During the last years the mobile payment solutions have found an increasing success in the vending world as well: there are many applications which permit to purchase some products on the vending machine by paying with the smartphone. The advantages of this technology are many, starting from the possibility of transforming the smartphone that the user has in his pocket in a support for payment. Furthermore, by means of the apps for payment the Operator can build a bidirectional communication channel with the user, make himself know, receive or send messages. Finally the payment apps, go generally with the tools of the Backoffice which offer to the Operator the possibility of monitoring the purchases and the credit recharges, of planning some promotions or discounts and in general of collecting information on the purchase habits of the users, to feed the marketing experts in order to improve the sale performances.
The applications for smartphone, however, have some limits which cannot always be overcome. In many locations it is not allowed to take the smartphone during the coffee break or it is not practical: just think about the school or to the manufacturing departments of the industry. Some apps can need a phone coverage in order to function (this is not the case of Pay4Vend) and this is not available everywhere. The apps themselves, as much as they are well-designed, can be unavailable for all the models and the versions of the operating systems for smartphone and offer a user experience less immediate compared to the traditional supports. In all these cases both the user and the Operator will find themselves to regret the simple use of the classic rechargeable key, even if they don’t want to renounce to the advantages of the digital technology.
Nevertheless there is a system to get the best of the two worlds: the practicality of a cashless key and the connectivity of an application. As a matter of fact Coges has designed a new generation of MyKey keys as a contact point between the physical support and the digital experience, thanks to the original possibility of accessing a web showcase (product waiting for a patent). This service extends to the key the typical advantages of the mobile solutions, exploiting at the same time the versatility and the simple use of a support which is present in a widespread way on the market as is MyKey key. In which way?
The web showcase of the new MyKey keys is a page dedicated to the Operator, where the user can enter with his smartphone by means of a QR code and register as he would do on an app. By opening a web showcase, the user could display a digital version of the label normally present on the vending machine, with the phone number and the e-mail address for contact, always updated and available for the Customer. Each web showcase is a different page from the others, with the logo and the colours chosen by the Operator: the brand and the trademark of the business management are highlighted also thanks to the parallel laser etching of the Operator’s logo on the MyKey keys.
The maximum potential of the web showcase reveals in the integration with Nebular, Coges platform to connect the payment system of the vending machine to the Internet network. Nebular permits to the Operator to make a firmware remote update of its systems and the coin and bill database, to detect some alarms and accounting data, to program the operating parameters and to manage the product stock with a simple planogram.
In the locations where the vending machines are connected to the Nebular platform, the access to the web showcase will offer to the registered user the same functions which he could find on the app: display its own credit on the key, send a feedback on the products, on the vending machine or the service, look up the log of the consumptions or send directly a message to the Operator. In case of the web showcase these functions can be accessed not only by smartphone, but also by a desktop computer or tablet; furthermore, as this is a web-based service, they are available for any model of phone and don’t need for complex updates on the Operator’s side.
Even in this case, as it happens for the apps, all the transactions carried out by the user with his MyKey key are registered on the web portal: in this way the Operator can access an updated registration of his users and can see the amount of purchases and recharges, analyze his sale data and plan some marketing strategies and focused promotions. If an Operator intends to exploit the big data in order to survey the consumption of his customers, analyze the behaviours and implement some more effective marketing strategies to increase the sales, he will find on Nebular all the data he needs. In the daily operation, the Operator has access to all the messages received by the users to intervene in a fast and precise way where it is necessary a maintenance or a restore of the product stock and can answer to the requests of the single user also by sending the refund or a bonus to a specific MyKey key.
For the customers who use the Nebular platform, the web showcase requires only an activation contribution for the etching of the logo on the keys, without additional monthly fee or update costs. If you don’t want to renounce to the practicality of the key, but you desire to improve the service offered to the users with an interactive application which is always connected, contact your Coges area manager and find out how to customize the new MyKey key and activate the web showcase.
