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Ep 28 - Sunil Patel and PJ Leslie | Don't Make Fun of Miata Lovers
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Want to see growth at your shop? It's as simple as using Tekmetric. Learn more HERE
Turnkey Marketing has helped my shop's marketing in ways I could have never on my own. They can do the same for here. Try them out HERE
Elite Worldwide keeps me accountable and takes a look at how I run my buisness from an unbiased perspective. It's greatly helped my shop! Learn more about how they can help you too HERE
Sunil Patel is the Founder and CEO of the best Shop Management Software in the industry - Tekmetric. PJ Leslie is a Miata lover like me and the Head of Business Development at Tekmetric. Today, Sunil tells me about the time when he owned a shop and an employee wrecked a customer's car. What happened next was CRAZY!
00:00 Don't Hate on Miata Lovers
08:57 Building Tekmetric: From Challenges to Creation
10:56 Industry Transformation and Shifting Demographics
14:55 "Tekmetric Dominates Aftermarket Software"
16:14 Strategic AI Integration Approach
20:23 Enhancing Service with Detect Auto
23:31 "Botched Car Lift Incident"
26:10 Minor Damage, Customer Informed
31:07 Transitioning from Trainual to Way We Do
33:53 Streamlined Automotive Business Integration
38:57 Empowering Leadership Approach
40:28 "Smart Jobs Integration Needed"
45:00 "Why-Based Training Benefits"
47:35 Incremental Improvements Drive Success
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Transcript
The Incident: A Porter's Mishap
00:00:00
Speaker
And then I look on the security cameras to see what happened. And my porter had taken it out for lunch. I call my porter and he said, yeah, i took it out. Yeah, I got into a wreck and i used the insurance card that was in the glove box instead of my own insurance.
00:00:15
Speaker
And so that's how your customer called you. oh Oh, no.
Introduction to the Episode
00:00:24
Speaker
The following program features a bunch of doofuses talking about the automotive aftermarket. The stuff we, or our guests may say, do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have.
00:00:38
Speaker
There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along. So without further ado, it's time for Confessions of a Shop Owner with your host, Mike Gallen.
Mike's Miata Project
00:01:00
Speaker
I did just earlier this year buy a shitbox 95 Miata to fix up with my son. Fantastic. To do Trek. And I know yeah you had a Trek Miata, right? Like a real Trek car. I sold one and and i have ah i have a pack. Four more left. just just Really?
00:01:14
Speaker
I can confess a little bit more. you know When in doubt, add Miatas to the equation. I have another one right now. It's in the shop. I yes i got to do it. It's so much fun. I get mocked pretty mercilessly by it is the big car guys.
00:01:25
Speaker
It's awesome. Right up until like last time I went out, I passed a guy from a half lap down, a Viper, an M3, and a Hellcat charger. And I sucked them all up in a half of a lap in all 108 horsepower have. I wouldn't use those specific words to describe what you did. Maybe not.
00:01:42
Speaker
um i mean Are we recording already? I made up distance. I made up I made up the distance and passed them easily. How about that? You heard it here first, everyone. it's It's funny, though. You do have to be pretty secure when you go out in a Miata and you're 6'5 and 220 pounds and they see me unfold out of it and kind of take the car off like a jacket.
00:02:06
Speaker
But it's fun. It's an absolute blast. be easier if you're 5'9 and 220 pounds. It is. No, well, I mean, ah my thought process is, one, it's fun to tinker on it with my son.
00:02:17
Speaker
He's 14, and I feel like the car that he learns to drive on should be a manual. His first vehicle should be a manual.
Vision 2025 Conference
00:02:24
Speaker
And also, if he learns how to drive well on a weak, slow car, ah why would you ever put ah a child in a car that's got major horsepower, you know? yeah
00:02:39
Speaker
that a fridge you might or a bomb? Oh, the fridge is open. Oh, there it is. yeah like Yeah, to your point, if you can drive a slow car fast, you can drive a fast car fast. Yeah. Right? Like, it it will teach you how to carry speed for sure.
00:02:51
Speaker
so It's absolutely what we came here to talk about tonight. It is. Yeah. yeah Awesome. So, I got Braxton here pressing buttons and stuff. So, hopefully, the quality of the audio and video will be way better than what happens when I do it by myself.
00:03:06
Speaker
Now said Oh, man. You gotta to talk into the microphone. You got to get closer. um But we're here at Vision 2025 in
TechMetric's Evolution and Impact
00:03:15
Speaker
KC. and This is my first time ever at Vision. you guys have been coming here forever, right? Years. 2018 19. Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:20
Speaker
eighteen or nineteen yeah yeah so What was it like being here during the pandemic? Did they skip a year or did they? No, it's where it landed. I remember because you got sick. sick right I think I think he got COVID because we were here. The world shut down at that event in 2020.
00:03:36
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, it was wild. um I remember that we, think ASDA Expo, it was ASTE at the time, we skipped a year because you know we're late September, so we peak panic at that point, I guess.
00:03:53
Speaker
um And then the next year, we were one of the first ones to come back and everybody, was so much pent up desire to get out and network and be with your people and and train. It was one of the best events I've ever been at, so that was a lot of fun. but um I haven't introduced you guys, but I think everybody knows who you are, right? If you don't know who these two are, then crawl out from under that rock and and explore a little bit. But PJ?
00:04:16
Speaker
Yes, PJ Leslie. I am head of ah mid-market sales and enterprise sales for TechMetric. Historically, ah mean I think I was employee number five, six, seven, something like that.
00:04:29
Speaker
um you know They got me for free for the first year, and then I started charging them a little amount. ah right after that. and And so I've been here, you know, we were just focused on selling shops for a long time. And now I do, I deal with our customers that are the midsize and and larger clients. So I've been here since 2018. So like the Christian brothers and the Midas and that kind of stuff. Yeah. The national franchises, but also the, you know, a 10 or 15 shop client. Yeah. Those would be mine too. So everything that's six to 99 rooftops, we consider mid market. So it's a big swath of the market, but it's growing fast.
