The Jaded Mechanic Podcast

Jeff Compton [00:00:07]:
Keys, people, if you're listening and you have a wheel lock key on your car, take it off right now.

Aaron Szafran [00:00:11]:
For me, please, because no one's stealing rims. They're taking the whole car if they need it.

Jeff Compton [00:00:15]:
I can buy the tool that I need to remove the. The locking key for under 20 bucks, right? If I really want your rims that bad, I'll spend the 20 bucks and I'll have it. And I'll still have them on, no doubt. You know, because we do it every day long. When it comes to not going to.

Amber Wright [00:00:27]:
His shop.

Jeff Compton [00:00:30]:
It'S okay. You can buy it on temu. It's, you know, we think about. That's always the weird part for me in this space is talking to people that are like software people, and yet they, you know, if I was to take you into the garage and show you what we do all day long, you would be, like, completely enamored with, oh, my God, that's so different than what I do all day long. Right?

Amber Wright [00:00:55]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:00:55]:
But, I mean, it's cool nonetheless. But I sometimes want to go. I have to really think about how I'm communicating something, because, like, what is commonplace for me when I'm sitting in a room full of technicians, or like, the two gentlemen I just had that are shop owners and techs, and then I sit down with software people, you know, I might be saying, how many words am I saying that they don't even understand what I'm talking about? You know what I mean?

Amber Wright [00:01:17]:
Like, it's a lot. I think that's also, like, I was talking to somebody the other day. A lot of. With schools, right?

Jeff Compton [00:01:26]:
Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:01:26]:
With university teachers, like, they. You go for 30 years, 40 years, then they get these new students in and they forget conceptually, it's. They have to slow down for people to understand what they're talking about, because it is like riding a bike.

Jeff Compton [00:01:41]:
Yeah. So welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of the Jaded Mechanic podcast. I'm sitting down here with a couple people that I'm going to ask that they introduce themselves, because I've just met them for the first time. But. But they're from our friends at techmetric. So introduce yourself, guys.

Amber Wright [00:01:58]:
Sure, Go ahead.

Aaron Szafran [00:01:59]:
All right. Typically, I would say ladies first, but the lady has deferred.

Amber Wright [00:02:03]:
Have given you the microphone.

Aaron Szafran [00:02:07]:
I am Aaron Zafran.

Jeff Compton [00:02:09]:
Welcome, Aaron.

Aaron Szafran [00:02:10]:
Thank you. Thank you for having us. My first experience on a podcast. So maybe this is my entry into being the next Joe Rogan.

Amber Wright [00:02:21]:
He lives in Houston, so we could.

Aaron Szafran [00:02:23]:
Make a thing out of this, and maybe that's next. I like it. I've been with TechMetric a couple of years now as a former user, so I actually, it's funny you were talking about that. I come from the automotive side. Not a traditional software fellow myself. I was about a decade in automotive repair. Not a technician, not a mechanic. Ran shops very well and passionately.

Aaron Szafran [00:02:47]:
And frankly, the last shop that I operated switched over to techmetric. For the last couple years, I was there, and that has brought me to where I am today.

Jeff Compton [00:02:55]:
Right.

Aaron Szafran [00:02:56]:
It was the experience that I had with that transition that got me to, of course, research TechMetric more. And I'm very grateful to be where I am.

Jeff Compton [00:03:07]:
A great company. Absolutely fantastic.

Amber Wright [00:03:09]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, I have to. He's in Austin, not Houston, so we'll have to switch cities. I saw your face and I was like, hold on, not, not there. Amber Wright. I am VP of business development at TechMetrics. So I oversee our channel relationships with our partners.

Jeff Compton [00:03:26]:
Okay.

Amber Wright [00:03:27]:
Really helping understand how we can drive mutual value to companies. But at the end of the day, how are we driving the best possible outcome for our shops together? So whether that be through partnerships like BG or Advance or worldpac, those are the relationships that Aaron and the rest of our team get to work with on a daily basis to really go out in the field with our. With our customers and prospects that are not using techmetric to really understand, you know, how can we continue to meet them where they are, help them to evolve their shops, streamline their processes. So those are the things that we, on a daily basis, think about and continue to drive the status quo. And so I have a unique background. I do not come from the automotive background, although I have been in the industry for five years. My background's in psychology.

Jeff Compton [00:04:22]:
Oh, very cool.

Amber Wright [00:04:23]:
Yeah. So Roll Tide. I went to Alabama, but I just had to put it there because they're playing the dogs this weekend. So my husband, go dog Roll Tide.

Aaron Szafran [00:04:34]:
We got dogs on our team, too. So it's a fun dynamic, but at.

Amber Wright [00:04:38]:
The end of the day, I've worked in a lot of different industries. I worked in the financial industry prior to this industry and a few others. And I have truly fallen in love with the people in this industry. It is a family and a community, and everybody is wanting to help shape and grow. I think that there is a unique thing that you find at these shops that, you know, I hope that people are listening to your podcast and it allows them to say, hey, maybe I'm going to come to a show that I've never come to because it creates a synergy and a community of transparency, like just vulnerability. And running a shop is very difficult. Right. You work hard and having the community around each other and being able to share experiences and how best practices of how they got through a certain situation or the tools that they're using and how it works.

Amber Wright [00:05:40]:
I have truly fallen in love with this industry and there is so much more that we collectively can do. And it's an honor to be at techmetric to be able to be a part of that growth and transition and continue to push the status quo of what, what we can help shops do.

Jeff Compton [00:05:58]:
Yeah. Like, and I talk about how, you know, the new business that I'm at now does not use TechMetric. And it's back to again, the ways that I remember how some of the inefficiencies aren't, are more rampant or more. Because it's just we're using a different software system that hasn't integrated into so many levels. You know what I mean? And you're back to doing old school. You're picking up the phone, you know, and ordering that or you're, you're, you know, you're picking up the phone and having to call them and ask them that pitch an estimate because you don't have a video DVI integrated into it. Like, there's so many things. I just had a class this morning with Mrs.

Jeff Compton [00:06:40]:
Becky Witt and she talked about like, she showed her numbers and everything. It's essentially like the shop costs almost $6aminute to run. Right. Your loaded costs of. Into your technicians and, and that's assuming at a door rate of, I think she said, like $140 an hour. Right. So when you think about all that, what it's costing, and then you have all these relatively easy things to remedy from an efficiency standpoint, yet we see so many people that still want to do paper tickets and, you know, not utilize the DVI that way. Like, and then they wonder why at the end of the month, end of the week, end of the year, we didn't, you know, we didn't hit the goal that we wanted to in growth or revenue or whatever you want to call it.

Jeff Compton [00:07:22]:
Right. And it's just little things like that.

Amber Wright [00:07:25]:
Yeah. It's the 1% more that you can be doing every single day. Right. And it's also the way that techmetric has been built is there's multiple different packages. Right. Because we recognize that by putting a scale package where you have all the bells and whistles, there's shops out there that are coming from pen and paper. There's shops that are coming from QuickBooks. And how many times do we hear, I've done this for so many years, it's worked, why change it? But like you just said, there's things that you can do to just like 1% better.

Amber Wright [00:08:00]:
Right. You can change adding DVIs into your process. Right. We went through a case study on one of our calls today that a customer saw 53% higher close ratio just by using DVIs. Right. How, how impactful is that on a shop to be able to meet a customer where they are? Right. Because right now the reality is the customer is either a Gen Z or Millennial and they grew up with technology and they want things in front of their face. Right.

Amber Wright [00:08:31]:
They want to consume information differently. And so we have to meet our customers where they are. And so by providing that, we're driving transparency and trust. And then, you know, more work for you.

Jeff Compton [00:08:44]:
And look at how many people you can't even reach when you try to dial a phone.

Aaron Szafran [00:08:47]:
Sure.

Jeff Compton [00:08:48]:
Like, they just won't answer. They'll answer texts, they'll answer TikToks, they'll answer you Snapchats all day long if you try and dial them. They just can't answer.

Aaron Szafran [00:08:56]:
Absolutely.

Amber Wright [00:08:57]:
And I mean, leave me a voicemail because I'm not going to listen to it. Sorry.

Jeff Compton [00:09:00]:
Well, and that's, yeah. Truthfully. Right. Like, and I mean, and the AI thing is so cool too, when I see that how more and more people are integrating that into their processes as well. It's just, but you're, you're right about the Gen Z's, because I'm not a Gen Z, so it's like, it's hard for me to even relate sometimes. You know, I'm a Gen X, so it's like, what the heck? Like I, you know, I can't relate, but I, because I can remember when everything was enormous. Paper tickets, you know, and, and we didn't do a dvi. You, I mean, we did an inspection, sure, but it wasn't, we didn't take photos of anything.

Jeff Compton [00:09:34]:
We grabbed the customer and walked them out and showed them the broken car or we just called them up and they said okay. And they never saw. It's so much more power now, you know, and that's the big buzz ticket comp topic with, with technicians now is dbi. And, and you know, and it's like, it's, it's a real hated thing from some and it's an absolutely powerful tool for another, it just Depends on the culture that you put around it as a tool. Right. If it's, if it's. They begrudgingly take it on and it. And they're looking at the time and we're not, you know, converting a 53% better close rate.

