In this episode of CSP's "At Your Convenience" podcast, CSP Editor Rachel Gignac talks to ExtraMile's director of operations, Dennis Francis, about the chain's Mystery Shop scores.
Recorded live at CSP's Outlook Leadership conference in August, they touch on the categories ExtraMile performed well in, including interior, coffee and employees.
While Worcester, Massachusetts-based Nouria, which also won in 2024, received the first-place score in the Mystery Shop audit, Pleasanton, California-based ExtraMile came in second, with a score of 96.84%, and York, Pennsylvania-based Rutter’s received the third-place score of 96.53%. This podcast was recorded before the winner was announced.
“At Your Convenience” brings industry experts and analysts together with CSP editors to discuss the latest in c-store news and trends. From mergers and acquisitions to foodservice and technology, the podcast delivers the story straight to listeners in short-format episodes, perfect for the morning commute or a quick break at the office.
Listen to their conversation above, or read the transcript here, which has been edited for length and clarity:
Rachel Gignac: Well, first off, congrats to ExtraMile on being a 2025 Mystery Shop finalist. It's a great recognition, and we'll find out the results tomorrow afternoon. But in the meantime, how does it feel to be named one of the top chains?
Dennis Francis: It's actually very exciting for me personally, but more importantly, for the entire team. We spend a lot of time trying to improve the customer experience. And so to have mystery shops come and visit our stores from an outside party and to be named in the top three is an honor.
Gignac: You mentioned always upgrading the customer experience. You've been having an overhaul of your stores interiors over the last three years, so can you tell me a little bit more about that process and what you've redone?
Francis: Sure, I would love to. I'll reference back to the customer experience, how do you improve that, enhance that from a holistic standpoint? And first, does the physical facility have an accommodating and appealing customer feel and flow? ExtraMile is a company that absolutely prides itself on reinvesting back into the business. A significant amount of our dollars go right back into the business. We decided to refresh the entire network with a new look and a new interior, new graphics, some new equipment. And we transformed our brand in three years where every single site had this new fresh look to it with new graphics call-outs and a much easier shopping experience. And so that served us very well.
Gignac: You also had mentioned to me before that there's a new logo.
Francis: We do. So transitioning from refreshing the interior, we moved on once we finished that project to the exterior. We're a little over about two years into that project. We intend on refreshing the entire exterior with a new look. We're about halfway done with our entire network. And when we did that, we decided, you know what, let's refresh our logo. And so we did a lot of research and we came upon a nice, fresh, clean logo. We think our old logo was a little busy and it didn't call out ExtraMile clearly and prominent to the community, even if you're driving by. So as we transform all the sites to the new exterior, they also get the new logo and of course uniforms, inside logo, artwork and graphics. It's all very prominent and clear to customers who ExtraMile is and what we look like.
Gignac: And with the exterior redesign, what else is encompassed in that?
Francis: So when you take a look at the exterior, there's new colors, graphics. We have some wood tones on the outside. We change out, you know, the signs out on the monument or on the pole sign. We also refreshed our paint scheme. And then with the new logo, which are predominantly red and yellow, it just has kind of a swoosh, but our own version of a swoosh, not the Nike swoosh.
Gignac: Okay, and the reason I bring up these refreshes is that ExtraMile scored very well in the interior categories of the mystery shop audit. It scored a little less well in the exterior which I believe you mentioned to me it was a little bit of a relief because you're kind of like, "Okay, well now we're doing all these upgrades, and hopefully next year will be better."
Francis: Very true.
Gignac: Some other categories that the chain did well in is coffee and food service. So with coffee, tell us a little bit more about what kinds of coffee you offer.
Francis: Well, we have our Brazilian bold, we have our Colombian and we always have a seasonal coffee. And it changes from country to country depending on the season, and what seems to be on trend or gaining popularity. And so we change them out all the time. With our coffee assortment, we have everything from cold brew, nitro brew, to your cappuccinos, bean-to-cup, so it's brewed right fresh at the site, and of course, brewed coffee, drip. And then we also offer things like Cafe Tango, which is like an icy frozen drink, but it's coffee and a flavor, and that's a new line that we just put out into the stores that we're having some very good success with.
Gignac: Interesting. I'd be curious to try that.
Francis: Yeah, it's delicious.
Gignac: How do employees keep the coffee area clean and well stocked?
