Forecourt operator Goran Raven is planning to give away a tanker of fuel every quarter while petrol prices remain high to “create the feelgood factor” with customers.
“I’m trying to get goodwill to show customers that the headlines of the past, that petrol station operators are nasty people, are untrue,” says Raven, a Shell dealer in Abridge, Essex.
So far more than 260 of his 4,900 Facebook followers have engaged with the first giveaway. In the post, which went live yesterday, Raven explains that while the cost of fuel is “way out of our control”, he could show compassion by giving away up to 75cl of “the fuel of your choice”.
In return customers are asked to follow the operator’s page and say in the Facebook post what brand of fuel the operator sells. The winner will be randomly picked on Sunday (September 27).
The idea has “gone down an absolute storm”, says Raven, who has a Budgens store and pet food business on the site. One customer posted: “Shell fuel and bloody good food!”.
Another said that it was the only place they fill up “because I know whose pockets my money is going to, you’re honest to your customers, plus I can pick up my pet’s food and get locally produced snacks for myself all at the same time”.
Raven expects to recoup the cost of the fuel with this type of customer engagement with his Facebook page. “Offering free fuel quarterly will mean that customers will pay attention to my Facebook and what else I am doing, so I feel I will more than make up the money on extra sales.”
Earlier this summer he offered drivers a 4ppl discount on fuel if they spend £30 in his store.
Last Friday the RAC predicted the average price of diesel could reach an all-time high this week. Yesterday it said that since the start of this month, diesel has increased by 12.68p to 196.28p per litre, up 6.9%. Unleaded has increased by 10.75p a litre to 172.52p per litre, up 6.6%.
The RAC says the cost of a full tank of petrol for a 55-litre family car, at £94.89, is £21.83 more than it was at the end of February when the Iran conflict began.
Chancellor John Healey is under pressure to reduce fuel duty in his October 28 Budget to ease cost of living pressures on households.
