A rewards application that I use on my phone almost every day is the Sheetz app. This user-friendly app allows customers to order online, redeem points or other offers, save points, keep track of points, pay with gift cards digitally, and much more. Allowing location access to the application will give you more options, such as paying at the pump when you're at a Sheetz location. Once you pull to a pump, you open the application, and at the top are a few options that only work if you are located at a Sheetz location, including pump gas. Select the pump gas option and enter the pump number to confirm card information. Then, you are given a code to enter at the pump and can start filling up. This prevents card information from being stolen by scammers using skimmers or other devices. Another option that appears at a Sheetz location is scan and go, which allows you to scan all your items as you grab them and pay with a card all on the application. This allows you to skip the lines to pay for your products unless you need age-restricted items. The application has your rewards card information on it, as well as the ability to add or change the rewards cards without losing any of your points. To access your card, rewards, and offers, all you do is click on the circle in the bottom middle that says My Sheetz REWARDS. You can order food and convenience items to have ready for pickup or curbside or have them delivered by DoorDash by clicking the order button on the left side of the My Sheetz REWARDS button. The more sections are your personal information, settings, find a location, subscriptions, nutrition, jobs, and more useful information. Employees get more from the application, like being able to see how much money they used for the month of the 10% discount they get on everything up to one thousand dollars per month. Employees also get 50% off all items with Sheetz's name on them or made in the kitchen as long as they are on the clock. Registering their Sheetz cards as employee cards and hitting a button on the register automatically takes off all qualifying items for 50% off. The design of the application helps people clearly see what they rank as a fan, friend, or freak and how many spendable points they have. Some of the options people may only know about if they are told, like if they enable location settings, they can do more with the application. For the most part, the application uses pictures and colors to match the store's theme and isn't too busy unless it's on the main screen. It can be overwhelming when offers appear, which happens often. The application is designed to give customers offers and deals but other ways to make their experience fast, friendly, and different from other gas stations/ restaurants. The application can be slow or doesn't always load from time to time. Normally, those are fixed within an hour or so of having difficulty with the application, but only if the normal closing of the app completely and reopening doesn't fix the issue. To get started, you need to create an account with a username and password and fill out other personal information. Some recommendations to help improve this application would be a way to see detailed transactions of all payments made using that rewards card or payment card on file. This can help customers verify that orders were correct or verify transactions that were theirs and not stolen. Also, make sure that the prices or deals were taken off correctly because sometimes the system has the wrong pricing information. Another recommendation is updating the application more often to help fix bugs that cause people to be unable to log into their accounts because it doesn't recognize their information even when it is correct. The other reason to update more often is to update the security of the application because it has so much personal information. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, "Mobile phones are becoming increasingly valuable as targets for attacks because of all the sensitive personal information on them."(Ruggiero & Foote, N.D.) Keeping up with the latest threats, updating the application to fix bugs, and using encryptions for all the data, especially personal information, will help protect customers from hackers and scammers. Lastly, having an option to make the application easy for anyone to use or allowing customers to hide options that they won't use would help some customers. There are customers who only use it for the rewards and earn the points to redeem those rewards. Making the payment options, ordering online, and scan and go not options they are interested in. They could open the application and show the options they use most often. Overall, I feel that the Sheetz application is one of the best rewards and online ordering apps around.
References:
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2011). Cyber Threats to Mobile Phones. [US-CERT] cyber_threats_to_mobile_phones.pdf (cihttps://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/cyber_threats_to_mobile_phones.pdfsa.gov).
Sheetz Inc. (2013). Sheetz. (Version 8.0.0.205961). [Mobile App]. App Store. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ust.sheetzretapp
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