NCR Corp. officials know a little something about magnifying customer loyalty.
Its latest partnership is with Rutter’s Farm Stores, which traces its roots back 269 years to 1747, making it the oldest vertically-integrated food company in the United States. Rutter’s is widely recognized as an industry leader in food service, innovative technology, and customer service.
Most convenience store patrons simply fuel their cars and go. And while retailers generate a large percentage of revenue from fuel sales, they remain diligent in their efforts to better engage fuel-and-go consumers. Rutter’s Farm Stores will use NCR OPTIC – a new outdoor payment terminal - to reach this ever growing customer base.
Rutter’s, which offers petroleum and food service at its 65 sites, has been an NCR partner for more than 10 years. The Pennsylvania-based retailer had early interest in the OPTIC solution when NCR unveiled the technology at the 2015 NACS Show.
Jason Nichols, Global Solution Management, OPTIC Program at NCR, told Loyalty360 that NCR OPTIC provides a choice to the retailer with an open platform technology and retrofit kits for most brands of fuel dispenser.
“NCR offers OPTIC in two sizes - a smaller 5-inch terminal for use with older dispensers, and an ultra-sharp 12-inch touch - one of the biggest, brightest and most powerful retrofit options on the market today,” Nichols explained. “Additionally, the open architecture allows for true customization−loyalty, customer specific offers, lottery, car wash, games, customer survey, job application ... anything. OPTIC is a great example of how NCR can bring its retailing vision to the Petroleum and Convenience Retail market. The NCR OPTIC solution streamlines deploying and managing at-pump systems to help provide consistent and personalized shopping experiences across all fueling platforms. With OPTIC, NCR extends our innovation beyond the store to the pump, creating a consistent customer user experience at the pump and engaging customers in new ways.”
Bernie Frazer, VP Technology or Rutter’s Farm Stores, told Loyalty360 that customers will appreciate the large touchscreens as a major upgrade to their fueling experiences.
“Fueling prompts will be easier to see and interact with, and full motion video will increase engagement,” Frazer said. “The added technology of scanners and NFC chips will also lay the foundation for true omnichannel retailing. Our goals are to enhance the fueling experience and simplify the loyalty rewards redemption, consumer messaging, payments, and purchasing processes at our pumps. We are excited that this will help us achieve EMV compliance in our forecourt across all stores.”
The open source nature of the product appealed to Rutter’s Farm Stores, Frazer noted.
“We like that Optic has the flexibility to plug and play into our pumps, and has a host of integrated features to enhance the fuel experience,” he added. “Optic is unique as it brings together a large touchscreen, EMV compliant payment terminal, 2D bar code scanner, and integrated NFC technology for the ultimate in mobility.”
Last year, NCR Corp., a global leader in consumer transaction technologies, partnered with Mach 1 convenience stores, a chain of 17 Marathon-branded locations in Illinois and Indiana, to help elevate their customer experience and store performance.
Mach 1 uses NCR Pulse, a versatile mobile application that delivers actionable, real-time information to a store owner or manager’s smartphone or tablet when he or she is onsite or offsite.
Through dashboards and alerts, NCR Pulse offers information on key operational measures, including fuel operations and other key systems to assist in maximizing uptimes on those systems. In addition, Pulse monitors employee actions to better manage staffing levels and employee performance. With Pulse, store managers and owners can help maximum uptime of key store systems that optimizes profitability and shopper satisfaction.
Rutter’s Farm Stores will use NCR’s open source platform and media management components. The open source platform allows a company to easily integrate loyalty program information while the new media capabilities extend storefront marketing.
NCR OPTIC is a modular, self-service solution that accepts a range of payment options in its standard configuration:
EMV and magnetic stripe
Contactless (including mobile phones) and mobile wallet
2D barcode scanner
OPTIC comes in two sizes, a 5” terminal for use with older dispensers, and a 12” widescreen – one of the largest and most powerful retrofit options on the market today. OPTIC was engineered to retrofit most brands of fuel dispensers, allowing retailers to easily upgrade their at-the-pump engagements.
Rutter’s and NCR plan to launch the first OPTIC solution early in the fourth quarter of 2016.