The company I work for has several 24/7 accounts. I would like to here how others handle this type of an account.

Recently the credit card companies raised the price to vendor's with card readers. Can someone help me with which side of the business got hit? Was it the debit card or the credit card transactions?

Today I would like to talk a bit about closed loop card readers. Some colleges, prisons and other locations have set up, what I call, closed loop card readers (we will use prisons going forward in this article).

The way it works is a machine is set up that sells a card to a new customer and at the same time puts some credit on the card for the purchaser. The machine is close to the same size as a bill changer and works in a similar manner. A new customer puts in a $20.00 bill into a bill acceptor and normally $18.00 credit is put on the card. The other two dollars is a one time fee charged for the card.

When the card gets low on credit, the customer returns to the same machine. They put their card into the card slot and deposit a $20.00 bill, and the card is credited with $20.00.

The card machines money is collected daily by the prison and deposited into the prisons account. The machines in a prison are set up with only card readers so that cash does not work in them.

As a customer spends money in the machine it keeps track of how much money has been spent. Usually once per week the vendor will use a handheld device to download the sales information. It is then processed back at the office and a statement is sent to the prison for payment.

These readers keep track of a lot of information. Lets say that one of the inmates claims a machine took advantage of them. You, the vendor, can go back and check to see if that inmate even made a transaction at the time they are claiming the machine took advantage of them. Many machines will give them the credit back if they do not receive their product and you the vendor can check your records to see if it did.

Can you see where a card reader could help you gain business? How many of you have used card readers or are thinking about using them?

Landing the large account is a step by step procedure that many of you have honed to a fine art. Today I'm going to give you the way I like to approach the process.

My first step is to put a tray of brownies together that I will be giving away as a door opener. The company I work for is one of the larger companies in the US and our catering side of the business buys a frozen brownie that is to die for.

I deliver the brownies to the receptionist and along with the brownies I give her a pocket folder that has literature about our company. I ask her to give them to the person in charge of the vending service.

Once she takes them from me I tell her I like to follow up with a phone call in a week or so to see if the person she is going to give the brownies to is interested in talking with me.

Within a week I follow up with a phone call to the contact and tell them I would enjoy being able to stop by and visit with them about some of the positive things that are going on with our company.

You would be surprised at how many will say yes if you approach it as I have stated. Another thing I like to do is to give them choices of when they would like to meet with me; say next week or the week after and just keep dialing in on a date by narrowing the choices.

At the first face to face meeting what I am after is a second meeting where I will bring my boss along with me and we tour the breakrooms. He does some idle talking while I get a list of what machines we will need to service the account. If I can get the contact to allow me to buy them a meal it really does help.

The next step in the process is to come back with the proposal you have designed for their account. I will normally bring my boss along with me and he likes giving the proposal.

The secret to landing the large account is to make a freind. It is harder for them to turn down a friend than some complete stranger that walks in thinking they are going to land the account the first or second time in the door.

My way is not the only way to get the job done and I would truly enjoy hearing how you approach landing the large account or any account. I like to say you are never too old to learn.

I started in the honor snack box business in 1988. I sold my snack box business and went into the full line vending business. I have spent most of my life selling food in one form or another and I'm wondering why more people are not getting into the snack boxes.

I was visiting with the largest operator in the NE part of the US and he stated there are still many areas wide open for snack box operators.

Why are so many people interested in getting into full line vending when it has such a high capital investment for the return on your money. The only thing I can think of that is stopping people from getting into the snack box business is the shortage.

I have always looked at shortage in the snack boxes as being the same as paying a comission with a vending machine. I never had a snack box customer call me in the middle of the night saying thier snack box took thier money. I have a full time maintenance man that can verify that happens in the vending business.

I would love to see snack boxes get the recognition that I believe they deserve. I hope you will respond to my questions that I have stated above. I look forward to hearing from anyone who has opinion on the subject of honor snack boxes.

Honor snack boxes are my passion. I would like to here from anyone that is in the business or thinking of going in the business. Yes I do sell snack boxes but if you visit my site you will soon find out that it is an information based site.