A New No-Cost Benefit That Your Employees Will Love!

By Ken Joyner

Recently my wife and I were on board the largest cruise ship in the world, the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Harmony of The Seas. Shortly after the host seated us at our dining table for the next seven nights we were joined by three other couples.

Turns out two of the guys were HR executives at their respective companies, as well as one of the ladies. I shared that my background was working with human resource departments in providing employee refreshment programs for our customers.

I learned that the guys were Vice Presidents in their respective human resource departments and were also SHRM-SCP certified (Society for Human Resource Management, Senior Certified Professional), and the lady was the senior corporate recruiter for her company. Both guys were employed by companies that had 185 employees and 235 employees and her company had 310 employees.

During our conversations I shared that the vending industry has a direct effect on employee morale and productivity. Boy oh boy, did that open a can of worms with these three dining partners!

All three agreed that a professional employee refreshment program can have both positive and negative effects at their companies. At first I began to think maybe I should not have mentioned that I was in vending.

Several questions and comments from our dinner mates included why can’t someone invent a vending machine that will vend the product selected at least 99% of the time. In addition, I was told that they had more important issues to deal with than having to make sure that each employee gets a refund when their machines did not vend the product. They also mentioned the amount of time that one of their staff had to spend meeting with the vending company route person on this issue.

All vending company salespeople come in and tell a good story about how their service is the best and make promises. However, once they get their machines installed, they seldom hear from the salesperson or anyone from the management team who made all the commitments and promises. I agreed that their concerns and issues were valid and that a truly professional vendor would make every effort to resolve these and any other service issues that may arise with their vending company.

I informed our dining partners that most new state-of-the art electronic merchandisers manufactured in recent years come equipped with guaranteed product delivery systems where their employees will always get the product they have selected, or they will get their money refunded on the spot. Both HR VPs said that would be a problem-solver, no doubt. I hesitated to say what I am about to reveal. However, I told myself to go ahead anyway. One day while I was up on the deck of the ship, one of the VP’s asked if I saw a picture of their machines, could I tell if the machines had a guaranteed product delivery system? My reply was “probably so,” if I could have a close-up of the front of the machine. The next day he showed me a picture that one of his people had sent to him. Sure enough, it had a guaranteed product delivery system; but his current vendor had never told him about it or how it works!

I also shared with them that Advantage Refreshments puts various items on sale every month. We rotate various items in and out of our machines on a regular basis, run seasonal promotions on products like Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Fourth of July, just to mention a few.

A professional employee refreshment program that offers features and benefits for your employees sets our vending company apart. We direct our marketing, advertising, sales, and incentive programs toward assisting HR departments. That makes the workplace culture better – and everyone wins!

FOOD-FOOD-FOOD-FOOD– All three of these human resource professionals were unanimous when the subject of food products (not just snacks) came up to attract and retain employees at their companies. Each of them said it seemed as though almost all vending companies they have dealt with were less than enthusiastic when they requested fresh and or frozen food products be available in the vending machines located in their breakrooms or employee lounges. I am happy to advise that Advantage Refreshments offer an extensive line of fresh and frozen food choices for our customers to choose from!

We invite you to try our state-of-the-art vending machines – at no cost to the company! This is an employee benefit that will improve employee morale, as well as your company culture!