Putting Customers First

For Maverik's Customer Segment Teams, work life is focused on creating raving fans

Like most jobs in the convenience store industry, a customer segment director at Maverik has no "typical" day. Aaron Simpson, who heads up one of three Customer Segment Teams, spends his days on a wide variety of marketing, merchandising, customer research and vendor relations tasks.

"This morning, I followed up on some e-mails and placed a call to a research vendor about an attitudes and usage study we're doing to gauge customer perceptions of Maverik," said Simpson, as he sat down with CSNews to discuss his day. "Also this morning, I'll meet with one of my managers to go over an analysis of our monthly candy promotions. We're looking to test something different in December."

Maverik's merchandising department is organized differently than any other retailer in the industry. The privately held c-store chain has organized itself around seven different customer types that are grouped into three major segments.

Simpson is director of the "Striving for a Better Life" segment, which includes the following groups: women with children, white collar and healthy lifestyle consumers. The other Customer Segment Teams are grouped around "Living for Now" (emerging adults and adventurers) and "Working with Hands" (blue-collar workers and Hispanics). Simpson has two segment managers as direct reports and one procurement manager who reports to him on a dotted line.

On the morning of CSNews' visit, Simpson was also having follow-up discussions on a new loyalty program being recommended to the Maverik management team; convened with the real estate group to finalize some changes in the design of Maverik's first Las Vegas store set to open in November; and met with COO Roger Green on his annual review.

In the afternoon, he had appointments with Executive Director of Create Ernie Harker, as well as one of his direct reports for a year-end review, and another manager for a career mentoring session. However, on other days, he would also typically meet with vendors and visit stores.

"On Thursday, I'm traveling with our Customer Advocate Team to visit stores in Wyoming. They look at the store through the customers' eyes," said Simpson, explaining that these specialized associates handle local store marketing and work with store managers on better integrating each Maverik store with its local community.

"So you see, there's really not a typical day. I'm also getting ready to review our HBA [health and beauty aids] reset for the fall and pick a category captain," he said. "I'm also trying to visit other retail stores more often as well — Costco, Walmart, etc."

Simpson noted that he sees good ideas everywhere. For instance, he walked into a Walmart store and saw these Otter Pops in the value aisle. Now, Maverik sells this brand of frozen snacks that resemble a Popsicle without a stick.

Despite the wide variety of tasks and responsibilities, the one thing that is foremost on Simpson's mind is the customer. By understanding customers' needs and wants, Simpson and the other customer segment directors can use that knowledge to drive product mix, promotions and the shopping experience and build incredible customer loyalty.

In fact, it was Maverik's customer focus that drove Simpson's decision to return to Utah after spending eight years in marketing at major consumer product goods (CPG) firms, including The Clorox Co., The Hershey Co. and Dean Foods.

"I saw Maverik as a unique brand and a brand that lived what it preached," he said.

Maverik's unique organizational structure requires the company to think differently about how to sell traditional product categories. In the retailer's latest packaged beverages reset, products were grouped by how the customer purchases them, not by vendor or brand.

"In flavored waters and isotonics, for example, products will be grouped by how the customer buys them. We will have one cooler door for zero- and low-calorie drinks and another door for full-calorie drinks," explained Simpson.

"In sodas, however, we saw that cooler customers don't shop by diet drink, they shop by brand. In that case, it makes sense to keep the vendors and brands together. However, when it comes to root beers or orange-flavored drinks, we group those together because those customers don't shop by brand. People want 'a root beer,' not a specific brand of root beer. So we approach merchandising in different ways depending on how the customer shops."

Such an approach doesn't make vendors any less important, noted Simpson. Maverik is expanding its use of category captains (i.e., vendors that provide insight and knowledge about an entire product category, not just their own brand, and help manage the entire category for greater total sales and profits). He specifically applauded PepsiCo, its category captain in beverages, and said Maverik wants to do more to tap the expertise of vendors like that.

Simpson's newest challenge is applying these customer-first tactics to grow seasonal sales. Last year, Maverik tested some new things in holiday candy, such as 1-pound Hershey's and Reese's bars. "We're going to do that again this year and add some Mars holiday tins," he said.

For the summer seasonal category, he's looking at grouping together products such as sunglasses, suntan lotions, travel items for kids and products to make s'mores (Hershey bars, marshmallows and graham crackers).

In addition to conducting research studies and focus groups, Simpson also gains customer feedback from the store level. "Store directors will also check us to be sure we have the right products for the right segment group shopping at their stores," he noted.

For example, Simpson said about 60 Maverik stores have a heavy Hispanic clientele. The top 40 Hispanic stores would get a second shelf of Mexican soft drinks, like Jumex nectars, along with a power panel of Hispanic-oriented salty and sweet snacks.

So far, Simpson is pleased with his decision to leave the CPG world behind. He loves being back in Salt Lake City with his wife and three sons, aged 12, eight and six, and said he saw an opportunity at Maverik to be a pioneer in the convenience store industry.

"I loved that they were on the cutting-edge of convenience stores. As an industry, convenience is 20 years behind grocery in heading down the path of consolidation. Maverik is a cutting-edge retailer that will survive and grow as this consolidation continues."