Customer's Strange Tendencies....

[MrMachine]

Have you ever noticed that customers follow patterns sometimes?

For instance, I have a couple of big Vendrite venders in one of my stores and in one of the venders I have 6 columns of Tide all in a row. I find that the middle columns always sell more than the one's on the ends. Perhaps this reflects people subconsciously wanting to "not stray too far to the fringes' in their behavior.

Another thing that Customers do.....If I'm working on a machine, the customers will come and use the machines right next to me.
The store could be completely empty, with 60 machines to choose from, but they HAVE to use the machine right next to the one I'm working on!! Perhaps being next to the mechanic gives them a feeling of security lest their machine break down.
Once, I had a washer totally open with the dump valve on the floor, and a customer actually asked me..."Is that machine broken?" LOL!!!

Also, if you ever want your store to magically become packed with customers, just schedule a big, difficult job such as changing all the hoses on the washers, or cleaning out all the exhausts on the dryers....something where you have to shut down groups of machines at a time. What starts as a typically guaranteed slow time, will magically turn into a jam packed washing bonanza of a store full of customers.....works better than advertising, lol.

And then there's what I call the "OUT of ORDER" panic.
Have you found that if you have more than one machine out of order in your store, that the customers will complain a LOT more about "their" machine? I'm thinking that out of order signs will destroy a customer's confidence in your store, and the more signs they see, the less confident they are that their machine will be working. So it behooves us to keep those signs out of the customer's consciousness by keeping everything running well.

[Adamski]

Paul,

So true. I've seen these things many times.

They also always ask, "Is this machine working?" when referring to the machine next to the one I'm working on.

Customers are also quite territorial in nature. They become a little uncomfortable, for example, when using 3 washers in a row of 4 and someone else uses that 4th washer. They become even more uncomfortable if the aisle is narrow and they're bumping into each other.

What is it with the line parking? Some customers cannot seem to manipulate their car between 2 yellow lines that are 10 feet apart. Fortunately, most manage just fine.

Way back when I was on QUARTER ONLY vending, customers would give the attendant 2 dimes and a nickel and ask, "Can I have a solid quarter?" As opposed to what ... a paper quarter?

[Howard]

Never heard the solid quarter line before.

I have several customers that have some very very old laundry cards, with most of the writing worn off and sometimes they don't read correctly. I have offered to transfer the money to a new card for them, but they refuse wanting to keep these old cards sort of as a badge of honor that they have been using it for so long.

[Duane]

Once I had a washer in the middle of the aisle unhooked from all utilities, off its base and sitting on a rug. Went to the office for my tools and when I came back a lady was filling the lone washer with clothes..........



I find all vending to go from left to right. I have three rows of Tide and the left is always lower when filling. I have two rows of Snickers and the left one is always selected more.

This one is interesting..... My card dispensers are right next to each other in the back of the store. Must customers will always use the left one so it has more bills in the bill acceptor. However the customers who use the card dispenser on the right seem to always use larger bills so even though there are less bills in the bill acceptor, the totals for both are usually in the same ballpark. I have seen on video that some customers will use the bill changer on the right to break a $20 into 4 $5 bills and then skip over the right card dispenser and go to the one on the left. And other customers will use the ATM on the left and then skip over the left card dispenser to use the one on the right to add value to their card with the larger bills........

[MrMachine]

Once I had a washer in the middle of the aisle unhooked from all utilities, off its base and sitting on a rug. Went to the office for my tools and when I came back a lady was filling the lone washer with clothes..........


Lol...Duane, that's classic!
Last year I had a woman put powdered detergent in a DRYER, and ask why there was no water!!!

[Brett]

Yep, yep, yep, wonder how some of them are able to get to the laundry by themselves. But it does make for some good stories.. Seen a lot in the last 17 years.

[bodman]

I like the the woman who put her 1 year old in the washer to give it a bath,

[surfflite]

I had a lady too, just last week, loading a machine that is off it's base, not plugged in to anything and the lid is off.

My end 1A & 1B stack dryers are by far the most used (and are the only 2 dryers out of 30 that have never needed a service call).

My card VTM on the left gets used about 50% more than the one on the right.


....and, there were 18,005,450,987 goose feathers in the comforter that exploded in one of my 40's last week. Did I mention, the customer then placed it in a dryer where it lost the remaining 13,987,457,876 feathers.

[will]

I have a pressure washer and tank built on a old truck that i wash my parking lot with from time to time. Every time i wash the lot, i wash from one end to the other. When a custmer pulls up to park they will not park on the clean side out of the way. They will always park right in front of were i am washing making me stop. I have never understood it but have watched it for ten years now. Cracks me up every time.

[STOUT]

Kerry;

If those feathers were dollars you could almost pay off the national debt!

[MrMachine]

I have a pressure washer and tank built on a old truck that i wash my parking lot with from time to time. Every time i wash the lot, i wash from one end to the other. When a custmer pulls up to park they will not park on the clean side out of the way. They will always park right in front of were i am washing making me stop. I have never understood it but have watched it for ten years now. Cracks me up every time.

LOL...Have you ever noticed when you're driving in the parking lot.....that if you are going forward, pedestrians will patiently wait for you to cross them before they attempt to pass, but if you are BACKING UP, they will run across the path of your car, forcing you to stop backing up...

[CanCanCase]

...I find all vending to go from left to right. I have three rows of Tide and the left is always lower when filling. I have two rows of Snickers and the left one is always selected more.

This one is interesting..... My card dispensers are right next to each other in the back of the store. Must customers will always use the left one so it has more bills in the bill acceptor. However the customers who use the card dispenser on the right seem to always use larger bills so even though there are less bills in the bill acceptor, the totals for both are usually in the same ballpark. I have seen on video that some customers will use the bill changer on the right to break a $20 into 4 $5 bills and then skip over the right card dispenser and go to the one on the left. And other customers will use the ATM on the left and then skip over the left card dispenser to use the one on the right to add value to their card with the larger bills........

...My card VTM on the left gets used about 50% more than the one on the right...

With vending, I've noticed the left-to-right tendency as well... Then I set up my Soap Vision and really threw them for a loop... Coin-vend size tide is located on 3 rows. Of those 3 rows (all near the bottom of the machine) I've got tide in the upper-left, middle-middle and lower right. The middle-middle position sells out entirely before either of the other two.

My ATM, Bill Breaker and EC Cabinet are all located in a line from left to right. I even have signs showing the order (Step 1: get money, Step 2: break it down to smaller bills, Step 3: get EasyCard). People almost always approach the right EC cabinet first, then wander to the ATM and bill breaker to begin.

EC Cabinet collections are at least 3 to 1 in favor of the left cabinet. One day the left cabinet ran out of cards to vend. I nearly had a fight in the store when a new customer came in, tried to use the left side, and then was asked to try the right side... An existing customer (already had their card) came and used the left side to add money to their account. I couldn't for the life of me explain why the regular customer could use the left cabinet and the new customer had to use the right side... He accused me of "favoring the regulars"... but was then pleasantly surprised at the $1 bonus, and ended the encounter stating that "maybe now I would give him access to the special machine since he liked the place and was going to be a regular from now on!"

-Case