NAYAX LTD. Technology for managing convenience services has certainly come a long way since the days route drivers loaded totes in the warehouse with manual pick lists.
And while convenience services have improved, so has the competition. Technology has enabled c-stores, food delivery services, quick-service restaurants and e-commerce service providers to improve their services.
Which raises the question: Can convenience services ever be "foolproof" in meeting customer expectations?
The simple answer to this question, according to a panel of convenience services operators who pondered it during the recent Self-Service Innovation Summit in
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Top improvement: cashless payment
The biggest single technology change in recent years has been the expansion of cashless payment, which the panelists agreed has improved the customer experience significantly.
"I think it has opened up the door to more products, more expensive products, a wider variety, and I think the information that comes back helps us pick what we're going to keep putting into machines," said panelist
Besides offering an easier way to pay, he said cashless technology, which now accounts for 80% of his sales, creates fewer refunds, making it less likely for the customer to lose their money.
Cashless technology has also allowed consumers to make multiple purchases, he said.
This does not, however, mean cash is dead.
"I don't think cash will ever go away," said panelist
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Next top improvement: telemetry
Telemetry, which enables remote machine monitoring in addition to cashless payments, has also brought significant operational efficiencies.
Panelist
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"We can at any time access data points that we've never been able to before, whether it's the temperature of our machine or the interaction of how many people walk past our machine," said Smith.
In the running: micro markets
The panelists also agreed that micro markets have been a major improvement for convenience services.
Sheehan said replacing a vending account with a micro market brings a sales lift from at least 10% to as much as 100%.
"I definitely think technology is driving growth for sure," Sheehan said.
But while micro markets have been shown to boost sales as well as customer satisfaction, they also increase opportunities for customer theft.
Fortunately, technology exists to allow operators to address this challenge.
Surveillance cameras are a technology being used to control theft in micro markets. "The video base is a good way to kind of have the communication with the customer," McMath said, adding that there still needs to be human interaction.
Customer engagement platforms
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Both Sheehan and Smith said they are using Zippy Assist, a cloud based customer engagement platform for self-service environments, on their machines to help with refunds.
"If your dollar gets eaten in your vending machine. now you can text us and we can refund you within an hour," Sheehan said. "We were able to eliminate a call service at night and it's changed how we get contacted by customers, not only for refunds but for product requests. By changing it from calling us to texting us."
Zippy Assist also delivered a 300% increase in engagement with customers.
What about AI?
As for how artificial intelligence will impact convenience services, the panelists agreed it will bring benefits. They agreed AI could help tailor product selections to customers.
Sheehan said he believes AI will allow him to pull the sales history of a nearby convenience store, identifying products that he may not even have in the warehouse.
"We (vending operators) need to change that mindset to retail," Sheehan said. "We need to get caught up and we need tools like AI to help us get caught up, specifically when it comes to merchandising and managing (product) shrink."
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"What works in
Smith said AI could perform scheduling and ordering.
Challenges remain
One of the challenges the panelists agreed they need to address with technology is making sure customers accept it. This is challenging because customers have varying levels of technology comfort.
Sheehan said one solution doesn't fit all and an operator has to listen to their customers.
McMath said the speed by which technology evolves also challenges operators to know which technology works best for their firm.
For example, Gimme (a provider of a vending management system that uses AI and computer vision to increase sales from optimized merchandising at the point of sale and reduce stockouts), works well for his company but may not for others.
Kartiganer said technology needs to be easy for customers to use.
"If you get to too many screens, it's going to be a problem," he said. He offered the example of a cotton candy machine on the SSIS trade show floor which displayed four or five different customer facing screens. His daughter, who accompanied him, understood the screens intuitively.
"I don't think I would have made it past the first screen," Kartiganer said.
For another example, he referenced a coffee machine he installed in a car dealership with a lot of older customers. "It was a beautiful machine, but it had too many screens for most of the older people," he said.
Asked if technology will ever replace humans, the consensus was that it will not. Kartiganer said people will need to deliver product to the machine.
Carmain surmised that as long as humans are involved in providing convenience services, 100% foolproof service will not be attainable.
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