Jeff Compton [00:10:11]:
That's huge that the technicians. But if it's not because we're not converting, then they look at it as just something that slows the process down. So I mean we have to. You can't just make it a magic fix all and throw it at the wall and watch it stick. You have to integrate it with something else and make it work. Right. It becomes a whole other shift. It's, it's powerful.

Jeff Compton [00:10:31]:
But you know, us mechanics are reluctant to change.

Aaron Szafran [00:10:35]:
Sure.

Amber Wright [00:10:35]:
You know, humans are reluctant to change. Let's like. But in change there's so much. I mean I say change mox us with its beauty. I actually think that was an Olaf quote from Elsa from I've not seen the movie. It's really powerful. I mean think about like change and failure.

Jeff Compton [00:10:55]:
Right.

Amber Wright [00:10:56]:
Success comes out of failure. You don't learn things until you fail. Or I mean you can but like usually it comes out of really big failures and we're all scared to fail. We're scared to change. But that is the only way you grow. And you have to be uncomfortable with the. Uncomfortable. Right.

Amber Wright [00:11:13]:
Being okay with accepting that and being willing to just have different processes. And I go to a lot of these events and I sit in a lot of the classes and there's such valuable information. But I think where a lot of shop owners, even with technology it can happen is when you take on more than you should. Yes, right. Just like things don't go well, you can quickly lose sight of the end goal and the why you're trying to change these processes. Right. So if it's, you know, we're trying to get more cars in or we're trying to. Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:11:48]:
So like more cars you can use DVIS customer reporting. Like those are the things that you should focus on and the results that you're trying to achieve before bringing on all these concepts. And so the, the 1% thing is something that we talk about often. Just like what's one thing that you can change?

Jeff Compton [00:12:06]:
Mechanics going back to reluctant to change. It's because like a lot of us, we, we see the constant tech changing it with just in the car itself.

Aaron Szafran [00:12:15]:
Sure.

Jeff Compton [00:12:16]:
Right. So it's like it. And we remember when I reached a crank up a window and you know, I'm dating myself but I mean I've driven.

Aaron Szafran [00:12:25]:
They're bringing that back out, by the way. I don't know.

Amber Wright [00:12:26]:
My Toyota Corolla was a crank up window.

Jeff Compton [00:12:29]:
Well, and you almost have to go back to some of the basic stuff again because the people are going to. These cars are getting to be so expensive. Like the features that I don't really care.

Aaron Szafran [00:12:39]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:12:40]:
Can I get something a little bit cheaper? Because like the technology to fix it. All right. And we talk about it from my standpoint where it used to be like I used to just push a button and it sent power somewhere and something happened. Now I push a button and it sends a signal and a request and then that gets talked to on a network to a couple different modules to decide if something can then happen. Right. Where it's taking things away from us. So that the reluctance I see to go from, you know, the program that they've always used is because like some of us day to day are just trying to stay ahead of the tech that's going on in the car. And then we get like, here, go change this software system.

Jeff Compton [00:13:20]:
It's tough, right?

Aaron Szafran [00:13:21]:
Sure.

Jeff Compton [00:13:21]:
You know, but you have to show us the benefit has to outweigh the frustration level. Technicians inherently are like our best lessons we've ever learned in our career. We learned the hard way.

Amber Wright [00:13:33]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:13:33]:
And doing it and doing it. We learn it the hard way. The car that kicked my butt was what shaped my process. Absolutely right. And that's the same way. But you want to make it, when you're doing the business side of things, be a nice smooth transition whenever possible.

Amber Wright [00:13:48]:
Yeah. I think that's one thing as a company. Right. We're really transitioning to be customer results driven. Right. And so in any conversation that we have with a customer, it has to become back to like, what is the result that the customer is trying to drive. Right. In a shop.

Amber Wright [00:14:04]:
I mentioned more cars, but it's make more money. There's a few different things. And so we can so easily get into this feature game with technology. But at the end of the day, if we're not driving the result that the shops need, they're not going to see a value and the technology that they're using.

Jeff Compton [00:14:26]:
Right.

Amber Wright [00:14:26]:
And so, yeah, you have to drive that result. And so we are really, over the last six months and into the future of techmetric going to be focusing on, you know, if you are a new customer coming in, those are questions we're going to be asking you of, like, what are you trying to drive? So that we can help you solve that. Of Course there's things that you're going to have to do in your shop to like get there, but the technology should be able to help you get there quicker and take some of that load off of you.

Jeff Compton [00:14:53]:
Yeah, it's driving trust, I think is the biggest thing that like completely I see shifting in this, in this industry. And Lucas reminds me a lot of the time, like the. Sometimes the number one priority isn't necessarily to be able to fix the hardest cars to fix, but just have like everybody trust you, you know, your customers 100% trust you. That's where the things become easy. You know, that's when the customer like, yes, we still have to be conduct ourselves professionally, but their main priority then becomes like, here's the keys, just let me know when I can have it back. You know, it's you. They've entrusted you to take care. And that's where we sometimes lose is we get wrapped up in like, I wanna, I want to be more efficient so I can drive more car count.

Jeff Compton [00:15:41]:
I want to be more efficient so I can boost my bottom line. That's great. But if we build more trust, we can almost dial back some of our marketing because it will handle itself. They would like I 100% trust LNN performance as an example. I recommend them to everybody, all because of trust. It's not necessarily like we have taken on the most complex problems to solve, but we just. They trust us 100% that what they say they're going to do. They do.

Jeff Compton [00:16:08]:
It's huge, man.

Aaron Szafran [00:16:09]:
Crucial.

Jeff Compton [00:16:10]:
Yes.

Amber Wright [00:16:10]:
I don't know if it was. Maybe it was Mike Allen, but I saw something on Facebook the other day about what their coach said and it's just like the. I think we definitely over complicate a lot of things and if we simplify it, it really comes back to a shop. How much time are you spending with that customer to really hear and listen to what they're saying, to build that trust. Right. And to slow down and say like, you know, there's a lot of, you know, I think it's, what was it, five times cheaper to retain a customer than it is to get a new acquisition of a customer? And so what are the things that you are doing into your shop to make sure that you are retaining those customers and building that trust? That's what you should be focusing on.

Jeff Compton [00:16:49]:
Yeah. Not. Yeah. Not getting more. Yeah, necessarily. I mean more customers is always great, but like I learned very early on, just as a technician, like if I only had to work on three cars a day, but I could Hit my eight hours, ten hours labor sold. That was way better than having to work on 20 cars at half an hour a car at 0.5 and oil change each. Like I would rather do three cars, you know, five hours on each car.

Jeff Compton [00:17:14]:
Walk home with 15 hours at the end of the day. That was way easier for me. Right. And it's the same process. We just have to teach the shop owners that. It's like it's been the buzz phrase for the last few days is you gotta slow down to be smooth and then smooth is fast.

Aaron Szafran [00:17:29]:
You know, slow down to speed up.

Amber Wright [00:17:30]:
The tortoise wins the race.

Jeff Compton [00:17:32]:
Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:17:33]:
Well, maybe not that slow. I want to be a little faster.

Jeff Compton [00:17:36]:
I mean I loved, I loved those fables as a, as a child. But now as I age out, I'm like, there's no, there's no effing way.

Amber Wright [00:17:45]:
That tortoise F word.

Jeff Compton [00:17:47]:
Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:17:47]:
Next to Friday.

Jeff Compton [00:17:48]:
Yeah. There's no that the tortoise is beaten. The hare, no matter how far off the hair goes into the woods, he merely only has to think about coming back and he'll beat the tortoise. But I know, I know what the fable is about. It's a lesson there. It's not about speed. Yeah. Diligence.

Jeff Compton [00:18:05]:
Absolutely. What do you guys. When you walk into a shop, what's the number one thing in your. And your, and your people will come to you and say techmetric, what's the biggest obstacle that they have?

Amber Wright [00:18:16]:
I will let you. I have my own thoughts.

Jeff Compton [00:18:18]:
Well, we'll share them both, please. But yeah.

Aaron Szafran [00:18:20]:
So are you thinking, you know, more along the lines of a, you know, an existing tech metric shop or you know, just a general shop? Maybe that's frankly probably utilizing a pen and paper type scenario at this, at this point. Because in all honesty it was, it was fun that you brought that up from the get go. That is still where we're getting most of our customers.

Jeff Compton [00:18:39]:
Yeah.

Aaron Szafran [00:18:39]:
Is from a style. Whether it's QuickBooks is maybe they have some type of a, you know, we.

Jeff Compton [00:18:44]:
Kind of maybe rudimentary basic system. Yes.

Aaron Szafran [00:18:48]:
So, you know, I think that that's one of the biggest challenges in the industry still, even at this point with all of the technology that you see happening in cars and across the industry is that there is still a lot of that, that, that old school mentality and approach that they've been doing it this way for 30 plus years. And the fear of change is a big challenge for a lot of these guys. We're into that moment of I think I Heard it being called the silver train here where the average shop owner's age is over retirement age. So you know, it's what's next for this industry is it's, it's kind of an interesting time to be involved.

Jeff Compton [00:19:26]:
Of course as well the average age of the average shop owner right now and the average age of the average technician is scary. How advanced those ages are, it's scary.

