#234: Driving Loyalty in Convenience Retail with Sheetz USA

PAULA: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for Loyalty Marketing Professionals.

PAULA: I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in Loyalty Marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from Loyalty Specialists around the world.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by Comark, a global provider of innovative software products and business services.

PAULA: Comark’s platform is used by leading brands across all industries to drive their customer loyalty.

PAULA: Powered by AI and machine learning, Comark technologies allow you to build, run, and manage personalized loyalty programs and product offers with ease.

PAULA: For more information, please visit comark.com.

PAULA: Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty with a wonderful US convenience store brand called Sheetz, which operates over 600 fuel and convenience stores on the East Coast of the United States.

PAULA: Sheetz has a hugely impressive story to tell around the role of loyalty in its business strategy.

PAULA: And joining me today to share some of their key insights is Nicole Auman, Director of Brand Marketing for Sheetz Inc.

PAULA: Nicole shares some of the recent key insights and successes and some of the most innovative ideas they’ve launched recently, which includes a new subscription service and her amazing insights on the increasing role that their app is playing as a direct digital connection to their customers.

PAULA: We also discussed the powerful role their loyalty program plays supporting their partners.

PAULA: Perhaps one of the key reasons that the Sheetz Loyalty Manager recently won the CSP Award as the Loyalty Manager of the Year in convenience retail industry in the United States.

PAULA: So I hope you enjoyed this conversation and master class in driving loyalty in convenience retail.

PAULA: So, Nicole Auman, Director of Brand Marketing at Sheetz.

PAULA: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: Oh, I’m so happy to talk to you, Nicole.

PAULA: You guys are doing some incredible work, both I think in your overall customer proposition, but certainly in the loyalty space as well, with some award-winning performances, which I know we’re gonna talk about today.

PAULA: So, before we get started, I will ask you your favorite loyalty program, just to give us a sense of what you value and appreciate, I guess, as a marketing professional.

NICOLE: Yeah, I love that question because this is kind of my passion in life, is other loyalty programs and how we can draw inspiration from them.

NICOLE: But I love to travel, so I immediately went to the travel industry and I prefer hotels.com because I’m not specifically loyal to one brand of hotels.

NICOLE: I like to get into a vicinity of where I wanna be so that I have walking distance to everything.

NICOLE: And I love the boutique type hotels versus the kind of cookie cutter hotel experience.

NICOLE: So hotels.com allows me to get all of that in and I still get some great benefits from it as well.

NICOLE: So it’s real easy to understand.

NICOLE: There’s some status that you can attain even though you’re not with a specific brand.

NICOLE: So it’s great for me.

PAULA: Yeah, I like that actually.

PAULA: It’s an interesting perspective, Nicole, because I actually really do share that passion both for travel and for boutique hotels.

PAULA: I think I traveled on business for so long that if it’s a branded hotel, I kind of feel like I’m actually working.

PAULA: So at least with a boutique hotel, it’s like a really new experience and always an exceptional one.

PAULA: So wonderful.

PAULA: Thank you for that.

PAULA: And I’ll definitely check out hotels.com and their loyalty proposition.

PAULA: So listen to me, you’re based there.

PAULA: I know in Pennsylvania on the East Coast of the United States with an extraordinary career in Sheetz.

PAULA: I think you said to me all fair 24 years.

PAULA: So I guess your entire career with this incredible company that I’ve been learning about.

PAULA: So just for the people maybe who are not familiar with your brand, Nicole, I’d love just to get a sense of your business and the scale of the Sheetz retail brand.

NICOLE: So we’d like to consider ourselves the ultimate one-stop shop.

PAULA: Okay.

NICOLE: And what that means is that we like to have our customers be able to take care of a lot of their needs with one-stop at Sheetz.

NICOLE: And beyond that, we have this really bold and bright personality.

NICOLE: So you can come to us and get your feeling needs met with these big, bright awnings that just scream to you from the highway, which is like an oasis when you’re on the highway and you see a big red Sheetz awning, and you know that you’re in for something great.

NICOLE: And then once you get to the lot, you can also go inside.

NICOLE: We have made-to-order food.

NICOLE: We have made-to-order specialty beverages.

NICOLE: We have just a huge variety of consumer packaged goods.

