Industry overview
What is shaping petroleum, oil & gas
Oil marketing companies, lubricant brands and city gas distributors compete on forecourt experience, product trust and mechanic recommendations.
- Forecourt experience shapes fuel brand loyalty
- Mechanics drive lubricant brand choice
- City gas adoption depends on safety confidence and convenience
Client background
An oil marketing company, working in Tamil Nadu & Karnataka. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- An oil marketing company
- Sector
- Petroleum, oil & gas
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Offline data collection (CATI), Quantitative research, Data analytics & dashboards
Client challenge
Complaints about delayed LPG deliveries and extra charges were rising, and the company wanted evidence by distributor. Complaints reached head office through social media and helplines, but there was no systematic measure of service by distributor.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: improving LPG delivery and service experience.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of customers.
- Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 6 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 5,000 customers.
- customers5,000
Audiences we typically reach in petroleum, oil & gas
Fuel customersForecourt staff and dealersMechanics and workshopsFleet ownersCity gas customers
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Tamil Nadu & Karnataka. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.
- 1Brief
- 2Customer telephone survey
- 3Distributor dashboard
- 4Insight
We called customers after deliveries to ask about booking, delivery time, charges and safety checks, and created a distributor dashboard. Calls were made in Tamil, Kannada and English shortly after deliveries, and a sample of responses was verified with customers by revisit.
Offline data collection (CATI)Quantitative researchData analytics & dashboards
Sampling strategy
- customers
- 5,000
- Business respondents were screened on role, company size and involvement in the decision before being invited.
- Telephone contacts were dialled from verified lists, with quotas tracked live by the field team.
Data collection
- Telephone interviews were run from our CATI centre, with calls monitored for quality.
Data quality & validation
- Live call monitoring and recording review
- Call-back verification
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
- Interactive dashboard for ongoing tracking
Key findings
- A minority of distributors accounted for most complaints.
Distributor-level data showed where to act.
Recommendations
- The company focused audits and training on them.
- Share the findings with the teams closest to customers so they can act quickly.
What we recommended, and the client put into practice
Business impact
- Complaint volumes fell in the following months, and the survey became a regular monitoring tool.
- Distributors with the highest scores were recognised publicly, encouraging improvement across the network.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Interactive dashboard
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: which lubricant brands do mechanics push?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.