Statoil ”U-turn” – Win back activity

Challenge
Statoil had bought up Haahr Benzin – a local Danish petrol company – and thereby also an expected volume. But the conversion of volume from Haahr to Statoil did not live up to expectations. Statoil had four times before offered the customers Statoil petrol cards with a less attractive discount than they were used to. The customers had turned down all these offers. And as Statoil did not wish to raise their discount, the main challenge became: To win back the former Haahr customers – without promising better discounts!

Preliminary interviews with former Haahr customers revealed two crucial reasons why the customers did not want to convert to a large, multinational company like Statoil:

1. They had chosen Haahr because of their deep local roots.

2. Statoil had treated them like ”just another customer” in the conversion process.

Solution
We recommended disarming the myth about “the big fish eating the small fish” by giving Statoil a human face – both literally and figuratively. Figuratively by taking a humble approach in layout as well as tone-of-voice – and literally by strengthening the local market consultant’s profile as an exponent of Statoil.

We used a microsite with an online questionnaire to:

• Let the respondents vent about their negative feelings toward Statoil

• Signal that Statoil listens to their needs and preferences

• Make the target group focus less on price or discounts – and more on other advantages of having a Statoil petrol card (services, access to petrol stations)

• Measure satisfaction with present supplier

• Reveal buying signals

The market consultant receives the answers instantly via an HTML-email and immediately contacts the respondents – direct and human dialogue!

Results

• 30.1% of the target group responded – and at the same time agreed to meet with Statoil.

• The market consultant is highly profiled in the local area.

• Statoil is now an accepted player in the local area.