A Wider Net

This morning I fed my fossil-fuel-depleting Hondacar at a local Sunoco. The experience of pumping fuel at this particular Sunoco was downright Evil. Let’s take a look at how the customer experience has changed since the days of full-service.

You used to stay in your car. A reasonably friendly person used to pump your gas, check your oil, wash your windshield, and more. I remember – although the memory is about as foggy as the memory of when I was four and my brother-in-law bounced me off a ceiling (yes, that explains a lot). Both were a long time ago.

Now you have to get out of your car and risk spilling the most foul-smelling liquid ever on you. It stays with you like garlic, and unlike garlic it has this nasty tendency to explode. The gas stations are nice enough to place a roof over your head to protect you from the elements, although they’re usually so high up and so small that even a gentle breeze will allow a hailstone to target your noggin.

And you have to have a credit or debit card or you’re faced with dragging your credit-challenged soul into the building where a nervous cashier awaits, one hand on a trigger.

But the real evil is the way they work hard to confuse the customer experience at the pump in order to extract more money. Rather than designing an intuitive friendly experience, they place controls out of order and ask confusing questions that cause you to think, and who wants to think when they’re commuting?
Logically, they should order the gas choices from left to right, from cheapest to most expensive. Sometimes they go backwards, and I can forgive that. But this pump ordered the fuel choices in this order: Most Expensive, Cheapest, Middle. In no state in America can this possibly make sense, except maybe the ones still reeling from their hanging chad problems.

So they push you towards premium or middle-grade – you have to hunt for the cheap stuff, which my car specifies as it’s preferred libation.

Next, you insert a credit card – and the first thing it asks you is “Debit Card Yes/No”. I stared at it, dumbfounded, and wondered what marketing genius whipped up this scheme? It knows it’s a credit card. It could ask Credit/Debit, or simply assume you want to use a credit card as a credit card but no – it asks “Debit Card Yes/No”. The question, answered positively (the most common response to a hurried buyer) will help the gas station avoid credit card processing fees and the bank gets to charge cash advance interest.

I imagine that Sunoco has determined that most people won’t notice. That the minor inconvenience introduced by rearranging the pumps and asking illogical questions will go forgotten the moment the driver leaves. Maybe that’s true – maybe the consumers ONLY care about price. Personally I find good user experiences are a way to win customer loyalty. And to that point, I’ll pass on Sunoco for a competitor every time.