Latest / Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360 / #549: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories | How Weigel’s Still Finds New Ways to Engage with its Customers After 95 Years

Transcript

#549: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories | How Weigel’s Still Finds New Ways to Engage with its Customers After 95 Years · Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Good afternoon, good morning.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Mark Johnson from Loyalty360.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hope everyone's doing well.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's a Thursday, so welcome back to the Leaders in Customer Loyalty Podcast.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Brand Stories Edition, and I'm excited to have Jessica Starnes return to the show.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: She is the director of customer loyalty at Weigels.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: She has been very instrumental in the transformation of customer loyalty into a strategic growth engine for Wiggles.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: She has led efforts around personalization, customer engagement, digital innovation, and most recently the evolution of the My Wiggles Rewards program.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: They've added new loyalty tiers, they've enhanced their mobile experiences, and they're driven by deeper customer insights.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Also, over the past year, Wiggles has continued to invest in customer-centric innovation, including AI and enhanced data capabilities, while expanding its focus on creating meaningful customer relationships both inside and outside the store.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: At the same time, the customer remains deeply committed to its employees, its communities, and its goal of being the customer's first choice.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Jessica, thank you very much for taking the time to join us today.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's great having you back on the podcast.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's been about a year since we last spoke.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: For those who didn't catch our last interview, can you give us a brief overview of Wyles, what you do, how you do it?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we are a nine store regional uh convenience store chain.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're centrally located in East Tennessee.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we serve um our communities um with being a uh dairy heritage.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we we like to think that we punch a little bit of overweight.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And when you look at uh Weigels, you know, what's led to its great success?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about this in the past, uh very focused on kind of the customer, uh very forward-looking for a smaller organization from a technology perspective, from a customer focused.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what has led to Weigl's great success?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I think, first of all, you hit the nail on the head.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: We always put the customer first.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're always everything that we do at Wiggle's, whether it's a new flavor of milk or it's something that we add to our loyalty program, we're always thinking about the end result, which is the customer.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we put a lot of emphasis on community.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be the hometown and we are the hometown convenience store in our area.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I would say putting the customer first, being community oriented, and then we're nimble.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we like to be on the cutting edge, we like to be innovative, uh, we we can pivot quickly.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that allows us to do a lot of really cool things.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Your role with the company, uh, what do you do?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: How do you do it?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: And how did you get into customer loyalty?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I am currently the director of loyalty at Woggles and tobacco category manager.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I came from the grocery world, which um loyalty has been a part of for many, many generations.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we went from you know the punch cards to coupons to physical cards.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I left the grocery industry, we we didn't have an app.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Came over to the C store industry, uh, spent a decade working in our prospect uh rebate um landscape, and then moved over to category management.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, right as we were kind of kickstarting our loyalty.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: We've had the loyalty program for a long time, but really trying to utilize it to be a bigger strategic uh pillar in our business and moved over into this role.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about uh customer loyalty being a strategic pillar in your organization.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's a big uh opportunity, but it's it's somewhat challenging for many brands.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have the organizational alignment, right?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: They can't uh invest in technologies.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's viewed as a cost that needs to be minimized versus uh, you know, the data and the relationships that should be maximized.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: How do you drive engagement within your organization and how do you make it such a priority for the organization?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Or is that natural to the company?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I would say it's probably a combination.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I am very blessed to have upper management, our CEO, our VP, and Mr.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Waggle himself believes in loyalty.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So they are very invested in loyalty.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they love uh what it brings to the customers and what a differentiator it makes in our business.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um but also I make sure that loyalty is a part of conversation at the table, right?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So when you've got our top leaders of the company sitting around having a strategic meeting, I constantly find ways to interject loyalty's presence, whether you know we build our first car wash um the uh last year.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is how can loyalty partner with the car wash?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: How can we get those transactions and customers at the car wash be able to earn points like they could if they were inside of our C store?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um we launched mobile ordering.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: How can we um attach loyalty to mobile ordering so the customer gets the same experience as they would if they were in the C store?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think it's a combination for us specifically.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: We I have top-end uh buy-in.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Our CFO loves the program, our CEO loves the program, Mr.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Waggle loves the program.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so they're bought in, but also making sure that loyalty is always a part of the conversation in anything that's going on.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have the employee loyalty for from an HR standpoint, we support our food service um for that line of business.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So just always being a seat at the table.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think having that seat at the table is very important as uh as you get kind of talked about, and you're very fortunate to have that.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds great.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: You talked a little bit about your role, the company.