Aaron Szafran [00:19:36]:
And a lot of that technician challenges, frankly from like my age group, that 40 year old group, it almost doesn't exist. There's just not a lot of them out there.

Amber Wright [00:19:46]:
That was also because during, when we were, I mean they were pushing going to four year colleges. Absolutely. So that was, that was the shift then. That's what we're seeing. I would say the other thing besides change management and the generational shift is also, I was going to say time, but the time comes back to they can't find talent to be in their shop, to be able to spend time to implement something in their shop. So it's kind of like counterintuitive in a way if you think about it.

Aaron Szafran [00:20:17]:
They can't work on the business when they're in the business.

Amber Wright [00:20:20]:
Exactly. And so that's probably the second biggest thing which goes with you know, change management. I think that's, that's probably it.

Jeff Compton [00:20:29]:
And yeah, I mean I come from the background of like where when I worked at a dealership and I could jump brands and I would probably go and go and, and you know what, they were still using Reynolds and Reynolds at the next dealership, just as example the name. Right. So it was like, it was very easy to transition. You know, here's, you just have a new login number and a new tech number and everything is the same again. Whereas when I, when I came out of, you know, that kind of background and went into the independent shops where it's still pen and paper and then I go to a shop where it's Tech Metric and I was like, this is so cool. But there was such a learning gap for me of like how to, how do I do that again? How do I do like I have to, I'm a visual person, I have to write myself notes to remember I had a cheat sheet of how to navigate Tech Metric. And that was the hardest obstacle in that shop of not going in and fixing cars or turning hours. But these people that have been using Tech Metric for like two years, it was hard.

Jeff Compton [00:21:27]:
I struggled with coming in. I was like, I still remember commands from Reynolds and Reynolds and then trying to, oh, that's not the same command and it won't do the same thing. It was tough for me. Not because there was anything wrong with Tech Metric, but I'm like, I'm just old school. Listen, here's what I wrote down. That's what the car needs. It's out in the parking lot. I bring in the next car and they'd be like, no, no, like, we need, we need that.

Jeff Compton [00:21:48]:
Like, did you know, I didn't do any of that because I'm, I'm rushing. I'm, I'm looking at what do I have to get done today? And it, again, I didn't, I wasn't effective at slowing down to speed up.

Amber Wright [00:21:59]:
So I think to the other part you brought up, you said something that kind of like jogged my, my thoughts a little bit there. But I think that there's this fear of going from the desktop to the cloud. Right. Just like, also the same concept with AI, what's going to happen with my data? And those are things that you hear often. And I think it goes with just what we're used to. But the other part of that is what happens when your computer crashes, when you're on a server that's actually worse than anything that can happen in the web and you own your data. And so it's just kind of this mentality shift of we have to step in as the consultants to be able to, like, we are the experts at technology, just like you are the experts at putting a car back together. So we have to be able to meet you where you are in your understanding of, like, hey, this isn't actually a big scary thing.

Amber Wright [00:22:58]:
It's meant to help you in your process moving forward. But I think moving to the, the web is a big fear for a lot of people. Just like, you know, that the same pendulum of like, AI. People like AI, they don't like AI, we don't really know what's going to go on. And I think that there is, you know, a level with AI that you should be concerned and just aware of what's happening and how it's going to be utilized. And that's exactly how we're looking at it, of how is it learning? What is it learning? How are we going to utilize that? If we utilize that, what's that going to look like?

Jeff Compton [00:23:33]:
So I found the biggest obstacle to what I've seen when TechMetric has hit some road bumps on the limited experience I did have within Shop is because Shop owners are not utilizing it to its full potential.

Amber Wright [00:23:45]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:23:45]:
So they try to, like, okay, so still write the estimate out on paper for me and hand it in. But then I'm going to do my side of the, of the stuff on techmetric and it's like, no, the whole system is designed to be all done in one platform by everybody to eliminate the paper trail. But because it was like they weren't giving enough time to actually go in and do it in the computer. And again it comes back to car count and the customer showed up 45 minutes late. So you know, the appointment was for this. All things that are not techmetric fault breaking down in the process, but it's just, you know, skip the process. Now we throw the process away, throw it right in the trash and go back to what we've always done. People that are listening, that are shop owners, like, don't do that.

Jeff Compton [00:24:30]:
Don't try to over complicate it by keeping some of the old stuff. And when you decide to make the change, jump in with both feet.

Aaron Szafran [00:24:37]:
I think that's probably the most crucial, you know, advice that you can give to a shop that's transitioning to, you know, tech metric, a modern system, whether that's coming from pen and paper or their old system. Even more specifically, our system isn't designed to operate like the old system. What? Why would we.

Amber Wright [00:24:55]:
But you want it.

Jeff Compton [00:24:56]:
I've heard of shop saying, I'm running two systems. Like I have my system, the old system for this because I like that. I like how order parts through this, but I don't like that. Oh my God. How to make it even more complicated. Why?

Aaron Szafran [00:25:10]:
If you pull the band aid as we say, if you rip the band aid off and you commit to that change and to that new process, it's all about that process. The statistics are sound. They're there to support why we're successful and why we change people's lives all the time. Why I'm with techmetric. Yeah, it changed my life as a, as a service manager. That's what motivated me to want to be able to go out and do that and help with other.

Jeff Compton [00:25:36]:
So were you service manager in a dealership? A little bit of both.

Aaron Szafran [00:25:39]:
Dealership was very short lived. In fact, frankly it was right before I joined with techmetric. They just took a while getting me the job. So for six months as a service manager for a Ford Ford Lincoln Toyota dealership, all in one single building, which was complicated enough, it would be as well as a Kia dealership very shortly. Literally. Well, I kid you not, I don't think I've ever publicly spoken about this but the day that I started at the Kia dealership is when techmetric finally called me back and we reopened the conversation on getting me over to techmetric. So it was very short lived at Kia.

Amber Wright [00:26:16]:
We're glad to have him.

Aaron Szafran [00:26:17]:
But I was a service manager for a Meineke car care center in. This is in New Hampshire where I'm at from for about five years.

Jeff Compton [00:26:24]:
Yeah.

Aaron Szafran [00:26:25]:
So with the assistance of what techmetric provided to us, we were able to grow that Meineke specifically a little Concord, New Hampshire from. We were a million and a half annual average revenue value shop upon my arrival and upon my departure, we were two and a half million and operating as the number two Meineke in the country.

Jeff Compton [00:26:44]:
Wow.

Aaron Szafran [00:26:45]:
TechMetric had a lot to do with that. Not exclusively, I was pretty good at my job, but TechMetric had a lot to do with that because I was able to do so much more in terms of I got time back. You were talking about, you know, being on the phone all the time. That was probably the biggest change for me was not having to spend as much time on the phone with customers, on the phone with parts vendors. I was known to have two phones going at the same time and I'd.

Jeff Compton [00:27:09]:
Have that portable phone hooked to my.

Aaron Szafran [00:27:12]:
Belt at the same time as well. It was, you know, hours on the phone and the amount of time just from that experience alone was life changing. On top of the experience that you could enhance for the customers along the way, it really just changed so much for the way that shop was able to operate. The way I felt as an operator, heck, I could do inventory for the first time in years. Years, I tell you, because I didn't have time to get into the shop. Yeah, I was stuck on that desk all the time. And that changed so quickly. So quickly.

Amber Wright [00:27:44]:
Yeah, it's. It's been a really cool experience to watch how shops have changed. And even just in the 24 hours that we've been here, how many shops come up and just say, TechMetric has changed my life and my business and that is why we continue to do what we do. And I think one of the things that, you know, is really neat to see, you mentioned platform. And so we are making a shift into the all in one shop management platform. And so you kind of alluded to a lot of fragmentation in workflows in the shop, but also just in this industry. Right. There is a lot of fragmentation that we see in technology and the continuation of meeting our customers and listening to them and what they want.

Amber Wright [00:28:29]:
And so we've really, you know, the Core mission of techmetric was built on focusing on the general repair aspect, the repair aspect of the shop and how to run it and make sure that what we build is the most efficient and best process. Right. TechMetric was built by a shop owner for shop owners. And so there's a lot of folks at techmetric that have background in the industry who've worked in shops. You know, it's a continuation of understanding what's going on, but it's also, you know, as we continue to build, making sure that we can help each part of the customer experience. So being able to offer online booking. Right. Right now, that is the way that, you know, the customer wants to be met.

Amber Wright [00:29:15]:
So how are we helping support that? Are we giving automated appointments reminders? Right. The dental and hair salon industry, like they do such a good job and there's a lot to be learned through that. How many times when you have a dental appointment, are you going to get that appointment reminder? Right. And so like just being able to continue to bring back business and so everything from the online booking, appointment reminders, campaigns to continue to have automations to get people back in the shop. We are, you know, transitioning to be a true platform to offer payments and marketing as well on top of the repair.

Jeff Compton [00:29:54]:
I think that's so key. Right. Like I learned a long time ago it was a groundbreaking thing when somebody started talking and some of the groups we talking about and it's like when you would have their appointment and you were there doing their oil change on their car, you probably have seen similar things. They would be telling you now to make the appointment for three months out from now for the next one. Right. That's. I'm dating myself now because now we don't say three months, we say six months. But it's the same thing.