00:05:02
Speaker
Look, when I first opened my shop, I thought my old systems would keep up. The software that I had would continue to evolve. But as we grew the slow estimates, scattered workflow, increasing downtime, really just, it was becoming a real problem.
00:05:18
Speaker
That's why I switched to TechMetric. It's not just software. It's a complete shop management system that makes my life easier. Smart jobs, instant estimates, integrated payments, integrated financing options. I mean,
00:05:30
Speaker
It allows me to focus on the work that actually makes me money and not get bogged down in the other details. My shop's repair orders have jumped over 300% since switching to TechMetric. And when I need help, their support team responds in real time.
00:05:42
Speaker
actually was online with them asking questions just this week, and I got answers in minutes rather than having to wait for callbacks and emails days later. If your system is holding you back, it's time for a change.
00:05:53
Speaker
Tap the link in the show notes and see how TechMetric can help you move your shop forward. Here's the deal. i I like to think that I'm pretty good at running an auto repair shop. It's what I've done for 20 plus years, but I'm not good at managing a marketing budget and all the different facets of a truly well-rounded marketing plan.
00:06:10
Speaker
There's mail, there's local advertising, there's website, there's Google AdWords, there's you know all the different things that go into that. And it's just not what I'm good at. So what I've chosen to do is to buy myself the time to focus on what I am good at while having someone else execute on all of those things at a way higher level than anything I could ever do.
00:06:33
Speaker
That's what turnkey auto marketing does for me. So if you feel like you could use some of that same magic, I'm going to recommend that you go to turnkeyautomarketing.com, get a free consultation. Tell them that I sent you.
00:06:47
Speaker
ah Tell them that Confessions of a Shop Owner sent you. You won't be disappointed. lot consolidation happening. So you're saying if I can get to six that you're going be my guy again? I'm your guy always. You were my guy years ago. and you if You text me, call me, Facebook me. You know you can get in touch with me anytime. um yeah Awesome. So, Sunil, introduce yourself.
00:07:06
Speaker
um My name is Neal Patel, founder and CEO of Techmetric. So um how do you want to start this, Mike?
Sunil Patel's Journey to TechMetric
00:07:13
Speaker
How far do you want to go back? Oh, man. um So I've heard the story that you're a shop owner who saw a need and decided to fill that need.
00:07:20
Speaker
I'd love to hear that because, I mean, we've met several times and I've heard you on a lot of other podcasts and and interview on print media, but I don't know that we've ever had a ah real deep conversation. So I'd love to just kind of hear it from you.
00:07:31
Speaker
Like what was the story and the and and the journey? So I was a, ah my education was to be a physician. And i in 07, late 07, I decided that I wanted to leave medicine and open a repair shop in Houston, Texas.
00:07:48
Speaker
And found a place in Houston, Texas, and we did a Euro-only repair shop ah from ground up. And it was ah it was an empty warehouse building that we took. And we did quite quite well those first ah first year. I think we did $800K in revenue. And we continue growing it all the way to like $2.5 million, $3 million in revenue. That's awesome.
00:08:08
Speaker
ah Consistently several years later. You started right before the 08 bust, too, which was a very challenging time. That was a little naive on my part. Well, you didn't know was coming. I didn't know it was coming. and ah But ultimately, people held their cars longer. Our industry is actually very resilient to economic conditions. Yeah.
00:08:25
Speaker
ah Yeah, and so we I ran that repair shop for 11 plus years and um found that there was no cloud-based product out there. and that You got to think about this was like 8 to 10 years after the iPhone was released and there was nothing out there. Everything was still on-prem. Nobody thought about building a cloud-based product. and So in 2017 or so, Did you have a server room at the shop where you had the super loud server yeah and you had to have backup drives? Yeah, I hated that. Man, I hated that. yeah I won't say what software I was on, but I hated it.
00:08:57
Speaker
So yeah, we had a server room dedicated with a special AC inside of it, and it was like a tall rack with backups, hard drives and whatnot. And ultimately, I switched to a solution that proved to be very difficult ah to implement. They're still around, actually.
00:09:15
Speaker
And ah the database kept on crashing, and ultimately they had a database repair utility. And the number of support tickets that would keep putting in ah daily was a lot. And ultimately, they fired me as a customer back in the day.
00:09:28
Speaker
And that was the reason we built TechMetric. It was the genesis or the start of us wanting to build a cloud-based point of sale system. So I want to talk about TechMetric. But before we get deep into that, I want to talk about your shop.
00:09:41
Speaker
So did you sell your shop or did you just close it up to focus on the software? No, actually, I sold it to my service writer. OK, that's awesome. Is it still going strong? Yeah, Travis Thompson was my service writer back in the day. He he was with me for a long, long time. And he was just starting out his family. It was the right thing to do for him to own his own business. Does he have free TechMetric for life?
00:10:00
Speaker
I don't think so, actually. He was a beta tester. We tested yeah everything yeah with Travis. He was an early beta tester, though. That's awesome. Okay. So, PJ, we met,
The Power of Industry Networking
00:10:12
Speaker
I think you were living in Charlotte, and you came and did a monthly IGO meeting where it was like eight of us at a Golden Corral or something.
00:10:21
Speaker
and you did a demo and you sold me on it at that point. But at that point, I didn't own the business. I couldn't talk my dad and moving away from we were with one of the covered wagon softwares.
00:10:32
Speaker
um And as soon as I got Well, actually, I didn't even change in my main store. First, when I opened my second store, i had 100% ownership of that.
00:10:44
Speaker
And so I immediately put in TechMetric. And I had to have like a year of like rubbing my dad's nose and like, look how much easier this is. No no support tickets, no database rescue tool, you know. So then we got switched over and, and you know.
