Inside Maxol: A CEO’s Vision for Customer Loyalty (#710)

Donaldson: Our business, it’s 105 years old, family still control it 100%.

Donaldson: We wanted to become known for convenience.

Donaldson: We were already known for quality fuels for 100 odd years.

Donaldson: But it was about changing the view in terms of this traditional petroleum-based business to be seen as a convenience-led business.

Donaldson: We invested back in Loyalty in 2022.

Donaldson: And our Loyalty program is very simple.

Donaldson: It’s five apps within one app.

Donaldson: What do I mean by that?

Donaldson: It’s a wallet with FuelPay.

Donaldson: If you want to pay without coming into the store and you want to pay on your app, you can do that.

Donaldson: It’s our copy program in terms of, you know, if you buy six copies, you’ll get your seventh free.

Donaldson: It’s our car wash program.

Donaldson: If you buy four, you’ll get fifth free.

Donaldson: Oil Finder is about making it easy.

Donaldson: Depending on the range of your vehicle, it’ll tell you exactly what lubricating oil you have to put into the car.

Donaldson: So it removes confusion, it removes mistakes and the other is offering value within our convenience.

Donaldson: That’s how we started our Loyalty app.

Donaldson: So it was five different offers within one app.

Donaldson: The big driver within our Loyalty app is coffee.

Donaldson: You know, that is known as liquid gold.

Donaldson: Gamification is very important.

Donaldson: People like a little bit of excitement.

Donaldson: We are an ambitious, led, tight, family-owned business.

Paula: Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, a show for loyalty marketing professionals.

Paula: I’m Paula Thomas, the founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, where we feature insightful conversations with loyalty professionals from the world’s leading brands.

Paula: Today’s episode is part of the Wiser Loyalty Series and is hosted by Bill Hanifin, Chief Executive Officer of the Wise Marketeer Group.

Paula: The Wise Marketeer Group is a media, education and advisory services company, providing resources for loyalty marketeers through the Wise Marketeer digital publication and the Loyalty Academy Programme that offers the Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional or CLMP designation.

Paula: I hope you enjoyed this episode brought to you by Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV in partnership with the Wise Marketeer Group.

Bill: Welcome everyone.

Bill: I’m Bill Hanifin, the Managing Editor of the Wise Marketer.

Bill: And I’m here today for a Wiser Loyalty podcast produced in partnership with Let’s Talk Loyalty and the Wise Marketer.

Bill: And as you probably know, twice a month, we bring you an interview with a C-level executive whose transformed strategy into practical application that generates great business results.

Bill: And in today’s episode, we’re going to have a conversation with Brian Donaldson, who’s CEO of Maxol Group.

Bill: The conversation is going to go deep, I hope.

Bill: We’ll see how deep into the strategic vision for customer loyalty held by Maxol, which is Ireland’s leading family owned forecourt and convenience retailer.

Bill: Maxol is a great story.

Bill: It’s family owned.

Bill: It was founded in 1920 by William McMullan and it operates, you can correct me in a minute here, Brian, but about 250 stations across Ireland offers obviously fuel, convenience items and food as well as its proprietary coffee brand, which is ROSA, and their deli brands.

Bill: So they’ve been quite innovative in loyalty.

Bill: They’ve got a mobile app that’s multi-capable.

Bill: They’re a pioneer in EV charging.

Bill: They’ve got a lot to talk about, and so I’d like to get into it.

Bill: But first, welcome, Brian.

Bill: Thanks so much for being here with us today.

Donaldson: Thank you very much indeed, Bill, for the opportunity and for such a gracious introduction.

Bill: Well, you know what we say, as you noticed, we try to talk to C-level executives, but when we get the CEO, we’re especially delighted.

Bill: So no, but thanks a lot because we know the days are busy.

Bill: So we appreciate it.

Bill: So there’s a tradition at Let’s Talk Loyalty, Paula Thomas always likes to ask about, she’s a reader, and I guess, you know, a lot of us are, but she likes to know, like, do you have a favorite, a favorite or maybe just a recently read nonfiction book that you might want to tell us about?