Jeff Compton [00:30:17]:
It's, it was such a cool concept. But like you said, I have, I have a little tiny dog. I have a little white Maltese. And so she's a, she's a dog. You have to take the groomer now. I don't have. Yes. So I don't ever have to remember that it's time to take her.

Jeff Compton [00:30:34]:
I get my, my, I get a phone call and I get an email and I get a text all from the groomer saying, this is your appointment for Lucy.

Aaron Szafran [00:30:42]:
Yep.

Jeff Compton [00:30:43]:
Great. Because I haven't remembered like when I made it three months ago. She goes every three months, what date I made it on. And I'm not like, I carry a phone around, but I don't immediately go three months from now and stick it in my phone. Like, I just make it the priority. It's the same time every day. It's always a Saturday morning, early in the morning, get it in, get it done. Right.

Jeff Compton [00:31:02]:
The whole thing. I'm so blessed that people have been able to embrace that in my industry because it's, it's, you know, the reluctance is. Used to be, oh, while I'm broke down or I need something addressed, I'll go in and get that maintenance thing done. And now when we start to be pretty preemptive about it and go, hey, let's get you in here. Six months from now for your. For your next thing, it's stream sign up and it's. That's another chance to connect with my customer and go, okay, so your appointments for this. Is there anything else going on underneath your car at the same time? And they're like, yes, actually, I've started to hear some things or I've started to, you know, notice it seems to want to crank a little slow and it's cold.

Jeff Compton [00:31:40]:
Can you look at this? This and this? That's been so paramount for us. Not just being a reaction based business to what they come to us with, but an advocacy for what they actually need to be doing for their car.

Amber Wright [00:31:53]:
Yeah, it's just like going in for your yearly checkup with a doctor. Right? And well, I started. I. Sunil was in the medical world, so he's like, have you gotten this checkup? And I'm like, I don't have time for all these checkups, Sunil. So you can control my calendar? No, I'm joking. But I did, and I think it's you. Actually, I was going back because I just had this and my PA was like, is there anything else you want to talk about? He is not my therapist. Right.

Amber Wright [00:32:22]:
By any means. But like, you almost put yourself in a position to be a trusted advisor or consultant. And it's amazing when you just ask those questions, what comes out and you find things. The other part, about appointments, right. With cars or even your dog. I'm the same way. We have two doodles that are just like. So there's so much grooming that needs to be done with these.

Amber Wright [00:32:46]:
Nobody told me about this. I should have just stuck with the labs. They're wonderful. But we had to go bougie and get doodles. No, but like, it takes the thought process out of it so that you don't lose that customer going just like, hey, I'm gonna go get a quick oil change. Right? You're taking the thought out of it, and you're meeting the customer where they are and you know there's a chance that they have to reschedule. But you've also put them in this. Like, I don't want to feel guilty of not showing up, so I'll just reschedule and come back.

Amber Wright [00:33:17]:
Or I'll just show up. Right. So there's a psychology behind the appointment reminders and getting it back in.

Jeff Compton [00:33:23]:
And I see that talk once in a while that people are talking about actually when people make an appointment and cancel in the automotive space that maybe there should be a fee attached. Right. Because people do it.

Aaron Szafran [00:33:35]:
Now, I've heard some shops, I know.

Jeff Compton [00:33:36]:
My, my, Like, I know that with. If I don't make Lucy's appointment and I don't give them 24 hours notice, they are going to charge me a certain amount. And I don't, I don't get mad at them or think that I'm getting ripped off or angry about because I understand how it works that, like, if, if they lose that spot, that's revenue. They don't generate money. Right. It costs them money. So it's, it's totally fair. But when we talk about it in the automotive space, they're like, I'm not doing that.

Jeff Compton [00:34:02]:
I'm not like, how are you gonna. You're. I'm gonna scare all those people away. Okay. If we want to run where it's like, I need a car count that's X in order for. To be the nut at the end of the day on what it's going to take, I need people to understand that it's important that when they make an appointment, I meet them where they need to be. I help them, give them every other means that it's like, okay, you can't wait. Okay, cool.

Jeff Compton [00:34:24]:
Here's a loaner, here's an Uber, here's a bus. Whatever we do right. And, and, and we are able to keep that contracted obligation on both sides where we're gonna deliver to them and they're gonna be, you know, coming into us. Because otherwise I see it all the time where it's. I've been that guy at the dealership where there was 40 appointments that day. 20 of them didn't come in. Guess what? A lot of texts didn't make any money that day.

Amber Wright [00:34:51]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:34:51]:
You know, Sure.

Amber Wright [00:34:53]:
I would also implore you as a shop owner to like, really question. Are those the customers that you want to have?

Jeff Compton [00:35:00]:
Yes. Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:35:03]:
So if they're not willing to respect your time, are they the customers that you want to have in your shop.

Jeff Compton [00:35:09]:
Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:35:09]:
And you have to be okay with that. It's also like raise your labor. Right. Like, that's also kind of that fear there of if I do this, I'm going to lose those customers. Well, you are the expert at what you do and you should be paid for that expertise. And it's okay because you're going to get the right customer in the door who will respect and pay for that.

Jeff Compton [00:35:32]:
Yeah. And I say it all the time, raise your rates. You know, Ryr isn't a one fix for all your shop problems, but damn it, it's the first good fix every time. First step, excuse me, is always go up, don't go down. Always go up. And it. Because it's. You get some immediate money back in if you don't change the expenses you are, you know, you don't raise it and then give them a raise.

Jeff Compton [00:35:56]:
Your technicians, your workforce, whatever. You get a little bit of buffer there and then you decide, okay, that buffer is going to be to cover the fact that if I'm not paying my technicians on a flat rate, if I'm paying them hourly and all of a sudden now my rates up $5 more and two appointments don't come in, it's not hurting me as much that I didn't get those jobs. And that's why I think when we go to this, if you make the appointment and you cancel or don't show and I hit you with this fee, that's to cover even more. I think for the techs that are being paid hourly versus flat rate and you don't come in, you understand that they have to get paid somehow.

Aaron Szafran [00:36:32]:
Of course.

Jeff Compton [00:36:33]:
And the margins have always been so thin anyway in our industry that if we can do every little thing that's frankly accepted now in the everyday. Yeah. We should be able to bring it into ours. That's how I feel anyway. I agree.

Aaron Szafran [00:36:46]:
I mean, I do think that, you know, it's very exciting with us adding in our marketing solution functionality. And from personal experience, you know, we talk about dentist. Dentist. I have never missed a dentist appointment as a result of having that confirmation reminders. And by having those involved into your appointment processes, the more of those that you have, the more it's mitigating the potential loss of those appointments. So your show rate is going to increase because people are seeing that you're having that complete communication process, frankly, even with a new customer. It's the entirety of that journey experience that we now have access to whether they're in for As a, you know, new customer coming in during, while they're in the shop, going through the entirety of what processes you have in place to keep them informed, be transparent, you know, have some empathy, build that loyalty and trust. And then even after the fact, where you're doing follow ups for whether it's services that they didn't choose to do that day, simple thank yous follow up for internal feedback or Google reviews, having those tools in place, you have that full journey experience which it takes it even further than the dentist.

Aaron Szafran [00:37:53]:
The dentist doesn't ask me if I liked my time.

Amber Wright [00:37:56]:
I think they know better.

Aaron Szafran [00:37:58]:
I don't like the dentist over your.

Amber Wright [00:38:00]:
Face, in your mouth.

Jeff Compton [00:38:03]:
And the flip side of always how we used to do it, and I've seen shop owners again do this, is they always intentionally overbook? Right. So then what happens is in the perfect world where all of a sudden every, nobody cancels, then you are the wheels fall off the bus and all of a sudden you have all these people that you're calling at the end of day or even the two o', clock, one o' clock lunchtime going, guess what, we're not gonna be able to get to you today. And, and what do you tell them? You make up something, you know, you spin yarn or whatever. But the reality is, is because like we are always booking a little bit more than what we can probably get through because we can always count on one or two are not coming in. And one or two, if it's just small jobs, it's not the end of the world. Sure, somebody might drop in unexpectedly. That's our industry too, right? Hey, I got a nail in the tire or hey, like it's towed in because it won't run, that's. But when we start to say, oh my God, like I've had to really let down some people at day's end because everybody showed up, that's when it's time to rethink our process, right?

Aaron Szafran [00:39:03]:
Absolutely.

Jeff Compton [00:39:04]:
So people that are listening to that, just think about that. If you're doing that where it's always you're saying yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Because you're counting on somebody to not be no show. When you start to really get your stuff together, there's less, no shows. And then you have to really again do the same with less, less customers for the same amount of money. That's what we're all chasing at the end of the day. Technician goes right back to it. I want to work on as few cars as possible and make as much money as possible.

Jeff Compton [00:39:31]:
Because it's the time in between. I'm not putting the wrench to the car that's costing me the time.

Amber Wright [00:39:35]:
Yep.

Jeff Compton [00:39:36]:
Right.

Aaron Szafran [00:39:36]:
Absolutely. Although many probably don't want to change the engine. They rather do brakes.

