bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

One of my first Monday Ideas Posts was about how Petrol Stations could improve their service.

I want to follow that up and push it a bit further.

Cafes are renowned for price discrimination ie Free Trade coffee for $0.50 extra however the coffee beans only make up a minor part of the production cost.

Petrol stations have this with premium petrol but I think they can do better.

Let’s help the customers help themselves.

Have a carbon credit rate, where you pay for your gas plus a premium to cover the avg carbon credits you would use for that tank of gas. 

By my calculations, using 22mpg and 12,000 miles/yr (from here: http://www.liveneutral.org/calculator/) you would pay$0.0045 per mile or 11 cents a gallon.

Why do this?

• Customers know about global warming
• They also still need to fill up their car.
• You can help them do this without feeling guilty, garner extra revenue but also help build your brand for whent he day comes that fuel is no longer needed.

Thoughts? Would you pay extra for this? Should it be compulsory for businesses to pay the premium? Government vehicles?

Over the last few years we have seen the merging of convenience stores and petrol stations.  A way of value adding given shrinking margins on fuel for vendors.  Sweet.

However this combination slows down your service.  Pull into a gas station between 7.30am and 9.30am.  Chances are it won’t be a fast service.

How about this:

• You pull in and an attendant is waiting on you to fill your car.
• Once your car is filled you pay for your gas. Via credit card at the pump (handled by attendant).
• Charge $2 extra for this service.

Done under 2 minutes flat. (could even guarantee service time like McDonalds)

Easily cover cost of extra attendant per pump.  Help your customers out.

One step further.

• Charge $5 and give them a coffee / muffin at the same time.  You have probably saved your customer 20 minutes. 10 minutes filling up & another 10 minutes getting a coffee once they get to work.

Looking to differentiate? look at how you can ‘help’ your customers.  They will love it.