Post 004: Arco/AMPM ridicules

Social Listening and Participation

For this weeks assignment I choose the company AMPM and Arco. Arco is a gas station and AMPM is their convenient store, usually at the same location. Arco's value proposition is to bring a somewhat affordable gas option compared to its competitors paired with its AMPM convenient store. This week I not only listened but also took part in the online twitter "discussion" by expressing my unpleasant experience at one of their locations. But first, I'll list a few things people were saying online about this company. 

This first tweet addresses something I virtually see with all convenient stores and that is the traffic of homeless people. This isn't a bad thing per-say but its one of the characteristics of convenient stores in my opinion and we can see that AMPM is no exception. 

This second tweet is very similar to my experience that I will get into further down this post but this tweet shows the bad business strategy implemented at their locations. It seems to me that the company is trying to pass its operating fees to the customers by making them pay for the transaction fees. This illustrates Arco trying to make the most amount of profit and placing that profit at a higher priority then its customers. 

This last tweet is one I personally posted regarding my experience at Arco. The story behind this tweet goes as such, I’m on my way to the airport to pick up my parents when I stop and get gas at Arco. Arriving their I ask for $50 of regular gas (I was driving the truck and that bad boy fills up with a lot more then that). The attendant then says "If you're not filling up you have to go inside and prepay for the gas" I then ask him "why?" and he has no meaningful answer for me. I’m in a hurry and the other gas stations are across highway 34 and it would take more time to get there then go inside and pay. I go inside and pre pat for my gas and go back to the truck, wait for him to start pumping and then I’m on my way. While the gas is pumping I tweet out my experience because I got to thinking about the reasoning for this system and concluded that Arco either wants me to pay to fill up and not have to go inside, gaining them more revenue or make me go inside in hopes I pick something up and add to my check out. I thought this was lame, given that many people are in a hurry to get from point A to point B. 

The next day I receive a replay from Arco on twitter saying the following. 

 I ended up sending them a direct message (DM) and I’m currently in a back in forth with them. I like that they are actively on the look out and interacting with customers. This brought a bit of hope for me by demonstrating that they are looking to improve. If I was the brand manager, I would continue to reach out to customers but would also look into speeding things up once that initial interaction has been made.