Automatic Merchandiser - 17

"What most people don't realize is
that to really disinfect the space, you
need time for those chemical agents
to sit on the contact surfaces for anywhere between 3-10 minutes," Coffey
said. "It's not a wipe that disinfects; it's
an agent that's placed on an environment and then wiped afterward.
Messaging to clients and their
employees can be communicated in
various ways.
"We have the ability to do
advertising on all of our devices,
and we're seeing some of the more
savvy operators create an explanation of what they're doing back in the
warehouse and in the micro market
that they're servicing," explained Ryan
McWhirter, vice president of product
management at 365 Retail Markets.
"I think that goes a long way to lessen
the anxiety of consumers who walk
in and don't know what's happened
before they got in there."
McWhirter added that 365 distributed a guide to customers early in the
pandemic, advising how to clean the
different screens the company offers.
Coffey recommended that operators inform clients about how they're
running a safe business internally.
"It's important to tell the story of
how you're protecting your associates
and your consumers," Coffey said.
"For Canteen, it's prescreening
our associates at our offices
every day with temperature checks, as well
as providing them
with the neces-

sary PPE to keep them safe. And for
the safety of our consumers, we're
focused on two levels of disinfectant. We disinfect the micro market
and all high-touch surfaces before
service, and then we disinfect it one
more time when we leave, after we've
serviced the market."
Reilly said that Avanti also
provided its operators suggested
cleaning guidelines and templates for
flyers and kiosk commercials to keep
cleaning commitments top-of-mind
for customers. The company also distributed a helpful "Back to Business
Guide" to its operators, detailing 10
steps - with accompanying resources
- operators should take to safely
reopen micro markets.
CONTACTLESS SOLUTIONS
FOR KIOSKS

Kiosk screens are usually the mosttouched surface in a micro market.
Fortunately, before the COVID-19
pandemic, technology suppliers were
already offering contactless solutions
to reduce wait times and streamline
the checkout process.
"All of our kiosks have always been
able to be interacted with in a touchless nature," McWhirter said. "That
was originally created for the sake of
speed of the transaction, and it also
allows you to not have to touch the
kiosk, which was conveniently there
for us already when [COVID]
started to happen."
McWhirter
said that 365

redesigned the layout of the kiosk
screen's user interface and payment
options, prominently highlighting
the touchless options so customers
can see them and determine whether
they want to pay with their loyalty
account or a credit/debit card instead
of using the fingerprint reader. 365
also offers Touchless Transaction
Technologies through its 365Pay app
and the 365Beacon.
"The 365Pay app is the best thing
to use right now for a number of reasons," McWhirter said. "We have the
365Beacon, which is a way to allow
our app to scan and pay for products
using your cell phone - you don't
even need a kiosk in that case - or
you can complement a kiosk with it."
McWhirter said that between
March and May 2020, the company
sold more than 500 Beacons, which is
a 300% increase over what they sold in
the prior three months.
"It's definitely a signal that mobile
is here to stay, and we're seeing a lot
of operators install Beacons not only
in new micro markets but also in
existing micro markets that previously didn't have that feature enabled,"
he added. "We're really bullish about
the Beacon and scan and pay, and we
expect that trend to continue. That
300% increase - it's not falling down,
even as people
come back to
work, because
now operators
are embracing
mobile."

August 2020 * VendingMarketWatch.com

17
http://www.VendingMarketWatch.com
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