NICOLE: So think of a C-store kind of on steroids where you’ve got all of this great food that is actually made right to your specifications, and also any kind of consumer packaged goods that you could want.

NICOLE: So it’s really a fun experience.

PAULA: For sure, for sure.

PAULA: And I think you’re right to emphasize how good the food is, Nicole, because I think maybe, you know, historically, certainly when I was a child, the industry didn’t have that same focus on food.

PAULA: So we might stop all for our packaged goods and the fuel and the bathroom and the facilities, of course, but it wouldn’t be a destination for food.

PAULA: But I definitely hear that that’s something coming through, particularly in the US and sounds like you’re extremely proud of it.

PAULA: Wow, brilliant.

PAULA: Okay, so thank you for that.

PAULA: Overall, I know from what you’ve told me already that there’s some incredible, I suppose, data-led insights and focus on loyalty within the Sheetz business.

PAULA: So that’s always amazing to hear.

PAULA: And tell us a bit about that as your starting point, Nicole, because it’s not everyone who gets to start there.

NICOLE: Yeah, that’s a great point.

NICOLE: And we are really fortunate.

NICOLE: I have a team of insights and analytics experts that provide us with a lot of great content on what our customer needs are, what they like in their experience and what they don’t like.

NICOLE: We have a great dashboard that tells us the pain points, so that we can go and try to eliminate those pain points.

NICOLE: And obviously technology comes to play in that a lot, where folks have trouble with technology.

PAULA: Yeah.

NICOLE: And then we have this other layer of it that has transaction level details for all of our loyalty customers.

NICOLE: So we can layer all that together and we can really get this more robust picture of what our customers are doing with us and how we can make that experience better.

NICOLE: And at the end of the day, we want them to love coming to Sheetz.

NICOLE: We want them to love the experience and the loyalty platform so that they visit us more often.

NICOLE: That’s the name of the game.

NICOLE: Get them in more often, get them spending a little bit more money, but having them have some benefit from that as well.

NICOLE: So it’s a two-way street.

PAULA: For sure, for sure.

PAULA: And I know you have both the transactional side, of course, Nicole, and I’d love you to explain, I suppose, the value proposition of what the rewards platform does, but also then a really interesting tiered program.

PAULA: So really keen to hear that side as well of your program.

NICOLE: Yeah, the tiering is probably my favorite part of the program.

NICOLE: So we’ll talk about that after I explain the value proposition itself.

NICOLE: So that was also rooted in a lot of customer research.

NICOLE: We did some focus groups and some quantitative research to find out what customers really wanted from a loyalty program.

NICOLE: And there were a couple of things that came out.

NICOLE: The first was that people like to be rewarded almost immediately, so the waiting was hard.

NICOLE: So we needed to find a value proposition that was not too unattainable.

NICOLE: We landed on giving three cents off of gas every single day as long as you give us your contact information.

NICOLE: So the value proposition there is in return for allowing us to market to you.

NICOLE: You get this three cents off every day.

NICOLE: But then in addition to that, there’s a lot of other great offers that we’re gonna send you and a lot of really personal offers as well.

NICOLE: Then the other thing that we did was a straight points program.

NICOLE: So you earn points for spending inside the store, and then you have a full catalog of things on our app that you can purchase with those points.

NICOLE: It’s so attainable because you can, for 150 points, you can purchase five cents off fuel, which ends up being a very, very good deal for our customers as well.

PAULA: Sure, yeah.

PAULA: And alongside that then, do you have merchandise and other, I suppose, gifts that people can save up?

PAULA: I know you made the point that it seems to be much more about instant gratification, which I guess in a convenience store is probably not that surprising.

PAULA: But I do think in my experience, we do have a saver mentality sometimes if there’s things that might be in the budget to buy, but you might see in a catalog and really kind of look forward to attaining.

PAULA: Is that something that you guys do as well?

NICOLE: Yeah, we do have a lot of things in our catalog.

NICOLE: So you can get in at a low level of 150 points, but then you can also save your points and get something larger.

NICOLE: I love the way that you’re giving into merchandise.

NICOLE: So that’s something that’s kind of on our radar.

NICOLE: How do we get some Sheetz merch in there so that customers can really show off their love for the brand?