00:10:57
Speaker
It's not uncommon. yeah That's not an uncommon story. and We do that when every, I mean, it's probably an everyday type thing. um Change is hard and it's just been, it's been intriguing to see not only number one, the changing of the guard that's happening across the industry.
00:11:11
Speaker
There's, there is a, there's a younger shop owner that's coming in and they're realizing that there's pent up demand also in the customers. but The consumers have wanted more from a repair shop owner and it's lovely if they do business with TechMetric, but I can tell, I just tell shop owners every single day that if you combined all of the TechMetric customers and every one of our competitors as well that have a similar feature set, there's a few out there, right?
00:11:37
Speaker
And so if you combine all of those, it's still just a minute fraction of the entire market. And so it's shocking to see that your story and what you just said happens every single day for us because the sun is coming in and taking over the business and going, Dad, when I go to um my dog groomer, when I ah book go to the dentist, when I go to a doctor, when I book anything, when I go book a reservation for a dinner,
00:12:02
Speaker
it's a different experience but then we give people a ticket for two thousand dollars and then they get those greasy thumb prints and a piece of paper and you can't text or email anything it's wild to me but that story right there and i'm glad i'm glad that i went to that one event with a whopping eight people and we would we would talk to anybody who would let us you know come to it and we just wanted my job was to spread the word that's what he told me he was just like just go in and on the room and just make friends with people and just make sure when they leave, they just have heard the name TechMetric they remember us in a
AI and Automation in TechMetric
00:12:30
Speaker
favorable light. right That was all my job was.
00:12:32
Speaker
we are We don't expect to make sales at those types of things, but um but it does work. And then people, the the shocking part is is that you go out, you go out so much.
00:12:42
Speaker
um And events like this, at being at Vision, it's it's crucial for people to get out and and discover what you don't see under the hood of a car or in your office working over reports and so forth. You have to get out. You have to go see what else is out there. And when you do, man, it's it's an illuminating experience. changes life, man. It does. It absolutely does. And like I said, I hope they do business with us.
00:13:04
Speaker
But if they don't... Hey, everybody. I want to take a minute to tell you about the coaching organization I've been involved with for, gosh, over 20 years now. Elite.
00:13:15
Speaker
Elite worldwide, they don't give you a one-size-fits-all solution. They tailor the coaching specifically to you and your shop. They pair you with an experienced coach who is either a current or a former shop owner, and they turn strategies into actual action and accountability and results.
00:13:31
Speaker
Whether it's improving your service advisor sales, growing your shop, growing to multiple locations, they really have you covered. Clients of Elite really see results, higher profits, stronger teams, a better work-life balance.
00:13:43
Speaker
If you're ready to take the next step, visit EliteWorldwide.com to schedule your discovery session. That's EliteWorldwide.com to start working on your business rather than in it.
00:13:55
Speaker
Tell them that you heard about them on Confessions of a Shop Owner so that I get a pat on the back or maybe a box of chocolates or something. That would be awesome. Thanks. Training will change the way everybody looks at this industry, right? When they leave and just break away from that shop for just a little bit of uninhibited time and yours was just a one or two hour dinner.
00:14:12
Speaker
And it changed not only your perspective of what was out there to help your business, but also your trajectory. I believe in business. You are a success story and i've I've put you in touch with no shortage of of prospects and you've been so gracious to talk to them and just say, listen, like it's it's changed my business. And so can't tell you how much I appreciate that.
00:14:30
Speaker
Well, I mean, I like to talk well of the things that I believe in, right? So um one of the things I just noticed, so ah the expo just opened up here at Vision, but I was kind of walking around beforehand checking things out.
00:14:44
Speaker
And um so many of the companies out there are integration partners with TechMetric, and they've got integration partner with TechMetric on their booth, right? Oh, that's funny. I haven't seen that. It has become...
00:14:58
Speaker
I mean, let's be real. I think it's the number one aftermarket software right now. It's what it feels like to me. um Braxton was telling me that he was in a class earlier today and there were 100, 200, however many people in there.
00:15:12
Speaker
And the instructor at the front of the class said, okay, who here uses TechMetric? Because he was just kind of polling the different softwares. Over 60% of the class had their hand up for TechMetric. um And then you know those who shall not be named were significantly smaller portions.
00:15:26
Speaker
ah the The remaining 40% was divvied up between the usual suspects. right So it's just watching the growth and the development and the way features continue to be added regularly and the integrations get more and more powerful.
00:15:41
Speaker
um It's been pretty neat. So um I think I told you guys earlier today that one of the things I want to ask about, I'm kind of an AI geek. I don't know how to use it, but I'm enthralled with the idea of what it's going to be capable of doing.
00:15:55
Speaker
um And so I'm using a couple of different tools to help my advisors be better at their job ah through you know using AI as an assistant. But What does that look like for you guys thinking about integrating that type of technology into your software in the future?
00:16:14
Speaker
So, Mike, we've intentionally stayed out of the AI space for a while now. We recently acquired Shopgenie, which is a CRM company is aerrm company, and they have some light touches of AI embedded in their product.
00:16:27
Speaker
What we don't want to do is just make a knee-jerk reaction on implementing AI in TechMetric and not really thinking about what that strategy is going to look like. Because ah a the AI space is moving very, very rapidly.
00:16:40
Speaker
And what you do today is no longer going to be relevant 30 days from now even. The language learning learning models are continuing to change over time. And ultimately, what we want to do is spend a lot of time on the strategy aspect of it and then start thinking through how AI is going to be sprinkled throughout the app.
Showcasing TechMetric's Capabilities
00:16:57
Speaker
But there's a tremendous opportunity here for our space. ah So if you think about how long it takes to write a repair order in TechMetric or um responding to customers, there's a lot of stuff that we can do. We teased a little bit of it on a promotional video that we made earlier this year where you have a customer that is a vehicle owner that is has a check engine light that comes up, and she calls the repair shop, which actually happens to be one of our customers out in North Carolina.