Jeff Compton [00:39:42]:
I was always a guy, like, I was a guy that I just wanted to sit in the seat and look at this at the computer. Yeah. That's where my strength. Right. Because then it was like, okay, I can. And. And not everybody can do that. But if I had to, like, if I had to rack 20 cars, entire season in Canada sucks.

Amber Wright [00:39:58]:
Oh, my gosh.

Jeff Compton [00:39:59]:
Sucks. It's terrible.

Aaron Szafran [00:40:00]:
That's. It's actually quite different up there.

Jeff Compton [00:40:02]:
I've.

Aaron Szafran [00:40:03]:
I've read. I think it's like 70% do a tire changeover or something like that. They require by law.

Amber Wright [00:40:07]:
Well, there's some providences that have mandatory snow tires.

Aaron Szafran [00:40:11]:
It's fascinating because down here it's very low in comparison.

Jeff Compton [00:40:15]:
Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:40:15]:
Although last season it was pretty far out. I mean, like, the, the seasons are just shifting.

Jeff Compton [00:40:20]:
Yeah. We didn't get a lot of snow last year, but they don't care. If you're in Quebec and you don't have snow tires on, you're still pulling you over and you're checking you out. And it all has to do with like, again, the roads in Quebec versus the roads even in Ontario, one province over suck. So you can't. And it's not so much like just the condition of the road. They're bad themselves. They're pothole city is Montreal.

Jeff Compton [00:40:39]:
But if you look at how they. The. The budget that they decide is snow removal, they don't use it as much in Quebec. So you have to be. If you want to get where you're going, you're doing two things. Three things. Public transit, walking, or you're putting snow tires in the vehicle. And it's just, hey, if you didn't get where you need to be because you didn't use those three things.

Amber Wright [00:40:57]:
Oh, well, yeah. That's where the appointment booking becomes very important. Right. Because you also are booking out starting in, you know, three months out from season. And then you also have to change the tires that you have in inventory or you're holding.

Jeff Compton [00:41:11]:
Oh, it's.

Amber Wright [00:41:12]:
It's super complex.

Jeff Compton [00:41:13]:
Canada is a completely different demographic. Just before even it was mandatory, this, the tire thing was. Even if we weren't putting snows on, people tended to come in spring and fall, and that's when we sold them new tires. Right. So like in the Canadian business model of automotive, we build the whole business Model around the tire in Canada, where I see it, nowhere else. Even in the US Even in US it gets part snow more than us. They don't build their model that way. And it.

Jeff Compton [00:41:38]:
And it. As a technician, it frustrates you because you go home at the end of tire season, like, every day sore. It is a lot of lifting. It's a lot of. They stink. They're dirty, they're always wet. Your hands are cold. Like, it just sucks.

Jeff Compton [00:41:50]:
Yeah, well, you know, and it's important because it drives those other sales and it drives that relationship. But I mean, like, people are starting to figure out that it's like, I don't care if they buy their tires somewhere else. I'm not a tire store.

Amber Wright [00:42:04]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:42:04]:
I am a repair center. So it's like, I want just the repairs. But we unfortunately are so trapped with. If we don't get the tire business, they may not come into a shop at all for six months from now. When they come off, there could be a whole lot of things wrong with their car they don't even know about. So that's where it's always driven us. That unfortunately, like, we have to do it. It's just.

Jeff Compton [00:42:27]:
It sucks. I always liked it when it was like, the car comes in for that. But we had apprentices that did the tire work, and I was focusing on the brakes, the suspension, the. The drivability problems, all that kind of stuff. And they did my tires for me, and I just put them on the car. Yeah, it was done. Like, I wasn't fighting to get them. And, you know, we could do a whole rant just on tires.

Jeff Compton [00:42:48]:
Like, wheel lock keys. People, if you're listening and you have a wheel lock key on your car, take it off right now for me.

Aaron Szafran [00:42:54]:
Please, because no one's stealing rims. They're taking the whole car if they need it.

Jeff Compton [00:42:57]:
I can buy the tool that I need. Need to remove the. The locking key for under 20 bucks. Right. If I really want your rims that bad, I'll spend the 20 bucks and I'll have it. And I'll still have them on. No doubt. You know, because we do it every day long when the customer going to.

Amber Wright [00:43:09]:
His shop.

Jeff Compton [00:43:12]:
It'S okay, you can buy it on Teemu. It's. It's. That's where they buy. So it's. Yeah. So it's not a situation of like, we. We want to frustrate you or anything like that.

Jeff Compton [00:43:22]:
It's just people don't understand that, you know, I want to be out of here by 10 o'. Clock. Cool. All right. I see you at 8:30. I get. I'm clocking 90 minutes to do four tires to get your car here. All of a sudden.

Jeff Compton [00:43:34]:
Where's the wheel key? Oh, the what? Yeah, the wheel key. Oh, I got like, I got snow boots and some snowboards in the back and all this kind of stuff. It's now a 20 minute adventure to try and find the wheel out key.

Aaron Szafran [00:43:46]:
If you find it.

Jeff Compton [00:43:47]:
If you find it.

Aaron Szafran [00:43:48]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:43:48]:
So what do I do now to still make the appointment time?

Amber Wright [00:43:51]:
Oh yeah, I think Ed told me I have one.

Jeff Compton [00:43:54]:
Pretty sure.

Amber Wright [00:43:54]:
Yeah. I just. Kia.

Aaron Szafran [00:43:57]:
No, she's telling.

Jeff Compton [00:43:58]:
Oh, congratulations. Nice cars.

Amber Wright [00:44:00]:
So beautiful.

Jeff Compton [00:44:00]:
Yeah, yeah, they're great.

Aaron Szafran [00:44:02]:
They are nice cars and they do I'm pretty sure come from the manufacturer with the wheel locks on. Yeah, they do. You have the option in your glove box. I'm pretty sure to have those swapped out for, for the standard ones. They are there.

Amber Wright [00:44:14]:
I'm not there yet. So get there.

Jeff Compton [00:44:16]:
It's okay, I'll get there.

Aaron Szafran [00:44:17]:
We'll get you there. This will help.

Amber Wright [00:44:18]:
I'm still enjoying the the but seats that are heated. Oh God, it's so nice. Although I, I should have known better. I had a Kia Sorento 2013 and the knock sensor. I went through all of that and Kia basically told me it was negligence on my part and here I am with a Telluride. But they're so beautiful.

Jeff Compton [00:44:37]:
So I'll say this. Hyundai and Kia are the most improved. We say it all the time. I work at a used car lot so I see a lot of used cars come in on from all makes and models. Doesn't matter. They are. It'd be like the most improved proved student award. Sure.

Aaron Szafran [00:44:52]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:44:52]:
For, for like in the last 10 years from where they were to where they've come. Unbelievable.

Amber Wright [00:44:58]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [00:44:58]:
Oh, with quality level. You look at a Telluride now you're like man, that is a really nice vehicle. Or Palisade. Really nice. Yeah. Like. And you're like that shouldn't be. It's a what? Oh wow.

Jeff Compton [00:45:10]:
You look at the new Santa Fe's they're modeling. We have one. They look like Range Rovers. Right.

Aaron Szafran [00:45:15]:
See that's it. My wife wanted a Range Rover and I, we are not going down that path. But the Santa Fe came out and I showed it to her. I was like, look, it is literally it is your. It's exactly what you want.

Jeff Compton [00:45:27]:
We could buy you two Santa Fe so that once we can afford it because the Range Rover is going to be in the shop Just as much.

Amber Wright [00:45:33]:
Exactly. That's actually why I built the Telluride. So I bought it. It's like dark gray, the black rims, the beautiful grill. There's no silver.

Aaron Szafran [00:45:41]:
We actually came from a Telluride too. So, yeah, they are beautiful. We were.

Jeff Compton [00:45:45]:
I was part.

Aaron Szafran [00:45:46]:
I was telling her that we were part of the founders club for the Telluride. I had been watching it for a couple of years at the shows out in Colorado, I think. But, yeah, so I saw. I obviously put my email in somewhere at some point, and when we purchased said Telluride, I got an email saying, we are sending you $750 for being part of the founders club.

Amber Wright [00:46:06]:
I did not get that experience.

Jeff Compton [00:46:10]:
If you really love this one and buy a second one after, I'm sure they're gonna really, really, like, probably.

Amber Wright [00:46:15]:
I will get there.

Jeff Compton [00:46:16]:
Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:46:16]:
Yeah.

Aaron Szafran [00:46:17]:
We had great value on our. On it. When we, you know, traded in, it was a phenomenal value that it maintained. Unexpected.

Amber Wright [00:46:24]:
Once I get done paying money on my husband's Ford, after 150 platinum and all the stuff that I've just put into that guy, we'll. We'll maybe get another Telluride. Never.

Aaron Szafran [00:46:32]:
They are two turbos.

Amber Wright [00:46:34]:
Two turbos.

Jeff Compton [00:46:35]:
I was just gonna ask.

Amber Wright [00:46:36]:
God, it was the worst.

Jeff Compton [00:46:40]:
Yeah, because, you know, you've sold.

Amber Wright [00:46:42]:
I did look up in techmetric if the price that I was being quoted was a fair price.

