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In early 2002, Atlas Food Systems and Services, Inc., a regional
vending company in Greenville, SC. installed PAYKEY® as a cashless
payment option at one of their customer locations, Faurecia,
an automotive products manufacturer in Fountain Inn, SC. Faurecia's
300 employees have been able to purchase with the traditional method
of cash and coins along with PAYKEY® since then. Immediately,
the employees began to enjoy using their Paykey more than cash and
coins to make purchases. Employees realized how easy and convenient
their Paykey was to use!
Neile Bramlett, Human
Resources Director for Faurecia welcomed the convenience the PAYKEY®
granted his employees and stated," I am confident that my employees
will eventually welcome a completely cashless environment."
Just over a year later,
on March 1, 2004, Faurecia and Atlas successfully transitioned Faurecia
to completely cashless to the delight of the employees and management.
Atlas offered a final sign-up period to give away Paykeys before
selling Paykeys in the snack machines for $3. The response has been
positive. They are accustomed to using Paykey as their only means
of purchasing.
The associates recharge
their Paykey at the RCS 100 Recharge Station with either cash or
credit/debit cards. Atlas has even been able to remove the coin
mechanism and bill validator from all of the machines except for
the snack machine, which is used as a PAYKEY purchase station.
Mrs. Donna Gettys, the
District Manager for Atlas Food Systems has commented that "PAYKEY®
is an easy system for me to implement with my vending attendants.
We have certainly saved money by using PAYKEY® . We are obviously
handling less money and are having fewer service calls and/or money
acceptance problems."
Atlas has also leamed
that, given time, employees will accept and even welcome a completely
cashless environment! Ranson Anderson, an employee of Faurecia
stated, "It seems like I'm spending more money, and that's
what everyone else says, because it's more convenient. Plus, I don't
have to worry about dropping my quarters under the machine!"
Valerie Byrd said that
she usually puts $5 on her Paykey every Monday morning and uses
it all week. She, too, enjoys its convenience and reliability.
Overall, the response to PAYKEY® at Faurecia has been overwhelmingly
positive, and Atlas expects a general sales increase of around 5%,
not including the "float", or the benefit of collecting
future sales before they purchase.
Atlas' equipment cost conversion to all cashless can be calculated
as follows:
| Recharge Station |
$ 2,600.00 |
| PKl Readers (5) |
$ 1,500.00 |
| Paykeys (300) |
$ 1,800.00 |
| Starter Kit (software, etc.) |
$ 500.00 |
| Total |
$ 6,400.90 |
| Removal
of 5 coin mechs and 4 bill validators |
- $ 2,700.00 |
| Net Cost |
$ 3,700.00 |
Thus, at the net cost of only $3,700.00,
Atlas Food Systems and Faurecia are benefiting from a unique, new
payment system allowing the vendor to electronically control his
money and his customers to have added convenience and reliability.
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This
year has been a turning point for vendors gaining the knowledge
and
confidence to sell new accounts with a cashless payment system.
A list of
vendors, large and small, are reporting success stories in gaining
new
accounts when presenting PAYKEY® as an additional payment
option to new and existing customers.
Dan Holt of Lincoln County Vending in
Fayetteville, TN has sold two accounts with
PAYKEY as part of his sales presentation
since his introduction to PAYKEY at the
ACE show in April. “PAYKEY is an amazing tool. It gets me
in front of decision
makers quickly. People find it so much
easier and reliable than cash and coins.”
John Battaglia of J&J
Vending in Rochester, NY uses PAYKEY to gain a solid hold
on his existing accounts. “Customer loyalty has become my
#1 benefit.”
Gilbert Godbee, Director of Sales for Atlas
Food Systems and Services, Inc. in Greenville, SC, agrees
that PAYKEY gives
him a sales tool like no other. “I see
PAYKEY as a unique opportunity to create
a deeper level of customer loyalty toward
our company that is impossible to gain with
cash and coins only. For larger facilities, we
put the company’s logo on the Paykey.
People proudly carry it with their car keys
and use it all the time. Our customers are
finding their own creative ways to use
Paykey’s for in-plant promotions and
benefits.”
Wayne
Eddy, Purchasing – Senior Buyer of
Honeywell
in Greer, SC, states, “Our two
plants made the decision to eliminate the subsidizing of our cafeteria
services and
searched for a vendor who would provide us
the best solution to take our employees from
a cafeteria services environment to an all vending service.”
“During the selection process, Atlas Food
Systems and Services presented us with the
PAYKEY cashless system option for our
employees, and I saw this as a great new
technology that would improve their
satisfaction level while using the vending
machines and would also allow me to give
each of our 800 associates a $20 pre-credit
on their Paykey as an incentive to begin
using the vending exclusively. Atlas simply
preset each Paykey with $20 and sent us an
invoice.”
Atlas Food Systems
now uses the PK 300 in
their food service cafeterias. The PK 300 is a POS Paykey reader
located at the cash
register to accept Paykey as payment.
This machine eliminates waiting in line for
customers to find money and wait for
change. Cashiers and customers alike
appreciate the convenience of cashless
spending at the cash register.

PAYKEY’S Recharge Station adds even more convenience by allowing
customers the option to recharge their Paykey’s with their
credit/debit cards, as well as cash.
PAYKEY also has the unique ability to give customers the opportunity
to recharge their
Paykey directly on certain manufacturer’s vending machines!
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Kevin Grundy, co-owner
of Tri-Star Vending Corp. in Las Vegas, NV, said
the employer can revalue the employee's "Paykey" as he
wants, including providing bonuses. It also speeds up the transactions.
"There is much less of a bottleneck in the lunch room,"
Grundy said. He said the system lifted sales by 15 to 20 percent.
Cashless lowers price resistance. "There's less resistance
to price increases as well," Grundy further pointed out.
Young's Distributing in Twin Falls, ID was able
to convince a customer to use Paykeys instead of a bill validator,
which would have cost more, noted Kenney Young, co-owner. He sells
the Paykeys in the machines for $6. In one 250-person account, 65
employees bought Paykeys. Part of the attraction is the
fact that it's an infrared device; customers simply enjoy the novelty
of using the infrared key.
"They have all felt this was a better option than a change
machine," Young observed.
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