royalforest Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 How does one handle this maintenance call? Service on the location is not ready for a week but the business called for a repair on my machine. The location is 45 minutes away? Thanks Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 There's not enough detail there at all to give you an answer as to what I would do personally but... I would ask myself (and the account) several questions. What's wrong with the machine? What are the hours of operation at the location? Is this account important? I don't care if the account is serviced every 2 weeks and they called for a service call the day after I serviced it. If it's a good account, I'm going to take care of it ASAP! If it's a bad account, and there are more important accounts out there that need serviced immediately, that bad account is going to have to wait. It's not worth going out of business over but keep a good reputation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 How does one handle this maintenance call? Service on the location is not ready for a week but the business called for a repair on my machine. The location is 45 minutes away? Thanks Rich Hey, Rich good to see you posting, hope all is well. As small independent operators one of our greatest competitive advantages is service. For me, my service standard is that if I get a call from a customer before noon my initial response will be by the end of the day. A call after noon will have a initial response before noon the next day. By initial service I mean that I will show up and diagnose and hopefully fix the problem. If parts are needed then repairs will be completed ASAP. It does not matter if they are due for service that day or a week from now. The machine will be serviced after the repair has been made so I don't have to come back again in a day or two to service it. If its a top 20 account then I will often provide a response within the hour if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royalforest Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Mission I hope all is well with you! I am grateful to get your advice over the years. Thanks Angry Chris for your response. I have some $1000.00 service days. Sometimes there is a maintenance call at a location BEFORE I need to service the route. When that happens, my route driver fixes that machine and then services the route because the route is 45 minutes away and he is already in that area. Since I am servicing the route before it should be serviced, I end up collecting only about 500.00 or 600.00 which makes it a loss for the day. As Bev taught me, never have a route driver leave the warehouse without bringing back at least $1000.00. Whats my solution? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coinvestor Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Mission I hope all is well with you! I am grateful to get your advice over the years. Thanks Angry Chris for your response. I have some $1000.00 service days. Sometimes there is a maintenance call at a location BEFORE I need to service the route. When that happens, my route driver fixes that machine and then services the route because the route is 45 minutes away and he is already in that area. Since I am servicing the route before it should be serviced, I end up collecting only about 500.00 or 600.00 which makes it a loss for the day. As Bev taught me, never have a route driver leave the warehouse without bringing back at least $1000.00. Whats my solution? If you don't show up to fix the machine you can skip next weeks service My standard is similar to missions. Service calls always cost you money. Its just a cost of doing business. Look at service calls as an opportunity to show why your business is better than the others. In the end service calls cost you less than the loss of sales from non working machines. JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 How does one handle this maintenance call? Service on the location is not ready for a week but the business called for a repair on my machine. The location is 45 minutes away? Thanks Rich i try to do all service calls within 24hrs if possible, may not get it WORKING within 24hrs but at least get out there and see what the problem is. i dont see what the relevance is if its not time for service, if the machine is not working you are not making money anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royalforest Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 ok thanks. I just did not think driving an hour and a half round trip was cost effective to fix 1 machine. I probably should just go and fix that one machine and come back another day and service the machines in that area. If I was to service the machines in that area and they are not ready for service then it will be a loss for that day. I should probably do maintenance a seperate day from service so my service days will be profitable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Mission I hope all is well with you! I am grateful to get your advice over the years. Thanks Angry Chris for your response. I have some $1000.00 service days. Sometimes there is a maintenance call at a location BEFORE I need to service the route. When that happens, my route driver fixes that machine and then services the route because the route is 45 minutes away and he is already in that area. Since I am servicing the route before it should be serviced, I end up collecting only about 500.00 or 600.00 which makes it a loss for the day. As Bev taught me, never have a route driver leave the warehouse without bringing back at least $1000.00. Whats my solution? $1,000/day is pretty solid for a route driver but there are exceptions. Generally speaking though, if the route has a good solid mix of good accounts and small accounts, lots of soda and lots of snack, $1,000 is respectable in my book for the driver to do in 8 hours. As for the issue with only collecting $500 or $600... I know this