Donaldson: Yeah, it’s an interesting question.

Donaldson: I mostly read fiction, but in terms of nonfiction, the last book I read was the autobiography for famous soldier called Blair Mayne.

Donaldson: And he was one of the founding members of the SAS.

Donaldson: And the reason why I sort of picked up his novel, and it was written by Hamish Ross, who’s a well known researcher in terms of history in the UK and Ireland, is that Blair Mayne came from my hometown of Newtonard in County Down in Northern Ireland.

Donaldson: And he’s actually buried in the local graveyard, not so far away from my grandparents.

Donaldson: And that was one of the reasons why…

Donaldson: I’m not sure if you’ve seen this series in the States called Rogue Heroes, which was all about World War II, and really the desert rats, and then what happened over in Italy, and then what happened over in France.

Donaldson: And Mayne and David Sterling were really the founding members of the Special Air Services, known as the SAS.

Donaldson: It’s a great read in terms of leadership.

Donaldson: I’m not quite sure what you see in television really reflected the true character and values of Blair Mayne.

Donaldson: A very well-educated person.

Donaldson: He was a lawyer.

Donaldson: He played for Ireland rugby.

Donaldson: He played for the British Lions.

Donaldson: And he came from quite a wealthy background.

Donaldson: And he was introduced into the Army way back in 1939.

Donaldson: So it’s an extremely good read.

Donaldson: If you want to know a little bit more about where I grew up, I would certainly recommend buying the book in terms of Blair Mayne.

Donaldson: Paddy Mayne was what he was fondly known by his colleagues.

Bill: Okay.

Bill: No, that’s great.

Bill: That’s a good recommendation and I will pick that up.

Bill: Yeah.

Bill: Yeah.

Bill: Yeah.

Bill: I’m actually looking at a wooden trunk over in the corner of my office that was the trunk that all of my father’s belongings went into when he shipped over to Europe during World War II.

Bill: So, because he landed on the beaches at Normandy and somehow survived.

Donaldson: So, yeah, when you see what kind of basic weaponry they had and really his tactics were to go ahead of the main force, they went into behind enemy lines.

Donaldson: They were there to disrupt and to surprise the enemy.

Donaldson: The things that happened were not only bravery, but I think were certainly vital in terms of the ending of the war in so many different countries.

Donaldson: So, greatly, thoroughly recommend it.

Bill: Great.

Bill: I will certainly pick that up and let me ask you, are you a Kindle reader or are you a physical book reader?

Bill: What do you prefer?

Donaldson: This is where we could have a bit of a debate.

Donaldson: If my wife, Alison, was here, she reads everything on Kindle, whereas I much prefer turning the pages.

Donaldson: I like the physical book.

Bill: Good.

Donaldson: It gives off to me all the time, why are we carrying books onto the airplane?

Donaldson: That’s just me.

Bill: They’re merits to each.

Bill: Yeah, exactly.

Bill: So, I think a good place to start, I think people are interested in people.

Bill: So, I mean, I would love to know about just your career in fuel and convenience retailing.

Bill: Were you in a different industry at some point in time?

Bill: Or have you always been participating in this one?

Bill: Tell us a little bit.

Donaldson: I’m in today’s world.

Donaldson: I’m probably quite unique.

Donaldson: I spent 39 years working for the McMullan family, who own Maxol.

Donaldson: I am your true graduate trainee, who joined in October 1986 as a graduate trainee back in Northern Ireland.

Donaldson: And I’ve been able to work my way through the organization up to chief executive, which I feel very honored and privileged to have had the opportunity for the last 10 years to run the business.

Donaldson: When you work for a family business, you don’t get typecast into silos or departments.

Donaldson: Your breadth of remit is much wider.

Donaldson: My background really was in finance and marketing.

Donaldson: So my first job for Maxol was doing research supported by Queen’s University in Belfast, which many people will probably have heard of.

Donaldson: And that was by profiling and looking at demographics and about tailoring your offer based on the location of your service station.

Donaldson: And I worked my way up from being a graduate trainee to a regional manager, to a troubleshooter, and then into head of retail and then into general manager and then into group marketing manager for All Ireland.

