We were in the middle of an installation at a new client. One morning, the owner asked an unexpected question. He told us that he had seen his monthly numbers and his Diesel sales were off. They weren’t doing any sort of formal fuel price monitoring, so he asked us if we could find the reason why. Since we had just installed our Data Docks at several of his stores, the answer was easy to identify. If we had been a few days further along, the system would have notified him automatically.
The first place that we checked was our Front Office Platform’s Fuel Pricing module. This feature monitors the fuel prices at each store and compares them to the prices at local competitors. Within minutes we noticed that one store had Diesel priced $0.25 above its competitors, pricing them “out of market”. We could see that the price remained unchanged for over two weeks. We later learned that it had gone unnoticed because it was the most remote location in their chain. After looking at additional data from the store, not only had they lost fuel sales, but in-store sales were also down by 3%. This was a costly oversight indeed.
Small human errors can add up to big numbers if they go unnoticed. Taiga’s Front Office Platform helps with monitoring fuel price no matter where your stores are located. Our Fuel Pricing module can identify and correct these types of errors in real-time, before they add up:
- Be Alerted when Fuel is priced Out of Market – Each operator can set a threshold where they receive alerts. If their fuel prices are out of the specified range of their competitors, the Fuel Pricing module sends out alerts in real-time. If the threshold is $.05/gallon, the operator will receive an alert as soon as the system detects that their price is $.05 above or below the competition.
- Oversee Price Changes from Headquarters – Our Front Office Platform integrates directly with POS & pump controllers. So your managers receive confirmations when price changes are executed at each store.
- Track Market Prices in Other Regions – A price restoration normally starts outside of your local area. The Fuel Pricing module will allow you to track stores in other regions. It will also send you notifications when a restoration is on the way so you can stay one step ahead of your competition.
Two months later, I was speaking with the same client and heard some fantastic news. He told me that he had just purchased ten additional stores and wanted us to install our Front Office Platform right away. Initially, he had been tentative about buying this group of stores because they were so remote. However, once he had experienced how Taiga’s Front Office Platform gave him real-time visibility into store operations from anywhere, he was confident that the acquisition would be a success.
