We have a lot of customers asking how we know how many times a week we need to visit their operated machine.
I would like to say that Mike, our operations manager, is psychic. Even though I have my suspicions that he is, the answer lies in our computer system, VendMan. We use VendMan for everything at WestWay Towers: it has all of our lovely customers names, addresses, ordering history, service calls and anything else we need to know about them!
For the operators it all starts in the morning- they log onto their handheld scanner which has the information on where they are headed to that day. When they come to a machine that we operate they scan a unique barcode located inside it, then using their knowledge of the machine and the planagram they fill the machine up scanning in each item, which can be in-cup PG Tips or Mars bars or Lucozade Energy drinks. This information gets stored in the handheld.
The operator after finishing their day on the road, will come back to WestWay Towers to load up on stock, have a chat and a cup of coffee and will download their handheld onto Mike’s super-computer (when you turn it on it sounds like a space rocket about to launch, the engineers say that it needs another fan, but we know the real reason: its a far superior computer!). This information goes straight into VendMan and Mike is able to see how many vends the machine has done, how many products were put inside and which products are running out. Mike is constantly analysing the data and knows all the sites and most machine numbers by heart. He is able to see if the machine is being used more than usual- if so he puts extra visits on or if products keep running out, then he re-planagrams the machine ensuring your favourites are inside.
While we do everything that we can to ensure all of our machines are looked after and filled before they get too empty, we still do need our customers to call us if they have anything different going on. Even though Mike is vaguely pychic and is training all the time, he still would like to know if you would like extra visits.
There is nothing as sad as an empty vending machine!