Latest in our series of ‘Shout Outs’. Connect Vending would like to tell you, in their own words, why they’d really appreciate your vote.
Please give us your vote!
BY STEVE GARNER
We were proud to enter Connect Vending into the 2015 “Vendies” and really excited that we have been chosen as finalists in the £5 – £9m Best Operator category. We wanted to share with you the amazing work we have undertaken over the last year or so in the hope that you will be kind enough to vote for us via this link. It was around 18 months ago that we took a long hard look at our business and set about transforming it ready for the next decade. We looked at the entire business – our philosophy, our approach to customer service, the trends in cups, the trends in ingredients, recycling cups, our Visual identity, our approach to social media marketing, our web site, our vending operating system, pod systems, the efficiency of our operation – nothing was untouched. And nothing was left unchanged.
But why would we do all this? After all we are a really successful business. We have a great reputation in the industry. We are profitable and cash generative and we have a brilliant team of talented people working in our business.
Well, it is precisely because we are successful that we must continue to change. Our customers are changing, our competitors are changing, our market is changing, society is changing, technology is changing…… just about everything changes all the time. If we do not embrace these changes we will not allow our business to evolve. And to evolve we must cleverly adapt to the changing environment we operate in if we are to remain strong and competitive in our field.
The presentation we sent to the judges explained in detail some of the key components of our review. We explained how we ensured that our senior management team fully understood our strategy so they can cascade this throughout the business. How we dissected every process in our business then trained and developed every member of staff in a dramatic new customer service philosophy that we call Moments of Truth. How we invested in Customer Service personnel dedicated to ensuring customer satisfaction. We described the background to our decision to become UK agents for a brand new capsule based coffee system. We explained the background to our major investment in our new website and our overall visual image (why not take a peek www.connectvending.co.uk) We explained about our own label product range and the major benefits we can offer as a result and then there are the Industry Firsts…..
- The first vending company of its size to move 100% to paper cups from plastic
- The first vending company to move its parts distribution over to the environmentally beneficial Parcel Holders system
- The Founder vending operating member of the Simply Cups recycling scheme, working alongside John Lewis and Costa Coffee.
And all of this has been achieved in 18 months!
So we hope you are impressed with our plans and how we are progressing. We are truly delighted that the judges are. Importantly we hope you can see that we face the same problems as every other vending business – but what makes us different is our innovative approach to solving them combined with the determination to put those solutions into place. We hope you will consider us worthy of such an important award. We hope you will consider us ……simply amazing! Please vote for Connect Vending.
Planet Vending is fully supportive of all of our Vendies Finalists so if you too would like a ‘Shout Out’ for votes or simply want to tell the industry your own story, this is your chance. Find out more by contacting us.