00:17:25
Speaker
And ultimately, the conversation starts taking place, and our system starts picking up the voice of the customer. And ultimately, when she says she has a check engine light, all of the customer relevant information automatically populates on the screen. And so you could have a better conversation with that customer.
00:17:41
Speaker
and then I need this in my life right now, please. Also in North Carolina, just saying. Go ahead. Yeah, and then as soon as she ah the service writer says something along the lines of Sparkplug, the price of that Sparkplug job automatically populates also because now we know who that customer is, what vehicle she has, and the word Sparkplug will start a cascading event of using smart jobs, ah which is basically a one-click job, if you can you know put it that way. And then we'll have the entire price for that job on that conversation before the service writer can actually respond to that customer.
00:18:15
Speaker
Have you seen this video yet? No, I have not. need to go look at our YouTube page. I want to know who in North Carolina is getting to play with these toys and not me. It was EuroWise down in Charlotte. It was geographic. It's because that's probably who serviced your car when you were in Charlotte, right?
00:18:31
Speaker
No comment. You should see it, though. But like that that that video is impactful. As soon as we saw it at the employee kickoff, I asked Sunil and the team. I said, when can I show this? yeah Externally, because I get asked this question a lot and AI is driving.
00:18:44
Speaker
it's It's less about AI, it's more about automations that we're discovering exist. And when we show it to people now, it's it's it's powerful. and what is it, two minutes? um It's a two minute video, um but the phone is ringing and TechMetric lights up and you can see like it brings up TechMetric and it shows the customer's name, it cross-referenced the phone number and then it's picking up on their voice dictation and building an estimate while you're talking to a customer.
00:19:07
Speaker
Can you guys send me this video so that I can splice it into this absolutely episode? Absolutely. So we'll have it in the episode because that sounds awesome. yeah It's on YouTube. Besides the video, Mike, I think what the so the focus for our company is CX, customer experience. And it's not just our customers, the shop owners. It's also your customers, the vehicle owners. Of course. And so how can we build a piece of technology that is actually creating an emotional moment in the lives of all of the people that interface with it?
00:19:33
Speaker
Because the stronger that we can do that and the least friction that we can involve in that process, the more stickier our product becomes. And it becomes a true core part of operating a repair shop and also a core part of the way vehicle owners want to communicate with customer with the shop owners.
00:19:50
Speaker
thats so that mean So I'm experiencing little touches here and there. What you're talking about there just blows your hair back, man. That's amazing. and I mean, I don't have as much as I used to have, but um we're using, like through Shopgenie, just kind of the the call grading features where you know it's listening real time and alerting me if we have a call that went really poorly or anything of that nature. And you can set up who gets the alerts and when and and how. and And that's amazing technology to help you capture potentially lost customers before it's totally off the rails. yeah
00:20:23
Speaker
that's And that's customer experience, right That's what you're talking about. yeah um One of the softwares that you guys have been kind enough to let integrate, Detect Auto, I'm starting to look very actively at hiring outside of the automotive industry for service advisors.
Confessions of Shop Owners
00:20:38
Speaker
And one of the biggest hiccups that you have with those guys and gals that you bring in is they don't know the questions to ask at write-up. And with the Tech Auto integrating with TechMetric, just type in noise and it gives you all the questions you need to ask Ms. Jones about the noise and then it puts it into a cogent paragraph to give to the technician. Because we've all seen the the memes about the technician throttling the advisor because they got a ticket that said check noise, right? So um those types of things are just making life easier already.
00:21:07
Speaker
And then when you talk about that kind of stuff, that's just amazing. So I'm i'm excited to see where that comes in. It feels like a year ago, none of that stuff was here. And yeah a year from now, it's going to be so, like you said, you know the stuff that's applicable today won't be applicable in 30 days. So um that's awesome.
00:21:23
Speaker
um Anyway, so I told you guys before we started recording that one of the things that I like to do on this podcast is make a confession, right? We're stepping into the confessional. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned as a shop owner.
00:21:37
Speaker
um And I am 100% an evil shop owner. So if you ask any of the technician podcast, I am what is Satan in the world. So that's good. um But i have ah I have a doozy that I want to tell you guys about. But before I do that, I wanted to give you all the opportunities. Is there anything that you'd like to confess?
00:21:58
Speaker
but What have you done, guys? I'll give you one. I'll give you a quick one. um but I'll tell you what. I'll give you two things, two two confessions. one One, I'll start with just ah something that's that I believe so few people do and I and i think that more should is um look externally for for coaching of any sort. I don't care who it is. the One of the biggest things, lot the the one thing that I did, I came from the dealership world I wish I'd done sooner, was just looking externally for somebody that I could learn from their mistakes and it's no different than what this podcast is. It's like,
00:22:28
Speaker
finding someone else that I could learn from their mistakes. the The money that I spent on that um when I was doing it in the dealership world seemed expensive at the time. And it was one of the best investments that I ever made. it helped turn around the business even faster.
00:22:41
Speaker
um So a confession truly was like a mistake that I made that cost me a lot of money that I could have fixed if someone had told me sooner. was that, was getting someone, and he ended up being a personal friend and so kind to me and probably could have charged a lot more and he wasn't even a professional coach by any stretch. He was just retired.
00:22:59
Speaker
um That right there was something that I think everyone should do and should do it as soon as possible um and it'll change their business. so All right, less serious. um I will tell you one that drove me absolutely insane, and this was this was in the dealership. This was 2011. I'll never forget it.
00:23:15
Speaker
It actually would have been 2012 because they stopped making the Ford Ranger, and 2011 was the last one I could order, and it was the last one that came to the dealership. Ordered it, comes in, and any time a vehicle comes in, you have to put them up on on a rack, and you just drive them. You do a quick road test, and it's just something Ford requires.
00:23:31
Speaker
And I'll never forget, as soon as I stepped through and broke the threshold walking through into the into the repair shop, I heard this sound that was like just a hundred Coke cans being crushed all at once.
