've disabled the free dry promotion, all free dry balances, that have already accumulated on customer's laundry cards, will remain on those cards.
These balances will not be used while the promotion is disabled, but if you re-enabling the free dry promotion in the future, customers will be able to use the free dry balances they've already accumulated on their laundry cards.
The Wash and Dry Configuration:
There is one other Free Balance Display configuration type; called Wash and Dry
The effect of this configuration is that washers will also accept Free Dry Balances towards washer payments,
but in this configuration, the washers will NOT add to a laundry card's Free Dry Balance.
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