"PLEASE COME IN! FINDING AND GETTING THE ATTENTION OF NEW CUSTOMERS"
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONVENIENCE STORES CONVENTION
LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, OCTOBER 21, 2009

The best tool you have is you have to have a good attitude.

Control the controllables and unleash your power into what you can do as a person.

Be a good neighbor with your community. Get involved with your local high school, local politics.

Sometimes the simplest things are in front of our eyes and we don't see them.

Get sales associates involved in letting you know what the local community wants and needs.

Ring the bell. We have a big bell and a sign by it says 'Ring the bell if you're a new customer.' You can get one for $9.95 at the Home Depot. We have all kinds of people ring the bell. Some of our vendors ring the bell. Some of our long-term customers ring the bell. But it's an attention getter.

Interruption. You have to get out there and interrupt the customers at the pump.

Sometimes looking across the street is better than going into your competition. You don't have to be on the site to see what they're doing.

We are in an ethnic neighborhood. There are a lot of different coffees. We have Turkish coffee because we have Mediterranean customers. But it turns out that some specific pastries are traditional with that coffee that aren't provided by our traditional vendor. So we had to go to a local bakery and get them.

Small operators have an advantage when it comes to getting your house in order. We can lead our team. We can lead by example.

A hot dog wagon is a relatively small investment but it can show people you're serious about food.

We went with Wayne Ovation pumps which allow us to play little promotional videos.

For us, the most effective way to get customers inside is offering a cash discount for gasoline.

We're always talking about bringing gasoline customers into the store. But I have focused my energy on the carwash customers. The carwash customers might not be your gasoline customer or your c-store customer. We've used all types of promotions, including coupons. It is not cheap.

If you see three or four cars at the carwash, send somebody out there. Ask if you can get them anything while they're waiting for their carwash. That's the single most effective thing we've done.

Keep it simple. What you do at the pump has to be instant gratification. None of that save the coupon and send it in. That stuff doesn't work.