Waite Phillips: The Personal Element in Station Sales As One Company Works It

Waite Phillips

National Petroleum News - December 27, 1922

By J.C. Chatfield, Staff Representative

Tulsa, December 22

What’s in a name when it comes to building business at a service station?

Very often enough to determine the sale, if it’s the customer’s name, and the station attendant is using it as the car halts at the pump.

At the large station of the Waite Phillips Co., at Eighth street and Boston avenue a car drove in and stopped beside one of the pumps. “Good morning, Mr. Wiley, greeted James R. Wilkins, station attendant on duty, as he stepped to the automobile and smiled at the occupant. “What will it be this morning?”

“How did you remember my name?” the driver asked in astonishment. “I’ve been in California for seven months and just got back to town today.”

Pleased to be Recognized

It was plain to see that Mr. Wiley was pleased to be recognized and greeted by name as he drove into the station. The pleasure was more pronounced, because he had been away several months. He counted that simple, “Good Morning Mr. Wiley,” a welcome back to his home city. The chances are that he will drive out of his way to get gasoline and oil from this station, partly, at least because of the personal element entering into his relations with the station attendant there.

As I stood on observation a dozen or more cars came in for gasoline or oil. In almost every case Wilkins knew the name of the customer and included it in his greeting. To all women drivers he tipped his hat while saying good morning.

This station, one of the busiest in Tulsa, is just on the edge of the business district. It is one a street which leads to the best residence districts of the city and probably carries more automobile traffic than any other street in Tulsa, except a few blocks in the congested district where no stations are located.

October sales here made a general average of a little more than 1800 gallons a day, and during the summer months, the average was considerably higher. From that it will be seen that even in October about 250 cars called for gasoline each day. Wilkins believes he knows well over a thousand Tulsa motorists by name and can call by name a majority of the people who visit the stations.

Working with Wilkins is Lon Stites, who has trained himself in the same manner, so that he is able to recognize patrons and address them by name. One man comes on duty at 12:30 p.m. and works until closing time at 10 o’clock. He opens the station at 6:30 the following morning and works until 12:30 when he is relieved until that hour the following day. In that way each man works six hours one day and nine and a half hours the following day. Each man on duty alone during his shift; but he has his own porter to help him.

Their Memory Course

Recognition of his customers by name is instant with these two attendants because of their practice associating a man with his car. They study the peculiarities of the automobiles, sometimes the license number, sometimes some distinctive piece of equipment, or the general appearance of the car. These are correlated with the names of the customers. This method makes it possible for the two to recall the name of customers from memory as a car approaches so that they are ready with a personal greeting. Sometimes the name of the customer is learned through conversation of the driver with other occupants of the vehicle while it is being served.

Wilkins has discovered that about the best way to get a man’s more than passing attention, to make an impression on him that will stick, is to take an interest in his car, no matter what kind it is.

“Those salesmen who have contact with their customers in stores or offices, or meet them on the street on trains can’t use this advantage,” he said. “More than likely they don’t know what kind of car a man drives, or whether he is proud of it or not, or perhaps whether he even has a car.

“But at a service station the car and the driver’s interest in it are brought out completely. To nine out of ten men their car is their hobby, their child. It may be a dirty, rattling old roadster of about the 1915 vintage. But you try making a disparaging remark about it and see how quickly the driver comes to its defense or, if he swallows the insult, watch if he comes back to the station again.

“To the service station attendant the car is directly tied up to the owner, or the owner’s family. It’s comparatively easy, if the attendant will train himself that way, to cultivate the owner’s attention through his pride in his car. Try saying something to him about a new accessory he puts on, even a new tire, or about the performance of the car and you will be surprised how quickly you have established yourself in that man’s mind as more than merely a gasoline pump operator.