NICOLE: And as we mentioned before, we have a tier program.

NICOLE: So it starts with fans.

NICOLE: So entry level is fans.

NICOLE: And then once you attain a certain level, you get to a friend.

NICOLE: And then our top level is freaks.

NICOLE: And freaks is a badge of honor.

NICOLE: It’s something that our most loyal, dedicated fans love to hear.

NICOLE: They love to be called freaks.

NICOLE: I know that’s probably not something that’s common in most places.

NICOLE: But for Sheetz, a freak is definitely a compliment.

NICOLE: And we do surprise our freaks.

NICOLE: So there is a benefit to being a freak.

NICOLE: They get a lot more surprise and delights.

NICOLE: And then once a year, we have a gift that we give our freaks.

NICOLE: So this year was a card game, which was really fun.

NICOLE: So it’s a party game.

NICOLE: It’s kind of like, if you think about the meme game, where you have to match a meme to a saying.

NICOLE: It’s kind of like that, but it’s all Sheetz focused, and it’s all Sheetz branded.

NICOLE: And the creative team just did such a great job putting that together.

NICOLE: So that was a really exciting one for us.

PAULA: Oh my goodness.

PAULA: You must have so much fun brainstorming for that.

NICOLE: Absolutely.

NICOLE: It’s a fun company to work for, that’s for sure.

PAULA: I can tell, my goodness.

PAULA: And it sounds like it’s a very digitally led program.

PAULA: I mean, I’d love to just know, do you issue plastic cards, for example, as ID, or is it all on the app?

PAULA: How do you do that side?

NICOLE: My dream is for it all to be on the app.

NICOLE: So someday before I retire, I hope that that comes to fruition.

NICOLE: But right now we have a lot of legacy customers.

NICOLE: We’ve been in the loyalty game for about 15 years.

NICOLE: So maybe even a little bit longer.

NICOLE: So really, it wasn’t a very digital place back then.

NICOLE: Plastic cards was the way that we entered the game.

NICOLE: So we have a lot of legacy customers who still want to use plastic, but we are really thinking critically about how we move forward.

NICOLE: And new customers maybe just allowing them to be digital only.

NICOLE: It’s such a better experience when you are digital versus plastic, because you get to look at the catalog and pick what you want as your rewards.

NICOLE: And there’s this whole online ordering and curbside pickup and just all of these great features.

NICOLE: Because at the end of the day, loyalty is more than just an earn and burn platform.

NICOLE: It really has to be about the overall experience and the digital experience, I can say, is just much more positive for our customers.

NICOLE: So that’s my dream.

NICOLE: We’re hoping to get there.

NICOLE: We’re not quite there yet, but maybe next time we talk.

PAULA: I certainly hope so, Nicole, because yeah, we know what it’s like and we can see the difference that the customer will get.

PAULA: But at the same time, I think we’re all creatures of habit.

PAULA: So don’t take away something that’s working for me.

PAULA: Yeah, wonderful, wonderful.

PAULA: And yeah, I do think it’s a credit to be in loyalty for 15 years, and there’s not many programs that are that mature.

PAULA: So I can imagine there’s a storehouse of information and obviously people around, because what I did see coming through is that you guys do have this incredible employee loyalty as well.

PAULA: So yes, we’ve mentioned already, you’ve had an incredible career, but I know also you guys have won awards for being one of the top 100 places, I think, to work in the United States.

NICOLE: We have been on that list many times, and most recently, I think was our highest rating yet.

NICOLE: So we do have a great corporate culture, and I think, you know, the stores, they see each other as family members, really great place to work.

PAULA: That’s incredible, yeah.

PAULA: So the stuff you sent me through before, Nicole, the information that you sent me through before had some really wonderful data in terms of specific metrics.

PAULA: And for people who’ve been listening to our show now since the beginning, perhaps, they would have known that I always used to start instead of asking about a favorite loyalty program, I also asked about a favorite loyalty statistic.

PAULA: And then when you sent through your metrics, I was like, ooh, Nicole is gonna get both of these questions.

PAULA: So you sent through three or four, which I’d love to just talk through.

PAULA: And particularly, I suppose, the performance since last year in terms of the percentage of your transactions that are including a loyalty swipe, that’s grown phenomenally.

