Customer - Spinx

The Spinx Company Saves 19,180 Man-hours Annually

Client: The Spinx Company
Location: North and South Carolina
Number of Stores: 81

The Spinx Company operates more than 70 convenience stores in North and South Carolina under the Spinx brand, offering gasoline and alternative fuels at Spinx locations and supplying gasoline to more than 60 area convenience stores. Family owned and operated, the company has grown to be a regional powerhouse by delighting customers with fast, convenient service.

Despite the emphasis on creating exceptional customer experiences, Spinx store managers spent several hours each day focused on administrative tasks like data entry rather than helping customers. Additionally, muddled and cumbersome processes reduced company profits. Banking on more efficient processes and technology innovations to increase profitability, The Spinx Company turned to industry innovator PriceAdvantage. The result:

  • Spinx now push changes to point-of-sale systems (POS), pumps, and price signs, and confirms price changes—all with one click.

  • Reduced time wasted on data entry a whopping 75 percent.

  • Provided store managers 274 more hours in front of customers per store per year, a total of 19,180 hours each year.

  • Simultaneously reduced errors.

“PriceAdvantage replaced our previous fuel pricing solution. It is a superior tool in that it gives us the ability to pull historical data easily, manage multiple price changes per day, and provides a user-friendly interface at the headquarters and store level.”

Stewart Spinx,
Stewart Spinx, ,
Founder, The Spinx Company.

The Results

The Spinx Company estimated that store managers spent more than an hour each day entering data like volume, sales, and competitor surveys in the previous fuel pricing system, not to mention the time it took to gather or organize this information. After data was reviewed by headquarters, price changes rolled back to the store level and managers had to manually update POS, pumps, and price signs. As with most manual processes, human error led to diminished profitability. The entire process was riddled with data entry keying errors. Therefore, data couldn’t be trusted and creating a sound pricing strategy eluded the team.

The disorderly and time-consuming process was replaced with the PriceAdvantage automated system in two locations that already used Skyline electronic price signs. This testing ground allowed the company to hone their strategy before rolling out the program to all stores. It also empowered the team to comprehensively test the entire automated pricing process—from updating pricing at headquarters to informing the store and updating POS, pumps, and price signs in one easy step. The PriceAdvantage one-click system also provided closed loop confirmation that price changes were made—completing the price change lifecycle.

The initial pilot program was implemented in May 2011 and was so successful that the company quickly expanded the program to ten more store locations within three months. Today, PriceAdvantage operates in all Spinx stores, feeding price changes to NCR Radiant and Gilbarco point-of-sale systems. Most Spinx stores have Skyline electronic price signs, providing these stores with the convenience of PriceAdvantage’s one-click technology.

“We’re extremely happy with our decision to install PriceAdvantage across our network of stores. PriceAdvantage has reduced the amount of time it takes us to respond to competitor moves as well as other market conditions,” said Stewart Spinks. “It is crucial that we are able to analyze our data, make a price decision, and implement the price change from the store to the street as quickly as possible to maximize fuel profits.”
“PriceAdvantage has saved Spinx store managers an estimated 45 minutes per day as they no longer enter volume or sales data,” commented Stewart Spinks. “Additionally, we are implementing price changes faster and more accurately than ever as PriceAdvantage changes prices from the POS to the pump and electronic signs with one click.”

Finally, the relationship between The Spinx Company and PriceAdvantage has been mutually beneficial—a true partnership. As PriceAdvantage receives feedback from The Spinx Company (and other customers), the product development team considers suggestions in the development of the product. Spinx store managers appreciate that they have a voice. One such request from Spinx store managers was the need for managers to be notified when a price changes comes from the corporate headquarters. Today, PriceAdvantage sends a text message to store managers indicating that a price change has been submitted.

The Spinx Company wanted a partner, not just a fuel pricing system, and PriceAdvantage has proven to be an excellent partner and solution through and through.

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