Trolley House Refreshments

Keeping Clients Happy by Looking After Customers.

Simple, easy issue reporting — customers get convenience, and operators get breathing room.

Before ZippyAssist, customers relied heavily on voicemails, after-hours calls, or handwritten notes stuck to machines. The process was slow, fragmented, and created a sense that issues were disappearing into a void.

ZippyAssist changed that dynamic immediately. Customers now have one quick way to “raise their hand,” share what happened, and get back to their day. In unattended retail and self-service, customers don’t often expect an instant fix — but they do expect a convenient way to report a problem and trust it’ll be handled.

And for the team, this clarity means fewer interruptions and a more predictable day.

“No matter what time of day, customers feel like someone is already working on their problem.” — Austin

That simple feeling of being heard right away has reduced escalations dramatically and strengthened Trolley House’s relationships with their clients.

Improved Clarity, Less Work.

Clear, organized requests help the Trolley team respond thoughtfully.

A big fear operators have is: “Won’t this just give us more customer messages?”

For Trolley House, the opposite happened — they didn’t get more noise, they got more clarity. Even with 700+ clients, ZippyAssist helped them organize information in a way that fit their workflow:

• Every request arrives with the details they need

• Issues can be triaged and prioritized

• The whole team sees the same information

• Nothing gets lost in a voicemail box or email thread

Zippy doesn’t fix problems automatically — it just makes the problems clear, structured, and easy to act on. That’s what allowed their team to be more effective without working around the clock.

“It connected our team a little bit more… everyone is more involved now.” — Austin

Customer requests stopped interrupting the day and instead became part of a predictable, manageable workflow.

Refunds Dropped. Dramatically.

Greater visibility and accountability — plus Zippy’s pre-auth feature — reduced Trolley House’s refunds by 50–75%.

Across the industry, refunds are something of a problem child. Trolley House faced many of the same challenges other operators deal with: limited visibility into how refunds are being handled, and the added complexity of unattended environments where things happen without anyone watching.

It wasn’t until they started using ZippyAssist that they could clearly see how the lack of structure made it easy for some people to take advantage of the system.

“We issue half, maybe even a quarter, of the refunds we used to.” — Jason

With refund requests now flowing through ZippyAssist, the clarity and accountability discouraged illegitimate claims. And another source of noise disappeared entirely: confusion over credit card pre-authorizations. Customers were seeing a temporary hold on their card and assuming it was a duplicate charge.

ZippyAssist resolves that upfront. The refund tool explains pre-auths in plain, friendly language and sets clear expectations. Automated reminders check in with customers before they submit a refund request — meaning many issues simply resolve themselves without any team involvement. That alone saved Trolley House hours of staff time every week. (Learn how Buffalo Strive cut time spent on customer support in half)

For Trolley House, the result was a dramatic, sustained reduction in refunds. And this mirrors what most operators experience: once customers have clarity and processes become consistent, refunds go down — not up.

Deployed to Assets In Days.

Implementation didn’t require special tools or heavy training — just a simple, focused effort.

Trolley House re-labeled every asset — vending machines, coolers, micro market equipment — and had ZippyAssist live across their footprint within a week. Now every new piece of equipment leaving their building already includes Zippy contact details.

With Zippy available on every asset, they are maximising the benefits across their entire operation.

“Every asset we have out there basically has some kind of ability to communicate to us.” — Jason

Work that is easier to manage.

Tools like ZippyAssist give staff more time to coordinate their day, and confidence in responding to customers.

With a cleaner way to receive customer issues and a clear structure for responding, Trolley House now operates with:

• Fewer disruptions

• Stronger internal coordination

• Better visibility into customer needs

• Less time spent chasing details

• Faster, more consistent follow-up

• Happier customers and happier clients

ZippyAssist didn’t remove the human element — it made space for it.

“The direct link with the customer was the biggest reason we wanted this, and ZippyAssist has done exactly that.” — Jason

Convenience, clarity, and better business outcomes.

What Operators Can Take From Trolley House’s Experience

The experience of Trolley House shares some common themes we see with operators who use ZippyAssist.

Key takeaways:

• Customers generally don’t expect or need instant fixes — they need an easy way to report issues, and to trust they’ll be take care of.

• Operators need clarity, not more noise

• A refunds process that is structured and centralized sees refunds decline

• Teams work more smoothly when information is centralized

• Onboarding is fast and painless

• The operator–client relationship strengthens naturally

ZippyAssist helps operators make better use of their time by creating a simple, structured way for customers to reach out — and letting teams respond thoughtfully, not reactively.