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Written by Katie Waxman on June 22, 2023

Email marketing is a powerful tool for vending businesses of all sizes. Why? Because it’s how your company can build and nurture relationships with refreshment service customers. 

Especially with business-to-business decision-makers, email is key. It’s preferred over paper mailers and phone calls by most of your current and potential clients. Just ask them. That makes email marketing a must for your vending marketing strategy. 

Because email marketing is such a vital part of a company’s growth and success, we’ve broken down its benefits. Read on for six ways it will help your breakroom services company succeed. 

1. Tailoring Messages

One thing email marketing lets you do is create a message geared toward each customer. Custom content better resonates with recipients. The more the customer feels the information is helpful and on target, the more they will open and click on the emails you send. This boosts engagement and conversion rates. Which is the goal of any email campaign!

2. Getting Feeback and Insight

In a service business, like vending, you need to know what your customers think. So, include links to surveys and feedback forms in your email marketing. This gives you a way to gain insights into the satisfaction level of your customer. It’s also a great way to get suggestions on how to improve your service and better meet their needs. This creates a strong connection and drives up loyalty.

3. Boosting Sales

When an email is done well, it can entice customers to take action. They will buy more products, add a line of service, or take advantage of your promotional deal. This will boost your revenue and profitability!

4. Sharing Your News

Emails make it easy to communicate often with facility managers and human resource personnel in charge of breakroom services. Maybe you send a monthly informative enewsletter or digital company update as needed. However you design your email marketing, it keeps clients in the know about your offerings, any promotions, and the industry news. This is an ideal way to foster trust and power up the customer relationship.

5. Increases Website Visits

Including a call-to-action in your emails can lead to traffic for your website. For example, “Click Here to Learn More” could take an interested facility manager to your water filtration service page and get you some extra revenue. Ultimately, boosting website traffic is good as it leads to more conversions. Whether that means more customers or a higher ticket for an existing customer, it’s a win-win!

6. Getting Info Out Quickly

One of the best things about email marketing is that it’s digital. Meaning it doesn’t take as long to plan and produce as print materials. Emails can be crafted and sent closer to a promo deadline, in a certain season, or as a result of a certain event, like a company anniversary. The digital world moves fast. So, it makes sense that your email campaigns would too!

And We’re Not Done Yet…

There are plenty more benefits to email marketing. That’s why VendCentral offers marketing programs that make email marketing simple and easy. Think custom email campaigns that will “WOW” your target vending client. Or, simply build loyalty. Give VendCentral a call at (866) 699-8363.

And stay tuned for Part 2 in our email marketing benefits series. In that one, we talk money benefits. Trust us, you won’t want to miss it!

Written by Katie Waxman on September 20, 2022

The customer-service platform ZippyAssist offers many operational advantages. These include instant customer feedback and a dashboard full of operational data. Check out our video overview here. But how do these drive sales? Read on for how ZippyAssist can increase sales at existing vending and even micro-market locations. Plus, how it helps you win new refreshment service bids.

Establish Trust

While consumers are more comfortable than ever with using vending machines, and unattended retail in general, there is still one major barrier – trust. Will the product get stuck? Who do I even go to for a refund? Did they restock today, or is my favorite chip slot still empty? These types of questions run through the mind of the consumer. Furthermore, they create doubt and limit the amount a consumer is willing to spend at your vending machine.

Thankfully, ZippyAssist inspires trust. How? By putting confidence back in the consumer’s hands. Now, they can provide feedback and make their voice heard. They know there is someone on the receiving end who will refund their money or restock that empty coil. If help was easier to access, 38% of customers would use unattended retail more. Those are already your vending customers and now they say they will spend more. That’s a huge win.

Ask for Feedback

Another useful feature of ZippyAssist is that it allows you to see individual customers. And you can use that to your advantage. Let’s say a consumer reached out to you via ZippyAssist. You solved the problem quickly, and as a result, they gave you a great rating on the platform. This person is now an advocate for your company. Ask them to go on your Google Business Listing page and leave a review. Ask them to post about the experience on your company’s Facebook page. Since facility managers and human resource professionals read reviews of potential service partners, this can be invaluable to your vending marketing.