Donaldson: And then I was chief operating officer for a number of years.

Donaldson: And I also was MD or Managing Director of Home Heat Logistics Business in Northern Ireland alongside my All Ireland responsibilities.

Donaldson: But I’m known as a lifer.

Donaldson: So I’ve been here a long time.

Donaldson: I’ve seen a lot of changes on the island of Ireland, most of which have been for the good.

Donaldson: We had the very dark days in Northern Ireland with the troubles.

Donaldson: And thankfully, the peace process came along in 1998.

Donaldson: And the place is so much different, so much better for the next generation.

Donaldson: My daughter is 27 and her world is very different to the world that I grew up in, in Northern Ireland, which I think we all have to be extremely thankful for.

Donaldson: But no, look, our business, it’s 105 years old.

Donaldson: The family still control it 100%.

Donaldson: Five of us who are directors, Max, Noel, Thomas, Barry and myself.

Donaldson: And I feel very honored to be asked to join the main board, to sit alongside the family members who are the shareholders and the owners.

Donaldson: And they represent the wider McMullan family.

Donaldson: It’s very much a hands on business and a business that’s changed and transformed quite dramatically over the last 15 years.

Donaldson: We sold all of our home heats, all of our commercial interests more than 13, 14 years ago, and refocused our efforts purely in retail and convenience retailing.

Donaldson: We still have a large lubricants business, and we also have a very large B2B fuel cards business on the island of Ireland.

Donaldson: We turn over roughly about 850 million euros a year.

Donaldson: Our model is a franchise model.

Donaldson: We own about 126 freehold service stations on the island of Ireland.

Donaldson: We license those independent retailers who are like-minded like ourselves, and typically from the local area, serving local people, employing local people, and creating economic activity in those local areas.

Donaldson: Our total network, you’re absolutely spot on, Bill, 250 service stations.

Donaldson: It moves slightly up or slightly down, depending on our dealer-owned dealer supply agreements.

Donaldson: We serve over 5,000 companies on our B2B business, on our fuel cards, and something similar within our lubricants business.

Donaldson: We’re very large into motor, we’re very large into high grid, we’re very big in industrial, we supply a lot of OEMs in Ireland, where a lot of that product is shipped overseas.

Donaldson: Anything from forklift trucks to stone crushers, you name it, engineering, we specialize a lot on that.

Donaldson: Again, it’s a business that continues to innovate, it’s a business that needs to transition.

Donaldson: We have electrification coming down the tracks, and it’s important that we’re well positioned, and that we’re building a viable sustainable model, whenever fuel volumes decline at much greater rates than what they currently are at the moment.

Donaldson: So yeah, there’s lots of moving parts.

Bill: Yeah, I was gonna ask you if you saw yourself in a growth phase or kind of the retention phase, and it’s related to that as just the reality of the fact that you’ve got fuel volumes globally going down as well as like cigarette sales, for example.

Bill: So globally, you’re not alone, that you see two key areas sort of on the decline, but then there’s so much opportunity in retailing.

Bill: And I mean, I’ve just read articles about how the casual dining chains are all the more, you know, keeping an eye on convenience retailers that have great fresh-made food and a place to sit and enjoy an internet.

Bill: So you’re moving into a new competitive area as other things become maybe a little bit diminished.

Bill: So you must, you’re living in interesting times, no doubt.

Donaldson: But we are, like as a family business in the last 10 years, we’ve invested over 285 million euros within our retail portfolio.

Donaldson: We’re still in growth mode, you know, in the last 12 months, we would have bought another 13 large service stations of whereby we assess service stations today in terms of scale of footprint.

Donaldson: You know, we look for an acre to two acres.

Donaldson: We want the EBITDA or the earnings to be 70% from convenience.

Donaldson: You know, if it’s not 70% driven through convenience, your coffee or your food service or your QSRs that you might have on site or your wash business, we’re not interested.

Donaldson: You know, that’s the kind of percentage we look for.

Donaldson: 70% of revenues to come from non-fuel.

Donaldson: You know, in the last sort of 10 years, we’ve created our own private labor range.

