I talk a lot about customer service and making sure all of your company’s employees are putting their best foot forward, but apparently Texaco doesn’t care about customer service. Over the past year, I spent over $250 a week in gas, food, snacks, booze, etc. at a Texaco that was conveniently located to my old house. Over that year, the clerks were never friendly to me, rarely even said anything at all and most of the time were flat our rude or inconsiderate. I gave these employees the benefit of the doubt and chalked their disgruntled attitudes to something going wrong in some other aspect of their life. I might have been too quick to jump to that conclusion.
We have recently relocated our offices into a larger production facility in North Central Austin and as such, have been spending a lot of time in this area. Once again, a Texaco Gas Station is conveniently located to our new facility and I now find that I am spending just as much at this new station as I did at the old. The only difference is that now I have five other employees that are spending similar amounts. After a brief discussion around the office, we determined that in a given month, our company brings in around $750 a month to this Texaco station. $750 dollars a month that they will never get from us again.
Last week, while working late, I walked into this Texaco to an employee blowing smoke out the door and yelling to another employee. This employee said to her exiting co-worker, “I can’t stand this time change. All it means is an extra hour that I have to worry about getting shot.” She then laughed her smokers laugh and rolled her eyes at me as I walked into the store. As a means to unwind, I put a 6-pack of beer on the counter and showed the clerk my I.D. She skeptically looked at me, then swiped the card in her machine. “Won’t scan, can’t sell it to ya,” she said in her power trip tone. I asked if she could scan it again and explained that I had purchased alcohol at this store before. “Don’t want to hear it, I ain’t sellin’ to ya,” she said cutting me off as she rolled her eyes. I exited the store and had my girlfriend return into the store with her I.D. Upon entering the store, the clerk said to my girlfriend, “Don’t even try it. I saw you in his car and I ain’t selling you no booze!”
Annoyed we left the Texaco and went to the Exxon further down the street. I walked in, put some beer on the table and was cheerfully greeted by an enthusiastic employee. He asked for my I.D. and scanned it in his machine. No problem. As he bagged my goods he said this in a friendly, uplifting tone, “I’d tell you to have a good night, but it looks like you’ve already got that covered. So, I’ll just remind you to drink lots of water before you start and you’ll feel better tomorrow. Also, the white Rockstar energy drinks are great for a hangover if you need one in the morning!” I thanked him and walked to the car with a smile on my face. While the Texaco employee was rude and lost her company over $9,000 a year, the friendly Exxon representative gained his company over $10,000 a year in revenue, as Suited Productions will have to use more and more gas once we add new production vehicles over the next 12 months.
My point is this. Whether you’re a CEO or a store clerk, you represent who your company is and how they do business as a whole. Maybe my I.D. didn’t scan at the Texaco station. That’s fine. But, there was no need to be rude because that clerk was having a bad day. Had she been friendly, I would have just left and gone to the next station one time. Instead, I will never go there again and have requested that none of my employees do either. Fix your customer service problem Texaco, because Exxon has got you beat in spades. And by the way, I went back to Exxon the next morning and bought a white Rockstar, which took me right out of my hangover. Now THAT’S customer service!
Now, that you’ve been so kind as to listen to me ramble on, here is a list of four things you can do to get more for your money at the gas pumps:
- Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.
- When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money.
- One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, at many industrial stations, every truck that’s loaded is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.
- If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.
Every little penny helps. I found this list circulating around the internet and unfortunately, could not find its author to give credit. All I know is that it was put together by a friendly employee at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline in San Jose, CA, who was concerned with making sure the rest of us got our money’s worth at the service station. Whoever you are, thank you! That’s great customer service!
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