“Event noting when the car is cleaned, or the fact the engine seems to be running sweetly has the same effect, almost that of commenting on the appearance or disposition of his children. Almost before you know it you have a personal bond there that means a good deal in holding a customer’s business. My contact with one family recently developed to the point of where my opinion was earnestly sought when the purchase of a new car came up. When the purchase was finally made the family drove to the station to let me make the first inspection.

No Time Lost

“All this may sound as though it took a great deal of time that the operator might well expend on taking care of other customers. As a matter of fact any comments are always made when I am at the pump, if the driver is within convenient earshot, or as I am making change. If a driver shows a tendency to stop and gossip I excuse myself as courteously as I can and go right to another car.

“Where a woman is driving her own car her attention can be gained even more quickly than that of a man by some little uncalled-for comment or attention to her car. Sometimes picking up a bit of waste and wiping a spot or streak off the front of the car, if it has recently been cleaned—even if the spot or streak is pretty much imaginary—will gain the desired result quicker than some verbal comment. Even if it is a family car and the woman is driving it the same pride of ownership is there and can be used to cement the customer a little more closely to that particular station.”

Almost all stations in Tulsa do a credit business. The Waite Phillips stations require the driver to sign for amounts of gasoline and oil furnished. That also gives the attendants a way to learn the names of many customers quickly.

The fact that the attendants become so well acquainted with customers is embarrassing now and then when an account is not settled within reasonable time. When they get notice from the company offices to extend no more credit on accounts that are long overdue the attendants sometimes offer to pay for the customer’s requirements out of their own pockets, explaining their company has told them not to furnish any more supplies. This expedient has often served to retain customers where an out-and-out refusal of gasoline until the bill was paid would have driven the customer to another station for future service.

Sometimes a smart driver, with an audience in his car, with try the cute trick of having the gasoline tank filled, maybe two quarts or so of oil put in, and then tell the operator that his is out of change or offer some other excuse for not paying for the stuff and prepare to drive off. The plan these two operators use here is to take their own money out of their pocket and count out the exact amount for the purchase preparatory to putting it in the cash register.

As they do this they explain to the purchaser that, under the circumstances they are not allowed to enter the sale on the books as anything but a cash purchase, but they will be glad to extend the accommodation personally to the customer until his is fixed up with cash. In most cases, they say, this will cause another search through his pockets, in the course of which the customer may find a dollar bill or so, or he may bring out his check book and give a check for the amount.

Unusual interest in their sales is taken by the two operators at the Waite Phillips station, because a quota is set on both oil and gasoline sales for each station by the company, and a percentage on all sales above the quota is paid the attendants each month. Since Wilkins and Sites have been working for the company they have never failed to exceed their quota. The ratio of the quota is one quart of oil to 50 gallons of gasoline.

During the time I was at the station my observation was that Wilkins never failed to mention oil to a customer. Often it was, “It’s been several weeks since we drained your car, hasn’t it?” Sometimes he mentioned that the weather was growing colder and a different quality of oil would be more satisfactory. A number of motorists yielded to this suggestion.

Instant service is the aim. The attendants do not sit in the office of the station until a motorist drives in and comes to a halt. Every car is met by the time it comes to a halt unless it happens that the attendant and porter are both busy. When no car is in the station and the porter is not engaged, the two work together. The attendant is at the wheel when the car stops to get the order, while the porter is taking the cap off of the gas tank. In that way the attendant remains free to make a sale of oil, or furnish other service and make change while gasoline is being put into the tank.

It is Wilkins’ observation that motorists who find it necessary to honk their horn for service after coming to a stop at a station do so with impatience. “A motorist is always in a hurry,” he said. “He may take a half hour to drain the water out of his radiator, adjust the carburetor, inflate his tires, or perform other little duties about the car after you have given him his oil and gasoline, but in nine cases out of ten he thought he was in a hurry when he drove in.”

Very often customers of the Waite Phillips station are so pleased with the service they receive that the take the trouble to write letters to the general offices of the company commending the two men and their service.

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