Kelly Dewey: Wonderful! We are very proud of our program, so thank you.

Outsite: Why do you believe you program is so successful?

Kelly Dewey: I think one of the things we do well, is that we dedicate a team to actually administering the program. We have two full time people that work very hard to maintain the program and keep it at its best. Without that type of dedication it is challenging to run a successful program. In addition, we have closely tied our team members’ bonuses into the program’s performance. This is partly why we see team members actively thinking about the program as they are doing their daily tasks. Our front line team does a great job of reminding guests (customers) to use their tags and also by asking more people to join as part of their daily responsibilities.

Erin Hietpas: Also our store team members are very knowledgeable about the program and excited to have it. We spend a lot of time talking with team members, helping them to understand how the program benefits them and how getting new members into the program will mean higher performance number and better bonuses for them. Many team members are really excited about the program and a lot of them make it their goal to get so many new members in every shift they work.

Outsite: That makes sense. Of the top performing programs, we hear that type of response often. When companies build their program with a strong level of corporate focus, and think about managing it all the way through to the front line, it shows up clearly in the profit numbers each month. Sounds like you are doing that very well.

Kelly Dewey: Thanks. We are very lucky to have such a great team running our program. All our store managers and our two loyalty program managers are just so dedicated that they are really the ones making our loyalty program success possible. Personally, I’d like to say a big “Thank You!” to each and every one of them.

Outsite: Why do you think so many people continue to join your program?

Erin Hietpas: I think a lot of people continue to join the program because we make a big effort to keep it fresh and new all the time. We are always out there looking for new products and new prizes to put into the program. When we see a solid new product coming into our store, we consider setting up a new club for it. Then we are able to tell members about the new product and club through the audio and reward printers. We are basically just catering to the guest and what they like. We try to set up a lot of options for them to receive a reward on the products they already like.

Outsite: So it sounds like one of the things you do is to focus rewards on popular items.

Kelly Dewey: Yes, and I think the other thing is that we’ve got so many different levels and different types of rewards, that we are able to win over everybody from the single mother driving the fuel-efficient car all the way up to truck drivers. We make sure there is an incentive for everyone that will keep them coming back and swiping their tag every day.

Outsite: What features of the system do you find beneficial to your particular program?

Kelly Dewey: I would say one thing we do uniquely well at are sweepstakes. Our average sweepstakes prize is about $5,000 in value every month. It’s a real value-add that anyone with a key tag could win. They generate a lot of excitement and support in our stores, with our media partners, and vendor sponsors.

Erin Hietpas: Another strong point we believe for our program is that we switch out our rewards often so the guest is not continually getting the same exact reward. Even if you are a 500 point level member and you only receive two to three rewards a month, you are getting a variety of prizes. If you are the 5,000 point member, earning a reward almost every day, you are also getting a variety of rewards to choose from. We keep each type of member interested and engaged over the long term.

Outsite: I noticed you have a comprehensive set of clubs in place. How is that working for you?

Erin Hietpas: The club program is working out very well for us. Our coffee club is certainly a solid one. A lot of the smaller volume clubs have brought in new loyalty members for us. For example, we started a firewood club this winter and a high percentage of our new members then came in through this club – just because they were coming to buy firewood.

Outsite: That’s great, so your clubs are helping to attract new members. Did that firewood club also help increase your sales of fire wood?

Erin Hietpas: Yes it did.

Kelly Dewey: If we can just add a few new members by getting them to buy wood from us, instead of from the next store down the street, we feel we’ve achieved one of our goals.

Outsite: It looks like you have many active customers in the higher spending levels of your program. That means you are successfully moving your customers up from lower to higher spending levels. Are you using special strategies for upsells and cross-sells?

Kelly Dewey: I know one of the things we do like to use is the Stealth Club. It is fun to experiment with that feature and target upsell offers and messages to audiences that we know are already purchasing similar products. We are able to move people from lower to higher levels of spending because of the level of targeted offers, rewards, and audio we use.

Outsite: Have you also been using transaction rewards to target offers to your members?

Erin Hietpas: Yes but our transaction rewards are mainly used to incent our guests to continue coming into our stores. For example our fuel customers that pay at the pump are incented to come into the store to print and redeem their rewards. If our partners have a new product they would like to get out to the market, we use our transaction rewards to get them into our guest’s hands. Our partners are then willing to sponsor the transaction rewards which helps reduce our costs.

