havending Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 In the age of every one having a cell phone yes even the kids lol. we seem to get many more calls from location customers and not location owners. Machine not working, out of product or what ever. What do you do? These calls go to my wife. If a customer gets cheated by our machine by being out of product or malfunction, She will get location name, product name and Name and address of the person. She will mail out a hand full of the toys they did not get. product and mail cost is only a few bucks and its well worth it to get the machines corrected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quotealex Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Wouldn't it be simpler to replace your phone number with your email address on all machines ID tag to avaid getting calls from customers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minivend Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 All of our equipment is labeled with our phone number so in case the location has a problem they can call us. We respond to service calls within 2 hours. Lost sales due to equipment that is "out of order" can never be recovered. In the 25 years we have been in business, our bulk division rarely gets service calls. Maybe 1-2 a year. We attribute this to our choice of quality equipment (Beaver) and scheduled service. I remember one time a customer called me and was upset that the machine "took" her quarter..I asked her if she would please let the location know what happened and that they would give her a quarter. Our locations keep track of "refunds" and we reimburse them we collect..Again, this rarely happens.. Equipment that has no phone number on it is susceptible to remaining "out of order" until the next time you visit the location. I see a lot of people using inferior equipment and this will result in machine malfunctions and having to figure out "what do you do when a customer calls" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havending Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 My wife gets the calls because she deals better with locations than I. I can be hot headed if a location owner gives me crap I will pick up a rack in a second. She also deals with locations closing moving etc. Mini you service in 2 hrs that's fast. I would nee a jet for that. I'm looing at 2500 miles or route give or take Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dperry Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Getting customer calls is not the norm. I have service stickers on all my machines, and I have never gotten a call. Machines can get jammed because some kid put a peso in instead of a quarter, and it jammed the mech. The machine empties out and I get no call from the location. I've had locations close up and/or move and NEVER give me a call to come get my stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Snacks Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I rarely get calls from the actual consumers. Usually the location handles the probelm and I square up with the location on the next visit. In some locations, I give them a small bag of toys to hand out in case of a misvend. The rare times when I do get a call is from the Chinese locations. Since the owners usually force the customer to call for a refund because they refuse to refund a quarter. In one case, I actually mailed a dollar to an upset customer at a Chinese joint. Sometimes I do get a call to request certain NFL teams or even for a certain zoo animals. I have had parents call me to "please refill the zoo animals, my daughter just loves them". I had a diner waitress tell me that a kid was crying because the zoo animals were sold out! I have minimized the use of acorn caps and try to vend round caps as much as possible. Lids popping off acorn caps are a big reason for misvends. I also have eliminated the "propeller style" capsule wheel with the "rigid single spring" style for one inch caps. I found that the propeller style wheel had a higher misvend rate with those acorn caps. But to be honest, the service line doesn't ring that much - and that is usually a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havending Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 I agree jax. I love it when the phone dose not ring. When I used to vend the tomy product I would get calls for complete sets. I would do it from time to time for 2.00ea item. It was easy their caps were color coded by item Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BorderJerry Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Sounds like my wife and I. When we get home one of us will check the message machine and hopefully say "Oh good, no messages...". We try and tell location owners instead of just plastering an "out of order" sign on a machine to please test it first. They can use a red magic marker on both sides of the quarter and when we count we refund them their test quarters. Drives me crazy when a loc owner takes the word of a 6 year old that the machine is 'broken' and tapes over the coin mech. 9 out of 10 times the machine works fine, it was the kid who was 'broken'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmkraz Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Yep, I'm reviving an old thread! Like many people I have a full time job and bulk vending is part time on nights and weekends. Email would be much easier for me than phone calls because I'll probably never answer the phone due to being at my FT job. I've heard it talked about but has anyone actually tried leaving just an email or website on the machine as contact info? Seems like it would be much harder for restaurants and stores so I'm interested in any real world experiences to see how it worked. Another option is email address on the front for customers who lost a quarter and a phone number on the back for location owners, but that seems overly complicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainor5251 Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Don't know if this has been discussed before but was thinking the other day about having a QR code on the machine with a label that says collect your $20 gift card. When scanned by there smart phone it would have a message that lets them know that if they, there framily or friends own a business and would be willing to allow us to place a machine they would recive a gift card following placement of machine. Would also be a way to get updates for service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetstop Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 I like that idea mainor, is it easy to create a link for a qr code? I use an 888 number on all my IDs stickers very cheap to get and I link it to my email so when they call and leave a message it instantly emails me the voice message. Kall8.com just $2 a month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VEND NORTH TEXAS Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 LOVE this 800 # idea! very affordable and keeps me from giving out my cell number that is already used for my other business. currently I have outgoing voicemail for both business and I HATE that!!! I like that idea mainor, is it easy to create a link for a qr code? I use an 888 number on all my IDs stickers very cheap to get and I link it to my email so when they call and leave a message it instantly emails me the voice message. Kall8.com just $2 a month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulkjake Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 I use a tracphone from Walmart, and all calls go to V mail. The phone number is also on the backside of the machine. I have found its the best way to keep the "I lost my quarter in your machine" calls to a minimum. If I could do it again I would get a FREE Google Voice number which emails or texts you when you get a v mail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhud Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 My labels have an e-mail and a phone number. The only calls I ever get are from breakrooms where I have relationships with the people who use it. In 15 years I have never had a call from generic customer from a public store location. I rarely get e-mails (2 or 3 ever), and periodically get a phone call (once every 6-8 weeks) if there is an issue with a machine. I haven't checked on how many located machines I have out lately, but it is in the 500 range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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