2010 has seen a number of my clients who were looking to buy new machines put off their decision making until next year, decisions that have not only impacted the sales department but also our service desk. In these cases, water filters have never played a more important role in keeping our fleet operating efficiently.
Recently I had a meeting with a prospect whose complaint was about the level of calls they have been receiving for their 3 year old machines, sometimes machines faulting on a daily basis. The reason was simple - limescale build up in water valves, causing leaks and faults like no end. The answer? 3M ScaleGuard Pro Water filters were placed on their machines and the piping and valves were replaced, and since then the calls have dropped to once per three months on average.
Clients often ask me why there is such an importance placed on water filters and the above example proves the necessity, especially in hard water areas such as London. From a their point of view, by ensuring the water that trickles through their machines and into their cups of coffee or tea is passed through a filtration system to remove hardness, reliability and machine lifespan are increased significantly and a frequent headache is removed. In turn, a reduction in service calls and part replacements due to wear and tear is a huge cost saving for the operator; the answer isn't always low staffing, but the way in which the service is carried out and what product is used.
So remember, next time a hot drink machine is installed - if a water filter is not attached, don't turn the machine on!
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Sunday 21 November 2010
Ideas for Healthy Vending
One of the major challenges facing a 21st Century operator in vending is the pressure to become more environmental or health concious for the end user - more nutrious snack items in machines and movement away from soft drinks to isotonic + non-carbonated items, all placed inside machines that deliver greater energy savings.
As a retail outlet, a snack machine is 60% of the time priced higher than that of a local supermarket in order to cover costs of a 24hr offer and with healthy items priced even higher than normal snacks, those wishing to simply purchase a good old Mars bar will end up trekking to the shop - a negative for both the client who ends up losing man hours best spent working, and the operator in their cashflow. What do we do?
Branding of machines has become of more importance in public sites; wobble stickers and in-tray POS certainly direct people to the right area; psychology says that people are predispositioned in certain situations, in our case it is the punter who is expecting to see loads of Mars Bars and Snickers. By visually pointing out areas where healthy items are, you can expect to see an increase in client satisfaction and also sales.
Wherever possible, clients and operators are taking the opportunity to market specific items within vending machines, and to do this successfully you need to ensure that the offer contained within remains FRESH. Introduce a monthly rotational guest line, from stock products that you have determined to be rotational, and continually monitor the sales. Seasonality can play a big part, and I always make sure that we introduce more nutritional items in the month on January, when most people are looking to do their "detoxing"; Skinny Water is destined to be a good seller this year.
Percy Daltons have remarketed a great selection of healthy nut mixes, some of them can even count towards your "five a day". As a business development manager placing these items in machines across the UK, the cashew nuts are one of the best sellers for me, and can be priced at a relatively impressive 60p.
I recently partnered with a good friend of mine, Nick Fletcher, on bringing a "Pick and Mix" machine to the UK from Holland. The bulk vendors are branded up with funky, friendly and modern graphics and you simply chose from 5 canisters what you would like vended, or "mixed" into a 100g branded container. Each pot is one of your "five-a-day" and all the nuts are extremely healthy. Expect to see further developments in a few months once we place on more sites and develop the offer further.
Healthy vending has suffered a huge downturn in the last year due to the recession, with operators demanding they put more top sellers into the machines as the volumes to sustain simply arent there. I firmly believe that by marketing the offer well, encouraging offers in seasonal times, and by chosing the right offer for the client, healthy vending can revolutionise our industry in the next few years.
As a retail outlet, a snack machine is 60% of the time priced higher than that of a local supermarket in order to cover costs of a 24hr offer and with healthy items priced even higher than normal snacks, those wishing to simply purchase a good old Mars bar will end up trekking to the shop - a negative for both the client who ends up losing man hours best spent working, and the operator in their cashflow. What do we do?
Branding of machines has become of more importance in public sites; wobble stickers and in-tray POS certainly direct people to the right area; psychology says that people are predispositioned in certain situations, in our case it is the punter who is expecting to see loads of Mars Bars and Snickers. By visually pointing out areas where healthy items are, you can expect to see an increase in client satisfaction and also sales.
