Marc Goodman, Manager for Petro Points, Refining & Marketing, told Loyalty 360 that Petro-Canada’s loyalty program launched in 1995 – one of the first loyalty programs in Canada – but recently company officials wanted to evaluate its progress and seek improvements. As a result, Petro-Canada relaunched Petro Points last month to engage customers with faster and easier rewards.
“Every program continues to look itself in the mirror tries to understand what we can better and different to add value back to the customers,” Goodman said. “We wanted to make sure we’re giving value to our customers.”
Goodman said the mid-March relaunch of Petro Points was, technically, the first phase with the second phase slated by the end of the year.
“We changed some of our branding and how it’s presented to consumers,” Goodman said.
Goodman outlined the five main components of the Petro Points relaunch:
Monthly points top-up on fuel: “We wanted to more in people’s pockets who are already value to us,” Goodman said. “This incents people to visit us one more time a month.” Members swipe their card when they fill up and their fuel amount goes directly toward their monthly totals. There are two tiers based on liters: Earn 750 points for pumping 150-249 liters of gas; earn 1,000 bonus points for pumping 250 liters or more.
Diesel: This involves members who purchase diesel fuel. They were earning 5 points for every liter pumped; now they earn 10 points for every liter. “They felt they were being cheated because they drive more energy-efficient vehicles,” Goodman said.
Hero Reward: Fuel Savings Reward card. Members save five cents per liter for their next 200 liters. Members previously had to earn 15,000 Petro Points to receive this card; that amount has been reduced to 12,000 points. “We want more people to redeem our Hero Reward,” Goodman said.
$1 off Drink and Snack: “We wanted to simplify,” Goodman said. With 2,000 Petro Points, members earn this that can be redeemed for any items except for tobacco and alcohol.
Facebook: Goodman said Petro-Canada launched a Facebook page last month to create better customer engagement. “We want to create customer advocates and brand ambassadors,” Goodman said. “That’s what we’re looking at. We have a dedicated resource responsible for putting these campaigns together. What we’re hoping for is to have other fans on there actually answering questions for us.”
Goodman said he’s thrilled with the expanded loyalty program in a short period of time.
“They’re all exceeding any of our expectations,” Goodman said.
Petro-Canada has 1,500 retail locations and Petro Points has 4.3 million members.
“In recent years we’ve had some slow growth,” Goodman said. “With this relaunch, we want to make sure our existing members stay engaged and we can attract the next generation of drivers so they can grow with us and become brand fuel of choice.”