Donaldson: In terms of coffee, ROSA coffee, you know, we sell close to about 4 million cups of coffee.

Donaldson: We’re expanding into iced coffee.

Donaldson: Our food service, we’ve created our own sort of breakfast menu or lunch menu.

Donaldson: Ours is all made to order.

Donaldson: We’re now looking at how can you expand the life of our food service, because typically a lot of our delis would close by 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

Donaldson: We need to get into the evening business to do that.

Donaldson: We need to be able to digitize it.

Donaldson: We need to be able to do last mile efficiently, and we need to be able to provide a different choice of menu for that evening customer.

Donaldson: We’ve invested heavily in off-sales, alcohol, beer, spirits, to be complimentary to the food service.

Donaldson: Our washrooms, we like to think, are at the higher end in terms of standard, facilities, hygiene.

Donaldson: You mentioned eating areas.

Donaldson: I couldn’t agree more.

Donaldson: Bill, it’s getting the balance right between what the dwell time is and how long you want people to sit there and how you want them to use your facilities.

Donaldson: There is a balance between having too much seating, to having too little.

Donaldson: That’s something you just learn over time, in terms of your footfall.

Donaldson: And your frequency of user and the day part and the day times that they come in to your actual stations.

Donaldson: So yeah, like we’ve been on very much of a cusp of change and technology has a big part to play on that.

Donaldson: I know that’s what we’re probably going to talk about a little bit later in terms of what we’re doing with Loyalty and how we’re going to try to remove the friction from that engagement with our customers.

Donaldson: And very much we see our customer kind of growing.

Donaldson: Obviously, it will be if we’re acquiring more service stations, but also we’re measuring the footprint, the footfall in existing stores.

Donaldson: And thankfully, it’s all moving in the right direction.

Donaldson: So that gives us confidence to continue to invest in our retail offer.

Bill: It’s great.

Bill: That’s great.

Bill: So amidst all this activity, where would you place Loyalty in the middle of it?

Bill: As a CEO and as somebody who sits on the board, when you talk about Loyalty, customer Loyalty, we see a lot of companies making statements about we want to become more customer centric, but it’s not always just about a Loyalty program.

Bill: There are a lot of things that are entailed in that effort.

Bill: But where do you place this Loyalty more or less important than it was five years ago?

Bill: Is it more or less visible at the C-suite level?

Bill: You know, how integrated is it into your core of your business efforts?

Donaldson: Yeah, I think that’s a good question.

Donaldson: You know, when you get at board level and C-suite, it’s all about the tangibles is what you’re investing in.

Donaldson: And loyalty is more intangible until you start to build it, until you get your numbers and you can see what engagement you have with your customers.

Donaldson: So to be honest with you, it was more challenging to bring loyalty back into the business after a period of not really having a loyalty reward program.

Donaldson: But I think we all recognize in the last five years, the world is a very different place.

Donaldson: And really cost of living, inflation, driven not only by the war in Ukraine, but also in terms of coming out of the pandemic, in terms of reopening those supply chains and the challenges that was felt globally, you know, just not in Ireland.

Donaldson: Consumers are much more cautious.

Donaldson: Consumers are certainly focused on value.

Donaldson: But value means different things to different people.

Donaldson: It’s not about a race to the bottom.

Donaldson: Value can be the quality of the offer, the expanse of the offer, and what added value am I getting in terms of with my sandwich, or am I getting a drink, or am I getting a fruit pot, or am I getting a snack to go with that major sandwich.

Donaldson: So we invested back in loyalty in 2022.

Donaldson: And if I be honest, we were looking at it just on the cusp of the pandemic, which would have been, you know, March 2020, Bill.

Donaldson: The pandemic probably held us back a couple of years in terms of bringing to market our loyalty program.

Donaldson: And our loyalty program is very simple.

Donaldson: It’s five apps within one app.

Donaldson: What do I mean by that?

Donaldson: It’s a wallet, you know, with FuelPay.

Donaldson: If you want to pay without coming into the store and you want to pay on your app, you can do that.

