Hiya All from White House ;)

[dreamerscove]

Hiya All

My name is Lee, I live in White House TN   Gotcha LOL 

I'm a newbie.  Exploring my first few machines.  I welcome any advice and direction.  Especially for such a small town where most of the locations are filled. 

This looks like a great place to learn new things

Ideas Welcome

Peace

Lee

[mission vending]

Welcome,

Full line or bulk? or both?

[dreamerscove]

Hiya!

Just bulk atm.  Getting my feet wet without drowning

Peace

Lee

[mission vending]

Well jump on in, the waters fine. Most of us don't bite and those that do are current on rabies shots. LOL

Lots of good info to be found around here and don't be afraid to ask.

[dreamerscove]

Hiya!

Thanks for the welcome   I'm sure I'll have tons of questions!

Peace

Lee

[jmac]

I am new to this game alos. My city is quite small, with alot of competition. I am having success going out to the smaller towns in the nearby area. Its more driving but I have been able to locate more machines, than in my home city.

[dreamerscove]

Hiya!

That's Great!  If this town were any smaller no one would be here   Everyone commutes to somewhere else for work and lives in this little peaceful town, nice

Peace

Lee

[The Mage]

I am new to this game alos. My city is quite small, with alot of competition. I am having success going out to the smaller towns in the nearby area. Its more driving but I have been able to locate more machines, than in my home city.

If you think the place is saturated, one way to get locations is to find places where the machines are not well taken care of.  If there is information on the machine, contact them and they will probably be willing to negotiate a purchase of their route.

Or you could point out the condition of the machine to the manager, and ask them if they are happy with their current vendor.  Most likely they are not, if they are in that condition.  And then you can "steal" their location.

I haven't done this yet myself, but I know some here do this.

I personally would check with the owner of the route first, not only to be nice, but it could be that they have a lot of locations they want to sell cheap.  But if not, I would have no problem talking to the manager, and taking their location.

[dreamerscove]

Hiya!

That sounds good.  I'll give that a try.  Although, I don't like the idea of taking someone's location.  I wouldn't want it done to me.

Peace

Lee

[WillisNYC]

In most places, if you simply properly service the location, you will not have competitors successfully stealing from you.  The exception of course would be the grandson of the owner taking an interest in your business.    Other than that unlikely probability, just remember that you are in a service business and seek to provide that first and foremost.    When someone calls, respond quickly and happily.    If you do that, your clients will generally love you.   

[joebob051977]

Hiya!

That sounds good.  I'll give that a try.  Although, I don't like the idea of taking someone's location.  I wouldn't want it done to me.

Stealing locations is nothing personal. It's just business. Competition in a location can be fun. I think most of us here have a competing machine at a location and would love to have our professionalism and wise decisions making cause the competition to leave our location or the manager to give them and their neglected machine the boot. 

[The Mage]

Competition is a good thing.  But in the case I was talking about, you are not just taking a location from somebody, but removing a badly taken care of machine with your better taken care of machine.

But another way of thinking about this is if McDonald's feels bad they are taking business from Burger King, or vice versa. 

There is never a problem with offering a better service, or product.  You just always want to make sure you do a good enough job that if they ever replace you with a competitor, they regret it.

[Hillbilly]

This reminds me of something I do in my full time gig.  I have a competitor who always shows up at a large fleet  I call on at around 3:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon's.  About every 6 weeks I will show up earlier than him and give everyone king size candybars or icecream bars.  He'll come in and ask where everyone got it from. I always save one for him  It is really funny to mess with competition like this.  It takes some of the humdrum boredom out of the job when you can have a little fun.  I've seen him put quarters in my machine too.  I'm trying to get a picture of him doing it.  I have a triple there.

Hillbilly

[mission vending]

This reminds me of something I do in my full time gig.  I have a competitor who always shows up at a large fleet  I call on at around 3:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon's.  About every 6 weeks I will show up earlier than him and give everyone king size candybars or icecream bars.  He'll come in and ask where everyone got it from. I always save one for him  It is really funny to mess with competition like this.  It takes some of the humdrum boredom out of the job when you can have a little fun.  I've seen him put quarters in my machine too.  I'm trying to get a picture of him doing it.   I have a triple there.

Hillbilly

Competition for customers is one of those things that makes this country great. The creativity and innovation that comes from trying to find a way to "one up" your competition has created and improved many of the products we enjoy today.

Good job Hillbilly, I love that little bit of irony that you save one for him.

[dreamerscove]

Hiya!

I appreciate all the great advice!  Certainly things to keep in mind and maybe act on

Peace

Lee

[divango]

Hey Lee!

I live in Goodlettsville and am just getting started as well..  We will have to get together and see if we can help each other.. I think I saw one of your machines today at the John Deer place in H'ville... Is that You?