There’s always room for improvement in business. Even small upgrades and solutions to seemingly simple problems can bring a noticeable change. However, you can’t just depend on guesswork if you want to truly improve your business quality and drive sales.
That’s where telemetry comes in, and it isn’t just for receiving alerts about your machine’s technical status or stock levels. With a solution such as Vendon IoT, operators can be in full control of the entire coffee-making process and adjust various elements to ensure that customers can enjoy the highest quality drinks.
Below are 5 challenges that many OCS operators are familiar with – read more to learn how addressing them with telemetry solutions can be a sure way to increase sales and keep your business running successfully.
1. Creating the right coffee recipe
The taste of coffee strongly depends on the bean roast level and the extraction time, which are the key components of a good espresso shot. Finding the best combination of these elements and developing a recipe that most customers will enjoy can be difficult.
Certain situations can also prove challenging, such as when coffee operators rent their machines free of charge to offices, but make money on coffee bean sales. In a case study, one of the operators noticed that hot water was the top choice, but coffee was rarely made. On further inspection, it was discovered that employees use their own pre-ground coffee and just pour hot water over it because the taste of the coffee from the machine is not to their liking. Coffee taste is very important to customers, therefore creating a top-notch recipe can be essential.
Solution: Taste profiling and recipe adjustments
With the help of Vendon telemetry solutions, our customers can observe consumption trends easily – they can see what happens to sales if different beans are used and if recipes are adjusted or modified, that way finding the best combination for the highest profit and also eliminating the possibility that customers avoid buying coffee from the machine.
2. Customers overlooking drink options
Sometimes a problem can have an incredibly simple cause. In a case study by Vendon, sales reports revealed that a specific drink is very often followed by two espresso shots, leading to the conclusion that customers enjoy a stronger version of the drink. A drink made according to this recipe was already available, placed on the second page of the display, but customers never looked there.
Solution: Adjusting product layout on display
The mentioned drink was moved to the first page – drinks are now made quicker as it is a single selection, instead of three, thus more people can be served in the same time span. Plus, the number of drinks made now matches cash register data.
3. Adapting to seasonal changes in customer preferences
Customer preferences can be very dynamic and if you aren’t adapting to them, there is a risk of being left behind. During a change of seasons, customer preferences also shift, and spotting the onset of the change takes a certain effort. If customers crave cold drinks, while there is only one type available, they may opt for a soda from the fridge rather than an iced latte.
Solution: Adjusting the selection of drinks based on consumption analytics
With Vendon, it is easy to follow consumption trends and see the first signs of changing preferences; thus, operators can adjust the selection of drinks available to match the actual demand, which in turn boosts sales performance.
4. Maintaining machine longevity
Since every coffee machine is a significant investment, ensuring longevity is key for long-term profitability and can be achieved through proper cleaning and maintenance. Failing to observe proper and timely cleaning practices can negatively affect the length of the machine’s lifetime and cost the operator in maintenance and machine replacement. On top of that, inadequate maintenance can affect product taste and even scare away potential sales, resulting in dissatisfied customers and further losses.
Solution: Monitoring machine cleaning
Vendon empowers operators with information about when and for how often a machine is cleaned and allows for enforcing proper maintenance practices with customers. This extends machine lifetime, reduces operator maintenance visits, and ensures good drink quality, which leads to more satisfied customers and higher revenue.
5. Customer dissatisfaction with drinks
An essential part of the customer experience is the quality and taste of coffee, which is directly affected by milk and water temperatures. Prior to the drink being made, the milk must be refrigerated and its temperature should never go above a certain threshold. But without monitoring tools in place, the operator might be in the dark about what goes on with the machine when they’re not nearby to inspect it. If operators fail to fix any issues, people may choose to get their coffee elsewhere.
Solution: Maintaining ideal milk and water temperatures
With Vendon, operators can monitor temperatures remotely and react quickly if something goes awry, thereby avoiding customer dissatisfaction and providing the best possible customer experience with delicious coffee.
Conclusion
Telemetry can be a game changer for any coffee business as it keeps you up to date with everything that’s going on with your machines in real time. With Vendon, you also get detailed overviews of sales, consumption, machine performance, and other analytics tools. This way not only do you provide a great customer experience and high-quality coffee for your customers, but also increase business efficiency and sales.
Start optimizing your coffee business today and boost your revenue – get in touch with us at grow@vendon.net or your local distributor.
