NTI Store Development Prognostications for 2022

Capturing Customers using Prepaid Services Services

Everyday spends — like car washes, co ee and car washes, co ee and food — o er an opportunity food — o er an opportunity for c-stores to capitalize for c-stores to capitalize on prepaid services for on prepaid services for regular customers. regular customers.

Thomas Mulloy • Senior Editor

Today’s handheld digital technology has heightened consumer expectations of ease and service, especially in the retail and foodservice space. tations of ease and service, especially in the retail and foodservice space. Customers expect easy ordering, shorter wait times and quick transacCustomers expect easy ordering, shorter wait times and quick transactions. More often, that means using prepaid services. tions. More often, that means using prepaid services.

Possibly the most important aspect of any prepaid program — and possibly the most overlooked — is that it must be designed around the customer.

The San Diego-based Soapy Joe’s convenience store and car wash chain has been in the prepaid business for over a decade, according to Anne Mauler, Soapy Joe’s vice

president of marketing. The chain operates prepaid program — and possibly the most three convenience stores with car washes and overlooked — is that it must be designed 12 standalone car washes. It offers prepaid services around its car washes via its digital

The San Diego-based Soapy Joe’s conve- car wash subscription program, where customers can buy fi ve washes at a time, or they can purchase a yearly or monthly prepaid car wash membership.

San Diego-based Soapy Joe’s subscription program enables customers to purchase fi ve washes at a time — or a yearly or monthly prepaid membership.

Mauler explained that Soapy Joe’s wants to make sure that every customer touchpoint at one of its locations is quick and easy. “So that even comes down to, ‘How do you make that decision? What package are you coming into? Is the sign-up quick and easy?’” Mauler explained. “Because the reality is they’re doing the sign-up components right there at the express pay terminal where people who are buying single washes are as well.”

And Soapy Joe’s isn’t alone. More convenience stores today are incorporating prepaid capabilities into their loyalty program, mobile app or car wash programs.

Mauler advised other retailers to keep prepaid options simple. That means assessing current offerings and making changes where needed.

Most notably this past year, Soapy Joe’s started off originally offering a four-wash prepaid option, and the company simplifi ed that down to a package of three. “A strategy with a high, medium, low approach that our customers really appreciate,” she noted.

CUSTOMER-CENTRIC SERVICE

That focus on the customer is essential, according to Partick Raycroft, associate director with Chicago-based information technology consultants W. Capra.

“First and foremost, anybody who’s considering the value and benefi ts of a reloadable gift card program to their business needs to say, ‘Well, what is in it for the consumer?’” said Raycroft. Once a retailer establishes the value for the consumer who is a regular visitor, it is crucial that the digital experience is easy. If not, customers will opt to simply not use it.

Raycroft advised retailers to include core features that customers who use prepaid services have come to expect. Whether it’s a gift

card account or simply a pay-functional mobile app, it all needs to be fully integrated at the user’s fi ngertips.

“If I log into your mobile app,” Raycroft explained, “the fi rst part of my core account profi le needs to be my reloadable gift card account, the balance that’s associated with it and an identifi er — a barcode, number, etc., that I can use to pay with that value that I’ve loaded into the account.”

And be sure to keep the reloadable function simple. The companies who do this best, like Starbucks, even offer an auto-reload. When a customer’s balance falls below a certain dollar amount, the app will automatically reload a specifi ed amount to the account.

There are caveats, Raycroft said. Beware any system that takes your customers to a third-party site to transfer money, especially if it requires users to re-enter their username and password. “It’s a really poor customer experience,” noted Raycroft.

Soapy Joe’s Mauler said that the chain is con“First and foremost, anybody who’s considering the value and benefi ts of a reloadable gift card program to their business needs to say, ‘Well, what is in it for the consumer?“what is in it for the consumer?

– Patrick Raycroft, associate director, W. Capra Consulting Group

sidering adding purchase ability of convenience store goods, foodservice and fuel, and even a loyalty program.

“Our program doesn’t include anything like loyalty points,” she said. “We’d love to get there, and we would love to tie into our gas as well and be able to pull through a gas discount. There’s loyalty to the brand, but not in a concrete programmatic sense.”