Q8 is the brand of Kuwait Petroleum International, whose core competencies are marketing, research, refining and manufacturing of petroleum products. Q8 is based in companies throughout Europe. In Denmark, Q8 is a major player in sales of petroleum products and services to the industrial, agricultural, transport and consumer sectors, as well as service stations with convenience retailing and car washes. Q8 Denmark employs 3,500.
With 245 service stations, Q8 is one of Denmark’s largest oil companies. And with 150,000 daily customers, it is also one of the country’s busiest retailers. More than 40% of the Danish population shops at Q8, buying everything from gasoline to convenience foods and car washes.
Since price competition for gasoline and diesel fuel is notoriously fierce, Q8 management has identified better service as a key strategy for growth. Knowing what customers want – and when they want it – allows managers to optimize campaigns and stock levels for grill charcoal in the summer, antifreeze in the winter and fresh coffee all day long. The right assortment in the right quantities can mean the difference between success and failure – both for an individual outlet and for the entire company. But predicting consumer needs and behavior is far from simple. Purchase patterns vary widely during the day, the week and the year. And the number of data entries is huge: roughly 100 million per year.
TARGIT sorts things out
Q8 Denmark turned to TARGIT Business Intelligence Suite to help managers turn data into a competitive advantage. After loading information from the last six years – approximately 600 million data entries from cash registers and two ERP systems (Petropoint and SAP) - Q8’s managers can now track sales across the country and benchmark individual stores – by the hour and by the item. According to Jens Alstrup, Director of Q8 ServiceStations, “We chose TARGIT rather than its larger competitors because its user friendliness is second to none. And since the price was also competitive, there was no doubt from our side.”
Better information, better training, better sales
Insight into customer preferences plays an important role in Q8’s ongoing training of managers and staff. And TARGIT plays a central part in providing that insight. Jens Alstrup continues, “TARGIT helps us make it clear to individual employees that our efforts in the service stations affect our results directly. Our success depends on good customer service and detailed knowledge of what the customer wants, when. TARGIT can’t be beat when it comes to providing that knowledge.”