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, what are some challenges that you face in your uh you know, role?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: How is it changing?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: How is it evolving?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you talked about uh again the alignment you have.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: There is kind of a K-shaped recovery, uh, fuel is a little more expensive than it was.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe last time we spoke.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what are the challenges or potentially, you know, what are the opportunities that you face in your role?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say that honestly, um, the biggest challenge I personally face is it's it's like a team of one, right?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I have some marketing support.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I do have a junior cat man that's helping me with the tobacco side.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for the most part, it's a team of one.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's hard with all that we're producing and everything that we're putting out with the analytics.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the thing that we've really leaned in on this past year has actually been our AI.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we've introduced our company has been on the forefront and getting us access to AI.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and Nick, who's our director of marketing and working on our retail media networks, stood up our CDP.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: So those things combined has helped me offset the deficit I have, but basically being a small bench.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: That makes perfect sense.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So being able to leverage AI, new technologies, integrate them in a way that creates some efficiencies and economies of scale internally, potentially.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we talked about customer loyalty.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's always great to have uh a definition of how brands define customer loyalty, what it means to their organization.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: So when you look at customer loyalty, you know, what does it mean to you and to Wiggles?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: It means a lot to Wiggles.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when we look at customer loyalty, we like I said before, we want to be that hometown convenience store.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be first choice.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be part of their weekly plan, we want to be part of their daily stock.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so having that relationship with the customer is what customer loyalty means to us.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the Sea Store industry has evolved quite rapidly, right?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh the backcourt, the front court, uh, some uh in the sea store industry don't have control of both.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think you do have control of both.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Sea Store now, when you look at organizations like yourself or Casey's or Wawa or Sheets, they're coming uh into more uh you know customized food offerings, uh, you know, unique in-store offerings that drive engagement.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: How is the industry changing?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the industry is evolving very quickly.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I would say um out of all of the retail industries, I feel like the C-Store industry is the most nimble, most uh easy to pivot.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you just look at how the C store um performed during COVID.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when when other uh industries were shutting down, uh, we were still open.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: We were still essential.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we just figured it out, whether that was mobile ordering or curbside, uh delivery, whatever needed to happen, the C store um industry figures it out.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're that type of bunch.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think as far as um evolving, we're always evolving.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever the trend might be, you know, we've got personalization, hyperpersonalization, AI, um, you spoke earlier of the fuel situation.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the things that we're used to.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're used to constantly having to Firefly.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you guys that seem to do a great job.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about adding the car wash, uh the employee engagement uh platforms you have are very important.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: When you even employee engagement, getting them to buy in the program, training, making sure they understand the program, making sure they understand the value of the program, and even something as simple as you know identifying themselves at point of sale, you know, how do you work so effectively with which HR to make sure that the employee piece is as sound as it is?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll I'll tell you, the employee loyalty piece um was uh a passion of mine because your number one advocate for whatever you're trying to sell to your customer, um even your customer service, even your brand, it comes from that frontline employee.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when you are able to onboard that frontline employee as an advocate for your loyalty program, it makes all the difference in the world.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: If they're using it and they love it and they feel rewarded, they're gonna share that.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna share it with the customers.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's it's really been very easy.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have a great HR director who is all in for anything that I want to try.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and I do like to try to give everything new that we're testing to our employees first before we roll it out to the rest of the um customer base.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: That way we can get feedback and clean up, you know, any kind of bugs or whatnot before we do it.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: But then that also gives them a way to see how it's supposed to work and the meaning behind it.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we do something as a catman team, we send out a catman letter.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: We do a bulletin every week, but we send a catman letter out um every month.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in our catman letter, we are always telling employees not just what we're doing, but the why of what we're doing.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when they understand the why, it makes the difference.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: That makes perfect sense.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and have you always told them the why, or is that some something the evolution that you found was important to do to have a kind of more open informational change with the employees?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's an evolution for sure.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when when I first started, it was more, this is what we're doing, this is what you need to execute.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and they would, I mean, they would they would do the things that we were pushing and they would execute, but maybe not with the same type of emphasis that they do now because they understand why we're doing it and where we're headed.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we did that with our uh loyalty penetration rate.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when we kicked off our points program back in 2022, we had a 12.5% penetration rate.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so to get um our operations team to start asking for that loyalty um identification with every transaction, you know, we had to spend a lot of time teaching them why and where we were headed.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we had to be very honest, you know, this is why we need this so we can get to this next point.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: That makes perfect sense.