PAULA: So I’d love to hear how that’s been happening.

NICOLE: Yeah, it’s been phenomenal.

NICOLE: So I will say there’s a couple of things that have been happening.

NICOLE: COVID really kept people at home for a while.

NICOLE: So we did notice some attrition during the COVID pandemic.

NICOLE: And then once things started to loosen up a little bit, we saw some of those customers come back into the fold, but we also acquired more customers.

NICOLE: And then beyond that, we are seeing just higher frequency, higher spend from our existing customers.

NICOLE: And that all really culminated in a 10% increase over prior year for our swipe rate.

NICOLE: Which by the way, is probably my favorite metric, just because it takes acquisition, it takes retention, it takes frequency, then it kind of combines it all into one metric that is just real easy to explain and understand.

PAULA: I totally agree actually.

PAULA: I think it’s the proof point that the actual member sees the value in being recognized and for all of that data to be captured.

PAULA: So obviously you are using that data in a very personalized, effective way to go back to them in a way that they’re noticing.

NICOLE: Yeah, that is something that we’ve been very hyper-focused on recently.

NICOLE: We made some investments in some technology that allows us to use AI and machine learning to understand our customer a little bit better and then send them personalized messages.

NICOLE: And they may be offers that might just be information that we think they need to know.

NICOLE: And we’ve seen such incredible increase in our open rates for our emails and our push notifications and better redemption rates.

NICOLE: So everything really seems to be firing on all cylinders right now.

PAULA: That’s incredible.

PAULA: And a lot of us do talk about AI and we talk about machine learning, Nicole.

PAULA: There’s not many people that have managed to get something to market and be able to sit and say, you know what, it does make a difference.

NICOLE: It does.

NICOLE: We are just starting this evolution with AI and machine learning.

NICOLE: We’ve gotten the tools.

NICOLE: We’ve done some use cases with it.

NICOLE: And we’re probably about up to our ankles in the water right now, but we’re not quite where we want to be yet.

NICOLE: But I have really great future sites ahead.

NICOLE: You know, it’s gonna be the impact that we’re seeing now.

PAULA: Yeah.

NICOLE: Once we get to where we need to be, I can’t imagine how impactful it’s going to be.

PAULA: My goodness.

PAULA: And is it just the quality of the data that differentiates those technologies or the breadth of data?

PAULA: Or how would you explain it to someone like me, for example, who’s just never had that experience?

NICOLE: So we’ve had a lot of data for a long time, and there was just a period where it was hard to use all that data.

NICOLE: It was almost too much.

NICOLE: What are you gonna do with all of this?

NICOLE: When we invested in tools that allowed us to kind of simplify and select, you know, for an example, a very simple example is send time optimization.

NICOLE: So we’re looking for one specific thing about our customers.

NICOLE: When do they typically open an email?

NICOLE: And that is down to the customer level.

NICOLE: And then we’re basically sending those emails based on your particular behavior and how you open emails.

NICOLE: So that’s just one of the use cases that we’re into right now.

PAULA: Yeah.

NICOLE: But what we really hope to be is where we understand this is what this customer is purchasing.

NICOLE: And when they are purchasing it, what is something that could be a complimentary product or something new that they could add to their basket that kind of fits their profile and then send something that’s more of a recommendation on why don’t you add this to your basket?

NICOLE: Or maybe we’ll give them an offer for something completely new just to get them to try something they haven’t tried before.

NICOLE: And I think that’s where a lot of power is going to be.

PAULA: Well, power is exactly the right word, Nicole, because I had no idea that it was capable of understanding the times that I like to open my emails.

NICOLE: Yeah, it’s incredible.

NICOLE: And like I said, we’re still at the beginning and we get so excited.

NICOLE: And I’ve got this really talented loyalty team that is so all in on this data and how they can use it to improve the metrics.

NICOLE: And I’m very proud of the progress that they’ve made.

PAULA: Oh, I can tell.

PAULA: And I think it’s the perfect opportunity actually to mention your loyalty manager who recently won the incredible Loyalty Manager of the Year Award for the whole industry.

PAULA: Yes.

PAULA: So do you want to tell us about her?

NICOLE: Yeah, Shiana Peace.

NICOLE: So she has been with the company for about five years, but she just came onto Loyalty about 18 months ago.

