Phillips 66 Sets Up Deal for Chase Pay Throughout Its Line

Mobile payments at the gas station seems like an excellent idea. Pay for gas without having to actually go into a gas station, unless you’ve suddenly got a craving for a candy bar or something.

Great for cold or rainy days, and good for the gas station too, which no longer needs to treat customers like criminals in a bid to prevent crime from happening in the form of drive-offs.

Now, a new deal has been struck between Phillips 66 and JPMorgan Chase to bring the Chase Pay mobile payment system to a host of gas stations throughout the US.

The deal calls for Chase Pay to be part of the package for not only Phillips 66 gas stations, but also Conoco and 76 branded stations as well.

What’s more, Phillips 66 also signed on with the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), and will be able to bring mobile payments options to its My 76, My Conoco, and My Phillips 66 mobile apps.

Phillips 66 global marketing president Brian Mandell commented “We are excited to work with Chase and P97 to accept Chase Pay at our branded sites, which will offer our customers a simplified fueling experience — one that will enable them to safely and expeditiously purchase our high-quality Phillips 66, Conoco and 76 gasoline on their mobile devices from the comfort of their vehicles.”

Improving customer experience is vital to the overall health of a company, particularly when there are so few ways to begin with to differentiate a firm in the market.

Gas stations are some of the most commoditized firms around; they all inherently offer the same thing: gas. Sure, there are snacks and drinks and such on hand, but most gas stations are surprisingly similar. So the only real way to make one worth going to over another is to make the customer experience the best it can be.

That means convenience, and Chase Pay might be the key to that.

Providing these little extra experiences can be valuable, especially when trying to distinguish one business from another.

Phillips 66 may have a key differentiating point in hand, but it’s one that will likely be easily replicated elsewhere. That may buy the company some time, but only some in the end.