Aaron Szafran [00:46:46]:
I bet you did. That's naturally what I do anytime I'm getting my car worked on and make sure.

Amber Wright [00:46:51]:
But not that I don't trust my shop, but it's actually like twin turbos. Be able to understand and like, look. But yeah, it was.

Jeff Compton [00:46:59]:
And see, that's where some of us, like we. In some of the channels I run with we. That word fair is a very, like, sometimes it's a detested word because actually, what does it really mean? Right. And we go back to like, I had a great conversation today where it's like, I'm gonna charge you $800 for a brick job. I'm gonna charge you a thousand dollars for breakdown at shop A, shop B. Is either one unfair? No. What's. What are you comparing again? Right? So it's like when you go back to that as an example, it's like we get into where a lot of what you're literally looking at is canned jobs from a place where it was like, this dealer had done it.

Jeff Compton [00:47:34]:
So it was this price, this dealer done it. They average all out maybe, and say. Or a hundred of them were all within 10 bucks of each other. That's cool. And then you might see the other guy and he's like, he's using really questionable, like Teemu Turbos, maybe.

Amber Wright [00:47:48]:
Thank God we did not use.

Jeff Compton [00:47:49]:
Yes. So it's all of a sudden you're like, you're seeing the really low number and you're like, that's fair. Well, it's not fair because that one is going to be like, I mean, and I'm not running down temu, but you know what I mean.

Amber Wright [00:48:00]:
But you could end up seeing me all the time.

Jeff Compton [00:48:02]:
In six months, you could end up with a broken car again. And then you're like, well, that's not all that fair.

Amber Wright [00:48:08]:
Yeah. So you know what? I think that's a really valid point. And it was a poor choice of words. No, but I know on my part, but I actually, like, I work. We work in the industry. We work. You know, we're not in the shop all the time. But even I, as the customer still have that feeling and that belief.

Amber Wright [00:48:26]:
But what it comes down to is I just don't know. I don't know actually what you are buying it for. And so that is where my. It's not a distrust, it's just a lack of knowledge of what are you presenting to me. Because that is a large cost that I am about to incur. And so it is. Meet me where I can understand what it is actually that costs for you. I don't need to know the whole thing, but I think that there is this.

Amber Wright [00:48:58]:
You have to be able to coach your customer because they just don't know.

Jeff Compton [00:49:01]:
Yeah, I had a great conversation this morning. I'm sitting in the back of the class, and because I do this now, right. A large part of my time, I'm very comfortable interrupting. So somebody is up front in the classroom and they're asking the Becky that's putting on the thing, and they're like, well, what do I say to a customer when they asked me, why am I $200 more than the dealership? And I don't even put my hand up. I blurt it from the very back row. It's okay to tell them that your techs are better than the dealership. It's a mindset.

Amber Wright [00:49:34]:
I love that.

Aaron Szafran [00:49:34]:
Without a doubt.

Amber Wright [00:49:35]:
Yeah.

Aaron Szafran [00:49:36]:
And of course, you have to train people.

Amber Wright [00:49:38]:
What are they gonna question that first place again? Like, it's just like asking, like, just ask. The worst thing that somebody can say is no. So, like, what is a customer going to say? Like, oh, they're better than the dealership.

Jeff Compton [00:49:50]:
I would have willing to pay for that. I would have so much respect for my counter person if that is their go to answer because I know that they really have my back. Absolutely. I may not be all the time as good as the dealer tech, but like if somebody at least has that faith in me or that's what they're telling people, they're bragging me up. Right Then I feel really good about going to work every day and really trying to do that one more percentage, you know. And it's the same thing. It goes back to like meet them where they are. Well, that's.

Jeff Compton [00:50:19]:
I want to be able to speed that process up and that's what I love tech metric. Going back to the DVI thing and it's integrated and all that kind of stuff because I don't. I used to be able to bring them out in the bay and have a 20 minute conversation that didn't want to be 20 minutes but always wound up being 20 minutes about this is the water pump that's leaking. You know, it's always that's you're seeing drips on the ground and oh yeah, it's behind the timing belt and it's a big ordeal and all this kind of stuff. Now I can film that in a video and send it to them and if they don't understand, they can play the video back and they might, you know, that's so powerful.

Aaron Szafran [00:50:52]:
Absolutely. And I mean your description there that you put into that dvi, it's. It can be as powerful as you walking out to that shop and showing them. It's as though that you've taken that whole experience of what you were accustomed to putting it into a digital format and meeting the customer where they are, whether that's on the phone and an email, rarely are they sitting there in the shop where you're going to walk them into, out under that water pump in the first place. It's providing them the exact information in a modern, clean format and just meeting them exactly where they need to be. Nobody wants to replace a water pump but you're giving them the reason and the why behind it.

Amber Wright [00:51:32]:
Yeah, I think that the same concept about, you know, when we get shop owners that we walk into shops all the time or even hear why TechMetric.

Jeff Compton [00:51:41]:
Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:51:42]:
What makes you different? It's the same concept of a shop or a customer asking like why are you more expensive than the shop down the street? And it comes back to every single decision that we make starts with the why. And as much as like I've experienced this Industry. It has been so powerful to witness how techmetric makes decisions and what we build and how we build it and why we build it. And every decision comes back to are we driving the best customer experience and does it make sense in the overall workflow of a shop? And so everything that we do, I know, is for the betterment and is better because of the decisions that every single day we wake up and have conversations about and make in the process of building this technology and continue to evolve.

Jeff Compton [00:52:36]:
So give me an example of how, because I know like when somebody contacts you guys and say, okay, I want TechMetric in my shop, what starts what, what's the first, like, do people come from the company and kind of help them do the transition?

Amber Wright [00:52:52]:
It's different on where it comes in.

Aaron Szafran [00:52:53]:
It's all situational. Exactly. Depending on where that, you know, whether the customer reached out directly to us via our marketing channels through our website. If I'm showing up in the shop and talking to that owner and they get a level of interest and decide to ultimately pull that trigger. Frankly, different shops choose different paths as well. We do offer some on site training that can be incredibly hands on and super powerful for, especially for bigger shop operations that really want to completely change the entirety of the concept of their business. Or frankly, a new shop that might want to set things up properly right from the get go. So we have a variety of different methods associated.

Aaron Szafran [00:53:37]:
No matter the scenario, if a shop signs up with TechMetric, they're immediately assigned a dedicated training and onboarding manager to make sure that the initial processes of their shop setup are structured the same way no matter what. And then from there that's where it gets like, maybe they want that on site training. Maybe I show back up again a week later because I happen to be in the area again.

Amber Wright [00:53:59]:
And this is where those customer results come into play and are so important because it also helps the onboard, the dedicated onboarding consultant really understand the areas that we need to lean in on and where we need to, as they go through the customer journey of techmetric to continue to come back to and say like, okay, we talked about DVIs being the way that we're going to drive more, more car count. So like we can see that you're not utilizing the DVIs and we can help step in and coach or if we know that you're working with the coach, how can we work with them together to utilize the tool? Like this is where it becomes incredibly powerful of we're not just a tool, like we become an extension of your business. And it becomes powerful. And I think too, the other part of that is like Aaron and the team, while they aren't out there doing onboarding or training, they have so much knowledge on the tool that they go to visit shops that are not using TechMetric. But there's a mixture of shops that they do go visit, and they also become this leg of they'll walk in and a customer's like, hey, I need help doing X, Y and Z, setting up my parts matrixes and connecting my vendors. Those are things that happen in onboarding. But there are things that happen and where, you know, we do have boots on the ground. And so there's.

Amber Wright [00:55:23]:
At every level and journey of the shop, we meet you exactly where you are.

Jeff Compton [00:55:28]:
I think that's so powerful because when you mentioned the coaching thing like that is so it's becoming almost the norm now that a lot of shop owners that I approach and talk to, and I talk to a lot of them or talk to technicians that they know their. Their shop owner has a coach. That's great. Now that when you say that they can actually integrate in terms of, like, familiarity with what the coaches are going to be talking about and the software system that they have in place, like, it can almost work together. Like, there's, there's getting to be. I don't want to say no excuse, but like, we're eliminating so much of that waste. You know what I mean? It's just, it's so powerful. Like, I'm so excited about what the tech brings, the technology to this industry.

Jeff Compton [00:56:12]:
Like, it's. Because we see all the time, I need more. I need more hours done. I need more labor sold. Any more. Like, yeah, we all do. We all do. And we're pulling from a really.

Jeff Compton [00:56:23]:
A lot of people are in tough financial situations right now. It's not great out there. Right. So. But if we continue to show them value, man, there's no. They're gonna always still choose to do the right thing, which is keep that vehicle, you know, reliable and safe. Because it's. It's a really.

Jeff Compton [00:56:41]:
A lot of people now. It's their biggest investment they're making in life. Unfortunately, they're not buying homes. Right. They're buying vehicles.

Aaron Szafran [00:56:46]:
Right.

Jeff Compton [00:56:47]:
Because they can't afford both.

Aaron Szafran [00:56:48]:
Keeping the vehicles obviously longer because of that same problem and challenge. Without a doubt.

Jeff Compton [00:56:54]:
Yeah. Like you're going back to your husband's truck there just a few short years ago. They still.

