Dedicated Healthy Vending Companies Fill A Void: Traditional Operators Aren’t Communicating

Yesterday, I spoke to the director of a new health care facility regarding her companys vending service. Shortly after the building was built, someone at the company got a call from a dedicated healthy vending operator who promised nothing but healthy products. The pitch included a lot of information about rising obesity and the governments attempts to impose nutrition restrictions in public buildings.The director was intrigued, but she recognized that the employees, who totaled around 150, needed to have a say in what products would be available. So she contacted a traditional operator who promised the tried and true vending fare; name brand products. The director wanted the employees to decide what type of vending service they wanted.In presenting the two sets of options to her employees, the traditional operator won by a landslide. Hence, the traditional operator got the business. The director wants her employees to be healthy, but she trusts her employees can decide for themselves what to snack on.This isnt an isolated incident. There are lots of account managers who make it their business to consult with their employees before making a decision about a service provider. In this age of instant communication, thanks to social media, vending operators can help business managers get immediate feedback from employees and patrons. Many account decision makers are anxious to hear suggestions from service providers how to be more responsive to their constituents.Unfortunately, the job isnt being done. Enter the turnkey dedicated healthy vending companies.Turnkey healthy vending operations are expanding like wildfire today. Account managers want to have healthy employees, and when they see these machines carrying protein bars, baked chips and bagged nuts, they envision healthier workers. They dont always realize that these machines arent going to maintain these offerings for long. Unless someone tells the account managers that the offerings will change from what was initially presented.The turnkey healthy vending programs are filling a need created by the vending industrys failure to educate the public about the full range of options they offer.If the vending industry will rise to the challenge of taking responsibility for informing the public that they do in fact offer nutritious fare, then the turnkey vending programs will fall on deaf ears.In the meantime, if it takes the barrage of turnkey dedicated vending companies to alert the vending industry to the need to communicate, then the turnkey operations are providing a useful service.There is no excuse for vending operators losing business to these competitors because with social media, vending operators can make their case directly to the end users who use their service.