consumers want to understand a company ’ s brand . They want an array of service levels , they expect self-service and they demand to be “ engaged ” online ( not just one-way communication ).

Stillman stresses that consumers ’ habits are being shaped by other online shopping and service experiences — not necessarily by a company ’ s competitors or even the heating fuel industry as a whole . Consider this : It used to be that fuel marketers had to worry about the five or six competitors in their neighborhood or small community . But now there may be 23 competitors and consumers are coming to fuel companies not expecting what they are getting from others in the fuel business , but rather what they are experiencing from other vendors in other industries — including Amazon .

“ When the bar is that high , our job will be harder ,” Stillman says . “ A lot of the reasons we are struggling with consumers and loyalty in our industry is that consumers are looking for categories that we just don ’ t have at the moment and we are all trying to adjust to that .”

Self-service is a critical factor for this new consumer . In the e-commerce world , when fuel marketers are engaging a COD or will-call customer , this engagement needs to be 100 % self-service — no one needs to use the telephone for that part of the business .

“ All of this is driving an increase in COD and will call ,” Stillman says , “ For a long time , fuel dealers called the shots , but that is not the world anymore . The selfdetermined consumer is calling the shots and that is hard to grasp .”

For years , fuel industry players believed that automatic business was the ideal . Willcall and COD were “ junk business .” But today , Stillman says that will-call and COD ( also referred to as “ on demand ”) consumers are not who they used to be . Therefor it is counterproductive to continue to categorize such consumers ; they don ’ t match the demographics of yesteryear . In fact , demographically , they look like automatic customers , but they just want to buy differently .

“ This is a permanent change ,” Stillman says . “ Our industry has long thought that we are the last remaining milkman and that somehow the world will come back and full-service will be important again . But I think that is idealistic . It has not happened to any other industry and it is not going to happen to ours . The data shows that automatic service is not dead , but we have to pay attention to the market as it stands today , especially since the will-call segment is growing and cannot be ignored .”

Energy Engine hears from marketers who are increasingly interested in expanding into the will-call and COD marketplace , Stillman says . They recognize there are COD gallons in their market , but they are wary of targeting that market because it is a big change from the type of business , and the way of doing business , that they are accustomed to .

To attract and convert such customers , Stillman says , fuel marketers must be online . This allows companies to manage their customers ’ expectations online . To engage these customers , companies need to fulfill lofty “ engagement ” expectations and automate everything they can .

“ Automating every process and enabling the consumer to evaluate everything they can without picking up the telephone is crucial ,” Stillman says . “ Companies need to build and foster digital relationships .” This is a defining part of commerce today . People expect

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