Wherever possible, clients and operators are taking the opportunity to market specific items within vending machines, and to do this successfully you need to ensure that the offer contained within remains FRESH. Introduce a monthly rotational guest line, from stock products that you have determined to be rotational, and continually monitor the sales. Seasonality can play a big part, and I always make sure that we introduce more nutritional items in the month on January, when most people are looking to do their "detoxing"; Skinny Water is destined to be a good seller this year.
Percy Daltons have remarketed a great selection of healthy nut mixes, some of them can even count towards your "five a day". As a business development manager placing these items in machines across the UK, the cashew nuts are one of the best sellers for me, and can be priced at a relatively impressive 60p.
I recently partnered with a good friend of mine, Nick Fletcher, on bringing a "Pick and Mix" machine to the UK from Holland. The bulk vendors are branded up with funky, friendly and modern graphics and you simply chose from 5 canisters what you would like vended, or "mixed" into a 100g branded container. Each pot is one of your "five-a-day" and all the nuts are extremely healthy. Expect to see further developments in a few months once we place on more sites and develop the offer further.
Healthy vending has suffered a huge downturn in the last year due to the recession, with operators demanding they put more top sellers into the machines as the volumes to sustain simply arent there. I firmly believe that by marketing the offer well, encouraging offers in seasonal times, and by chosing the right offer for the client, healthy vending can revolutionise our industry in the next few years.
What are YOU doing about healthy vending?
Friday 19 November 2010
21st Century, 20th Century Vending
Our industry has an incredible amount of creative manufacturers - in my time, innovation has happened faster than you could blink. From LED lighting and touch screen technology to wave and pay systems, there is an abundance of new technology.
Unfortunately the majority of those in the industry are what I would call "traditional" operators; although open to looking at new technology, their processes and business ultimately stays the same as they decide investing in a new piece of technology would not be cost effective and require a large amount of man hours that, in a period of recession, they simply don't have. It's these business that are now starting to suffer towards the end of the year, as their clients are being approached by more pioneering operators that promise an enhanced level of reporting, account management and customer satisfaction.
Investing in change and innovation can improve business performance on a level that can't be replicated by simple cost cutting. Our business was one of the first UK operators to roll out the Vendman series of products throughout our business - http://www.vendman.com/ - Sales, Service, Operating, Cash and Invoicing and all other departments gradually saw an improvement, and it's highlighted areas where we have had too much man power, or not enough, and in turn allow us to monitor how we improve our business. By monitoring our operators using their blackberries, we reduced stock loss and cash loss by over 10% - a huge increase on cash collection and that alone has paid back the investment.
There have of course been downfalls and limitations, and the sheer level of groundbreaking technology in the software means that it has taken over 20 months to get it fully implemented across our fleet. The man hour invested has been incredible and all our staff have had to be trained on the useage, a huge cost there. But here on in, there is only room for improvement.
As we come to the close of the first decade of the 21st Century, our industry has experienced the best decade of innovation, I believe, since the inception of the first vending machine.
What does the next 10 years hold for us?
Unfortunately the majority of those in the industry are what I would call "traditional" operators; although open to looking at new technology, their processes and business ultimately stays the same as they decide investing in a new piece of technology would not be cost effective and require a large amount of man hours that, in a period of recession, they simply don't have. It's these business that are now starting to suffer towards the end of the year, as their clients are being approached by more pioneering operators that promise an enhanced level of reporting, account management and customer satisfaction.
Investing in change and innovation can improve business performance on a level that can't be replicated by simple cost cutting. Our business was one of the first UK operators to roll out the Vendman series of products throughout our business - http://www.vendman.com/ - Sales, Service, Operating, Cash and Invoicing and all other departments gradually saw an improvement, and it's highlighted areas where we have had too much man power, or not enough, and in turn allow us to monitor how we improve our business. By monitoring our operators using their blackberries, we reduced stock loss and cash loss by over 10% - a huge increase on cash collection and that alone has paid back the investment.
There have of course been downfalls and limitations, and the sheer level of groundbreaking technology in the software means that it has taken over 20 months to get it fully implemented across our fleet. The man hour invested has been incredible and all our staff have had to be trained on the useage, a huge cost there. But here on in, there is only room for improvement.
As we come to the close of the first decade of the 21st Century, our industry has experienced the best decade of innovation, I believe, since the inception of the first vending machine.
What does the next 10 years hold for us?
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