Amber Wright [00:56:59]:
Not over that one.

Jeff Compton [00:56:59]:
No. They probably would have just traded that in. Right. And a lot of people still we assessed.

Amber Wright [00:57:04]:
We would have assessed it, but. But at the same time, you know, our shop owner was like, like, this engine is so good. And I advise you, because I asked him, what would you do? Right. Just like, when I go to my hairdresser, you do what you want. Like, you are the artist in this. You know, there's a level of trust that I have to. Have to say. Like, I don't want to come out with, like, pink hair or blue hair.

Amber Wright [00:57:27]:
Like, we're not. Like, please, please be kind mullets. My husband would love that. But, like, there is a level. Level of trust that I. I expect out of my shop owner of, like, I want you to tell me what you would do in this situation. Just like when you go to a restaurant and you want your waiter to tell you what are the best things on the menu.

Jeff Compton [00:57:46]:
Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:57:46]:
I want. I want you to tell me exactly what I should do, and I want it to be what you would do. And so his guidance was, this engine is fantastic. You are not going to get this. This is just something that you need to do because of where the car is and the miles that it's at. This is expected. But I can promise you that this car will be. This truck will be humming.

Amber Wright [00:58:10]:
And I trust him. Right. And it took a while for me. He didn't push me. He didn't push us. He recognized that it's a really big investment that we were making. You know, we have small kids. We're paying for a lot of things.

Amber Wright [00:58:21]:
Life is just expensive right now. And. And the fact that he. Empath. Empathize.

Jeff Compton [00:58:27]:
Empathize. Yeah.

Amber Wright [00:58:30]:
Empathetically met me where I was, he empathized with that went a long way. And you bet I will take my car back every single time.

Aaron Szafran [00:58:41]:
Yeah, I think that's actually, you know, in itself how I helped grow some of the customer trust in our building was if I saw a scenario that I didn't kind of personally feel like I would follow. You need a $7,000 engine on this vehicle? Yeah, it's rotting out underneath.

Jeff Compton [00:58:58]:
Yeah.

Aaron Szafran [00:58:58]:
I kind of think it's probably time to move on from this vehicle. Just having that direct connection with that customer can make them a customer for life as well.

Jeff Compton [00:59:07]:
Yeah, it's. It's where the. Going back to, you know, it can cost five times as much to get a new customer is. Keep the customer that you have. You know, I never understood the real value, real. Real meaning of what it was to advocate until I started to really get in with Lucas and start to understand and that man, I've never seen anybody live advocacy for his customers and his clientele and his people and everybody that he meets the way that he does. It's remarkable to see. And it's so cool because I have been with some people in the past, and it's like it doesn't matter what condition the car is in.

Jeff Compton [00:59:44]:
You just table everything that needs and don't make the decision for them. And I've always at the point where it's like, I don't feel good if I'm gonna put an engine into something that I. When I. On the road test, I felt like the tranny also didn't feel great. And then when I look underneath and it's. It's starting to get. They haven't undercoated it, and it's starting to rust pretty heavy. I want to be at least truthful enough to say them, okay, here's where we are with this.

Jeff Compton [01:00:10]:
You know, up. I had a really cool scenario. Customer comes to me, they bought a 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan, 180,000 kilometers. So in the communist units of kilometers, say it's got over 100,000 miles because it's Canada, right? They call us Canada.

Amber Wright [01:00:26]:
When I run on a treadmill in Canada, I am so freaking confused. I feel like I've run so far and I haven't.

Jeff Compton [01:00:32]:
No, you have not. So you say 10 kilometers, you've gone six miles. But anyway, so she says to me, she says she's had the car a month, and all of a sudden. And again, the used car market is normally why they were traded or wound up at auction or whatever in the first place. Finally rears their ugly head right now. Sometimes we get in, we drive them right away, we know, but other times there's. There's phantoms in the machine, we call it. And.

Jeff Compton [01:00:54]:
And you know, you get these cars. So anyway, she says to me, she says, she comes back and she's got a check engine light on. And so I'm on a road test with her because she's a little. She's only had the car three weeks and already it's got a check engine light on. When we sold it to her, it did not have a check in engine light on. It had no. No prior anything to give us thing. And when we safety a car, we're making the car safe to pass the government standards of what it has to be for safety.

Jeff Compton [01:01:17]:
We don't actually, like, go and look at everything that hasn't been done or, okay, maybe we should be preemptively changing These parts of it, because they're known to failure. That's not how you would run a used car lot. It's not. Doesn't make sense. So anyway, she says to me, she says, still have X amount of weeks before I could get out of this car. Should I get out of it now? And I'm like, first of all, you can't really ask me that kind of question because you're putting me in a really awkward spot. Because, like, I'm telling you that you should have never bought this. Right.

Jeff Compton [01:01:47]:
That's what you're hoping. I say, I can't say that my people that I are employed and I really appreciate them employing me and I like them and they treat me well. I can't say that well. How do I then advocate for them? And I'm like, was in a real stock and we're kind of driving around, listen to the car. And I'm thinking for a minute, I go, here's what I can tell you. When people come to me and ask me, what should I buy? I don't normally recommend European cars in the used market. That was the best way that I could think of to say the same thing that I wanted to say without putting myself in a tough spot. And this is where, like, I'm always gonna advocate, but I'm also gonna be really truthful.

Jeff Compton [01:02:26]:
And that's where in the industry we have to get back to telling the truth. You know, not covering it up. Under tactics, I guess, is the word I want to use. Right, agreed.

Amber Wright [01:02:36]:
Well, in a mistrusted industry that we talk about, like, right. That is what you have to do. And majority of the time, the things that are right to say are the things that are hard to say. Right. And it's also, you know, I think about things that are happening in the world right now and the messaging that's going on of just like, being vulnerable with saying things that make people uncomfortable. You just have to. Because it's the right thing to do. Don't lie, show up for people, say hard things.

Amber Wright [01:03:11]:
Because that actually means you care about people, you know, telling them something other than the truth.

Jeff Compton [01:03:17]:
Yeah. And we have to do it in the shop all the time. Like, I have to be able to look at people from a standpoint of ability and go, I know that that technician is strong here and weak there. Right. I don't want to fluff them and say that they are great everywhere. You know, I'm going to be very truthful. It's not. It's.

Jeff Compton [01:03:34]:
And then it's not Even criticism anymore. It's just a situation of like, look, this is where I know where we need to work. And this is where I know, like, you're killing it here. Those are the kind of conversations we need to be having. And it's the same with the customers, right? Like, I don't.

Amber Wright [01:03:48]:
Your employees want that.

Jeff Compton [01:03:50]:
And employees. And I've seen people like, well, your transmission's blown up because you didn't do the maintenance. That's not the way to say that. The way to say that is, well, you know, I understand that the maintenance manual tells you that by a hundred thousand we should have changed the fluid. You're at 140 and you never change the fluid. Here's the reality about this, right? Is that I'm not saying that because you didn't caused this. They're really a known failure point anyway. Sure, right.

Jeff Compton [01:04:19]:
But here's what I have also seen other people advocate for is we do the service interval at half the interval.

Amber Wright [01:04:24]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:04:25]:
And people are like, oh, okay. I just wish somebody had a told me that. Well, that's how. When you're really, truly advocating, you're not upselling anymore. You're. What's your, what's your. And it's a feel thing.

Amber Wright [01:04:38]:
Yes.

Jeff Compton [01:04:38]:
Like, what's your commitment to this vehicle? I replace every five years. Okay. That's a completely different customer for me then it's like I had to save everything that I had to be able to buy this. And in no foreseeable future do I see myself without this. That's a very different customer to have. And we used to think that one was way better than the other. It's not. Because it's a lot of work for either in this industry right now.

Jeff Compton [01:05:02]:
Both require a ton of work, a ton of advocacy, a ton of conversation. But if I'm looking at that 10 year customer of that vehicle, why start right from the beginning of this is what is. You're gonna have to treat this as if you want to see it, get to that number. It most certainly can. It doesn't matter what you buy. It's nothing that parts and money can't fix. But we have to think about this from a long. I, I use the term long ball all the time.

Jeff Compton [01:05:28]:
You're either playing long ball or you're playing just short. You know, it's not. Both work sometimes. And that's where true advocacy for me is really coming about. Because I have to get to know my customer. You know, it's tough and we have to again, slow down to do that. Yeah, you know, it's so important you guys do it too. When you come into a shop, you.

Amber Wright [01:05:46]:
Know, well, you can actually. So there's, there's contextual clues. Right. When you read it, read a shop. Right. You can start having a conversation and you may walk in and you think through. You're going to have a conversation about one thing and you want to find out this information but then you pick up on things and you have to be willing to like go down that rat that hole with the, the shop owner because that's actually where you find the need. So I think it's just, it comes back to listening, taking the time to listen and being present and, and doing the right thing.

Jeff Compton [01:06:22]:
What's the biggest obstacle you're seeing right now with people being able to adjust tech metric?

Amber Wright [01:06:29]:
The, the time they invest? Yeah, I, I mean, quite frankly, I would say it's the time that they're willing to invest to like a short term investment for a long term game gain of the software. I, you know, you can be up and running within, you know, as little as two weeks. Less than two weeks.

