Casey’s personalizes messaging 30x faster with real time data.
Learn how one convenience chain creates unique, relevant customer experiences in real time.
Consumers have more choice in where to spend their money than ever. But when budgets get tight, they’ll flock to the businesses they know will deliver the most value. How, then, can you ensure that you’re attracting as many repeat customers as possible?
For Casey’s General Stores, the answer is simple: Give customers more of what they want, when they want it.
Casey’s, the third largest convenience chain in the U.S., engages millions of customers each year with fast and friendly service across more than 2,400 stores. But to retain loyal customers, the company needed to deliver exceptional experiences outside of the store, too.
As customers demanded more convenient and personalized digital experiences, Casey’s shifted its digital strategy by:
- Delivering more relevant offers and promotions based on purchase history
- Providing more convenient ordering options
- Giving customers more personalized rewards for their loyalty
Leading the charge toward a more customer-centric Casey’s, Art Sebastian, Vice President of Digital Experience, used Salesforce to bring this vision to life. In just a few years, Sebastian and his team were able to turn data from billions of customer interactions into hyperpersonalized experiences that kept customers coming back.
For instance, with real time data activation, Casey’s can create personalized email segments 30 times faster than before. Plus, API-led integration lets the company meet customer needs and introduce new services four times faster — among other remarkable results.
“Consumers are changing how they shop, how they decide to spend their time, and the role of technology in their lives,” Sebastian said. “So we decided to modernize our brand, and our digital experience would be the first expression of a more contemporary Casey’s.”
Here’s an inside look at how Casey’s uses Einstein 1 to build customer loyalty through more efficient marketing practices.
“As marketers, our number one job is to build and deepen relationships with our customers. We know them, we anticipate their needs, and we deliver exactly what they’re looking for.”
Step 1. Boost conversion rates by 16% with relevant messaging.
Before Casey’s began its digital transformation, its marketing department was sending customers over 300,000 batch and blast emails per month. With no personalization or optimized send schedules, many of these messages were falling flat. Today, Casey’s sends approximately 170 million personalized messages across channels, including email, SMS, and app, with Marketing Cloud and Data Cloud — implemented with the help of Salesforce consulting partner Deloitte Digital.
“Part of the journey of modernizing our brand involves ensuring that we form a human connection with every customer,” said Sebastian. “We call our customers by name in emails, add their favorite store in messages to make ordering even easier, and we even celebrate their birthdays with a free donut.”
To create these personalized journeys, Casey’s segments customer data into unique groups based on online and in-store interactions and activates that data in real time. For example, the company can tailor offers based on the type and quantity of goods bought. If a customer typically purchases one pizza at a time, Casey’s can send an SMS offer for free breadsticks with a single pizza purchase.
With Data Cloud, the company can create unique segments 30 times faster than before. Because of hyper-personalized marketing capabilities, Casey’s has seen a 16% increase in conversion rates for pizza alone.
30x
faster segmentation
16%
increase in conversion rates
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Step 2. Make every touchpoint count with the help of AI.
Content was only part of the messaging puzzle the company needed to solve. Timing was just as important.
Using Data Cloud, Casey’s can activate audience segments with AI and send messages when customers are most likely to act on them.
“Everything we know about a customer is unified in Data Cloud,” said Sebastian. “If we see groups of customers shopping in the mornings, we can tag them as ‘breakfast shoppers,’ making it very easy for marketers to create segments and communicate a value proposition.”
Instead of sending mass promotional content at random times, Casey’s can adapt send times to customer behavior. For example, if a customer who normally orders pizza around 6:00 p.m. on a Friday doesn’t, Casey’s can send a reminder with a promo code through the customer’s app that same evening.
The company can also optimize its website content based on time of day. Customers browsing the homepage in the morning will see breakfast specials, while evening visitors will see the latest deals for whole pizzas or sweet treats.
Additionally, Casey’s continues to fine-tune its behavior-based marketing with expert coaching sessions, like “Help Setting Up Social Studio” and “CDP Mobile/Web Technical Guidance,” from its Premier Success Plan. With tailored guidance from Salesforce experts, the company can learn from habits across channels and deliver increasingly personalized customer experiences.
“Our customers have told us that they’re happy for us to know them better if we use that information to make every interaction more relevant.”
Step 3. Serve customers four times faster by connecting data across the business.
Ten years ago, most customers discovered new convenience stores by walking through the front door. Today, that front door is digital.
To make it easier for customers to begin their journeys online, Casey’s had to connect data across multiple disparate systems and third-party apps. The company now uses MuleSoft as its API-led integration layer between data sources. Now, authorized users see a full view of customer accounts, including past purchases, rewards history, and customer service requests, on a single screen. This gives service teams, for example, all of the information they need to resolve cases faster. Plus, service leaders use AppExchange partner app Medallia to deliver great customer experiences by analyzing customer feedback across channels, such as phone, app, and email.
API-led integration lets Casey’s meet customer needs and introduce innovative new services four times faster than before. Of the 150 APIs the company has developed, 50% of them are reused, saving development teams time and resources.
4x
faster project delivery
150
APIs Created
50%
of APIs reused
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