Donaldson: It’s our cotton program in terms of, you know, if you buy six copies, you’ll get your seventh free.

Donaldson: It’s our car wash program.

Donaldson: If you buy four, you’ll get fifth free.

Donaldson: OilFinder is about making it easy, depending on the range of your vehicle.

Donaldson: It’ll tell you exactly what lubricating oil you have to put into the car.

Donaldson: So it removes confusion, it removes mistakes.

Donaldson: The other is offering value within our convenience.

Donaldson: And that’s how we started our Loyalty app.

Donaldson: So it was five different offers within one app.

Donaldson: And we launched that way back in April 2022.

Donaldson: And today we have just shy of 70,000 active subscribers, active users of the app itself.

Donaldson: And the app is only live in the Republic of Ireland.

Donaldson: We haven’t launched it in Northern Ireland at this stage, but it gives us the intention to do so in 2026.

Bill: Okay, interesting.

Bill: So let me ask you something.

Bill: You have the different offers, fuel, coffee, lubricants, convenience.

Bill: Did the value that people earn, that your customers earn, do they accumulate towards the central sort of quote bank, or is it more individual as say, you know, punch card type offer for coffee and then something different for fuel or something different for convenience?

Bill: How does that work?

Donaldson: Yeah, look, ours is much more in terms of like the big driver within our loyalty app is coffee.

Donaldson: Yeah, you know, that is known as liquid gold, just in terms of driving footfall into our stores.

Donaldson: And we want to appreciate and say thank you to those customers.

Bill: Sure.

Donaldson: So like, that’s where we give, you know, the seventh coffee free.

Donaldson: That’s a massive footfall driver.

Donaldson: So the programs are individual.

Donaldson: You know, we don’t have a points based system on fuel or car or washing and that was quite deliberate because what we were trying to change in the mindset of customers was that we wanted to become known for convenience.

Donaldson: We were already known for quality fuels for a hundred odd years.

Donaldson: So we just didn’t want to go back out and do the same old thing about giving loyalty and rewards on fuel at the start of the program.

Donaldson: That’s not to say we won’t do it later.

Donaldson: But what we wanted to do is to change the mindset of what people can expect to get at Maxol.

Donaldson: So it was part of that resetting and repositioning of our brand.

Donaldson: The Loyalty Act was important in doing that because it immediately showcased our coffee, our food service, the in-store offers that we have in everyday essentials, the offers that we give on our private label milk, what we do with private paper-based products, what we do on other ranges that we’re introducing, such as bag suites and other convenience lines and stacks where we have longer shelf life.

Donaldson: So we can bring those in to complement the big brands where our private label or white label can sit alongside that.

Donaldson: But it was about changing the view in terms of this traditional petroleum-based business to be seen as a convenience-led business with a big focus on fresh food, freshly made coffee and a great place to call it and stop.

Donaldson: That’s what we were trying to achieve at that stage.

Bill: It sounds like the offer you’ve put together is giving people what they need in their various trips or missions to your locations.

Bill: So coffee, fuel, the food offers, things like that.

Bill: It’s more about that value at a certain level than it is just here.

Bill: We’ll give you points for your purchase.

Bill: That sort of shifts the consumer focus to a different sort of exchange, I guess.

Donaldson: It is.

Donaldson: And when you think about it, in Ireland, Ireland is quite a small island.

Bill: Yeah.

Donaldson: At most, you might fill up with fuel twice a week.

Donaldson: But we want you in five days a week, you know, for your morning coffee, for your lunch and for your afternoon shopping or treats, you know, for tonight’s tea or solution.

Donaldson: So we’re trying to get you in three to four times every day.

Donaldson: And that’s why we set up the Loyalty app and the offer on that particular basis.

Bill: That’s great.

Bill: You mentioned a couple of interesting things.

Bill: You have a geolocation feature within the app, I believe, that helps you, you know, align with the right fuel pump and dispense the fuel.

Bill: So that’s key to the offer as well.

Donaldson: Yeah.

Donaldson: FuelPay is important, but it’s probably a smaller part of the redemption and usage that we’re seeing coming through in terms of the traffic on the app.

