The initiative with Vega Carburanti re-engineered the interaction between the driver and the station. By shifting the core transaction logic from physical terminals to a unified mobile ecosystem, the project eliminated the friction of legacy hardware. The result is a 'phygital' service model where payment, loyalty, and invoicing occur instantly, transforming a commodity transaction into a continuous digital relationship.

The barrier of cards - scenario

Vega Carburanti manages a high-traffic network serving two distinct audiences: corporate fleets and private drivers. Historically, the customer experience was dictated by the constraints of physical cards. Fleet managers relied on plastic fuel cards for tracking; private users used company fuel cards and standard credit cards for payment. And Loyalty was also managed separately. These workflows were parallel but disconnected, preventing a unified view of the customer. Gathering coherent Customer data was a challenge, Marketing was struggling to gather useful engagement data, reach the driver once they left the station, and 'serviced' lanes relied on manual interactions that slowed down peak-hour throughput. Getting coherent, clear and consolidated data on client interactions was a challenge for decision makers also due to fragmented processes and systems.

The cost of friction - challenge

The primary obstacle was the disconnect between the user and the data. The reliance on physical tokens (cards, receipts) created a fragmented experience that limited business agility.

• Siloed interactions: A user required separate actions to authorize a pump, pay, and collect loyalty points.
• Blind spots in data: Without a direct digital channel, the brand could not analyze individual behaviors or push personalized offers.
• Operational bottlenecks: In 'serviced' scenarios, attendants acted as human bridges between the car and the kiosk, introducing delays and payment errors.
• Non ideal CX: user uptake of new services was always slow and not ideal due to non modern (Mobile first) customer experience, and multiple incoherent touchpoints (for eg. for payments).
• Slow new service creation & adoption: introducing new services and promotions was always a one off project, with limited user uptake and a non modern customer experience. And with hidden costs and useless complexity.
• Rigid legacy: The need to integrate with varied pump controllers (Fortech, Aquarama) and a central ERP (SAP) made standardizing the interface complex.

The objective - expected outcome

The goal was Mobile-First CX Digitalization. The mandate was to engineer a new Mobile first Customer Experience, where the app becomes the primary interface for all services, removing physical infrastructure boundaries.

• Unified Digital Wallet: A single touchpoint for B2B fleet cards and B2C credit payments.
• Contextual Frictionless Payment: 'One-tap' authorization that handles pre-checks and invoicing in the background.
• Hybrid Service Model: Digitizing the attendant's workflow to speed up full-service lanes.
• Active Retention: Turning the loyalty program from a passive card into an active, notification-driven engagement channel.

Vega Go: The interface as the infrastructure - the solution

The solution was to build an abstraction layer that masks backend complexity, presenting a simple, coherent face to the user. The App as the Universal Key: Vega Go was developed not just as a payment tool, but as a remote control for the station. The app communicates with the microservices layer to unlock pumps and activate car washes. It unifies the experience: a corporate driver and a private user see the same interface, with the system handling the divergent billing logic (SAP vs. Banking Gateway) invisibly in the background. The 'Offline' Digital Bridge: To solve the bottleneck in serviced lanes, the team developed Vega Go Operator. This companion tool allows attendants to validate app-based payments without leaving the pump. Crucially, it utilizes a QR-code handshake that functions even when devices are offline for safety compliance. This 'air-gapped' verification ensures digital speed does not compromise safety regulations. Microservices for Marketing: The backend was restructured into independent services (Loyalty, Notification, Auth). This allows marketing teams to trigger push notifications based on real-time triggers (e.g., 'Refueling complete') without risking the stability of the payment core.

Engagement and seamlessness - the outcome

The deployment of Vega Go fundamentally altered the nature of the customer visit. From Utility to Ecosystem: The shift is measurable in user behavior. By integrating car wash services and fueling into a single wallet, cross-selling has become organic. The user who enters for fuel is naturally guided to wash services within the same UI flow. Data indicates a decisive shift: digital payments now account for nearly half of all non-fleet transactions, signaling a younger, tech-native demographic. Transparency builds Trust: The new architecture introduced an 'Audit Service' that logs every micro-step of the user journey. Customer support no longer guesses why a transaction failed; they can see if the timeout occurred at the bank, the pump, or the network level. This transparency has drastically reduced resolution times for user tickets.