00:23:46
Speaker
and and And I couldn't see it yet, but it was the sound of the technician ah lifting up, trying to lift up. Let me rephrase that. Trying to lift up that Ford Ranger to get it up off of the ground.
00:23:59
Speaker
And one of those posts on the, or one of the arms on the two arm post was not placed under the frame. It was placed squarely under the front corner of the bed. And that sound was that bed folding up faster than a taco on Tuesday, man. Just, just crumpled up, folded all the way up under there.
00:24:15
Speaker
um I ended up having to buy the entire bed. I couldn't order the guy another truck. Production was completely cut off. So I had to buy the guy an entire bed. don't remember what that cost me I think it was around five or 6,000 bucks, give or take. um And by the time I made it back to the technician, ah the sound, of course, had stopped, and he was just sitting there on the ground with his head in his hands.
00:24:33
Speaker
um So um I'd say the confession is just double-check the placement of those arms on those two post lifts for sure. I feel like you have a window into what I'm going to confess. that So ah I'll come to you in a moment, but the segue on lifting disasters.
00:24:49
Speaker
First time in 20 years, we had a car fall off a lift um and thankfully no one was injured.
Handling Lift Accidents and Accountability
00:24:56
Speaker
ah It could have been really bad, but we're very, very thankful that it wasn't.
00:25:00
Speaker
um It was a long wheel based vehicle, probably shouldn't have been on an asymmetrical two post lift in the first place. It should have been on a drive on lift. But they were rocking and rolling. It was busy. Put it on a lift, put a stiff knee under the back on the trailer hitch to kind of give it some stability while they were shaking it down. And 20 minutes later, they're done with the DVI. They've taken all their pictures and videos. you know They're uploading that. They're using you know motor visuals to create a good selling experience for the customer.
00:25:31
Speaker
And go to lower the lift back down. Don't don't remove the stiff knee. And so it wasn't like a failure to set the lift points in the right area. And it wasn't an equipment failure. It was just, I mean, it was an equipment failure here, right? and um But yeah, it was pretty scary to be honest with And of course, you know customers operate in the lobby. It makes a horrible sound like you described.
00:25:57
Speaker
And it was a Ford Transit van 250. So it was a long vehicle, and it was a contractor's vehicle, and it was full of tools and equipment and material. um And so it it only fell probably, the way it went down, it only fell probably three feet on one corner.
00:26:13
Speaker
And so we get it down, we and we get it out, and it's got some minor cosmetic damage, but no other major mechanical damage. So we got very lucky, very lucky. wow So I called the customers like, hey, this thing happened.
00:26:27
Speaker
um But before I do anything, umm well first I'm going to make it right, whatever it takes. Two, before I do anything, I want you to come down and look at it together with me. also want you to look on the inside of it because it's a disaster.
00:26:40
Speaker
because everything well was in a pile in the middle. And so he comes over and we look at the cosmetic stuff and he's yeah, you know, that's not that big a deal, yada, yada, yada.
00:26:51
Speaker
And I say, okay, well, here's the bad part. And I'm going to remove everything and put it back however you tell me and I'll replace anything that's damaged. I pulled the sliding door open and he oh, no, that's exactly how it was. so
00:27:03
Speaker
so Wow. um Yeah, he was there for like $4,000 worth work. He said, just give me the work that you were doing and we'll call it even. Thank you, Jesus. Done. Yeah. so um And have him sign something maybe that says that. But i you know Once every 20 years, if I can get out with that, I'll be okay. But that was a very stressful moment.
00:27:24
Speaker
So anyway. so Can you one-up that? and Maybe.
00:27:32
Speaker
ah There was a Mini Cooper that came in for service, needed a clutch. We put a clutch in, and um a lady owned it. She was very regular with us at the shop.
00:27:43
Speaker
For some reason, my porter decides to take the car to lunch to go buy lunch. And he ah hits a a car pulling out of a parking spot and causes some damage to, i don't remember what side it was, but it was like one of the corner, front left or right corner of the vehicle.
00:28:03
Speaker
And that's not the worst part. Ultimately, I get a call from the customer saying, hey, I heard you guys got ah into a wreck with the car. Can you tell me what's going on? I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
00:28:15
Speaker
Oh. And ultimately, ah I looked in the back of the shop to see where the car is at and it's not there. And then I look on the security cameras to see what happened. And my porter had taken it out um for lunch.
00:28:30
Speaker
I called my porter and he said, yeah, I took it out. Yeah, I got into a wreck. And i used the insurance card that was in the glove box instead of my own insurance. And so that's how your customer called you. oh Oh.
00:28:45
Speaker
and It was a $4,000 clutch job. i gave it to her for free. I came to her. I drove to her house personally, gave her flowers, profusely apologized, and she just never came back. She said, I've lost trust in you, and I just can't.
00:29:01
Speaker
I won't come back, no matter what I did. And I met her several times after that, um and she just wouldn't. Yeah, come back I get it. Yeah. Did you terminate the employment of the porter?
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah. Shocker. Did you terminate the employment of the technician? for i did, but not for that one. Yeah, something completely different. But it was indicative of the quality of work that started coming out. so Yeah, I did as well. as I think it's the first time maybe ever that I've terminated someone effectively on the spot punitively. I mean, it was...
00:29:34
Speaker
It was gross negligence that could have led to someone's death, right? So you kind of got to, but... Yeah, your insurance wants you to do that, I'm pretty sure. yeah So, I mean, that's just one of those things. To your point, the the the mechanical breakdown there, is just it's just between the ears and it's just too much risk to take on.
00:29:49
Speaker
Well, and but what it did highlight for me, and this is kind of what I learned from it and what I'm changing about my business as a result, is and this guy an hour earlier on the exact same lift was pulling axles off his truck during lunch break, right? So he he knew what he was doing.
00:30:03
Speaker
um And I have today's class as ah as an editor of learning tool that we use and there's safe lifting training in that today's class program. But there's no enforcement that they have to go through and complete the the the learning course, right?