Donaldson: But yeah, we use, we set on the Liquid Barcodes Loyalty App platform, and we tailored that and adapted that app so it suits the kind of offers that we want to push through.

Donaldson: And FuelPay is all about making it convenient for those customers who just want to fuel up and go.

Donaldson: They don’t want to be stuck in a queue or they don’t want to get out of the car other than to put the nozzle into the tank.

Donaldson: So you drive in to our forecourt, you open your app, it’s GeoRingFence.

Donaldson: So we know exactly where you are.

Donaldson: On our pumps, there will be a code and you just enter the code.

Donaldson: You then decide you’re going to pay by debit card, credit card or by our fuel card.

Donaldson: And then you put in an amount that you want the pump to dispense.

Donaldson: Let’s say you put in 80 euros and you only purchase 65.

Donaldson: You’ll only be debited for 65 euros.

Donaldson: And you’ll get a digital receipt straight to the app.

Donaldson: So it’s very seamless.

Donaldson: And what we find is if you’re a young parent with kids in the car, you don’t need to take the kids out to go into the store to pay so people feel safer for doing that.

Donaldson: But if your time is pure and you don’t want to go into a busy convenience store, that’s a great option.

Bill: It’s great.

Bill: Now, are you using, in terms of technology, and sort of what could be part of your liquid barcodes or another part of your stack there?

Bill: But I saw that you’re using some elements of gamification to make it a little bit fun and create some journeys.

Bill: But can you talk about what you’re doing there?

Donaldson: Yeah, gamification is very important.

Donaldson: You know, like when you get up and running, we would do gamification.

Donaldson: It’s about giving extra rewards.

Donaldson: Like a little bit of excitement.

Donaldson: You know, we do different things such as spin the wheel.

Bill: OK.

Donaldson: So like, if you spin the wheel and you hit a prize, you can go in store and immediately redeem that prize, whether that’s a sandwich, whether it’s a coffee, or whether it’s chocolates or whatever.

Donaldson: You know, that’s a lot of fun.

Donaldson: At Christmas time, we also do things, scratch the snowman.

Donaldson: So it’s almost a digital scratch.

Donaldson: And you might be able to win, again, some selection boxes for Christmas, or some flowers to take home to your dear wife or to your husband, or you might be able to find some other luxury items.

Donaldson: So yeah, like, that’s a bit of fun and it keeps people talking.

Donaldson: It keeps a real interest.

Donaldson: So game education is extremely important.

Donaldson: And certainly, our program this year, we’re going to reintroduce Spin the Wheel.

Donaldson: We’re going to do Scratch the Snowman again.

Donaldson: And we’re also looking at different ways of using the app even to support our charity partners.

Donaldson: I think is also an interesting angle.

Bill: Yeah, and I wanted to ask you about partnerships, sorry.

Bill: And all the manufacturing offers that typically go into a discount or a buy one, get one inside the store.

Bill: Are you putting those offers inside the app now or some of them?

Donaldson: Yes, we have different offers.

Donaldson: We do some on beverage, we do some on food, and we do some on everyday essentials.

Donaldson: So you’ll be able to go in and get Maxol Milk on a good offer.

Donaldson: You’ll be able to go in and buy your toilet roll as well, or if you want to go in and do soft drinks and also confectionery.

Donaldson: Candy is a big one, particularly two bags for this or two bottles for that.

Donaldson: That attracts a certain type of customer, but one that we’re trying to leverage in our new campaign under flags more and more and more is changing the mindset of customers to what they can expect in roadside retail and roadside convenience.

Donaldson: This is where we want them to think about, I can get my daily essentials in there for good value.

Donaldson: It may not just be quite as cheap as the large Walmart, or the big Sainsbury’s, or the big Tesco.

Donaldson: But you know what?

Donaldson: The convenience and the fact that I can park and get in and out more than compensates me just for a marginal difference in price.

Donaldson: We’re trying to dial up and that’s why we’re trying to do a lot of push messaging to our customers.

Donaldson: They say, call in today, use your app, and this is the kind of value that we can like of you.

