The treatment of customers by employees begins with the employer treating the employee well, Salt Lake City-based Maverik CEO Crystal Maggelet said at CSP’s Outlook Leadership conference Aug. 21 in the session titled Disrupt, Acquire, Integrate: The New Rules of Growth.
“It starts with us being a family business, and many of us in this industry are family businesses,” Maggelet said.
“And as a family business, we offer employment to a lot of families, and I think when you treat your team members well, they’re more likely to treat your customers well,” she said.
Maverik also strives to treat its communities well by getting involved, Maggelet said.
“Each of our stores has a budget that they can use to support their communities, and I really believe that that’s what sets us apart,” she said. “We have what’s called the titanium rule: Treat others better than they expect to be treated. And that goes for our team members, for our customers.”
- Maverik is No. 12 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
Some customers will visit a particular location to see a certain employee, she said.
“They come in to see the people working in the stores and to be welcomed by them,” said Maggelet, who shared a story about Maverik employees helping a customer in need.
“There was an elderly lady coming to one of our stores every day, and she hadn’t come in for a couple of days and the staff was so concerned about her that they actually went and did a check at her house—and there was an activity,” Maggelet said, adding that the employees found the woman on the floor of her home but alive.
“So they called law enforcement,” she said. “Had they not taken that action, she may have died. Those kinds of stories warm your heart. And I think we want to empower our team members to be able to provide great service, and I think they have to feel good about where they work in order to do that.”
Feeding America
Maggelet also discussed the company’s charity of choice, Feeding America.
“It’s an easy decision for me to partner with Feeding America,” Maggelet said, adding that she “can’t stand food waste” and that the company donates its surplus food to local food banks from its stores.
“It makes me very proud and happy,” she said.
Looking at the next 12 to 24 months, Maggelet said she is “super optimistic about the fact that we’re going to be done rebranding, which is very, very exciting. It allows us to settle in the future in a really positive way.”
She added, however, that she’s concerned about the economy.
“I think there’s so many changes taking place, and I don’t always know if those are thought out in exactly what the plan is, she said. “I think that causes us as businesses to not know how to plan and not know what’s going to happen next. So I worry about that.”
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