NICOLE: And in that time, she has just really led the team to these data-driven insights and how we use them for our customers.

NICOLE: She’s working with vendors and creating these incredible relationships to drive more value to the customer.

NICOLE: So incredibly proud of the work that she’s done and her team, Nikki and Olivia, they are phenomenal as well.

NICOLE: So really talented team, and that’s why the metrics are looking so positive these days.

PAULA: Oh, it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to acknowledge them.

PAULA: So thank you for all of that.

PAULA: Brilliant.

NICOLE: Thank you for the opportunity to do so.

PAULA: For sure.

PAULA: And it’s also a point I did want to ask you about, Nicole, because again, I know this rewards catalog you’ve mentioned is extraordinary.

PAULA: And I did want to ask, is that where, or is there an opportunity there to work with vendors and manufacturers?

PAULA: Is that how that is coming together?

PAULA: Because it sounds like a really good opportunity to benefit everybody.

NICOLE: So Shai, we call Shaiyana Shai for short, she is really great at talking to the category managers here at Sheetz and also the vendors themselves to find different ways they can participate in the program, whether that be through the rewards catalog, but there are also all of these offers that we’re sending.

NICOLE: So we have all this first party data that we’re using, and we can then on behalf of the vendor, send emails or push notifications to customers that we think would benefit from that offer.

NICOLE: So they’re getting the benefit of this first person data and being able to communicate without us having to give them the data.

NICOLE: And they’re also, the customer is getting that benefit of more value.

NICOLE: They’re not, you know, it’s not an earn and burn.

NICOLE: They get just additional value from the overall value proposition.

NICOLE: So it’s a win-win for everybody around customer, vendor and Sheetz.

PAULA: For sure.

PAULA: And I do think that that is that magic sweet spot.

PAULA: For sure.

PAULA: I can imagine if I was working in any of these manufacturing brands, I’ve always thought, I mean, how do you justify the TV campaigns and the outdoor campaigns?

PAULA: Because we as loyalty marketers are so much focused on, you know, measuring and, you know, really seeing how our marketing investment is performing.

PAULA: So I think that’s the opportunity you’re giving to these manufacturers for the first time.

NICOLE: And because we already have the customers within our ecosystem, the acquisition isn’t there.

NICOLE: So we are basically talking to customers that are already our Sheetz friends, friends or freaks, and they already shop with us.

NICOLE: So it’s so much cheaper and easier to get them to that next level, to try something different or to visit a little bit more often than it is to get a brand new customer.

PAULA: For sure.

PAULA: And you mentioned first party data, Nicole.

PAULA: We’ve had a lot of conversations on this show about the alleged death of the cookie, which I’m not sure the current date that that is promised or planned or threatened, depending on your perspective.

PAULA: But coming from, I suppose, such a strong loyalty program.

PAULA: And actually, I will quote another statistic you gave me just again for people listening.

PAULA: You serve about two and a half million loyalty customers a month.

PAULA: So doing this at extraordinary scale.

NICOLE: But we’re marching towards 700 here sometime soon.

NICOLE: And we are seeing incredible growth in a loyalty program at two and a half million customers each month.

NICOLE: But beyond that, when we talk about first party data, I think it does give us a little bit of an edge because we’re not as reliant on purchase data and cookies and all of those things.

NICOLE: And with with privacy laws just kind of heating up, we are very focused on making sure that the customer understands the benefit they’re getting from the information that they’re giving us.

NICOLE: And we’re trying to give them value for that information.

NICOLE: So for me, the cookies going away, I still think that that impacts us from an acquisition standpoint for sure, because we do use cookies on other platforms, other than our first party data.

NICOLE: So I think there’s going to be impact there.

NICOLE: And I think some of the things that have happened with Google and with Facebook in the recent years, giving us less visibility into even the metrics that are driving our business forward is a challenge as well.

NICOLE: You can’t really track things as well as maybe you once could because of things that are changing.

NICOLE: But I am very thankful that we have this robust database that we can fall back on.

PAULA: For sure.

PAULA: And again, the customers have been feeling that benefit, as you said, for 15 years.

PAULA: So it’s not like you have to look for a knee-jerk reaction to try and deal with something you’re already prepared.

