Four Top Tips for choosing the right Coffee Machine

It amazes me how many times I have visited an office where the client has asked me to review their refreshment provision, and I find a coffee machine that is completely not suited to the environment it is in. Clients need me to be the expert in the field, and for those looking to go out to market and source a number of coffee machines soon or even someone checking they made sure the right machine was chosen, here is my handy guide to help you get what you require.

TIP NUMBER ONE – KNOW YOUR STAFF COUNT

 Seems like a basic principle but can more often than not be over looked. Consider how many people will be using this machine on a daily basis, and multiply that number by three (the average number of cups of coffee per day each employee has). So, if you had 100 staff, any decent refreshment solutions provider would need to find a solution which can handle approximately 300 cups per day – whether through a combination of machines, or via one single large machine…

In situations where there are large numbers of staff (for example, 600), think about installing machines that have an external grout option. The last thing you want to happen is to install 5 brand spanking new coffee machines that are all singing and all dancing, and have to empty the internal waste container 5 times per day because the usage levels were not considered in advance!

TIP NUMBER TWO – THINK ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT

What does your company do? In a call centre environment valuable time could be wasted by employees waiting 40 seconds for a bean to cup drink, and in these situations an instant coffee machine that brews a decent white coffee in 8 seconds may be more appropriate.

Are your staff spread across a number of floors? Think about where best to place machines in order to reduce time spent travelling back and forth, multiple tea points per floor can be the best solution.

TIP NUMBER THREE – THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE

Leases on coffee machines generally run for between 3 to 5 years, so consider how the business is expected to grow over the next 3 years and what impact this would have on capital expense, need for extra machines. You can never predict exactly what will happen, but it is safe to assume that a coffee machine that is only capable of handling 150 cups per day in a 50 staff environment will lead to further machine requirements in 3 years’ time – what if you don’t have the space for more machines? As someone once told me; fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

TIP NUMBER FOUR  - WHAT DO YOU WANT THE COFFEE MACHINE TO DO?

Do you have the requirements for tea bags, or can you cut down waste by incorporating that into the machine but losing a few features? You will eliminate the waste of used tea bags.

Do you need to have a decaffeinated option, when employees have requested so? Generally, these make up about 5% of all coffee ever drunk from a machine, so does it make sense to lose another instant option e.g. hot chocolate?

Think carefully about what your employees want from a machine, and consider which of these are necessities.

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There are of course many other factors that influence the recommendation on what coffee machines are right for YOU; to go into all of them would negate the need for me to be in business (!), and ensure this post is 4,000 words long.

Choosing the right hot beverage machine can sometimes be overlooked, so think carefully when you make your next purchase!

The Importance of Water Filters

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!

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.

What are YOU doing about healthy vending?

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?