What every location asks
about micro markets
LOCATION'S QUESTION:
How do I know my employees'
credit cards are safe?
OPERATOR'S RESPONSE:
Any good micro market technology
provider will be Payment Card Indus-
try (PCI) certifed, which we are,
meaning that we are examined by
the PCI standards council in order to
ensure the credit card information is
maintained in a secure environment.
LOCATION'S QUESTION:
Our company doesn't want you
on our corporate network,
what are my options?
OPERATOR'S RESPONSE:
There are thousands of payment
centers operating safely on corpo-
rate networks around the world. If
you are certain being on the cor-
porate network is not an option,
we can bring a digital subscriber
line (DSL) or equivalent into the
building. As a last resort, we can
purchase a mobile air card and cra-
dlepoint router to get Internet via
cellular technology.
LOCATION'S QUESTION:
What stops people from stealing?
OPERATOR'S RESPONSE:
Most people are honest and theft
from micro markets is reported to
be less than the national retail aver-
age. However, if it becomes a prob-
lem (usually over 3 percent), we can
always re-install vending machines
or develop a subsidy model to cover
the losses.
LOCATION'S QUESTION:
We currently receive commissions from our vending
and you are not offering us a commission, why should
we make the change?
OPERATOR'S RESPONSE:
This is a service-based model that we usually charge customers for.
The value and beneft to your employees far exceeds any commissions
our company could ever provide.
LOCATION'S QUESTION:
Our company has a corporate
wellness guideline that we
would like you to help us with,
what can you offer?
OPERATOR'S RESPONSE:
We can offer many promotional ways
to price healthy items in a subsidized
manner and present you with an
invoice for the difference each month;
the payment center reporting makes
that very easy for us. Also, we can
offer reports on the popularity of
items you would like us to carry that
ft the profle.
Operators introducing a
micro market to a location
should be ready with
answers to the top fve
questions all locations ask.
By Joe Hessling, Contributing Editor
SELL on benefts, not commissions.
A location
learning about
micro markets
for the first time
will usually ask
about security,
connectivity,
wellness and
commissions.
50 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com October 2014
M I C R O M A R K E T S Q & A
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Hessling is CEO
at 365 Retail Markets
based in Troy, MI.