Pilot’s $1 Billion Goal: Create an Outstanding Guest Experience

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Pilot Flying J wants to “earn your turn.”

“When you’re on the road, you stop at a Pilot, we want to earn your turn,” said CEO Shameek Konar during an online call March 9 to announce the initiative it calls New Horizons. “When you come back, we want you to stop at a Pilot again.

“Our goal is to create an outstanding experience for our guests,” he said.

To create that experience, Knoxville, Tenn.-based Pilot Flying J will spend $1 billion over the next three years to overhaul more than 400 of its travel centers. This investment into the customer and team member experience comes after Pilot surveyed thousands in these two groups on how it can better serve them and by considering future trends and alternative fueling technologies.

Noting the unprecedented driver shortage affecting the shipping of freight that Pilot doesn’t see changing anytime soon, along with supply-chain challenges, issues acquiring new trucks and truck parking spots and rising fuel prices, Konar said, “A new transition is coming.”

Click through to read more ...

The 63-year-old company has discussed electric vehicles, whether hydrogen is going to be the fuel of the future and if the company should use natural gas due to its smaller carbon footprint than other fuels, Konar said. “Should we be using renewable fuels, biodiesel and so on?” he asked. “That’s a big, complicated change that we’re going to be faced with. But finally, because of COVID, the world and people’s preferences have changed. How people think about travel has changed.

“Pilot looked at all of this and said, ‘The world is changing around us, we need to evolve.’ New Horizons was part of that evolution plan,” he said.

• Pilot Co. is No. 12 on CSP’s 2022 Top 40 Update to the 2021 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2022 Top 202 ranking in the June issue of CSP magazine.

That evolution involves spending $1 billion to improve stores, modernize 400 to 500 travel centers (across its network of more than 670), update technology and improve the guest and team member experiences, he said. Pilot, which sells fuel out of more than 800 locations nationwide, will add 34 locations to its network this year, 14 of which are new construction.

“We’re growing partnerships,” he said. “Our goal is to bring the right people to the table to provide the best guest experiences.”

Part of the plan in 2022 is to build 40 new Southern Tire Marts, which provide maintenance and tire service and with which Pilot has a relationship. There also are plans to build 200 more of these locations down the road.

Konar added that Pilot is focused on improving the team member experience, “Because Pilot believes the guest experience will never be better than the team member experience,” he said. “So, we want to make this a great place to work.”

The future of travel also is a critical area, Konar said, as is how ongoing changes affect “how customers want to interact with us, and we’re doing a number of things to try to look out 10, 15 years from now and think about what our guests want and try to start delivering those.”

To address the guest experience, Pilot surveyed customers and team members on what they value, challenges they face and what they like. The answers informed “what to do with the billion dollars, where to do it, and when to do it,” Konar said.

Allison Cornish, vice president of store modernization, who is leading the New Horizons project, provided several intriguing statistics from Pilot’s survey, including,

• 66% of professional drivers say showers are the most important factor they think about when choosing a travel center.
• 60% of professional drivers rate food off­erings as top reason for choosing a travel center.
• More than 50% of professional drivers mention the ability to get in and out quickly as a key factor in travel center selection.
• Nearly 90% of auto drivers choose a travel center based on its convenience, safety, cleanliness and product availability.
• 85% of automobile customers use Pilot’s restrooms when they stop at its stores, and they rank cleanliness as the most important factor.

Based on this, Cornish said, enhancements Pilot plans include:

• Interior and exterior improvements to make stores more welcoming, expanding relaxation space with more seats, including added energy-efficient lighting for well-lit parking lots, improving the fueling experience and updating branding and store features.
• Enhancing showers and restrooms with fresh paint and brighter lighting, improved capacity, energy-efficient fixtures and touchless features.

“But by far, we’re most excited about the expansion of our food,” Cornish said. “More variety, more Pilot signature fresh deli items, pizza, homestyle meals, grab-and-go foods and coffee to more locations.”

• Pilot currently has proprietary food available in about 300 stores, but with New Horizons, “that will expand to as many locations as possible,” she said.
• Pilot aims to offer breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack options in as many stores as possible. Later this year it will roll out new food offerings, including fresh cut fruits.

“We recently released our Honey Maple Chicken Waffle and hot tenders, and coming soon is the Bigger Better Burger,” she added. “We’ll have chicken pesto pizza in the spring, more soups, chicken tortilla and beef stew, and we’re testing new made-to-order concepts with regionally diverse ethnic cuisine options.”

In the area of technology, Pilot is installing state-of-the-art retail and fueling technology to increase efficiency and allow team members to spend more time serving customers, she said, and improving break rooms and workspaces. “We’re adding new equipment in the back office and kitchen to make team members’ jobs easier," Cornish said.

Pilot also is preparing for future innovation by adding electric-vehicle charging stations and developing a strategy for low-emission and zero-emission vehicles, she said.

Finally, Pilot is striving “to provide a connected experience that adds value in the moments that matter,” said Mike Rodgers, chief strategy and information officer. “Simply put: When you’re on the road, we want to make your life easier.”

A few ways Pilot plans to do this:

• Self-checkout to get customers back on the road faster while maintaining team member support to ensure personal service. “We now have 70 locations with self-checkout,” Rodgers said. “After Horizons is complete, most stores will have self-checkout.”
• Creating a connected experience backed by data, artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver personalized service in the store and on Pilot’s Myrewards app. “We’re meeting the guest where they are with the offer they want,” he said.
• Equipping team members with the technology to serve guests and make their day easier. “New handheld scanners will streamline inventory management,” Rodgers said. “We’re providing all-new tablets with better speed and connectivity in the store so team members can do anything on the tablet to remain guest-facing.”

Jamie Landis, vice president of team member experience, said employees are excited by news of store remodels. “One way we’re celebrating is by hosting family and friend parties for our upgraded stores for team members to invite all of their loved ones to see the new spaces, try our great food and get some fun swag.”

Pilot also will increase employee recognition and appreciation, improve onboarding and training, focus on inclusion, diversity and wellness programs, and mental well-being, for its more than 28,000 team members.

“We really believe that a great team member experience happens when our people are supported, feel cared for, when they’re proud to work for Pilot, and that’s what we mean when we say ‘Pilot proud’,” she said. “That said, we recognize that delivering on an excellent team member experience needs to constantly evolve as the needs of our people evolve, so stay tuned for more to come.”

Whitney Haslam Johnson, chief experience officer, said, “The importance of giving back has really been a foundation in our business, so as part of New Horizons, Pilot will donate a total more than $500,000 in 2022 into the communities it serves to support local school districts and students with equal access to educational technology.”