London Vending Operator Turns To IBM Watson Analytics To Access Customer Insights

LONDON -- A new type of automated coffeehouse operated by Revive Vending Ltd. is reportedly off to a running start, and IBM's data analytics is helping Revive cater to its customer base. Revive, a UK vending operation, said that it's operating three automated Honest Cafés and has four more in the works. The self-serve concepts feature vending machines that offer a mix of Fair Trade hot drinks, along with "healthy" snacks and cold.

While the absence of servers, cooks and baristas can mean greater efficiencies and lower overhead costs, it makes understanding clients' needs and desires more challenging. So Revive Vending turned to IBM's Watson Analytics to unearth client insights.

"Because an Honest Café is unmanned, it's tough going observing what our customers are saying and doing in them," said Mark Summerill, who heads up product development at Honest Café. "We don't know what our customers are into or what they look like. And as a startup it's crucial we know what sells and what areas we should push into."

What Honest Café did have were data captured by the machines -- from product sales and selections, to the timing of purchases. But it lacked an effective way of analyzing it. With the help of IBM Business Partner EBI Solutions, Summerill uploaded Honest Café's transactional information and began discovering insights.

"We identified that people who buy as a social experience have different reasons than those who dash in and out grabbing just the one drink," Summerill said. "They also have a different payment method, the time of the day differs and the day of the week. Knowing this, we can correctly time promotions and give them an offer or introduce a product that is relevant to them."

IBM released Watson Analytics in December. Through IBM's relationship with Twitter, the service enables customers to analyze social sentiment for insights around programs, products and trends. Revive Vending is upgrading its Watson plan to allow access 25,000 tweets per dataset. "Having direct access to Twitter data for insights into what our buyers are talking about is going to help augment our view and understanding of our customers even further," Summerill said.