Jeff Compton [01:06:49]:
Yeah.

Aaron Szafran [01:06:50]:
I think the average can be. If you want it to be two weeks where you are fully ramped up, ready to rock on our program in full. Two weeks is like an exact number. But you, you need to invest. It is a, there's, it's a learning curve. It doesn't, It's a software that's easy to use by design on purpose, but it's still a new program, it's still a new direction. It, if you commit to it, everything about it supports and shows that there's value in the back.

Amber Wright [01:07:18]:
I think you also have to have a champion in the shop. You have to have a champion. Who is there saying that this is what we are doing? Whether it's you as a shop owner or your service advisor or whoever it.

Aaron Szafran [01:07:31]:
Is, be that owner. The owner.

Amber Wright [01:07:32]:
The owner really does the champion. You have to have somebody championing that. This is what we're doing. Right. I mean you can so quickly get off the beaten path so quickly and nobody's bought in, so you have to be bought in that this is what you are doing and you need to show up.

Jeff Compton [01:07:50]:
Now. When you, when you approach a shop and you're saying, okay, we're going to come in and bring this in, is it commonplace to say back your appointment schedule down a little bit so that we have a little more time?

Aaron Szafran [01:08:03]:
No, frankly, we don't want them to lose any aspect of their business. It can be a pretty seamless transition overall where you know the amount of commitment to getting trained and, and onboarded appropriately even in that two week ramp up time. It's just a matter of putting an hour aside on a Monday, putting an hour aside on a Wednesday to get through these basic processes of getting the back end of that shop built up. So your digital inspection property is all set, your parts vendors are integrated at your labor's prepared and ready to go. And then we generally, if they're in a program already, are committing to a go live date with them on purpose. We get a data team in there on a Friday night when they close for business. We pull their data from their potentially 20, 30, 40, 50 years worth of customer history, vehicle history. We don't want them to start their business over.

Aaron Szafran [01:08:58]:
We want to help them make their business better headed forward.

Amber Wright [01:09:01]:
Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:09:02]:
What do some of the like for instance, like what seems to be the resounding feelings from like say parts vendors towards TechMetric?

Aaron Szafran [01:09:13]:
Well, we have some strong partnerships in the parts game for sure. So statistically when a shop makes a transition over to techmetric as a result of that shop following these processes, they are increasing their revenues. By increasing their revenues, they are buying more parts. So the parts vendors generally find some great value in any shop that switches to TechMetric, whether that shop is exclusively buying from them or not. It's not about. We can't say that shop A is going to start buying more parts from you said vendor because they switched to techmetric, but we can say they're going to be buying a lot more parts and therefore you're going to get a piece of that additional size we ran.

Amber Wright [01:09:56]:
So it's about 21% increase and parts volume.

Jeff Compton [01:10:01]:
That's good.

Aaron Szafran [01:10:01]:
Correct.

Amber Wright [01:10:02]:
I mean that's, that's huge. Right. I mean that's what if you're running.

Jeff Compton [01:10:06]:
Your matrix properly and marking up your parts, that's a big chunk of change. 21% is probably easier to make on parts than it is on labor.

Amber Wright [01:10:13]:
Yeah.

Aaron Szafran [01:10:14]:
Oh yeah.

Amber Wright [01:10:14]:
You know, well, in your streamlining the process you talked about it earlier about how shops were buying parts. Right. So not only are we helping to minimize the time that they're taking, we're also giving it to them in a better way, user experience, so that we're taking the thought out of it and it's quicker. So they're buying more parts because they're getting more cars through the door. So I think it's just we have very good relationships with parts vendors. Yeah.

Jeff Compton [01:10:42]:
Before we wrap it up. So what's one piece of advice that you can say to people that are going to make the switch to TechMetric. Each. I'll ask each of you.

Aaron Szafran [01:10:53]:
Well, you know, I said it already and I will. I will repeat it again because I think it is probably the most common and biggest valued advice I could give. Techmetric is not going to operate like your existing setup. We are going to be different. But that is all done by design and with intent. And if you commit to that process that we are guiding you through, there's no turning back and there's no. You know, you're only. The biggest thing that shop owners actually tell us more often than not years later is, why didn't I do this years ago? It's amazing.

Aaron Szafran [01:11:31]:
And even those that have been using that same system for 30 years, they're like, what was I holding back?

Jeff Compton [01:11:37]:
That's it.

Aaron Szafran [01:11:38]:
So that's definitely. It's like, just don't expect us to operate the way you had it. Embrace the change, embrace the new. And I promise you will see those results. We will deliver those results.

Jeff Compton [01:11:48]:
Awesome.

Amber Wright [01:11:49]:
Yeah. I mean, that was kind of a mic drop. That was really good. That was really good. Honestly, I think that, to summarize that what comes to mind is just lean in, Be willing to lean in. And we are willing to lean in as well.

Jeff Compton [01:12:05]:
And I like my. And I'm gonna. I'm gonna close with this for. I'm gonna go back to what I said when. Rip that band aid off. Don't. Don't try to hold on to doing some processes in the shop with paper and pen and letting you know, the other half of the people use the. The software system, you know, and then because it just bottlenecks, don't do it, like, make everybody get everybody up to speed, get them on the same page and just let the thing do what it's meant to do and it will work.

Jeff Compton [01:12:34]:
If you have people that are strange struggling, you have. We know some old texts are like, I'm not doing that. Yeah. Okay. Well, here's the thing. I hate to say it, but either that tech might not be.

Amber Wright [01:12:46]:
Yeah.

Aaron Szafran [01:12:46]:
You know, might not be your tech anymore.

Jeff Compton [01:12:48]:
Yeah. Unfortunately, you know, now the other thing with the shortage the way it is, then maybe you have to adjust your processes so it's like, you know, he writes everything on paper, or she, because she refuses. And then somebody has to go and punch it into TechMetric. If that's what it takes to get the car fixed, then that's what. Unfortunately, what it takes to get the car fixed. But if you can, don't you as a manager say, I'm gonna have the front counter on techmetrics, but I'm the text write everything on paper in the back. Because it just. I saw.

Jeff Compton [01:13:15]:
I worked through the bottleneck. I saw it. I hated it. It drove us crazy. Now, again, some of that was on me because I was. I had a hard time getting up to speed on tacmetric, but that was because, like, I didn't have time to get familiar with it. I just had a bunch of cars to get through, and the old me was just like, okay, I understand the process is the process, but here's what I need this part ordered for this car, to get this car done so I can get to the next three that day. Yeah, everybody has to help one another.

Jeff Compton [01:13:41]:
Go back to being that team thing again. I think TechMetrics a very powerful tool for teamwork.

Amber Wright [01:13:46]:
So, yeah, guys, we appreciate it.

Jeff Compton [01:13:48]:
Thank you for coming on.

Amber Wright [01:13:49]:
Thank you.

Jeff Compton [01:13:49]:
Like I said, I put a pitch in for you guys at the. At the job that I'm at, and, you know, they. They went with someone else. But I hope in. In the future that I can get back on the. Because I love the product. I love how you guys sponsor me, what it means to be on the podcast for me, and it's just. I can't thank you enough for it.

Jeff Compton [01:14:07]:
It's. It's fantastic. So.

Amber Wright [01:14:08]:
Well, we appreciate you. Thank you for all you do in the industry. I love it. Having conversations like this really helps move it forward.

Jeff Compton [01:14:14]:
Absolutely.

Amber Wright [01:14:14]:
It sounds like we can get you some training, too.

Jeff Compton [01:14:16]:
Yeah.

Amber Wright [01:14:17]:
Just because we'll get you some training.

Aaron Szafran [01:14:18]:
It's not. Just because they said no now doesn't mean it's not.

Jeff Compton [01:14:21]:
That's right. Yeah. Yeah, it could be. I mean, he's talking.

Aaron Szafran [01:14:23]:
We're in the long game, too.

Jeff Compton [01:14:25]:
Yeah, he's talking about a big, big venture outside of what. Where we're currently at. And then what he. I think he has that now wouldn't work in that venture. So, I mean, I'll be waving your.

Amber Wright [01:14:35]:
Flag for if that's MSO venture. We do do.

Aaron Szafran [01:14:38]:
We'll be ready for you.

Jeff Compton [01:14:39]:
We.

Amber Wright [01:14:39]:
We have a lot of MP MSO features.

Aaron Szafran [01:14:42]:
Yes, indeed.

Jeff Compton [01:14:43]:
Very cool, guys.

Amber Wright [01:14:44]:
Awesome. Thank you so much.

Jeff Compton [01:14:45]:
Thank you for coming to ast.

Amber Wright [01:14:46]:
Yeah, thank you.

Jeff Compton [01:14:49]:
Hey, if you could do me a favor real quick and, like, comment on and share this episode, I'd really appreciate it. And please, most importantly, set the podcast to automatically download every Tuesday morning. As always, I'd like to thank our amazing guests for their perspectives and expertise and I hope that you'll please join us again next week on this journey of change. Thank you to my partners in the ASA group and to the Changing the Industry podcast. Remember what I always say, in this industry, you get what you pay for. Here's hoping everyone finds their missing 10 millimeter, and we'll see you all again next time.