can happen but you still have to consider the consequences. Always keep in mind that it only takes one person with a big mouth to really ruin your reputation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Royalforest how many accts do you have to hit that number (1k/day) And whatts the mix like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 ok thanks. I just did not think driving an hour and a half round trip was cost effective to fix 1 machine. I probably should just go and fix that one machine and come back another day and service the machines in that area. If I was to service the machines in that area and they are not ready for service then it will be a loss for that day. I should probably do maintenance a seperate day from service so my service days will be profitable. Well, depending on how much this account makes in a day, I think you may have the wrong mindset. You are concerned about the loss of your time and fuel expense. Let's say that for an account 45 minutes away is all highway or 45 miles (90 miles round trip) and you get 9 miles per gallon (10 gallons at $4/gallon = $40). You value your time and you believe you are worth $20/hour and it takes you 2 full hours for the commute + repair time or $40). You have spent $80 for this repair. If this were a decent account that did $100/day and you wanted to wait another 5 days, you would lose the revenue of $500 and the profit of about $200 or so. So the question of whether it is cost effective or not really depends on how much the account does. Also, imagine if that $80 worth of fuel/time that you SAVED by NOT going there cost you that same account (if it did $500/week or $25,000/year, you lost $25,000/year worth of revenue to save yourself the loss of $80). I try to be cost effective too but I am not willing to lose precious sales and even more precious customers in order to save a couple of dollars. Repair expenses are just part of the deal that we all have to take part in as vending operators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royalforest Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 A problem that I have is many machines on my route are old refurbished can machines. They have coin co validators and coin co coin mechs. They break down way more then the leased ones I got from Pepsi. Matter of fact the pepsi machines has not broken down in years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 doing some basic maintenance on the machines will help you avoid service calls, clean the validators vacuum the gunk out of the coils and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 A problem that I have is many machines on my route are old refurbished can machines. They have coin co validators and coin co coin mechs. They break down way more then the leased ones I got from Pepsi. Matter of fact the pepsi machines has not broken down in years. I'm baffled by much of what you say here. It seems as if you have the profits to afford a route driver which would lead me to believe that you have some pretty nice accounts out there. I'm wondering if you have been focusing too hard on trying to make the most amount of profits, today, with the least amount of investments, today but not really worrying about how much you COULD be making if you made some better investments... but I might be rushing to judgement too soon. I'm almost certain that you have some accounts with junk equipment that breaks down often and the sales at these locations would justify better equipment... and this is just basing off of the implications of your thinking. Maybe you should really consider upgrading your better customers if they can financially justify doing so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coinvestor Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 I'm baffled by much of what you say here. It seems as if you have the profits to afford a route driver which would lead me to believe that you have some pretty nice accounts out there. I'm wondering if you have been focusing too hard on trying to make the most amount of profits, today, with the least amount of investments, today but not really worrying about how much you COULD be making if you made some better investments... but I might be rushing to judgement too soon. I'm almost certain that you have some accounts with junk equipment that breaks down often and the sales at these locations would justify better equipment... and this is just basing off of the implications of your thinking. Maybe you should really consider upgrading your better customers if they can financially justify doing so? I agree here. No offense royal, but your attitude is the same as some local vendors here and that is what I use to get accounts. Once people switch to my company, they wonder why they stayed with the previous company so long. Your customers will know how you feel about them by the things you do and the little things you say even though I know you don't tell them what your telling us. While your still debating whether or not to go fix the machine, I would have already been out there, fixed the machine, then thanked the person for taking the time to call me and gave them a free drink. Remember "service" is all you really have to sell. We all have snickers bars and honey buns, service is the only thing that sets a company apart. I have spent $40 in gas just to refund someones $2 and I would do it again tomorrow if needed because the $42 is a great price for the impression I have made on my customers. I tell my customers that if its important enough for them to call me, its important enough for me to show up. When people get trained as my "customers" they will quickly become respectful of this and not call unless its necessary. Like dogcow said, if you have ongoing equipment issues then that is another topic and you need to look closely at that. In my opinion, if an account is not worth updated equipment then they probably don't deserve the equipment they have. On the same note, if