Francis: That's a very good question because when you start talking about employees, it really needs to go in a different direction than just how do you keep it well stocked and clean. And it goes beyond the coffee—the restrooms, keeping all the counters and everything looking nice. Let me tell you little story. I have 20 years experience in the QSR business and 16 in the c-store business. When I was in the QSR business, I was kind of young, a consultant, and I'd visit the stores and review the numbers and reports with the store manager. And that was kind of the frequent routine. And I'd gone to this one store maybe, I don't know, 15 times. And when I left the store, a pizza delivery driver, walked out and followed me to my car and said, "Hey," I go, "Yes?" He said, "So you come to this store a lot. I see you all the time." And I said, "That's right." And he said, "You know, not once since you've been coming, have you ever stopped to say hello to me." And I'll tell you, I felt about this big. Just it just hit right at the heart. But it taught me that, you know, if there's anything you want to accomplish in this business, your competitive advantage. It's the people and recognizing each and every one of them, and it goes beyond that. It's really listening to them, understanding that they have a very good perspective or idea about how to improve the business and when you engage with them, now if you want to talk about let's keep the coffee area really clean and let's make sure we have it stocked so that we have a great experience for the customer. They're kind of all in. They're more invested because they feel part of an organization that cares about them and their particular role in driving the entire business. When you think about ExtraMile, and how our company culture is built, it really is built around understanding that we're here for our employees because they're here for our customers. But then bringing that to life, it's a different approach, quite frankly, on how you approach the entire business, no matter what program you're rolling out. So we keep that very front of mind, and I think it's actually served us well.
Gignac: Wow, I love that. It's such a great value to have. How do employees bring their ideas to the table?
Francis: Okay, very good question because it's not easy, right? You have to have a real focus on field visibility. I go to the stores. I can show you many owners out there or companies that do a great job of that and some do a very poor job of that. Our leadership team is out in the field as much as we possibly can and when we're in the field we're talking to the frontline employees and we're listening to their ideas. We're bringing that back to our organization and having a real key discussion on is this something we need to consider to change our strategy or incorporate in our strategy. Their feedback is amazing. It hasn't been to the field once. And it doesn't matter if you're talking to the manager or the customer service representative or one of the merchandisers in the store that's stocking it up. They all have really good ideas and very good insights. And it really is an eye-opener for us to just stop, listen and reflect on that and then bring it back to the higher levels of the company where we can make changes quickly. And it served us well as well.
Gignac: Yes, and employees scored very well in the Mystery Shop audit as well. You had told me about ExtraMile's own Mystery Shop audits. Can you tell me a little bit more about what those are and why you do them?
Francis: Yeah, I can. And I wanted to also reference Chevron. ExtraMile can only go in a Chevron Texaco. They're our joint venture partner. So Chevron's been around a lot longer than we have. And so they have a couple of their shops that they do, a mystery shop and a scheduled shop, and they've been doing it for years. And it does focus on making sure your store looks right, it's clean, it has all the right elements for a great customer experience. So they're doing their thing and then when ExtraMile formed our company back in 2018, so when we started the joint venture, we had our own Stars program and the Stars program is another mystery shop. So there's a grand total of three different shops that these sites get. Some are for the forecourt, some are for the forecourt and backcourt, and some are just ExtraMile. So we do six times a year. We will shop the stores. It's a mystery shop, unannounced. They get to throw out the worst score, which is nice for them. But that program is very important because when people get their shop, they immediately get feedback. They can correct items on the spot. It's not punitive. And we do not want to be thought of as a punitive company for our franchisees. We absolutely want to be flexible and help them change to the right behaviors. So if you're not stocked up on the proper amount of food for your hot food, let's say, they can correct it on the spot while the evaluator is there and we'll give them the points. It's all about positive reinforcement to get them to that 100% score.
Gignac: Yeah. Not about points, but it's more about correction. Great. What's your best advice to other retailers who want to be at the top of their game?
Francis: Okay, I'm gonna get a little philosophical with you, okay? In any job, doesn't matter what level what position you're in, it does boil down to people wanting to do the right thing, and they want to be recognized for it, and they want to be part of something. And if you put that front of mind and understand that every single job is just as important and we all work together, then when you start rolling out a program or a process, they feel like they have vested interest and people care about me here. If I was to meet you for the first time, I would say, "Rachel, what's on your mind?" It doesn't matter if you're the owner or if you're working the front line. "What's on your mind? What's happening?" And they'll open up to you. For us, the competitive advantage, and what we think put us in the top three, is being able to connect with every level of our employees who are gonna connect with the customer if we do a good job showing them we care.
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