Can data help you achieve a more customer focused business?

Is Google a great business because it has a best in class search engine? Is Amazon a great business because it sells lots of products? Is Facebook a great business because it allows you to see what your friends are up to and you can share your experiences?`
No!
Putting to one side whether or not you like what Google or Amazon or Facebook do, they are great businesses because they capture and use data to maximum impact. They can monetise the data because they know, in real time, what customers are viewing, buying, searching and booking to name just a few.
I got involved with Edge for one simple reason – I saw the multiple benefits of having real time data at my fingertips giving clear visibility to enable better, faster decision making.

• What if you had great data?
• What if, in real time, you had amazing visibility?
• What if you shared this data with your third party suppliers?
• What if you used the data to improve the customer experience at your petrol station
• What if you consistently used data to drive your decision making?
  We all use data to run our businesses – mostly for the primary metrics of volume, sales, cost per litre, pence per litre margin, gross profit and price competitiveness. The data collected also allows you to go a level beyond that – helping to create customer value that goes beyond the primary metrics.
  Some examples of this might be:

• Measuring supplier performance – reduce stock outs
• Measuring pump downtown – maximise pump availability
• Time of day/week sales – schedule staff availability to give great service
• Impact of “events” – ensure the forecourt and shop are ready to trade any events  for example festivals, sporting events
• Super grade sales – is the differential to standard grade too high impacting sales potential?
• Sales forecasting – scheduling deliveries to reduce stock outs
• All data in one place – freeing up time to serve customers better

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but gives you a good idea of the  primary metrics as well as subjective elements that a customer would base their petrol station choice criteria.
The quantitative details clear, concise and timely upon which you can make decisions on pricing and margin optimisation. In addition – and a real value add – is the data can help improve the customer experience. This will set you apart from your competition. Customers choose places to shop on many different factors but primarily it is price, service, quality and people.  EdgePetrol helps you optimise your business in both a quantitative way (the financials) and a qualitative way (the customer service).