You’ve heard it before. 80% of your sales come from 20% of your machines, or customers, or products, or … you get the point. It’s called the Pareto Principle, but it’s really just about good common sense when providing great customer service. We are going to outline 3 simple steps to rapidly maximize sales utilizing the 80/20 rule in your vending operations today.
We all have our favorites and that fact applies to the vending industry as much as it does to our favorite burgers at fast food outlets or our favorite places to shop. But when you have to satisfy all your customers, how do you optimize your vending machines?
Three easy steps can help vending operators find that right mix of product for optimal sales.
- Know your customers
In most cases, it’s all about making sure you know your clients and their employees, students, or customers. It means looking at the locations and making sure you have the right number of machines where the traffic is most. One easy way is to create a survey for new customers to find out more about who they are and what they like. This is a great starting point to make the most out of your vending machines.
- Track machine performance
It also means stocking the right number of products in the machine and tracking how they sell. In the case of items with shorter shelf life, sometimes that means not completely filling a spindle or row. Then you can use that excess product in another machine or client. Software solutions are the best for tracking, but even a simple spreadsheet can do the trick.
- Optimize your re-stocking
Make sure you visit the machines when they need servicing. By keeping fast moving products stocked, that’s more opportunity to sell. An empty shelf doesn’t make you money. But this also means looking at low performing products and possibly experimenting with different positions or locations. Using the solution or spreadsheet, you can see how often you need to service a machine.
So how can you keep up with what sells and what doesn’t when you’ve got a lot of machines spread across multiple clients or locations?
In this day and age of data, vending management solutions are becoming the tool of choice when maximizing your sales and routes. By tracking sales as they happen and reporting those sales, operators can have a better handle on what is selling and what isn’t.
Not only can you follow the sales, but experimenting with new or different products offers less risk since the system can keep up with the numbers. Even if the client or a customer requests an item, using the numbers will let you put the right amount and avoid waste.