Bill: Yeah, so it’s interesting that you just sparked a thought about notifications from the app or just text messages, WhatsApp.

Bill: Do you notice your consumer base being more open to receiving messaging and promotions through those kind of channels?

Donaldson: We are now.

Donaldson: At the start, we think people were a little bit, what’s the word, inundated with that type of approach.

Donaldson: Now we are seeing that people are watching out for our special offers and the push notifications.

Donaldson: You know, when you sign up to the Maxol Loyalty app, first thing you get is your free ROSA coffee at Maxol.

Donaldson: We will also send you a push notification on your birthday to say, please come in and receive your free treat, which will be from our deli or can be another item within store.

Donaldson: People are actively looking for those.

Donaldson: And if there’s special seasonal campaigns in Dublin, there’s a music festival called the Picnic Festival.

Donaldson: We will do offers all around that time of the festival, encouraging people to top up on water, soft drinks, confectionery, anything that we think will be relevant that will make, you know, their enjoyment at electric picnic better.

Donaldson: But we’re trying to be associated by that.

Donaldson: I’m trying to again, instill people.

Donaldson: If you come in to Maxol, it’s much more than fuel.

Donaldson: You’re going to be able to get everyday essentials and affordable prices.

Donaldson: And hey, really nice environment, really good technology that makes it really frictionless.

Donaldson: And apart from that, really nice people.

Bill: That’s great.

Bill: That’s great.

Bill: So one other quick question I wanted to ask you, since you mentioned the nice people.

Bill: How do you, what’s your approach towards training?

Bill: You know, it’s a high turnover business, isn’t it?

Bill: You can’t deny that.

Bill: But you’ve got to invest in training.

Bill: How do you equip the frontline people in your stores to be able to support a program like this?

Donaldson: Yeah, that’s always what we do with our independent retailers.

Donaldson: Maxol operates its company-owned stores under a franchise model.

Donaldson: Typically known in this industry as company-owned dealer operated.

Donaldson: We partner with like-minded retailers like ourselves.

Donaldson: As a family business, we have core values.

Donaldson: Family is one of our core values, friendly, open, honorable and champion.

Donaldson: We want to do the right thing.

Donaldson: So I suppose it follows that champion value.

Donaldson: We work with our retailers and all of their staff in terms of how we measure their performance.

Donaldson: And we do it on an app as well.

Donaldson: So we look at the shoppers, we assess what’s the upsell in terms of the loyalty app.

Donaldson: We put them all into lead tables.

Donaldson: People get very competitive.

Donaldson: We track the number of transactions across each of our stores on the app.

Donaldson: How many times is the app being scanned in store?

Donaldson: What are the apps that are being sold?

Donaldson: What are the redemptions in terms of coffee, car washing and in-store offers?

Donaldson: But it’s like anything in terms of training.

Donaldson: It’s ongoing.

Donaldson: Yes.

Donaldson: In training, you have to be open, you have to be honest.

Donaldson: And it’s something that just constantly evolves.

Donaldson: And all we can do is continue to invest.

Donaldson: And it’s an open door.

Donaldson: Like our retailers and their staff, it’s an open door.

Donaldson: And it’s this world of sameness.

Donaldson: One of the things that we see ourselves setting us apart from our competitors is the fact ours is not directly managed.

Donaldson: These are independent retailers from the local area, employing local people, serving the local people and providing good for the local community.

Donaldson: So it’s that local, local, local and family, family, family coming through the whole way in our particular proposition.

Bill: It’s a great advantage and a wonderful message, you know, in this day and age for sure.

Bill: But I would say, you know, the family owned element in the in your personal journey through the company, I was thinking about how you you must be, as they say, the man for the job, being able to communicate to people what the business is really all about, what you wish it to be and how it’s how the brands communicated, you know, at whether it’s inside the store or outside.

Bill: So yeah, that’s a nice competitive advantage.

Donaldson: You think Bill too, like right from directors and shareholders, we all do on-line site visits and we all do very detailed site audits.

Donaldson: So we’re very close to the business.

Donaldson: And I think our retailers respect that.

Donaldson: And yes, we can do things better.

