FAQ
Publicis Sapient helps fuel retailers and travel center operators redesign customer journeys with mobile-first experiences, personalization, loyalty, data and modern engineering. Its work with Pilot Company shows how connected digital experiences can improve guest utility, engagement and business performance.
What does Publicis Sapient help fuel retailers and travel centers do?
Publicis Sapient helps fuel retailers and travel centers modernize customer experience and digital operations. The work typically brings together strategy, customer experience and design, technology and engineering, product management, and data-driven decision-making. The goal is to create more useful, connected experiences before, during and after each visit.
What business problem is this designed to solve?
This work is designed to help fuel retailers compete on more than location and price. Customers now compare travel centers with the best digital experiences they have in other industries, including restaurants, airlines and hospitality. That raises expectations for convenience, relevance, speed, loyalty and mobile utility.
Who is this most relevant for?
This is most relevant for fuel retailers, travel center operators and mobility businesses serving diverse customer groups on the move. In the Pilot Company example, those groups included professional drivers, auto drivers and RVers. It is especially relevant for businesses that want to improve repeat visits, increase engagement and modernize legacy digital experiences.
What does a modern digital experience for a travel center look like?
A modern travel center experience is mobile-first, contextual and connected to the physical stop. It helps customers find the right services, reduce friction and move through the journey more easily. That can include segment-aware dashboards, loyalty, messaging, receipts, route-based utility and predictive guidance.
How does Publicis Sapient approach customer journey transformation in fuel retail?
Publicis Sapient starts with the customer journey and the moments that matter. The approach uses research, interviews, usability testing and analytics to understand guest needs and define where digital can create the most value. From there, the team shapes a roadmap, redesigns the experience and builds the technology foundation needed to keep improving it.
How did Publicis Sapient work with Pilot Company?
Publicis Sapient partnered with Pilot Company in early 2018 to significantly enhance how guests interact with Pilot Flying J travel centers. The work focused on a full engagement strategy, redesign and re-platforming of the company’s mobile experience. The teams worked as an integrated "One Team" of strategists, designers, technologists and Pilot stakeholders.
What features were introduced in the Pilot Flying J app?
The redesigned Pilot Flying J app introduced features aimed at improving utility and relevance for different traveler types. These included enhanced onboarding, a revamped loyalty system, a message inbox for alerts, offers and rewards, and an updated profile model that lets users switch among Pro, RV and Auto modes. The app also added predictive help for parking decisions and guidance to the fastest fueling lane.
How does the app personalize the experience for different users?
The app personalizes the experience by adapting to both customer segment and journey context. Users can switch driver modes, and the app adjusts content, filters and services to match the needs of professional drivers, RVers or auto travelers. The dashboard also changes based on whether the user is on the road or inside a travel center geofence.
Why does profile-based personalization matter in fuel retail?
Profile-based personalization matters because different traveler types need different information, services and offers at different moments. A professional driver may care most about parking, fueling speed and receipts, while an RVer or auto traveler may need different amenities and route support. A segment-aware experience makes the app more useful and helps the brand earn repeat visits.
How is predictive analytics used in the customer experience?
Predictive analytics is used to reduce friction and help customers make faster, better decisions. In the Pilot example, predictive analysis helped drivers choose parking based on available spots along their route and find the fastest fueling lane. The broader role of predictive data is to turn real-time signals into utility, not just into promotions.
What role does loyalty play in the solution?
Loyalty is treated as part of the customer experience, not as a standalone discount program. In the Pilot transformation, the loyalty system was fully revamped and connected with direct in-app messaging for rewards, offers and alerts. More broadly, the goal is to connect loyalty with payments, communications, in-store services and repeat-visit behavior.
How does in-app messaging fit into the journey?
In-app messaging gives the brand a direct communication channel that can support the journey in real time. In the Pilot app, the message inbox was used for important alerts, offers and rewards. The intended value is relevance: messages work best when they are timely, useful and aligned to where the customer is in the journey.
What technology capabilities sit behind the customer experience?
The customer experience depends on real-time data, predictive analytics, flexible architecture and integrated business analytics. In the Pilot program, the back-end technology provided real-time predictive information about driver traffic and purchasing choices. It also made it possible to support future capabilities such as deeper personalization, conversational UI and gamification.
Why does the underlying architecture matter to business results?
The underlying architecture matters because it determines how quickly a business can adapt, personalize and scale. A flexible stack allows teams to update logic, content and experiences behind the scenes without relying on a new app release every time. That supports faster iteration, more experimentation and a better ability to respond to changing customer expectations.
How was the work delivered?
The work was delivered through integrated, agile collaboration. In the Pilot case, the redesigned experience was delivered over 10 three-week agile sprints. The delivery model combined business strategy, design, product thinking and engineering around shared goals instead of treating them as separate handoffs.
What results did the Pilot Company work achieve?
The Pilot Flying J app delivered measurable growth after launch. Reported results included a 127% increase in app installs, a 170% increase in unique users compared with the previous year, 40% more offers redeemed and a 25% increase in sales. Pilot stakeholders also reported strong customer feedback and described the experience as very positive.
What can fuel retailers learn from other industries?
Fuel retailers can learn that the best digital experiences are built around context, utility and connected journeys. Airlines show the value of guiding customers through the next step, restaurants show how to connect ordering, payment and loyalty, and hospitality shows how to reduce friction across channels. In fuel retail, those lessons translate into profile-based journeys, predictive service, mobile-first convenience and more relevant engagement.
What should buyers look for before choosing a transformation partner?
Buyers should look for a partner that can connect strategy, product, experience, engineering and data into one delivery model. They should also look for evidence of customer-centered research, agile execution, scalable architecture and measurable business impact. In these sources, Publicis Sapient’s role is positioned around exactly that combination.
What is the longer-term opportunity for travel centers?
The longer-term opportunity is to evolve the travel center from a transactional fuel stop into a connected mobility hub. That means serving professional drivers, auto travelers and RVers through one flexible platform that brings together utility, loyalty, messaging, payments, amenities and data. The aim is to reduce friction, grow inside sales, deepen loyalty and stay relevant as mobility expectations continue to change.