Outsite: Excellent. How is the audio at the pump working for you?

Erin Hietpas: The audio has worked out really well for us. We started by having one track of audio just run. But what we found was that, as we broke up the audio into four different sections, we could strategically plan to run certain audio tracks during the fueling transaction. Now we know that every guest is going to hear one of our main partner’s audio and they are going to hear one of our main audio message. We play messages that we are confident they will find interesting because it relates to their own past purchases. We know that every time they fill up they are going to hear what we want them to hear. We’ve found this to be a much better experience for our guests.

Outsite: So you count on the fact each member will likely come in three times during the month and you plan to vary up the messaging they will hear, knowing that they will end up hearing them all over the course of the month?

Kelly Dewey: Yes, and additionally, Erin also makes sure she’s changing out the audio often enough so that regular vendor partners, like Budweiser and Pepsi, are continually getting effective messaging with our members. We do this by having a variety of their product messages out there each month. This way the guests do not get bored but instead are hearing something new and are entertained.

Outsite: What is your method for making entertaining audio?

Erin Hietpas: For many of our partners, we use the audio that they have already created for the radio. They just send us their clips and it’s real quick to edit the messages and easy to add them into the Outsite Networks system. We feel the messages the vendors have spent time and money creating for the radio are going to be entertaining.

Kelly Dewey: We are also changing out our audio every two weeks. This is definitely something that takes time, energy, and organization, but it’s certainly worth it.

Outsite: How do you think the audio affects your acquisition numbers?

Erin Hietpas: I think the audio does a great job of boosting our acquisition of new members. The audio informs guests who are not currently members of all of the benefits they could receive if they were to sign up for the loyalty program.
In addition to using audio to acquire new members, we use things like billboards and radio so that we can get consumers who are not necessarily driving regularly past our stores, as well. It helps that we draw on a variety of communication methods to bring in new members.

Outsite: Do you partner with any local media to run contests or in other ways to leverage your audio delivery at the pumps?

Erin Hietpas: We work with two top local radio stations in the area. They have helped us find sponsors for our sweepstakes and with creating audio each month. We also work with them on advertising for our new monthly sweepstakes. We do live radio remotes with them every couple of months and then we advertise for them in our stores as well. So it’s a win-win situation for both of us.

Outsite: How do you judge the success of your loyalty program and how has it had an impact on your bottom line?

Kelly Dewey: It has definitely had a very positive impact on our bottom line, especially during this time period of declining fuel volumes and fuel profits, when it has been essential to maintain inside sales levels. The number one metric we use is the percent of sales that are made with a tag swipe (Loyalty Transaction %). We want to make sure that 1 in 3 guests are using our program; our goal is to maintain that across the board for all of our stores. Of course every store has a different neighborhood and a different story, so it’s not essential to have every store at the same number. If we can achieve an overall average of 30%-33%, we’re happy.

Outsite: And if you do, you know you’ve consolidated a lot of their purchasing to your stores.

Kelly Dewey: That’s right. We want to be their number one C-store choice. Once we get them in the door, our job is to wow them with service and make sure they keep coming back.

Outsite: What have been your secrets for success in getting long-term vendor support?

Erin Hietpas: I think the secret to attracting that type support is to really involve the vendors in the program and to show them clearly how the loyalty program is going to help them achieve better sales numbers. Once they understand that, they are almost always ready to get involved and stay involved. A lot of our major partners—beer, soda, salty snack vendors—they continue to see a real profit from our program because we’ve boosted their sales through how much we’ve done and by how much advertising we do for them on site.

Outsite: What advice would you have for a company thinking about getting into the loyalty for the first time.

Kelly Dewey: For our chain, we are concerned about doing it well if we are going to do it. From my point of view, I don’t think there’s much point to starting a loyalty program, if you aren’t going to fully commit to the whole program. Commit to the program and it more than pays for itself with great results.
It’s also important to note, there is definitely an advantage to being a first mover in your market. If you are in a geographical location and there aren’t any other c-store loyalty programs, jump on the band wagon and get your loyalty program started first, because having the first movers advantage makes a huge difference!