Use ZippyAssist to Optimize Micro-Markets

While a micro-market doesn’t have the potential for a stuck coil, there are still ZippyAssist benefits. One is to use consumer feedback to improve service and product selection. Racks with empty pegs or shelves empty of food at 9 a.m. can be reported by consumers. These are potential sales if products were there. Plus, it gives you direct access to the consumer, instead of hearing product requests through the facility manager or human resources department. Encourage this type of feedback to optimize the micro-market service and ultimately increase sales at that location.

Stand Out to New Business

When competing with other vending or micro-market providers, it can be difficult to stand out. The customer sees similar machines, the same product brands, etc. However, what if they saw one company providing peace of mind through a customer-experience platform? That would be a tipping point. ZippyAssist is a value proposition that can be the tipping point for breakroom service decision-makers so you win the RFP.

ZippyAssist is a Business-Driving Tool

The desire to use unattended retail, such as vending machines and micro-markets is there. Consumers are more willing than ever to spend money at your equipment, but only if they have faith in it. Give them that sense of security and positive customer experience. It will, in turn, boost your sales and keep you from losing customers. You’ll even gain new ones thanks to your investment.

Talk to VendCentral about ZippyAssist today to really understand how it can benefit you. Reach out for a free consultation by email or phone at (866) 699-8363.

Written by Katie Waxman on June 1, 2022

Hungry for new vending clients? Focused on retaining current customers? Consider your level of personalization online. Have you gone beyond the basics – logo, brand colors, and website? Those are all critical first steps. However, to elevate your vending marketing, you need to personalize it. Why? Because that is the key to bringing in more business and keeping the business you already have.

Ready to learn how you can use personalization? With this intention, keep reading.

Breaking down personalization

Personalization is a long word that simply means showing who you are online. Websites full of stock art look great. However, they are generic. That’s purposeful, as stock art companies sell stock art, not vending art. Therefore, the photos don’t show your specific vending services. Nor does stock art showcase your employees or brand. Using only stock art can cause you to blend in with other vending businesses in your area that also use stock art. As a result, facility managers and human resource managers won’t differentiate your company from your competitor. Personalization in your vending marketing can change that.

Utilize photos

Remember the saying, a picture is worth a 1,000 words? It’s still true, even with online vending marketing. Therefore, to personalize your vending business online, you must focus on photos. Consider the services you offer. Do they include office coffee service? What about water filtration service? How about that micro-market service you’re growing? You will want photos of all of these. Photos that show your coffee brewers,  your branded vending machines, and your specific micro-market fixtures. Furthermore, it is important to showcase your employees in these photos. To do that, snap of photo of them installing equipment at a friendly customer location. Another way to include employees is to take pictures at corporate events or run a featured employee each month. As a bonus, these photos are great to personalize your social media and often get shared by the employees themselves.

With a smartphone in nearly every pocket, getting photos is easy. Nevertheless, consider hiring a professional photographer for a day. A professional will consider lighting, background, and composition. The result will be a personalized photograph that is professional and rivals stock art.

Don’t forget other areas of personalization

Photos are not the only area a vending services business can personalize. For example, social media is an ideal platform to add personalization. You might want to do a short video showing a new location install. Alternatively, you may want to repost a community event you took part in. The most important thing is to keep the content personal, not general. In this way, you will set yourself apart from competitors. 

Personalization can also mean seasonal promotions. Put together a promotions calendar. Then create PDFs or images with the specific products you want to sell. These can be put on your website, social media feeds, and even micro-market kiosks. Promotions are a way to be unique in your service area and increase sales. 

In the end, personalization can take your vending business to the next level. If you need help getting there, contact VendCentral. We’ll develop a distinctive vending marketing strategy that will bring in new leads and impress existing customers.