Trimark of Excellence

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing

About the Trimark of Excellence Mystery Shop Program

The Trimark of Excellence Mystery Shop Program is uniquely designed to protect the integrity of the CITGO brand and reward you for your day-to-day efforts to maintain it. It creates consistency across the brand and allows for tracking accomplishments as well as areas of improvement, both in store and at the pump.

Three Easy Steps to Increase Your Business

Small improvements in each of these areas could reap big rewards!

Fueling Excellence

Improve your location's outside appearance.

Learn More

Shopping Excellence

Improve your location's inside appearance.

Learn More

Customer Excellence

Improve your location's customer service.

Learn More
Help Desk/Software Maintenance

Your locations will be shopped secretly by a third-party vendor four times per year, so we can give you better feedback.

  • Shop One: Jan. 1 - March 31
  • Shop Two: April 1 - June 30
  • Shop Three: July 1 - Sept. 30
  • Shop Four: Oct. 1 - Dec. 31
Grading System

The grading system pinpoints your performance based on a possible score of up to 121 points (119 points plus 2 bonus points), with all questions allowing for partial credit. A pass/fail score will be given on select brand image questions.

Questionnaire/Checklist

The questionnaire/checklist emphasizes consistency and is divided into three sections that ecompass the overall retail experience of your customers—fueling, shopping and customer service.

Results

You will be notified that your mystery shop survey was completed after each shop. Contact your CITGO gasoline supplier to review your results. You can also review results on myCITGOstore.com, if your location is registered on the website. Just click the “Mystery Shop Results” button.

Your gasoline supplier will provide recommendations for improvements and possible training to improve your score. The following penalties will be applied to CITGO gasoline suppliers for each location scoring less than 80% on consecutive shops. It is up to them to decide whether or not to pass them on to you.

  • 1st failure - warning letter (no charge)
  • 2nd consecutive failure - $250 charge
  • 3rd consecutive failure - $500 charge and subject to debrand
  • 4th consecutive failure - $1,000 charge and subject to debrand
  • 5 or more failures - $2,500 charge and subject to debrand

After the first-quarter results are completed, Retailers that register on this site will have access to:

  • Quick, easy-to-understand performance reports
  • A complete survey review after each shop
  • A request for appeal process should you question your scores for any reason
Appeals

To receive points back on your survey for corrections made to select branding issues, or if you feel a scoring error was made, you can submit an Appeal by clicking the “Appeal” button at the top of your survey in the Alta360 Research reporting portal. All correction photos should be taken from the same spot as the original mystery shop photo. Appeals must be submitted within 30 days of the original mystery shop or up to 10 days after the close of the quarter, whichever comes first. Click here for instructions on how to submit an Appeal

Tips & Tricks

Tips & Tricks is a feedback feature found on your quarterly mystery shop reports. Automatically populating under select questions, they provide you with solutions to file existing issues in order to avoid penalties on future shops. They do not offer points back.

 

Need Help?

Please contact your CITGO gasoline supplier with any questions regarding the Trimark of Excellence program, your Mystery Shop results, etc.