CX is an architectural choice - Lessons learned

We have learned that the greatest long-term value comes from increased retention, higher frequency of visits, cross-selling opportunities, and reduced service costs. We see CX as a revenue and loyalty engine—not just a “satisfaction” initiative.

• Break down internal system and process complexity: CX teams often find that poor experiences (slow payments, inconsistent loyalty, unclear messaging) originate from internal silos such as separate systems, policies, or ownership. Removing friction requires breaking the silos, streamlining rules, and redesigning workflows around the customer.
• Personalization is impossible without unified customer data:Loyalty, payment, physical store interactions, and digital behavior often reside in separate systems. CX value, such as personalized offers, consistent recognition, proactive service, emerges when these data points form a single customer view. Having unified customer data is a CX requirement, not a marketing luxury.
• Mobile becomes the primary entry point for engagement—not an add-on channel: Treating the app as a central touchpoint increases adoption, supports cross-selling, and creates measurable engagement before and after the store visit. When mobile is secondary, uptake remains low and journeys stay fragmented.
• Staff experience defines the customer experience:CX teams consistently find that even the best-designed journeys break down when frontline employees cannot support them. Giving store teams simple digital tools, clear processes, and real-time visibility dramatically improves service consistency, reduces frustration, and increases customer trust.
• Success requires continuous iteration, not one-off launches:CX improvements stick only when measured, refined, and relaunched. Retailers that operate with micro-releases and rapid feedback loops see higher adoption and faster learning.

Key insights for your organization

Here is what we recommend your decision makers know when approaching Customer Experience issues:

• Unifying fragmented experiences is a necessity, not a UX improvement: When customer interactions are spread across disconnected systems such as cards, apps, terminals, loyalty programs, serviced lanes, customers feel the friction. Simplifying, replicating and integrating the “single experience to all services” approach is crucial: customers expect one integrated journey regardless of channel, service line, or payment method. Eliminating fractured touchpoints is the foundation for higher satisfaction, faster adoption of new services, and a coherent brand experience.
• Mobile-first as the primary interface across the e2e customer journey: The case proves that shifting the core transaction logic from physical infrastructure to a unified mobile ecosystem increases adoption, reduces operational bottlenecks, and accelerates time-to-market for new services. For your customers, this means your app cannot be a side channel; it must become the operational heart of payments, loyalty, promotions, service booking, and post-visit engagement. A mobile-first approach transforms transactions from episodic events into ongoing digital relationships.
• Legacy silos are the biggest barrier and the biggest opportunity: Many experiences are constrained by physical experiences like cards, incoherent payment experiences, and systems that do not share customer or transactional data. Through microservices, abstraction layers, and unified wallets, the dependency on legacy can be eliminated. We created a scalable backbone ready for future services that integrates data across different systems. Improving customer satisfaction is inseparable from addressing architectural debt. CX improvements require structural redesign, not cosmetic fixes.
• Data coherence unlocks marketing effectiveness, personalization and operational speed. A unified customer experience enables the creation of a single, actionable customer data pipeline, impossible when processes are fragmented and interactions are siloed. The result is that sales & marketing gain real-time visibility, trigger contextual engagement, deploy campaigns faster, and increase cross-sell organically. Consolidating is essential to drive personalization, improve decision-making, reduce service costs, and increase trust through traceable, transparent support workflows.
• Employee experience accelerates customer experience, and reduces operational friction. Design for off-line Digital transformation succeeds when frontline employees are equipped with tools that simplify their jobs. By giving attendants their own digital interface, we reduced delays, removed manual inefficiencies, and ensured that mobile-first processes worked even in offline or high-traffic scenarios. Improving employee tooling such as mobile POS, unified service consoles, real-time issue visibility, is one of the most effective levers to improve customer satisfaction, throughput, and consistency across locations.