Omni channel experience in the petroleum retailer industry
Omni channel experience in the petroleum retailer industry
Industries like the fuel industry were working on a rather traditional system up until recently when the scene shifted to a new group of customers that expect better than the best. On one hand, they still rely on drawing hydrocarbons from the ground, processing them, and then selling them. And on the other hand, the fuel industry customers have evolved, they are matching the services being provided with their experiences online or in-store with different industries, even.
The oil and gas industry has been able to achieve operational success by improving its performance and productivity levels while also working effectively on the safety of its personnel and assets. They have been able to assemble extra barrels of gas and oil with higher utilization of their assets, and also maintain greater standards of safety in their operations. However, that alone has not made the cut for success for fuel brands/fuel companies. What the petroleum industry today is looking keenly at is commercial excellence through best practices in designing and delivering for maximized and profitable revenues. Petroleum retailers know that this significant change can be brought about by wholly understanding what their customer expectations, customer demands and customer needs are. They want to capture customer loyalty, work on customer retention and customer success to make them come back to their c-stores and gas stations.
What can work for your fuel business that is looking for commercial excellence?
As a petroleum retailer in the oil and gas sector you can:
- Identify those customers that are loyal and analyze the sales coverage, pricing, and technical service support that you have provided to them.
- Create an omnichannel approach in your petroleum retail business.
- Optimize pricing on products and customers.
- Restructure the sales force and improve management processes.
- Implement strict rules in terms of selection and management of distributors.
- Enhance the cost-to-serve ratio through a collaborative shipment plan
Let us shift our focus to one of the key elements to not only commercial excellence in the petroleum industry but also the success of a petroleum retailer as a whole among the methods we listed above. The omnichannel approach in petroleum industry. Customers today expect the same kind of experience across all their devices and channels. They want to be connected wherever they are available and also be able to shift spaces hassle-free. With such a situation arising, oil and gas companies are facing the urgent need for distributors and partners that can collaborate with customers and with content that works constructively across every channel and platform.
The petroleum retail industry is currently in a place that is constantly transforming. The majority of the changes are coming across in the form of cloud and digital technologies. Retailers have been pushed to not only acknowledge but also adapt to the social spaces and websites/e-commerce in the oil and gas industry. This is all done to maintain their c-stores and gas station value in a run to not go obsolete from the market. In fact, the inclusion of a c-store alone is not enough today. Almost every leading fuel store/ leading fuel brand has multiple businesses that can help make their omni channel strategies successful. Petroleum retailers are looking to provide their customers with attractive and consistent products/services across every channel even with uncertain pricing. The best route to which is through cross-selling and up-selling across C-stores, and services.
The petroleum retail business plan across almost every petroleum retailer has been rather identical in the last few decades. We saw nearly every petroleum retailer adapt to a variety of offerings like vehicle servicing, hotels, groceries, beverages and more which worked out magnificently, however. Now is the time to adapt to omnichannel marketing. Studies tell us that customers want targeted offerings, personalized promotions, interactions one-on-one and new payment options. We know a lot of gas stations are adhering to these methods but it is not seamless because they are using multiple platforms in an uncoordinated manner to adhere to them. The outcome is frustrating for the customer who has had better experiences at retail stores and supermarkets. Which brings us to the next big question: why should they choose you? You know the answer is that if given a better option, they should not. The only fixer-upper to that is an omni channel approach towards a personalized experience which is digitally enhanced, has a human touch, and is seamless of course. A concoction of social, analytics, mobile and cloud technologies would be required for such a procedure to be made live.
To provide an omnichannel experience in the fuel industry that also increases your revenue your fuel brand/petroleum brand must have the customer's demography, loyalty card data, favourite gas station outlets, basic spending on auto consumables and accessories, purchase patterns for groceries, payment preferences and data from social channels. The data that is collected would be required to be collated and reported for further use. This data can then be used for a multitude of uses such as customer-facing processes, middle-office billing and back-end supply chain management. With only this one data collecting system you will be able to start a technology-led omnichannel experience. This one step alone can make your customer’s life so much easier and give them a higher ground. Meanwhile, you will become your customer’s favourite while your revenues go up, customer retention increases and ultimately customer satisfaction is reached.
The ideal expectations of a petroleum retailer are customer satisfaction and customer success with great revenues and profits. Observing an omnichannel experience throughout your fuel brand can give you all that and more. It is not enough for a gas station to just be a gas station, it needs to be more. It must be competitive, attractive, seamless and structured. Like we said a gas station is just not enough anymore, and a gas station is not your only competition!
In a competitive petroleum retailers market, your petroleum retail business needs customer experience strategies that do not hold you back and make you play safe. You need customer experience companies like SonataGBW that analyze, recognize and report to you all that you need to move forward and absolutely plunge to success with better decision making. Our 9 powerful customer experience services are your key to building a petroleum retail store that inadvertently works to provide customer satisfaction.
Our CX solutions are focused on transforming the total customer experience through surveys, metrics, analytics and auditing by using the CXM framework to combine physical measurements with digital Platformation™ capabilities. We are committed to finding the right customer experience strategy that can lead to a competitive advantage.
Sonata GBW is a global technology company specializing in customer experience CX measurement, platform-based digital transformation, supporting businesses to become connected, open, intelligent and scalable. Global coverage of more than 105 markets with over 27 years of market leadership through extensive measurement capabilities, powerful and intuitive reporting and analytics platforms give us the leverage to improve customer experience. It has presence across USA, Canada, EMEA and APAC regions. If you would like to know more about how we can assist you, please fill out the business enquiry form below.