A coffee machine in the office that’s out of order, or a vending machine that flashes an error code, does more than cost you a few lost sales. It frustrates your customers, erodes their trust, and often sparks a flood of urgent calls that throw your team’s schedule into chaos.
The bigger issue is that these failures ripple well beyond the machine itself.
You lose revenue for every hour a machine sits broken, your technicians get pulled into last‑minute callouts, and your customers’ confidence takes a hit. Over time, too many breakdowns can even put renewal contracts at risk!
But don’t worry. Sudden breakdowns don’t have to be inevitable. With the right systems in place, you can move from reactive service to proactive management and prevent issues before they interrupt service.
In this blog, we have covered 7 practical ways you can use to keep machines running smoothly, and see how Dobby helps put them into practice.
Let’s dive in.
Way 1: Monitor machine health in real time
The sooner you know about a problem, the faster you can fix it. Real-time monitoring gives operators visibility into machine performance, including error codes, temperature fluctuations, and usage data.
Instead of waiting for a customer complaint, you see the problem as soon as it happens.
To monitor machine health, start by setting up a simple checklist for regular machine inspections. Include temperature stability, coin/card acceptance, and wear on moving parts. You can also train staff on-site to log these checks weekly and report anomalies early.
But this still requires a lot of manual work and training for your team. A better way is to use a tool designed specifically for coffee and vending machine operators.
Dobby is an all-in-one platform for coffee companies that streamlines service, sales, and operations through automation and real-time data. This boosts efficiency, collaboration, and profitability.
By using Dobby, you can catch an overheating motor or a payment error before it causes downtime. For service managers juggling hundreds of machines, that kind of visibility is crucial.
Once you have live monitoring in place, the next step is to use that data to predict problems before they happen.
Way 2: Use predictive maintenance to prevent costly breakdowns
Reactive service is expensive. By the time a part fails, you’ve already lost sales and probably disappointed a customer. Predictive maintenance flips the script by using machine data to signal when parts are wearing down, so you can replace them before they fail.
Instead of swapping a part because it broke, you replace it because the data shows it’s about to. This prevents unexpected breakdowns and lets you schedule repairs at times that minimize disruption.
How can you do this?
Build a replacement schedule for high‑wear parts (like grinders, seals, or payment modules) based on average lifespan data from manufacturers and your own history. This helps you anticipate failures and budget for replacements in advance.
But spotting issues is only half the battle. You also need a structured way to act on them.
Way 3: Automate service ticket creation and routing for faster response times
A machine sends an alert, but if the message gets buried in an inbox with 1000 other emails, nothing changes.
That’s why ticket automation is crucial. With the right vending machine management software, every machine error automatically triggers a service ticket, assigned directly to the right technician.
At Dobby, we help you remove the manual admin by connecting machine alerts straight into technician workflows. This ensures no issue slips through the cracks and technicians get the information they need instantly. Automation also frees up back-office staff from constant logging and follow-ups, so they can focus on higher-value tasks.
Pro tip:
If you’re not ready for full automation, create a shared inbox or ticketing spreadsheet where every reported issue must be logged within minutes. Define a rotation so each issue is assigned promptly to avoid delays.
But once the ticket is raised, the next challenge becomes getting the right person to the right machine quickly.
Way 4: Optimize technician routes to reduce wasted travel and downtime
Every extra mile a technician drives is time the machine stays out of service. And this happens because of poor manual route planning.
When you don’t plan efficiently, your technicians end up crisscrossing cities, missing SLAs, and wasting fuel. But smarter routing sends the nearest available technician with the right part, cutting downtime dramatically.
You can do this by grouping service calls geographically each day. Use mapping apps to visualise clusters and assign routes accordingly.
However, this would mean the manager spending a few hours every day to plan the right route. But Dobby can help here.
Our field service workforce management platform considers geography, technician skill sets, traffic, and workload to optimize every trip. This improves first-time fix rates and boosts technician utilization, so they spend more time repairing and less time on the road.
Potential Growth
How Automated Route Planning Drives Results
20%
Reduction in Travel Costs
10%
Increase in Compeleted Service Calls
30%
Faster Response Times
Way 5: Centralize machine history and customer data for better first‑time fixes
Imagine sending a technician to a site without telling them the machine’s service history or what parts were last replaced. Chances are, they’ll need to schedule a second visit. And there goes your customer trust, resources and time.
To solve this, you need to improve your first-time fix rate. And that can be done easily when technicians have full visibility before they even step on site.
By using Dobby for field service optimization, all service records, machine histories, contracts, and parts usage are stored in one place. Technicians can access this data via mobile, meaning fewer surprises, fewer repeat visits, and faster fixes.
Practical tip:
If you’re still working from spreadsheets, at minimum, keep a shared document where service dates, replaced parts, and recurring issues are logged for each machine. This ensures your technicians walk in with the context they need.
Better context for technicians also means clearer accountability, which brings us to the next point.
Way 6: Track SLA performance and downtime metrics to improve accountability
If you don’t measure how often your machines are working, and especially how often they break down – you won’t be able to grow your coffee service business.
Tracking patterns of machine breakdowns and how well you meet service agreements gives operators a clear view of performance. It also ensures technicians and managers are aligned on what success looks like.
Practical tip:
Choose two or three core metrics like average time a machine is out of order, first-time fix rate, and SLA compliance and track them consistently. A simple monthly review can highlight trends even before you invest in dashboards.
But manual work is still prone to errors, and your time should be spent creating strategies, not keeping track of what your technicians are doing.
By using Dobby, you can automatically track:
How often are machines actually working versus sitting broken.
How well your team is meeting the service agreements promised to customers.
Which customer accounts bring in the most profit, and which may be costing you money.
This makes it easy to see which accounts need attention and reduce vending machine downtime.
Way 7: Enable proactive customer communication to protect loyalty and renewals
The worst moment for a customer to find out their machine is down is when they walk up to use it.
Proactive communication turns that around. By keeping customers updated on service status, sometimes even before they notice an issue, you show reliability and build trust.
To do this, you can create a simple communication protocol: send customers a quick update when a machine is reported down, a second when a technician is en route, and a final note when service is complete. Even basic updates build confidence.
But you can take this a step ahead with Dobby by sending automated service updates and notifications. Instead of frustrated calls, customers see you as a partner who’s ahead of the problem, not scrambling behind it.
The best part is, you can achieve all of the ways we mentioned in this list easily with Dobby, without adding more manual work to your team.
How Dobby helps operators cut downtime with proactive vending monitoring
Each of these seven strategies works on its own, but the biggest impact comes from combining them into one system. But the challenge is, without the right tool, managing real-time data, predictive maintenance, and service workflows can actually add complexity instead of reducing it.
That’s where Dobby comes in. Designed specifically for coffee and vending operators, Dobby unifies every aspect of service management:
Real-time machine monitoring and predictive maintenance alerts
Automated ticket creation and intelligent technician routing
Operator-focused dashboards tracking uptime, SLAs, and profitability
End-to-end workflow management tailored to coffee and vending businesses
By putting all of this in one intuitive platform, Dobby helps operators cut downtime, improve technician efficiency, and keep customers happy (without adding headcount or chaos).
Book a demo today to see how Dobby can work for your team.
Want to reduce vending machine downtime and keep every machine working?
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