How to measure the customer satisfaction in vending

The meeting, dedicated to the topic “How to measure customer satisfaction in vending”, was led by Francesco Liuzzi, Operations Manager of MatiPay and Ilaria Chiarulli, Product Manager.

The objective of the appointment is to offer operators ideas, also deriving from other sectors and markets, on how to collect feedback from end users about the shopping experience.

During Friday Coffee, a new feature integrated in the the MatiPay app was presented. It can support the operator in collecting feedback without interfering during the shopping experience.

The term “Customer Satisfaction” means that process aimed at detecting the degree of user happiness with the product or service with the aim of the company to improve the product or service offered.

The company that initiates a customer satisfaction process is oriented towards the end user by focusing on his real needs.

The customer satisfaction survey can respond to various objectives, such as:

1. detect the degree of user satisfaction with the service offered;
2. detect general and specific needs, needs and expectations of the different targets and user groups;
3. encourage the sharing of latent needs and listening to less inclined users in expressing their point of view;
4. strengthen the level of communication, dialogue and trust with users.

Improving the level of listening to user needs can also increase the level of loyalty by reducing the rate of abandonment of the service by users, increasing the user’s life cycle.

Some studies show that “96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain, and in any case 91% of these abandon the supplier to never request its services again.“

A study by McKinsey & Company analyzed what the cost of acquiring a new customer would be, compared to maintaining an already acquired one, but first of all, how much it would cost to recover a lost customer.

Acquiring a new customer can cost five to ten times more than keeping an existing one, while recovering a lost customer costs fifty to one hundred times more.

A study by the Harvard Business Review highlights, however, how much the increase in loyalty can raise the profit of a store: with the increase of 5% of loyal users it is possible to have a return on profits from 60% to 100%.

Furthermore, another study by the Harward Business Review, highlights how much more likely it is to sell to a loyal customer than to a new customer (35% vs 15% probability).

Another fact is that 40% of customers define themselves as dissatisfied, and that not all dissatisfied customers give evidence of this: others will abandon the service without giving us an opportunity to get in touch with them.

All this highlights how important it is to be in a condition of active listening that allows us to know how users are evaluating us while they are using our service.

We can establish a direct relationship by creating a virtuous circle of information collection, where we:

1. ask the user what they think of the service offered, the product purchased;
2. the user expresses their opinion;
3. the operator evaluates and analyzes the feedback;
4. the operator implements the solutions to meet the user’s needs.

During the meeting the tools by which users communicate with companies were shared, for example, the “customer care” accessible through the company’s channels.

There are numerous channels where users who have a negative experience can promptly report and receive assistance.

But not all people experiencing a disservice will open reports, generalized historical data on the attitude of users in making reports shows that only 1 user in 20 will do so, in relation to the degree of severity of the problem encountered, this will increase or decrease.

In agreement with one of our customers, a survey on the quality of the service was launched. We asked users to evaluate the speed of intervention by the operator in the event of a malfunction of a vending machines.

This field application allowed us to know the level of user satisfaction with respect to the intervention speed and allowed the operator to verify how much higher the level of satisfaction was for the machines for which real-time alarm monitoring is active, thanks to telemetry.

The machines for which the operator sent the technician before receiving reports from users had a significantly higher rating and in the observation period it was noted that they had an increase in the number of active users as users rated the vending machine as “more reliable”.

In 2019, the IPSOS research highlighted the main elements of repulsion on the part of users for purchasing from vending machines.

Among the elements of repulsion emerged:

1. the place where they are placed is dirty;
2. unsatisfactory choice of products.

We can activate specific campaigns on each of these aspects, without interfering with the shopping experience, but by intercepting the right moment to collect user feedback.

In the light of what emerged, some tests were started, the results of which were shared during Friday Coffee.

The collection of customer satisfaction proves to be very useful in supporting the activities aimed at improving the product and the service offered, the active listening of the user puts his needs at the center and making the product always updated and in line with the needs of the final user.