Vending and coffee machines are standard items in many workplaces across the country. They make snacking and coffee breaks far more convenient than if your staff have to keep popping out to local shops to get their snacks and drinks during the day. But there are a number of decisions you have to make when you opt to have vending machines installed into your business.
One of the biggest decisions you’ll need to make – and one that will have all kinds of long-term ramifications – is whether to go for full service or self fill vending machines. Let’s take a close look at the two options, and at the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Full Service Vending
If you choose full service vending, you’re basically handing over all the work and responsibility for keeping the machine going to the vending machine company. They will be responsible for buying and replenishing the stock and ensuring that the machine is properly maintained and regularly serviced, with the reward for them being that they get to keep any money spent in it.
And while the money side of such an arrangement may not initially sound that great, think how much easier life would be. One of the things any employer does is pay other people to carry out tasks that he or she could do – and would probably be slightly better off financially if he or she did do – but which he or she doesn’t have the time to do or would simply rather not do.
The other advantage to handing over the responsibility for maintenance is that you’re unlikely to be faced with any nasty surprises or disgruntled staff should the vending machine develop a problem or you get a sudden rush of sales and run out of stock.
Self Fill Vending
Conversely, if you go for the self fill option, you may make some money on the deal, but you’re taking on a lot of work – or, perhaps more likely, paying a member of your team – to look after it. And if there’s a sudden problem or shortage, you’re going to have to divert resources away from probably more important work to get it sorted.
Even just monitoring stock is going to be at least a daily task for someone in your business, so before taking this option, you need to make sure you have time and/or people spare to manage it.
So which is best?
In the end, your decision is going to come down to whether the money to be made on the machine is likely to make the effort it will take to keep it serviced and stocked is worthwhile. Of course, if you have a large company with hundreds of employees, the potential profits from such an arrangement may be relatively significant. But if you have that many employees likely to be using it on a day-to-day basis, how much time and effort is it going to take someone to keep up with the demand?
Whether you opt for full service or self fill when it comes to operating your vending machines, you can be confident that your staff and visitors will be more than happy with the quality of food and drinks available from Nu Vending machines, not to mention how much quicker and more convenient modern machines are compared to the old coin-fed ones. Contact us today to find out more.