you have a stop that doesn't justify making a service call to then you should probably get rid of the stop. JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snack dude Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 I agree here. No offense royal, but your attitude is the same as some local vendors here and that is what I use to get accounts. Once people switch to my company, they wonder why they stayed with the previous company so long. Your customers will know how you feel about them by the things you do and the little things you say even though I know you don't tell them what your telling us. While your still debating whether or not to go fix the machine, I would have already been out there, fixed the machine, then thanked the person for taking the time to call me and gave them a free drink. Remember "service" is all you really have to sell. We all have snickers bars and honey buns, service is the only thing that sets a company apart. I have spent $40 in gas just to refund someones $2 and I would do it again tomorrow if needed because the $42 is a great price for the impression I have made on my customers. I tell my customers that if its important enough for them to call me, its important enough for me to show up. When people get trained as my "customers" they will quickly become respectful of this and not call unless its necessary. Like dogcow said, if you have ongoing equipment issues then that is another topic and you need to look closely at that. In my opinion, if an account is not worth updated equipment then they probably don't deserve the equipment they have. On the same note, if you have a stop that doesn't justify making a service call to then you should probably get rid of the stop. JD AMEN Brother Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 A problem that I have is many machines on my route are old refurbished can machines. They have coin co validators and coin co coin mechs. They break down way more then the leased ones I got from Pepsi. Matter of fact the pepsi machines has not broken down in years. Granted CoinCO, IMO, is not the best but if maintained they can and will give many years of troublefree service. How often are they being cleaned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royalforest Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 I don't think they were ever cleaned. What is required? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walta Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 When you decide to take on an account that is an hour’s drive from your base, you need to be sure you have time and to make a few service calls and still turn a profit. If the route man gets to a machine and finds a jammed bill and he gets it working that’s OK. I think you are crazy to pull him off his route to make service calls. Now is he working overtime? Or does he start tomorrow hours behind. Will he rush threw and does a half XXX job and make more call? A good route man has his hand full keeping your customers happy, the machines full and the cash boxes empted. Don’t kid yourself the big boys have maintenance on call 24-7-365. Walta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 I don't think they were ever cleaned. What is required? the optical sensors, at the very least, you can use the cleaning cards from happ controls or just clean them with a q-tip and some rubbing alc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royalforest Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 Wow that should be a big help. How often do you clean them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 i use the cleaning cards from happ once a month, if the acceptor stops working i clean the sensors manually. that bring it back to life about 75% of the time you can refer to the manual for more detailed cleaning instructions. if you use the cleaning card it prevents a lot of problems especially in dirty environments (shop floors,etc..) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 For cleaning a mech I use those disposable shop towels, dampen with windex or all purpose cleaner, pull out acceptor and open it to clean out the coin path and sensors. Also, I carry canned compressed air to blow out the seloniod mechanisms at the bottom of the mech when needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 For cleaning a mech I use those disposable shop towels, dampen with windex or all purpose cleaner, pull out acceptor and open it to clean out the coin path and sensors. Also, I carry canned compressed air to blow out the seloniod mechanisms at the bottom of the mech when needed. the instructions say dont use windex , it doesnt harm the val? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 the instructions say dont use windex , it doesnt harm the val? Was referring to mechs. When I was starting out I didn't know any better and started cleaning mechs with window cleaner. Eventually learned that it was not recommended but by then I had been cleaning them for several years and had not experienced any problems as a result so I continued with the practice. If I don't have a all purpose cleaner handy then I will still occasionally use window cleaner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Was referring to mechs. When I was starting out I didn't know any better and started cleaning mechs with window cleaner. Eventually learned that it was not recommended but by then I had been cleaning them for several years and had not experienced any problems as a result so I continued with the practice. If I don't have a all purpose cleaner handy then I will still occasionally use window cleaner. I am guilty of this but I have to say that window cleaner does wonders on virtually everything as an all-purpose-cleaner. Those disposable wipes are also amazing for really dirty gritty stuff that can often be found on the bottom of pastry trays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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