Donaldson: And yes, we all can have an off day and yes, things can go wrong on certain unannounced visits.

Donaldson: But it’s how you deal with it.

Donaldson: It’s how you communicate it.

Donaldson: And it’s how you set that down as this is where we need to be.

Donaldson: And this is how we’re going to support you, how you get there.

Donaldson: And it’s working as one team and one vision and one plan.

Donaldson: And that’s always been the way we try to deal with things.

Donaldson: You have to work with people.

Donaldson: You have to champion success.

Donaldson: And you just have to certainly set the bar higher.

Donaldson: We are an ambition-led type, family-owned business.

Bill: That’s great.

Bill: That’s fantastic.

Bill: That says it all.

Bill: So one question, then we can wrap it up.

Bill: So I know you have other things to do today, probably, than talking to me, I imagine.

Bill: But in your journey with all of this, the business and loyalty, has there ever been an epiphany moment, anything that stood out in particular, where you may have had your doubt about, does this work or does it not work?

Bill: So was there that moment where you said you either had an observation or a personal interaction where you said, you know what, this could really make a difference.

Bill: This might actually work.

Donaldson: Yeah.

Donaldson: I think there’s a couple of them.

Donaldson: I just don’t think there’s just one, Bill, if I’m being honest.

Donaldson: Whenever we started looking at loyalty and the importance of saying thank you to your customers and giving true value back, the one that really stood out to me was Boots in terms of their advantage card.

Donaldson: Okay.

Donaldson: Just in terms of, I know their margins are very, very different to our type of business, but the value that they were giving back for spending in a Boots was extremely generous, I thought.

Donaldson: But also in terms of how you can reward your loyal customers against those who haven’t quite signed up to a loyalty program.

Donaldson: I think Tesco Club Card is another where you can go in, and if you’re a Club Card holder, you can buy that same product at a heavily discounted price.

Donaldson: Again, recognizing your business and the fact that you’re committed to support them.

Donaldson: Another is a partner that we’re starting to develop a relationship with Dunn Stores.

Donaldson: Their loyalty card and their loyalty platform is exceptional.

Donaldson: And this is where they’re giving back 10 euros for every 50 euro spanned in store or 5 euros back for a 25 euros spanned in their store.

Donaldson: And in addition to that, they’re now giving a points based scheme.

Donaldson: So for every euro that you spend in store, you get a point.

Donaldson: OK, when you have amassed multiples of, let’s say, 100 points, that’s worth another euro off your grocery spend.

Donaldson: So again, it’s very, very much focusing in on rewarding your loyal customers.

Donaldson: But it’s creating a real USP, particularly in this world where your cost of living has got high.

Donaldson: And once there’s real growth again between wage and inflation, between wages and inflation, we’re seeing in Ireland, consumers are still saving more, which isn’t good for retail, but it’s great for the economy.

Donaldson: And that’s because they’re very cautious, because they’re quite concerned about geopolitical events and everything else.

Donaldson: What other black swan event is just around the corner.

Donaldson: So I think it’s a very different…

Donaldson: I think consumers are very different today than they were five years ago, Bill.

Bill: Yeah, I think you’re right.

Bill: I think you’re right, and it’s going to be interesting to see how things progress.

Bill: Hopefully, we have less black swan events and more sunny sunrises, so we’ll always stay optimistic about that.

Donaldson: Well, we could think Ireland had a good summer this year.

Bill: Yeah, good.

Bill: Always welcome.

Bill: All right.

Bill: Well, I want to thank you so much for your time.

Bill: If you joined late, Brian Donaldson, who’s CEO of Maxol Group, and this has been the Wiser Loyalty Podcast, which is created in conjunction with Paula Thomas’ Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Bill: I’d like to thank you again, Brian.

Bill: Just to organize the schedule and to be able to get some time with you is really an honor, and thanks just for the candid conversation, and I hope we get a chance to meet you in person one day.

Donaldson: Thank you very much indeed, Bill.

Donaldson: I enjoyed talking to you.

Bill: Great.

Bill: All right.

Bill: Thanks, everyone.

Bill: We’ll see you back here soon.

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

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