00:30:19
Speaker
um And I have There are multiple resources within my company for proper lift use, but there's no sign off that they have read and understood proper lift use.
00:30:35
Speaker
And so there's a very real possibility that I'm going to lose an unemployment claim with this guy because he technically was never officially trained on how to set a lift, even though he's been in the industry for yeah eight years or whatever. so That's something that shop owners need to learn is you need to have those policies in place and you need to have your team sign off on those policies, either electronically or you know wet ink and keep that stuff.
00:31:01
Speaker
ah Yeah, document, document, document, right? so Trainual. Have you looked at trainual? I'm familiar with train you all. Seth Thorson is a big advocate for train and he utilizes it as effectively as I think anyone.
00:31:16
Speaker
I'm trying to get really ah fully fleshed out and process all of my processes into WayWeDo, which is a competitor to
TechMetric's Future Innovations
00:31:27
Speaker
Trainual.
00:31:27
Speaker
Got it. So if if we can get that done, then then we're going go that route. And if I hate writing processes, um like I want like big picture stuff and I want to assign those types of tasks out.
00:31:40
Speaker
um So we've been working on WayWeDo for three years and the limiting factor has been me in every step of that process. So I finally just hired a part-time office assistant, personal assistant.
00:31:52
Speaker
And so I verbally vomit and she creates the process. And so we're actually making some making some ground up now. So anyway, um what else exciting is coming? I mean, you guys have ah got Techmetric payments in now, right? And you've got integrated Affirm andlarna and and Sunbit.
00:32:16
Speaker
Sunbit. Yep, just recently. Actually, I have a a good friend of mine in Connecticut who's just signed up with the payments and he's talking about how good the authorization rate is on Sunbit compared to Snap. ah youre getting Customers who were declined for Snap were getting approved for Sunbit and getting jobs done. and I mean, he's blown it up, so that's cool. That's nice to hear.
00:32:37
Speaker
You've got Shop Genie that you guys merged with or absorbed last year. And so you've got phone systems through that and CRM through that. Are there any other... You probably can't say if there's like exciting stuff right on the cusp, right? think Well, think like what he said, though. Nobody listens to this. Just tell me what's going on. yeah I was going to think more like... you know and he' he'll He'll disclose anything he wants to disclose, but I will tell you that...
00:33:00
Speaker
um He set the vision for this year. um Sunil has definitely set the vision for this year of it being um CX, right? And and it's it's two, right? we We serve two sets of customers, I think, is just the vehicle owners and the shop owners too.
00:33:14
Speaker
But if you see that, you know, not only the payment side of it, because when people think about payments, are like, oh, yeah, already have a credit card processor. i'm like, yeah, you do. But are you able to send out an estimate with a text to to one of those customers And no different than i I go and buy black polos and a black polo is $80 or it says four easy payments of 20 bucks.
00:33:35
Speaker
Can you do that with your credit card processor? Oh, no, you can't. And oh, does it give you three options, right? Is there essentially a waterfall? Like if a customer can't get approved with one, do they buy in different parts of the credit spectrum?
00:33:46
Speaker
Oh, no, they don't. You have one financing option and it's not baked in. And your customer is getting texts or emails from multiple places, right? All of that. Vehicle owners and shop owners alike all want to do business with less people and they all want everything to work seamlessly. And the technology has come around.
00:34:04
Speaker
We've grown as a company to where we have more ah options and more parts of our business that are under the umbrella to where we can control that experience. Right. And that CX is paramount to anything and everything that we do.
00:34:16
Speaker
So you've got the shop software side of it, which, you know, five, oh my gosh, seven years ago when I got in this business, if you talk to anybody about software, it was yeah, already have a shop software because all so shop softwares were the same. yeah And then they were like, well, I have a DVI system and it's separate. and then I have a texting system and it's different and it's separate. And now you had a payments processor and it's separate.
00:34:36
Speaker
And you had a financing option separate. And then you had a CRM um tool and it's separate. Well, now... The idea here is that we've done pretty well on the shop software, and the more that we can put under that umbrella, control that experience. If things go great, great, it's on us. If things go wrong, you only have one call one one phone number to call.
00:34:53
Speaker
That creates customer experience. You individually, like you said, you things can't hinge just on you, and things can't hinge just on Sunil or me or any one single person at TechMetric.
00:35:05
Speaker
So ideally, what we want to do is create this ecosystem that, a team and policies and procedures that we follow that create an amazing customer experience for those shop owners and they can offer an amazing customer experience to their customers. That's the goal.
00:35:19
Speaker
And there's a million things that we do to do that. But in terms of what's coming and what you want to do next, I'll turn it over to him. I can't talk about everything that we're working on, but customer experience is going to remain the forefront from here on out, honestly.
00:35:34
Speaker
ah we are It is not a 2025 thing. It is a forever thing for the company at TechMetric. um But we do, like um and our R&D spend is close to 20 million a year. And so we're spending a lot in product and innovation at the company.
00:35:48
Speaker
And our largest org is product and engineering in the department, in the company. and so ah We're going to continue rolling out new features in the system. We're going to add additional products in the in the company as well. And we want to we we want to disrupt this space in a way that nobody's really touched it in decades.
00:36:09
Speaker
And we just we use what we would call first principles thinking whenever we build features and or products. We don't just want to copy what everybody else has done. We want to build a better solution by breaking the core problem down to its fundamental elements and building a better solution back up Let me ask you this. When I think about growing my business, I'm um'm frightened of building a new building from the ground up and having no customers on day one.
00:36:36
Speaker
So I look for existing businesses that I can you know acquire at ah at a point that I feel good about and it already has some cash flow, right? um But your world, I imagine, is very different than the world that I operate in.
00:36:48
Speaker
If one of the other softwares in the space was available, would that even be worth doing for you guys? Or is it just you'd rather just take other customers away by having a better quality product?
