Meet TWIC Woman of the Year: Danielle Mattiussi

SALT LAKE CITY — For 20 years, Danielle Mattiussi worked for Eastman Kodak and Canon USA in enterprise software sales and product development, but she wanted to move into something new that would inspire her. She found that inspiration at Maverik Inc., the Salt Lake City-based operator of 285 convenience stores.

“The move to Maverik was to run the group in charge of beer, wine, cigarettes, tobacco, lottery and gaming, and my title was executive director of customer value creation,” she recounted, explaining that she was in this role for eight months before she moved into the position of executive director of retail operations. It was then 10 months later that she transitioned into her current role as vice president of retail adventures.

Today, she is responsible for retail operations, operational efficiencies, and facilities and maintenance for Maverik, also known as “Adventure’s First Stop.” She is in charge of the operations across all the company’s stores, which includes approximately 4,000 employees throughout 10 states and represents $550 million in store sales.

Mattiussi innovates and spearheads unique customer service and employee incentive initiatives. One example is the “Live Legendary, Never Ordinary” customer service campaign to engage and align retail operations around the common goal of thrilling customers.

“We used the tagline to describe to employees what we were trying to achieve, and it’s been extremely effective,” she said. “The end goal is to earn a legendary reputation for thrilling customers, and to go over and above for customers in every situation.”

The retailer even created a logo around the campaign and it’s on the inside of every employee uniform, as well as on vests, wristbands and other gear. Thus far in her career at Maverik, this campaign is what she is most proud of.

“I’m proud of how we have been able to get everyone to understand what the slogan means and to rally around it,” she said. “I’m also proud of how the stores look, the cleanliness, customer experience, employee friendliness and the quality of our food.”

Mattiussi also overhauled the store incentive program, increasing bonus dollars paid to store employees by 35 percent — from $2.4 million to $3.1 million — and creating new associations between store objectives and Maverik’s strategic goals.

“Previously, the top role of store director had a bonus program. We tripled the number of people eligible, including the operations and foodservice managers. And, for the first time in Maverik history, every employee in the store is eligible for a bonus of some sort,” she explained. “It has really aligned people because everybody has the same objectives.”

Currently, she is utilizing her past experience with technology to implement new systems, increase store efficiency and make employees’ lives easier, including better labor management and task management. In fact, the sophistication of the technology available to c-stores is one of Mattiussi’s favorite things about the industry.

“It amazes me every day the technology available and analytics at your fingertips,” she said. “Also, the quality of the people and their propensity to share is another favorite. The trust and ability to share information across companies is amazing and something I had never seen before, working in a different industry.”

When offering advice to fellow women, she relays the importance of trusting your instincts and using data to back up those instincts.  

“I think women are very instinctual and they have to trust that,” she said. “And there is a lot of data to back them up. Also, I would tell them they don’t have to know everything before they start. Just start. A blank palette can produce amazing results that someone deeply embedded could never have conceived.”

Mattiussi is one of five Women of the Year and among 62 female managers, directors and executives working in the convenience store industry who are being honored in the third-annual Convenience Store News Top Women in Convenience awards program this year. An awards reception will take place Wednesday, Oct. 19 in Atlanta, coinciding with the 2016 NACS Show.