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when you look at uh connection, you talked about that.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: You you've recently uh last year uh launched gamification to try to create some unique engagement, uh, hopefully in an attempt, I would think, to drive some more emotional connection, keep them engaged between transactions.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how are you driving a deeper connection, uh potentially mainly emotional connection with your customers uh through your customer loyalty efforts?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you spoke of gamification, yes.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: We we went on a journey uh specifically for gamification.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um and our goal was to really hit the Gen Z.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: What we noticed in our demographic is we had a smaller pool of Gen Z than what we wanted, and we really wanted to beef that Gen Z population up.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And since Gen Z identifies 90% as gamers, we really went after gamification as a way to pull them into our digital space.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, they're the they're natively digital.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So they they were the ones that we were targeting.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: What we found uh about launching streaks last year, trivia earlier this year, what we found is it's not the only generation that it applied to.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: We found emotional connection with all generations.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um we some love the streaks more than they love the trivia, some love the trivia more than the streaks, uh, but it was a little bit of something for everybody.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but what it allowed us to do was to gear up from this tears launch and then um be able to add badges in with this tear launch because that wasn't originally something that was part of the plan.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: But when we saw the response to gamification, we're like, hey, we need to add this extra layer into our tears launch.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then what do you see?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you we talked about this this a little bit before as we were preference this gamification.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: You've seen some increased engagement in the different tiers.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about some people had interest in streaks, some people in trivia.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: What are you seeing from uh kind of maybe driving that deep uh emotional connection of these these offerings?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: How are you measuring that?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so one of the ways that we measure is you know the app sessions, the app engagements.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also when I tie points back to the program, so that's the currency that our loyalty program rewards in, uh, we see higher redemption in the earning and the burning of points with the the folks that are participating in gamification.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's awesome.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh last year we you know we talked about the Michaels Rewards program.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think recently we've added even a more uh kind of a different, unique, uh more engaging uh kind of uh addition to the program.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I have tiers uh to the loyalty program.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Can you walk us through this new tier structure or how you decided to come up with that?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I know it's early days.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: What are you seeing with regard to the launch of the tier structure?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I spent about two years collecting data on tiers because we wanted to make sure that we got the visit count right.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's really easy to roll something out, but it's really hard to take it back.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we we put a lot of planning um and collected a lot of data.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then I ran SoftRan uh two uh frequency promotions, um, one in March, April, and then one during our 95th anniversary summer campaign to collect more data.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I was looking for specifically was what was the visit count, the threshold that moved someone from being um an occasional shopper of woggles to an actual loyal habitual shopper of woggles.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I narrowed that down, then I instituted the four different tiers.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: So everybody comes into woggles as a fan.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really important for me to have everybody come in as a tier.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So everybody comes in as a fan, and then they can move throughout um the tiers based on their visits.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And our our tiers are all-star, fan, all-star, VIP, and MVP.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they get different perks depending on which tier that they participate in.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: But what it's different, how it's differentiated from our core program, which is points, is this is based on visits.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the things that I saw a lot being a tobacco category manager is our tobacco customers really weren't being rewarded for participating in our Wiggles loyalty program.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, they got the um tobacco discounts, but they could have got those tobacco discounts at any sea store that had a loyalty program.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So they weren't being recognized and um being valued at Woggles as much as I wanted them to be.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: So adding in the visits, those tobacco visits count.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we're only the second month in, but our first month's uh results, our MVP tier, which is our highest tier, 68% of those folks had a tobacco purchase.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it proved uh what I was trying, the goal I was trying to get to was to recognize those customers, and it's proven that we have.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh many brands, as you know, are trying to expand beyond points-based rewards programs.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh obviously, one increase visits, one increase engagement, a lot of experience-based uh offers as well.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: You've talked about uh your streaks and and trivia.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what what are you seeing uh in regard to experience-based uh offers to members?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: What are you guys doing?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: How's that working?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you see that going?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we do a lot of sweepstakes.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we do a lot of experiences.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: We work with our vendor partners, um, and then of course, some uh internally.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so like wind milk for a year, wind fuel for a year, that those are usually some of the very highest redemptions that we have in our sweepstakes.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: But every loyalty cycle, we have sweepstakes.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and in those sweepstakes, customers can earn entries by shopping with us, whether that be in the store, at the pump, or uh via mobile uh ordering.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then they can also spend their points in the catalog for additional entries into sweepstakes, and then we will pulse in like some check-in uh sweepstakes.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: We did a check-in sweepstakes uh this summer.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: And those are usually those are really fun because we geofence the stores, and the only way the customer can get entered into those sweepstakes is to physically be at the store and check in.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so so we add sweepstakes for experiences.