00:37:01
Speaker
ah The hard part of that, Mike, is ah so we're always looking at opportunities, always, um always willing to have conversations. The challenging part of it is when you start getting private equity venture capital companies and the investors that are behind these companies that want to make a return on their investment. And when you start looking at the metrics and the stats of the growth rate of the company that just doesn't make sense.
00:37:25
Speaker
Ultimately, sometimes it just makes more sense to just be patient and wait and the customers will just naturally um through attrition just come to TechMetric. Yeah, you're buying speed when you do that. you're it's just It's just picking them up now or picking them up later.
00:37:39
Speaker
Most of ones that come up for sale are for sale for a reason, probably no different than your business. um And that's usually the the balance of it is do I want to get it now or are we OK to wait for a little while? so ah you You get all of their revenue without having to buy their product that doesn't align with your own product, I guess. so Right? so Yeah.
00:38:00
Speaker
Makes sense. Very true. But but um I think the part that a lot of people miss or don't realize because i don't know how you go out and shop for what you're going to do.
00:38:11
Speaker
But in our space, a lot of those companies, to Sunil's point, like you end up having to take in venture fund, or you know venture money, um private equity money and and so forth. And for him, it's been about control.
00:38:23
Speaker
Right. And not in a, and' know you know, bad way in a way that that it's like I want to be able to have control over the company I don't want to answer to someone else I want to make decisions that I believe are best for our team and and so forth and the more investors that you take the more control that you're going to lose what you're saying is Sunil is a control freak a little bit ah well I can tell you right now actually for those people that don't know him I've worked with him now for ah seven years and I've known him I met him back in 2007 whenever he was first opening the shop I remember I went in before the doors were open that's when I met the guy And um he's not a control freak. He gives me a ton of liberty. He gives anybody and all of his leaders, he he selects them, tells them what the goal is, and tells them to go do what you need to do.
00:39:04
Speaker
Don't be afraid to fail. um And I'm not saying this. I mean, I don't think he signs my paychecks anymore. but um In all seriousness, like he just tells you this is the goal, this is where we want to go.
00:39:15
Speaker
And then he just holds you very accountable to did we do it, did we not do it? And what do you need from me that that would help you do it? And it's the part that I love the most um and that is so hard to maintain as you grow a company. and I were actually talking about this in the Uber on the way over here was...
00:39:32
Speaker
Don't want to go corporate.
Leadership at TechMetric
00:39:33
Speaker
You know, when you go into these bigger companies and you watch these companies get big, they're so afraid to fail. Everyone's so afraid to try something. They're so afraid to be the name attached to something that didn't work. And it's so silly.
00:39:43
Speaker
It stifles creativity and growth and and disruption of anything. And for us, it's more like go out, try it, test it, and do something small.
00:39:56
Speaker
But don't be afraid. If it fails, it fails. And just say, this is what we learned. This is why it failed, and we won't do that again. Or make tweaks, and look at that. It failed here, but now it works over here. Now let's grow it.
00:40:07
Speaker
Let's make it big. I mean, even like when smart jobs, when we built smart jobs, what did have, seven? Seven smart jobs in there? How many clicks was it for it to build an estimate before? Yeah, before it was like...
00:40:19
Speaker
60 clicks probably. yeah It's still less than some of our competitors. Yeah. 60 clicks to build an estimate. Now we can do it in three? ah Sometimes one. Yeah. So I'm going to be totally honest. I have not integrated in my business using smart jobs appropriately because I haven't taken it back to my guys and told them, hey, you need to learn how to do this shit, right?
00:40:37
Speaker
um I assume that there are videos in the Learning Center on how to use smart jobs and sign up and everything. Yeah. I just got to go back and do that because we're still doing it the way that I learned how to do it when I was still on the counter writing estimates, right? Because that's what I taught everybody and then they taught the next people. And so got to get that in because i just know that last week I was up front and ah one of the guys was like, hey, what the hell is this? And it was all the parts were there in the estimate and he had to select just which one.
00:41:04
Speaker
He's like, oh, that's smart jobs. like What are you talking about? Oh, we probably need to learn that. Well, see, that but that's that's iteration number like three yeah of smart jobs because at first we used to do it for just those small set of jobs and now there's 20 or 30? Close to 20 or 30. Yeah, about 20, but we're going to continue adding in more and more and we want to get into the complex jobs.
00:41:22
Speaker
Well, um what what I'm getting at, I guess, is i like to think that I'm a pretty um strong user of the software, but I'm still definitely not using it to the maximum of its ability. We were talking about ah taking cars to the track, and you can go get a Corvette or a Viper or whatever. If you don't know how the hell to drive it, it doesn't matter.
00:41:42
Speaker
And I think this is a Corvette software. And so I need to make sure that I'm going back and making sure that all my team knows how to use it to the maximum of its extent, you know, get the get the most out of it. well It's hard to keep up with, too. I don't know. What was the stat? i think 142 new features last year.
00:41:59
Speaker
You're not going to keep up with that. How many different softwares do you use? and And we want you to get the most out of it, but that's hard. It's hard for us. We want everybody to know about those new things. but um And now our engineering team is even bigger, nearly double the size.
00:42:12
Speaker
um from last year. So if we did 142 new features last year, we'll do what, couple hundred plus this year? It's crazy. I like breaking out in hives, just thinking about onboarding that many people and managing that many personalities and everything else. But I guess at a certain point, you have people to do that for you.
00:42:29
Speaker
um that ah So that's something that I do want to ask about. Typically, I ask my guests, what training events are you going to this year? What conferences are you going to this year? Obviously, you are going to all of them, right? So I want to bring it back to a leadership development conversation because you were just talking about Sunil's leadership style, um very much not a micromanager and just set the vision, give them the tools they need to get there and let them do their thing.
00:42:54
Speaker
And then there's accountability if they fall short, I'm sure. Mm-hmm. um Are you a student of leadership or did that come to you naturally? I'm a continuous learner, I guess is a good way to put it. So I do read a lot. I do listen to a lot of podcasts.
