OUR RETAILERS SHARE THEIR VIEWS
Lubricant Ambassador
Located at Kuala Kurau, Perak, Chop Tian Aik is one of the oldest Caltex stations in Malaysia, having the history of close to 60 years. The retailer has never failed in championing the top sales in lubricant category for the past few years. We interviewed the station manager, Madam Heah Hong Aun to learn about her success story.
Q: What is the best-selling lubricant at your station?
A: Havoline® Power 2T is the fast-moving product for motorists, followed by semi synthetic. As my trading area also serves a lot of fishermen, the Super Outboard 3 is also the popular choice.
Q: Do you mind sharing how you upsell Caltex lubricants?
A: The key is easy – Know your product. If you don’t understand your product, how are you going to sell them? You need not be a lube professional to be able to upsell lubricant – but you at least need to know the special features of the products. I always ask myself the question: How is this product better than other brands in the market? This is what customers would like to know. Of course, you have to do some basic homework by surveying the market trend from time to time. Example, for Super Outboard 3, Caltex is the only brand that can cater for mixing ratio of 100:1. In the market, the general ratio is only 50:1.
Q: What is customer’s common question and how do you tackle it?
A: Customers always comment that Caltex lubes are fairly expensive compared to other brands. Well, they are not entirely wrong. My response is straightforward – you’ll get what you paid for. I explained to customer that the quality of lower priced product in the market may not be as competent as our brand. I assure them that Caltex branded lubricants have high quality that guarantees high performance. The lubricant is engineered by professionals and is designed to enhance engines at the optimum level. Soon, when customers realise that the lubricant they got from other sellers are of low quality (or sometimes are counterfeit products!), they will come to my station to look for genuine Caltex lubricant.
Q: Do you find any challenges in selling lubricant? If yes, how do you overcome it?
A: Sometimes, despite upselling, customer will still reject my recommendation. I have to respect customer’s choice. What I would do is, I will take the opportunity to request for their contact number so that I can continue to solicit them in the future. Any days if they feel that they would like to try Caltex lubricant, they will always remember coming to my station.
Q: How do you retain your customers?
A: After customers bought a product from our station, I will continue to engage with them to ask for feedback or comments. Customers’ actual experience and testimonial are always my greatest valued knowledge. For loyal customers, sometimes I will reward them with some gifts such as Caltex umbrella.
Pen Petroleum would like to thank the iron lady, Madam Heah for the sharing. Your passion is indeed inspiring!
StarCard Ambassador
Mason Enterprise Sdn Bhd has just started their business in September 2019. We are pleased to know that this station has successfully signed up 3 StarCard customers (all of which have been approved by Chevron) within 5 months! We interviewed the station manager, Ms. Lim Moy Ting to know more about their success story.
Q: When did you start promoting StarCard sign ups, and why did you start to believe in our StarCard direction?
A: In year 2019, I attended a refresher training at Pen Petroleum office. That was the first time I was exposed thoroughly to the idea of driving sales via StarCard program. Right after the training, I immediately tried to execute StarCard solicitation at my station. I would say, I did not have any special strategy except for persistently upselling the benefits of StarCard to potential customers. As days go by, my customers’ awareness about StarCard increased and it was them whom then proactively came back to me to check out more information about StarCard. At that moment, I know that StarCard solicitation works.
Q: What motivates you to continue soliciting StarCard customer?
A: I trust that StarCard can bring numerous benefits to my customer. For instance, StarCard brings convenience. Our customers do not need to track their fleet claims manually. They are able to monitor and control their company vehicle’s fuel expenditure easily. On top of that, StarCard gives rebate to its users. When my customers shared that StarCard had helped their business in many ways, I have great sense of satisfaction! Of course, most importantly, it helped to increase our station diesel sales. That keeps me going.
Q: How do you retain your StarCard customers?
A: Good customer service is the basic factor. To encourage our StarCard customers to come re-fueling at our station, we will reward them with some extended service. As an example, we help customers to keep their StarCard safe in our custody, ensuring that the StarCard is not abused by their company drivers. We also took the opportunity to sign up new Journey™ Card for the customers so that they won’t miss any chance to earn BPoints when their drivers pump at our station. Essentially, when you deliver good customer service, your customer will choose to pump with you.
Q: Why did you prefer your customer to sign up StarCard rather than local account?
A: By signing up StarCard customer, it really helped us to ease a lot of administrative work. We are able to avoid ineffective work such as manually managing local account statements and records – all that has been automated by StarCard system. In addition, we do not have to worry about bad debts by local account customers. We let our manpower to focus on customer service instead.
Pen Petroleum applaud Mason Enterprise’s effort. Thank you for being Caltex StarCard ambassador with such inspiring story! Congratulations once again.
Have you ever heard of car sanitization?
Pen Cempaka Sdn Bhd from Kulim, Kedah is rewarding their customer with this creative local site marketing (LSM) program – car sanitization.
“It all started with the second wave COVID-19 reported on the news in early August. When we got to know that a few positive cases were reported within Kulim area, we were so worried that this news will hit our business again”, shared by the station supervisor, Nor Aziah Binti Che Sa (Fondly known as ‘Kak Gee’ by the staff and customer) when we interviewed her.
Immediately after the news, the team quickly sat together to brainstorm for a rescue plan. “We wanted to think of a program that will help to make our Caltex customer feel safe on the road. Our manager proposed to explore car sanitization. Part of the reasons is to bring awareness to road users that other than personal hygiene, our vehicle also needs proper sanitization.”
Under this LSM program, any customer who pumped RM30 or above is entitled to enjoy a car sanization at a discounted rate of RM4 to RM6, depending on the size of the vehicle and areas to be sanitized.
The program is a successful one as it managed to pull crowds to the station, including competitor’s customer. “There is a Petron right across the road. We believe this LSM has attracted a number of the competitor’s customer to pump at our station. At peak days, we could sanitize up to 60 cars”, said Kak Gee.
Teik Sang Service Station Sdn Bhd
Today my convenience store is under Xpress Point brand. My store sales are growing as Pen Petroleum Sdn Bhd and its associate company, HYL Marketing Sdn Bhd, support me in merchandising and vendor management. I have been able to conduct promotions regularly throughout the year for my customers.
– Mr. Teoh Koon Hooi (one of our retailers and Xpress Point operators)
Hou Wah Company Filling Station
There was a wrong discharge at my station in my absence. It was a bitter experience and luckily it was discovered early. I don’t want it to happen again, therefore, I’m working closely with Pen Petroleum Sdn Bhd to ensure my people are trained and compliant in Chevron Malaysia Limited’s Operating Procedure all the time.
– Mr. Goh Kooi Sin (one of our retailers)
Adri Emas Sdn. Bhd.
My second station has been operating under Caltex Brand through Pen Petroleum Sdn Bhd since 2010. I have enjoyed Pen Petroleum Sdn Bhd support all these years and I am confident that we will benefit jointly as the business grows.
– Che Din Bin Mohamad (one of our retailers)
