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Near the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, All Star began implementing USA Technologies' ePort G8. "We fnally have credit card readers on our machines. Our next initiative is to implement DEXing," said Liedman enthusiastically. By installing cashless readers, Liedman was able to bring a convenience to customers that was not offered from All Star before 2011. But moving to cashless wasn't the only technology overhaul All Star witnessed. Before Liedman took over, All Star's Website had little traffc; although it housed com- pany information, it was not used to attract and gain customers. Liedman and his team revitalized the site to host a 'cover photo' similar to those seen on social media sites. They cre- ated a Facebook page, which now has nearly 100 followers, and became a fgure on LinkedIn and Twitter. The Website front page easily lists reasons for customers to choose All Star and it offers ten separate tabs listing every bit of company infor- mation from its history to offce coffee service to healthy vending products. Currently, the company uses its online presence to attract and maintain customers by offer- ing an interactive and easy Website today's clients expect. Though many technological advances were being put in place, Liedman did not want to stray from the solid relationships his grandfa- ther had built. Maintaining customer loyalty When companies transition from one generation to another, especially when that transition is between family members, there is often a struggle to decide how to re-create and update a brand while still hold- ing onto the values that make that company unique. All Star wanted to show custom- ers that, although they were progress- ing, they still believed in the power of service and the respect for customer relationships. The company did this by maintaining its four pillars of character and promoting those pillars on its Website: Service, Reliability, Accountability and Partnership. "As a small business our success depends largely on customer loyalty. That loy- alty begins with providing quality customer service," said Liedman. Before leaving the company, Visser had used MEI paper coupons as part of an incentive for customers. When Liedman took over, he decided to con- tinue honoring those coupons and still uses them. The idea is to provide loyalty options to customers. For the future, Liedman plans to keep that tradition of customer loyalty, but in a more technological way. He has plans to implement the new USAT and Isis Mobile Wallet promotion in 2014, along with offering other loyalty pro- grams. "Loyalty cards and programs create return customers and provide good incentives for our customers' employees as well," said Liedman. "If employees have good food, snacks and coffee, they are going to be happy." To maintain customer loyalty and trust, there is at least one All Star employee on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. "We are running a business. Everyone in this industry knows if a machine is having performance issues its losing revenue," said Liedman. To keep things easy for the con- sumer, All Star even created a survey on its Website that asks customers to rate its service and product offering, among other things. "We see our rela- tionship with our customers as a part- nership. We talk to everybody, and we want them to feel important. They have a lot of say in what products are placed in their machines," said Liedman. Getting customers to not only use the vending machines in their locations, but to also take part in the product selection is very important to Liedman, which is why he decided that paying attention to consumer trends was advantageous to his business. By popular demand The need and desire to drive custom- ers to the vending machine has not diminished since Liedman became owner of All Star, but the process of getting customers to the machines has changed, for the better. Liedman pays attention to con- sumer fads. He noticed the consumer preference towards eco-friendly, or "green" products, even as he worked as All Star recently installed a Marley Coffee Kiosk in the Northtown Mall located in Blaine, Minn. Partnering with AVT, Inc. and a private investor, All Star will maintain and stock the new kiosk with Marley Coffee and merchandise. All Star's Founder, Ray Visser, believes good business begins with customer loyalty. 22 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com February 2014 O P E R A T I O N P R O F I L E autm_20-25_0214AllStar.indd 22 2/4/14 11:22 AM