00:43:11
Speaker
um But I also put it into action and I execute on things I learn. I'm not okay just learning and and and reading books and listening to podcasts and doing nothing with the information, which unfortunately is what a lot of people do.
Resources for Leadership and Business
00:43:27
Speaker
yeah And so... um I always want to put into a, because what I've noticed is like a 10x return. Whenever I put these things into practice, the the benefits that you get out of it is just mind blowing.
00:43:38
Speaker
So if you had a a new shop owner, you a couple of years in their first brick and mortar and they're starting to take it seriously about being a leader in their business and not just being the the number one tech or the number one advisor or whatever.
00:43:53
Speaker
What one or two books would you point them towards or one or two podcasts? What do you point them to? Not industry. So one of my one of my favorite books actually is Simon Sinek's book, Start With Why. I think it's important for people to understand why you're doing something.
00:44:08
Speaker
And the moment you may not feel like it's important for them, you just want to just tell them to go do this and just do it. But the way they do or execute a task is very different when you actually share the why.
00:44:20
Speaker
ah Because they're bought into it then and they understand why you want to move down this path So that's probably one of my favorite books is share the start with why with Simon Sinek Patrick Lencioni's got a bunch of cool books There was there's one book about um Five dysfunctions of a team Five dysfunctions of the team, but then the it's something about unique team player. or It basically, ah he articulates like what kind of person you want on in your company working for you.
00:44:49
Speaker
Somebody who's hungry hungry, humble, and smart. ah So those are very big traits that we also test for and and in our interview process. And we want that into our in our ah leadership teams.
00:45:01
Speaker
That's awesome. yeah So one of my business coaches, I have a couple. i don't know if that's a good thing or not. One of them was introducing me to the concept of why-based training. um you know Why is it good for the employee? Why is it good for the customer? Why is it good for the for the company?
00:45:17
Speaker
If they understand all three of those whys and they can repeat those back to you, then it's a much higher chance that they understand and have bought into that process, policy, procedure, whatever it might be.
00:45:29
Speaker
And his point was when you have a breakdown in one of those things that you retrain with why, you don't go in and you know yell and scream and and and cuss and that kind of thing. You just go back to the whys.
00:45:43
Speaker
And if you have to go back to the same why multiple times, then maybe they're not right for that. because They're not in the right seat or they're not in the right company, maybe. You know you don't know. but um So that has been an interesting concept for me, and I'm trying to adopt that more effectively.
00:45:56
Speaker
in the last few months. He called me out on it in January. so ah did Have you read um Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell? ah No, but... It's good. I follow his content on YouTube and and on Instagram, um but I like it. And he just he always boils everything down to either people or process. It's always people in process.
00:46:18
Speaker
And he's just like, you know... so The lift, the the the car falling off the lift, and you've you've kind of broken it down to you think the person was probably decent. They didn't do it on purpose and were trying to break someone's van. Yeah.
00:46:31
Speaker
So then it it may be process. um We don't know yet, right? And so it's just people are processed always back and forth. And you even said, like, did I have them sign off on that policy? Well, maybe not, but I did give them the tools and I gave them the training and all that.
00:46:44
Speaker
And so looking at those two things, it's nice. it's ah and It's a book that I really enjoy. It's just like, is it this person? Have you documented that process and have you shown them? um And I think everyone, us included, all of my competitors and every person at this conference today could probably document processes better.
00:47:01
Speaker
Everyone could. um And that's difficult as you grow and especially when you're a small business, but that's that's ah um a very important thing. I will tell you for me, um in terms of books, I always enjoyed Atomic Habits by James Clear. I think it's a fantastic book. it um I love the story of the British cycling team and how a coach came in and just looked at every single aspect, every component on the bike, the clothes that they wore, and he even brought in doctors to teach them how to wash their hands so that they got sick less, so that they could train more. so that they could be faster and it was something Changed their pillows so they had better sleep or something. Exactly. The beds, the sheets that they slept on, all of that, the insides of the vans were a stark white and clean so that they could see if there was debris or components or dust that would make those wheel bearings not spin as freely when they're racing, like every aspect of it.
00:47:52
Speaker
But the problem is is that everyone wants to boil the ocean type thing and they just want to go in there. um I went to a training and I'm going to change everything tomorrow. um Some people can do that. Most cannot. But 1% better every day, knowing that you're going to look at this process or this um interaction with a customer, or do we walk outside and greet a customer at their car, or do we stand behind the desk and wait for them? Like all of those tiny, tiny things.
00:48:15
Speaker
um It's what we've done to have some relative levels of success, but we're just, we still look at it like we're just getting started. We're talking about that on the car on the way over here too. It's like, this is great and it's amazing. And yeah, if we're not the the number one, I don't know what number one's rated at, but in terms of you know growth and retention, yeah. I appreciate that you're being humble because Sunil did say that, but we know that TechMetric's number one. But we don't look at it that way. and you and And I don't think we, I've never heard anybody in our offices talk like that ever.
00:48:44
Speaker
It's okay. I'll do it for you. ah We appreciate that. We do appreciate that. um But it is, it's about getting better every single day. So, Awesome. Well, guys, thank you so much for being here. um I've really enjoyed the conversation.
00:48:57
Speaker
And don't forget to send me that video link because I'm totally going to splice it on to the end of the episode because I want to see that. Will do. And I want to be the next beta tester because that's awesome. um And I can't wait to see on the show floor.
00:49:09
Speaker
Thanks for having us. thank Appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out. The good, and the bad, and sometimes the super messed up. I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes, so why not laugh a little bit, learn a little bit, and maybe have another drink.
00:49:24
Speaker
You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover, or do you just want to let me know what an idiot I am? Email mike at confessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message. The number is 704-CONFESS. That's
00:49:39
Speaker
three three seven seven If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.
00:50:18
Speaker
Yeah.