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: When you look at that, uh you're making launch of CDP, employee engagement, uh talking about tiers, gamification, all of that.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Are do you spend more time and resources focused on member customer experience within your customer loyalty efforts?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Is that a bigger focus within the organization?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And does AI help you potentially uh streamline some of those uh opportunities and interests?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um we are like I said, our goal is really being customer centric and we start always with a customer and then expand out with the pieces that we have to do to make it work.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we definitely have used AI with with partnering with our CDP uh for like churn, uh lifecycle management, some of those things.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've been running some tests the past uh two or three weeks just specifically on reaching finding customers that have started to churn, but then give them a reward that's based on their product category preference.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: So what they were purchased.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a personalized win back and not just a generic everybody gets the same thing type of win back.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's been very successful.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you recognize a customer that is trending to turn?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what are some of uh the kind of factors or kind of attributes that you see in that scenario?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I really look at frequency as my number one uh factor for that.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I look at a couple of things.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: I look at um obviously if they haven't shopped with us in the last 30 days, um, they're they are really at risk and we need to do something.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I also like to look at if the frequency is less than 50% in the past 30 days.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: So if they if they you know were visiting 12 times a month and now I'm only seeing them five times, they could be out of town, but they could be churning.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to give them a win back and you know recognize that.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then we also, when someone has entered those user groups as churn, we'd like to send them a thank you uh communication that's just a little something that says, thank you, we we saw you, we recognized you that you came back into our student.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you talked a little bit about some of the metrics and KPIs you already used.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you also, I think earlier this year launched a new redesign loyalty app, and having that integrated app is very important too.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, how do you see the app or how have you seen the app increase customer engagement and enhance customer experience for your customers?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um Nick actually uh redesigned our app earlier this year.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: We kicked that off in our January cycle.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and his goal was uh specifically to make it more user-friendly and um to put the pieces, so we've been collecting data for you know a minute.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: So to put the pieces on the home screen that customers frequent more often, whether that be like our six, seven dollar value menu, whether that be our fuel rewards, um, links specifically out to our gamification.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so just making it more structural and use, um, the result was they used it more.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we we see higher customer engagement uh because it's easier.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that customers, especially the newer generations, they do not like is friction.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So they want to get to the answer as quick as they can get to it.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you make it too complicated, they're not going to spend the time in your app to get there.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: When you look at uh engaging younger audiences, you mentioned it earlier, getting Gen Z more involved.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you talked about some of the challenges, interest in gamification, interest in kind of more that social aspect.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what are some of the challenges?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh are there other challenges that you see with regard to engaging Gen Z and and are there other ways to potentially engage them?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh within within the the portfolio of offerings that you have?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so they're very socially um I guess socially engaged, but they're also like that they understand and they're they're very I guess cognizant to the things that's going around in the environment and the world.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have the opportunity with all the SKUs and vendor partners that we have that we partner with um several folks um that spend a lot of their uh corporate planning around sustainability so we can tap into some of those corporate partners with sustainability to really kind of reach out um to that younger demographic because that's one of the things that they're they're very conscious of their world and everything that's around them.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: They also are very community entwined um and that's something that we've we've really always tapped into because you know our goal is to be um everyone's neighborhood uh convenience store and so we want to be a part of their lives a part of their community part of growing up and the younger demographics are are very in tune to that um we did we just kicked off um our Wildles Friday football uh which is kind of like a Friday night lots uh special and so we we target um a group of uh store locations that we have in schools and those stores run like$8 pizza and uh we added into our app um the ability for folks to come in and to vote for what for whatever school and whatever school wins we do like a$500 uh check to the athletic department and uh we give bonus points for voting and then we also have um win pizza for a year for a customer each week and we've seen a lot of uh younger demographics wanting to download the app and get involved because their school's up and they'll post it on social media and all that's organic but it's based on that community effort.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay so CSR council kind of corporate social responsibility is alive and well with Waigel some brands struggle with that as well is that but maybe due to the fact that you're predominantly Tennessee Southern base that that allows you to the focus on that that community maybe the the uniqueness of the community may be a little stronger in those areas oh I would say definitely I mean we we have 95 years in this I mean community there's there's not a generational live in our our trading area that hasn't grown up with woggles.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: That makes perfect sense um well it's it's always interesting to speak with you and your team you know what what's the next big thing for customer loyalty or customer experience for your brand um so we are going to 2027 is going to be a year of um more personalization um now that we have the CDP stood up we have tiers launched uh we're gonna start tapping in um to those levers that we can pull so we're very excited about that okay well thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us it's always a pleasure speaking with you uh it was great getting in catch up on all the things that uh you've done the new app, gamification, the new CDP, uh everything you're doing and looking forward to seeing how the enhanced personalization goes uh through the rest of 26 and into 27.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you thank you again for having me absolutely and also thank you everyone for taking the time to tune in make sure you join us every Thursday for a new episode of the Leaders in Customer Loyalty podcast the Brand Stories edition and don't forget to subscribe and follow us on YouTube and across our social media channels listed below in the comments section.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Until then have a wonderful day