#418 : Driving Loyalty in Convenience Retail with Sheetz USA (Short Summary Show)

Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an Industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m Paula Thomas, The Founder of Let’s Talk Loyalty. Today’s episode is hosted by Tom Peace, Managing Director of the Loyalty People, a strategic consultancy with a laser focus on loyalty, CRM and customer engagement.

The Loyalty People also runs a free global community for anyone working in the loyalty industry. If you are working in loyalty marketing, make sure to join Let’s Talk Loyalty every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to hear the latest ideas from loyalty experts around the world.

Just before we share today’s episode, I want to ask you to sign up to the Let’s Talk Loyalty email newsletter. Our email newsletter is by far the best way, for us to keep you up to date with all of the latest, incredible loyalty stories we’re sharing each week. It’s also the easiest place for you to find our show notes.

With links to everything mentioned in all of the episodes, you can sign up at letstalkloyalty.com.

Tom: Hi, I’m Tom Peace, Managing Director of The Loyalty People, and presenter of Let’s Talk A Little Loyalty. Welcome to this week’s short summary show. In this week’s episode of Let’s Talk A Little Loyalty, I’ll be reviewing the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas, where she’s joined by Nicole Auman, Director of Brand Marketing at Sheets.

Nicole shows a real passion for her business and for customer loyalty, and this really comes across in her podcast. What I really enjoyed actually is Nicole’s clear understanding of how core business performance is so key to success. And how it drives customer loyalty just as much as a traditional loyalty program.

Convenience is gonna be a key thing for a convenience retailer, and Nicole describes Sheets as a convenience store on steroids. Their aim as a business is to be an oasis on the highway, which is a very charming objective. This has been achieved primarily by great service and amazing product quality. I haven’t tried them myself, but their fries are incredible.

Nicole talks throughout the podcast about how determined Sheets is as a business to create high quality offering and a pleasant environment, which isn’t perhaps what we would expect from a highway convenience store. This has actually created Sheets as a destination for food, which is a fantastic achievement.

When creating a loyalty strategy, Nicole invested significantly in understanding the customer needs through her team of data analysts and extensive focus groups with customers. This is great and exactly what we always advocate. You should always start by listening to your customer and you won’t go wrong. As a result, Nicole knew that they needed some instant gratification as well as ongoing rewards to encourage loyalty and crucially data sharing.

This led to a 3 cents off fuel discount for loyalty members, as well as a points based scheme with around 150 burn offers available through the app. A very clever scheme offering something for everyone. Nicole goes on to talk about how important the app has been for their success, and this is a great channel that they push very successfully as a business. Sheets have really invested in the app, and as a result has become a real channel for growth.

The app is much more than just your loyalty ID and points balance, it offers a full earn and burn solution with offer catalog, as well as personalized offers based on your behaviors. The app also offers online shopping and curbside pickup. As a result, app users are 50% more frequent than even their loyal customers, and they spend twice as much.

Towards the end of the interview, Nicole also calls out the frontline staff as the real reason for success. Sheets is in the top 100 places to work in America. The team is well-trained and highly motivated, and this drives an excellent customer experience from which the brand can engage customers further.

This was a great show to review because Nicole talked so passionately about how good old fashioned service and convenience can drive strong loyalty. Please do take the time to listen to the main show, which can be found at www.letstalkloyalty.com, and first aired on the 9th of June, 2022, episode number 234.

Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed my summary show all of best and speak to you soon. Tom.

Paula: This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights, and research. The Wise Marketer also offers loyalty marketing training. Through its Loyalty Academy, which is already certified, over 500 executives in 38 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

For more information, check out thewisemarketer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty. 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, and we’ll send our best episodes straight to your inbox. And don’t forget that you can follow Let’s Talk Loyalty on any of your favorite podcast platforms, and of course, we’d love for you to share your feedback and reviews.

Thanks again for supporting the show.