PAULA: And what I’d love to know, just your sense on Nicole, is, you know, we’re very experienced, I think, from a data and privacy perspective in Europe, and certainly coming from Ireland, we have the European Data Commissioner, or certainly have had.

PAULA: So I think that consumers are very clear on the value of their data.

PAULA: And I just wanted to get actually a US perspective on that.

PAULA: You know, when you do, you know, I suppose, explain and try and articulate for your members, the trade off, I suppose, the value exchange.

PAULA: Do you think that’s something that’s easy enough to send out and explain to them in the communications, given how busy we all are?

NICOLE: I don’t think it’s easy at all.

NICOLE: We’ve been thinking about it since GDPR became widely known.

NICOLE: We’ve been thinking about, you know, what happens when that comes to the US and how does that impact our business?

NICOLE: And, you know, California already has a Protection Act and a couple other states that are either already have them or are in the midst of it.

NICOLE: So as it gets closer and closer to our East Coast little place here, where we didn’t have as many issues to think about, it is a concern because it’s hard to articulate that value to the customer.

NICOLE: And we’re really, really careful about how we use customer data.

NICOLE: So we’re very stringent.

NICOLE: We’re not going to sell it.

NICOLE: We’re not going to share it.

NICOLE: We are probably one of the most tightly held companies when it comes to data that I know, and that’s led by our executives wanting to make sure that we keep data as our own private asset.

NICOLE: But also that allows us to communicate to customers that the data that they’re giving us is really between us and them, and it’s a benefit to them because we are giving them personalized offers.

NICOLE: We’re really communicating to them as a person rather than just a nameless, faceless customer.

NICOLE: So it’s not easy to get that across because there’s so much noise in the marketplace, and there’s so much just noise in your email.

NICOLE: Your inbox is probably full of hundreds of emails a day.

NICOLE: So it’s really not easy to communicate that.

PAULA: Yeah.

PAULA: And I think you’re right, actually.

PAULA: Sometimes it’s just getting your internal house in order so that when a customer does suddenly wonder, oh, how does that work?

PAULA: That all of that kind of data is available for them to find.

PAULA: So I do think that that’s part of just kind of getting the basics right.

PAULA: And again, Europe had to do that for longer.

PAULA: But interesting that you are so aware of GDPR, because I do think there’s a lot of American brands really kind of went, oh, that doesn’t apply this side of the Atlantic.

PAULA: So we’re happy to let it go until it did.

PAULA: So great to hear that you’re super familiar with it.

PAULA: And what I’m hearing coming through, and I think I’m right, but forgive me if I’m wrong.

PAULA: I know Sheetz is the family name or was the family name that gave the company the brand.

PAULA: So is it still a family company?

NICOLE: Yes, I’m so glad you asked that.

NICOLE: Again, this brand is so fantastic, but that is one of the things I’m most proud of.

NICOLE: It’s family owned and family operated.

NICOLE: And there are multiple Sheetz family members that work for the business today.

NICOLE: And they keep that family operated alive and really make it a great place to work.

PAULA: Yeah, and that’s I think also what builds customer trust, because we all know what it’s like to be part of any family and trust them with, whether it’s our data or anything else.

PAULA: So that feels like something that’s coming through in I guess your entire approach to how you take care of your customers.

NICOLE: Yes, absolutely.

NICOLE: And they really work well with the business and really drive the vision and purpose of the company.

NICOLE: So it’s funny because I would consider us a big company now, but there’s still a little bit of that small company vibe just because they’re so involved in the business.

PAULA: Yeah, which actually I think does make decision making easier.

PAULA: And when it comes to anything, and I’m sure COVID gave all of us a real shock to the system.

PAULA: But I’m sure when you do have a family environment like that, it’s just a bit easier on every front, I think.

NICOLE: So yeah, it’s kind of a north star you can look to, because when you’re a family on business, you’re not just in it for today and this year, you’re in it for the long haul.

NICOLE: So the decisions that are being made at the top are really about that long term.

PAULA: For sure.

PAULA: And when your name is over the door, I guess that’s a whole other thing as well.

PAULA: So nobody’s going to mess with that.

PAULA: That’s wonderful.

