Whether deciding to add a banknote recycler or to go cashless or to integrate some combination of payment accepting devices, we are typically asked the same question: What criteria do you use to determine what payment device to invest in and when?

We usually respond with  with three or four criteria such as vend price, but the one thing that we always include is location. The specific location of your vending machine is a critical element in the equation because it affects what is being sold, the volume, the risk for vandalism, and what types of payment are most prevalent. Here are just a few examples: (more…)

Customers often ask us about the criteria for selecting new payment options such as cashless and cash recycling technology. It really comes down to assessing the following three things:

1) Vend price – the higher the vend price, the more important it is that the machine accept cashless payments or include recycling technology that can accept high denomination bills.

2) Location – the more transient the customer base (eg: airports and theme parks) the more important it is that the machine accept cashless payments or include recycling technology.

3) Clientele – The more customers who don’t have the ability to carry wallets, the more important it is that the machine accept alternate payment methods.

To hear more on this topic, tune in to VendingMarketWatch.com’s latest AudioConnect podcast, “MEI’s Bob Martin Examines Vending Payment Options”  or Ask the Experts here at MEI.

We recently got the above question from an operator, and so I wanted to share my response with the industry…

You have to begin by enabling Dex in your machines.  A few companies including MEI offer a retrofit box, costing $200-$300. Once you’ve done that, you’ve got to understand what alarms your machines can send out.  Not every vending machine throws out alarms, and many such as snack machines throw out very few alarms.  Typically machines with compressors for cold or frozen applications throw off the important alarms related to whether the compressor stopped working.

Curbside polling can tell you what the machine needs but that requires an investment in software to take the sales data from the machine and compare it to what’s in the machine by spiral to know what to bring in.  Again, MEI has this software which we call EASITRAX.  

So you can see there is some preliminary work to do to get ‘set up’. We have experts to help you work thru that process so don’t feel that you would be expected to understand all this from the start.  To get started, tell me a little more about your business in terms of number of machines you service, are they primarily snack and soda, do you want to monitor all of them or just in certain locations, etc….

When telemeters are first deployed, they are configured for a specific location/environment. When they move, they have to be re-configured using a similar process. (more…)