Customers visit gas stations for far more than just filling their tanks, and United Oil has expanded its business to 126 retail stores by venturing beyond the “pump-and-go” mentality. The company has created a highly efficient and effective architecture that enables the entire business to stay connected, leading to better customer experiences.
Since deploying the CradlePoint ARC Solution, coupled with Verizon 4G LTE service, United Oil has been able to run a variety of custom applications developed in house, including a cloud-based time keeping system, a centralized back office system used to control POS and product promotions, and an inventory control system.
“The customer experience is highly impacted by our use of CradlePoint,” said Bill De La Espriella, Director of IT at United Oil, in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “In many of our stations where we had DSL, the service could be spotty.”
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De La Espriella added that although its facilities are hubs of 24×7 activity, “we’d experience outages that were out of our control, so we were at the DSL company’s mercy. With CradlePoint, we have good experiences in terms of connectivity.”
With improved connectivity, United Oil employees can process credit card transactions faster, allowing customers to “get in and get out as quickly as they need to,” De La Espriella said. CradlePoint has helped ensure convenience is always at a maximum.
Credit card transactions also are kept secure using firewall technology. United Oil is able to push firmware updates to the firewalls and to the CradlePoint devices using 4G connection. As a result, the retailer can maintain PCI compliance, which is paramount for the well-being of the business.
“Because we’re the merchant that is processing these credit card transactions, it’s our responsibility to secure our customers’ credit card data and keep our devices up to date,” De La Espriella said. “We’re very vigilant of installing security patches — CradlePoint plays every part of the process.”
Connecting Headquarters To Local Stores
CradlePoint helps keep the United Oil home office in southern California connected to its 126 locations throughout the state. The technology has played a key role in a number of different IT initiatives, including rolling out electronic price tags and digital signage.
Although the electronic price tag initiative is still in pilot mode, the technology helps United Oil adjust prices in real time based on vendor changes.
“The products we sell come from a variety of vendors that push price changes to us,” De La Espriella explained. “Connectivity between the stores and our headquarters allows us to push product prices on any item to either a single station, or all stations, quickly.
Promotions, prices and videos also can be managed and published chain wide with help from CradlePoint. De La Espriella noted that United Oil now can “push information from the office to many or all stations in minutes or even seconds,” so they appear on digital signage screens.
“Every day, technology helps us save money and make money,” De La Espriella concluded. “Sometimes, it’s a challenge to keep up with what’s new and we evaluate whether different things will be valuable to our technology stack. Some things work out well, others won’t, but we’re always looking for ways to maximize our return on investment and make sure customers are getting maximum value, as well.”