PAULA: The other big piece I wanted to ask you about, Nicole, was again one of the metrics that you mentioned, which really I thought was probably the single biggest insight that I loved from learning about the Sheetz loyalty mindset, I’m going to say.

PAULA: And that was about the difference between your app users versus even your loyalty customers.

PAULA: So people, I think, who are perhaps members of your loyalty program, but perhaps using those legacy systems and methods that we talked about.

PAULA: So I’d love you to share with our listeners what you’ve learned about the app users.

NICOLE: Yeah, that’s right.

NICOLE: We have learned that our app users are actually visiting us 50% more and they spend over two times as much as an average loyalty customers.

NICOLE: So a lot of that is attributable to the different options that you have on the app.

NICOLE: We have things like curbside, we have online order, but we also have added delivery to our offering.

NICOLE: Most recently, you can pay at the pump via your app.

NICOLE: So there are all these really great useful things within the app that make it a better experience for our customer.

NICOLE: And I think that just pays dividends because even if you compare before somebody downloads the app to after, we’re seeing just incredible growth.

NICOLE: So it’s really exciting and it has led us to a mobile first strategy.

NICOLE: And as we talked about before, my dream of someday, it’s all going to be digital.

NICOLE: But for now, we really just focus our efforts and our advertising on that mobile experience to hopefully get everybody down that funnel and into the really better experience that’s provided by the app.

PAULA: So that I think sounds like gives you a lot of clarity in that, you know, it sounds like your single biggest objective is, you know, if we can engage them on the app and explain the multiple use cases, obviously, that they can benefit from, then you just multiply the opportunities with them.

PAULA: Super exciting, Nicole.

PAULA: My goodness.

PAULA: Yeah, very envious that you get almost to play, I suppose, at scale.

PAULA: You know, when I think about loyalty, you know, it’s such a wonderful industry that we share, that you can kind of think, what would make it wonderful for a customer?

PAULA: Let me try that.

PAULA: Oh, brilliant.

NICOLE: It’s a lot of fun, and I have to give credit to the digital team as well, because they do sit separately from the loyalty team, but we have really over the years worked together very closely to make it a more seamless experience for the customer.

PAULA: For sure, for sure, of course.

PAULA: Yes, I think you told me before, you’ve won a total of about 45, Nicole, in your team.

NICOLE: Only three are specific to loyalty.

PAULA: Got it.

PAULA: I could totally understand it.

PAULA: Yes.

PAULA: Yeah.

PAULA: No, I think you said you have all the comms and all the customer service.

PAULA: So a huge remit overall.

PAULA: Brilliant.

PAULA: Great.

PAULA: So going forward then, Nicole, I guess we’ve hopefully come to the end of this pandemic.

PAULA: You’ve obviously done an extraordinary digital transformation, as you’ve said, with all of the kind of contactless options and building incredible extra functionality way beyond the earn and burn proposition, obviously, that’s been around for so long.

PAULA: And I guess, you know, I suppose I hear a lot on this show about things like, you know, gamification and subscription.

PAULA: And there’s all these other models of loyalty that I guess are impacting your industry maybe in new ways that they mightn’t have done before.

PAULA: So, you know, just totally off the top of your head are these topics that you’re looking at, or can you say?

NICOLE: I think I can say, you know, gamification is something that we’ve been talking about for many years.

NICOLE: There are lots of ways to go about it.

NICOLE: And I think the most important thing for us is we’ve been prioritizing things that really impact the visit to the location or the online visit.

NICOLE: So we haven’t yet prioritized gamification, but I do believe that it’s something that we will get to eventually.

NICOLE: I think that what that gives us is allowing customers to engage with us in a way that is different and gives them value beyond just their regular earn and burn.

NICOLE: So I’m really excited about the opportunity and I’m hoping to be able to push that forward at some point.

NICOLE: And I apologize, I forget you did mention something else.

PAULA: Yes, certainly it’s the idea of subscription.

PAULA: That’s right.

NICOLE: So I didn’t mention this in my email to you, but we do have a few subscriptions.

PAULA: Okay.

NICOLE: One for self-serve beverage, so you can get all you can drink, coffee and this.

PAULA: Okay.

NICOLE: And then we also have a fries, which is our fries are probably one of the most popular menu items that we have.

NICOLE: They’re just absolutely delicious.

NICOLE: Anything that comes from our fryer is spectacular.

NICOLE: So I have to plug that.

NICOLE: But yeah, so the subscriptions, those subscriptions are really giving us some new things that we’re learning about frequency behavior and how that really drives people to come to the store more often.

NICOLE: And we’re now learning what their baskets look like when they do come in for that free item.

PAULA: And would you say that that was triggered by the pandemic type behavior, Nicole, or was it already something that you guys, I suppose, identified as an opportunity?

PAULA: I think, you know, most people, well, certainly for me, I suppose I should say subscription really met a need when, you know, there was an extra urgency to driving that footfall because people were so nervous.

PAULA: So to make it, you know, extremely affordable was I just think a brilliant strategy in many markets.

PAULA: But again, I think we’re all so familiar with subscription in other industries that it’s almost a surprise it’s taken this long to come into areas like coffee and beverage and all those fries, for example.

PAULA: It’s extraordinary.

NICOLE: But to your point, the pandemic, we were really, like everybody else, struggling with customer accounts.

NICOLE: And this was something that we were hoping would allow customers to come more often and visit us.

NICOLE: And we really feel strongly about our brand.

NICOLE: And once you’re in the store, there’s so much there to offer.

NICOLE: But we’re going to get the additional basket items when we get some in the store.

NICOLE: So I have very high hopes for it.

NICOLE: Like I said, it’s kind of early to tell whether or not it’s working.

PAULA: OK, OK, so I’m putting that I’m making a note for myself, Nicole, to follow up with you in a year or two and just see if you can come back and share some of those subscription learnings, because I do think it’s very powerful.

PAULA: So thank you for that.

PAULA: And I’m delighted I asked actually yes, because yeah, I had no idea you were doing that.

PAULA: So that’s super exciting.

NICOLE: Yeah, I gotta tell you, there’s so much going on in our loyalty program.

NICOLE: There’s so many different initiatives that we’re driving forward that even I forget sometimes like everything that we’re working on.

NICOLE: So I’m glad you asked as well.

PAULA: Great, great.

PAULA: So listen, that is all I have on my question list for you today, Nicole.

PAULA: Are there any other topics that you do think are important for our listeners before we wrap up?

NICOLE: There’s one thing that I did want to mention because we talked a lot about technology and how important the app experience is to our customers.

NICOLE: But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our store teams and how that impacts our customer experience.

NICOLE: So one of the best things about business Sheetz location is that front line, that store team that is engaging with you at the location.

NICOLE: We have some of the best in the business and they really pick up the slack.

NICOLE: So if there’s a tech that fails and something doesn’t work right, that customer service that we have in our stores really fills that gap for us and allows the customer still to have a great experience.

NICOLE: So I am really thankful that we have such a strong employee engagement with this program.

NICOLE: They are advocates, they are the ambassadors that are talking across the counter about the program.

NICOLE: So thank you to all the store teams for that.

PAULA: Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned that.

PAULA: And I will say in your email, you did literally say that your team makes all of the difference in its success.

PAULA: So I think all of us know how difficult it can be to actually have a team that is that supportive, that engaged, and really takes care of the customer in the moment they really need it.

PAULA: So you’re very, very lucky to have them so engaged and taking care of all of your members for you.

PAULA: Great stuff.

PAULA: Well, listen on that note, Nicole, I’m delighted to hear all about the Sheetz Loyalty story.

PAULA: I want to say a huge thank you from everyone here in Let’s Talk Loyalty and for everyone listening.

PAULA: If you want to have a look, it’s Nicole Auman, Director of Brand Marketing at Sheetz.

PAULA: So thank you again, Nicole, from everyone at Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketeer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research.

PAULA: The Wise Marketeer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 245 executives in 27 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

PAULA: For more information, check out thewisemarketeer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

PAULA: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: If you’d like us to send you the latest shows each week, simply sign up for the Let’s Talk Loyalty newsletter on letstalkloyalty.com.

PAULA: And we’ll send our best episodes straight to your inbox.

PAULA: And don’t forget that you can follow Let’s Talk Loyalty on any of your favorite podcast platforms.

PAULA: And of course, we’d love for you to share your feedback and reviews.

PAULA: Thanks again for supporting the show.