Building Trust Between Shops & Customers

Educating the consumer is very big on helping the consumer make an educated buy and driving

repair orders for that dealership or that repair shop up.

Welcome back to Beyond the Wrench.

My name is Jay Gannon and I am your host.

Today's guest is Mark Poulsen, a veteran marketing and sales leader with more than 25 years

of experience.

He's spent the last decade in the automotive world, including helping Ford launch Omnacraft

globally and now works with AutoNet TV to help shops better educate and connect with their

customers.

Excited to have him on the show.

Welcome to the show, Mark.

How are you?

Thanks, Jay.

Glad to be here.

I'm doing great today.

Thank you.

Good.

Before we get things kicked off, for those that are watching the show rather than

just listening, you'll see that Mark has a really cool collection of golf balls really

displayed behind him.

Tell us a little bit about your collection there.

Yeah, so I've been playing golf for a long time.

I have a son that is a college golfer and so when I started playing with him and

we started going to these courses and I just started collecting golf balls and

so I collect one at every course I play.

Those are just from the pro shop, not ones that I hit, but it's a fun little

collection.

I have everything from pebble beach to abandoned dunes to little dinky places that I go to shows

at and play.

Just grab golf balls everywhere I go and you'll see it has just a few slots left.

Those are actually full.

I have balls I just haven't put them in there and I actually just ordered another

case.

So it's a fun little hobby.

What is your favorite golf course ever?

That's a tough one.

I really like abandoned dunes because it's on the coast of Oregon and it's really fun.

Pebble Beach is also a really nice track.

There's so many Jay, it's really tough to choose, but if I had to choose one I would

probably say probably Pebble Beach.

Yeah, hard to beat that.

I am a terrible golfer so I feel whenever I golf with somebody that's good, it's really,

really embarrassing because I'm not great.

I don't play often.

I think probably 10 years or 15 years ago I was in a league and I got pretty good that

year, but nothing like one of my best friends is a zero handicap, just really, really,

really good.

I'm not a scratch golfer by any stretch.

It is such a tough game and you have to be disciplined, you have to be actually playing

pretty consistently, right?

It's not easy.

It's not.

I mean I'm not a scratch golfer either like my son, but I am about a five, but I love

the game and it's fun, it gets you outside, it's in the nature and I'll agree with

you it is frustrating at times, but you know the funny thing about golf is you hit

just enough shot, enough good shots to make you want to keep coming back every time.

Like you hit that one good shot and you're like, this is easy.

I don't know why I don't just hit that shot every single time.

Yeah, golf isn't like that.

That's not how it works.

So you're obviously not golfing as a profession.

You are very involved in the automotive world and are very well connected.

We just had the pleasure of having lunch together last week at SEMA

and Apex was a lot of fun to see you and so many others down in Vegas.

But I want to learn more about your journey and how you got to where you are

when you're coming out of school.

Are you looking to get into the automotive world or what were you looking at?

No, you know, it's interesting because as I was going to school,

I as right as I started to get close to graduation,

I worked for a medical device manufacturer as a purchasing agent.

And one of our customers found out that I was getting ready to

graduate with a degree in marketing and came to me.

He owned a printed circuit board manufacturing facility.

And he came to me and we were they were manufacturing

printed circuit boards for the the units that this

physical therapy device, medical device manufacturer was selling.

And came to me as in a discussion about purchasing

and stuff and came to me and said, hey, I hear you're graduating.

I'm looking to expand my business.

Would you have any interest in becoming a sales guy for me?

And we talked and started just as I was graduating.

It was a better thing.

It was a better gig for me than the purchasing deal made more money.

And so I started with him and graduated.

I worked for that company.

It was a local company in Utah.

And then that grew into one that was more of a national company

that was based out of Phoenix did that for a few years.

And then I really my sales career really took off when I got

the opportunity to work for a reminder service for the dental industry.

And it was a text reminder service and that you give when you go to the dentist.

And it was called Smile Reminder then.

And then it eventually evolved into a company called Solution Reach.

And I worked there for quite a few years.

And that's really where my sales career took off.

And that kind of that company kind of a whole bunch of changes in management

and a private equity company bought it.

And so a lot of changes led me to go work for an actual dentist in an office

as a sales and marketing guy.

And then it was a pediatric dentist.

And then he decided that he didn't need all of the things that I was doing

for him that he was going to kind of take over that and just had a whole

bunch of whole network of dentists that was going to work for him.

And so that led me to working for a different company that was selling dental websites

and services on e-commerce and those types of things for the dentists.

And did that for a few years.

And that led me to a side job where I was helping a friend do some credit card

processing sales and those types of things.

And while I was still doing that, I was doing it on the side and did that for a little bit.

And that really led me to there's a local company in Utah called OptiCat.

They're really big with all of the supplier, the part manufacturers and stuff.

And I met a guy once and he's like, hey, I'm the COO of this company.

And we're looking for a sales guy, would you be interested?

And so we talked.

And one thing led to another.

And I started OptiCat.

I worked there for about 10 years.

And then a whole bunch of changes there.

They were bought out by Tech Alliance out of Germany, another big data company.

And I didn't, I didn't really like the direction that things were going there.

And then I had been working, OptiCat had been known Autonet TV for a while.

We had it as a service offering at OptiCat for our customers.

And when I wanted to make a change, I just reached out to the ownership of Autonet TV.

And one thing led to another.

And here we are almost three years later.

It's a great company.

Love what they do.

They're really big on educating consumers and about why they need to have their oil

changed or if they're steering wheel shakes or what the things are.

And one thing led to another.

And that brought us also to the education spaces where I got involved with

Rentsway and super excited to be here and glad that we can do this.

And real excited to share what we have to offer.

I am to and really dive into that consumer education piece, because I do think that as

we get into this podcast, we'll share, we'll share why that's so important because

we need to build that trust with customers, because we need to justify maybe

rising labor rates and some of the rising costs that are associated with

running a shop right now.

So we'll dive into that piece.

I am curious, was there any crossover between the dental industry and automotive?

Because that is a wildly different sector, but I'm guessing, you know, you run a

business, any type of business, any type of sector, any type of industry, there

probably is some level of crossover.

Yeah.

I mean, sales is sales.

It doesn't really matter the product that you're selling, but there is some

crossover.

I mean, you know, a lot of dealerships in the auto industry use

text reminders and those types of services similar to what what a dentist would

do to remind you of your service appointment.

And so there is a little bit of crossover and, you know, but again, when

you're selling sales is sales.

It doesn't really matter the product marketing is still marketing doesn't

really matter the product.

And so it doesn't really matter what industry you're in sales and marketing

go hand in hand and one leads to another, but it's still ultimately you

still have to get customers.

You still have to market.

You still have to sell and it doesn't really matter what industry that is.

Sales and marketing is the same across to any industry, whether it's

dentists, whether it's selling the dentist, whether it's selling the

parts companies or it's selling the dealerships, whether it's selling

lumber to the home builders.

Sales is sales and marketing is marketing.

Everybody has to have that.

If you want to sell products, if you want to increase your brand and

the brand recognition, you have to do marketing.

Social media has really been huge in that.

And that's really helped a lot of people that are small become and act

like they're big.

And so, you know, there is a lot of crossover.

It doesn't really matter what industry.

It's it's all it's all one in the same.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Now, tell us a little bit more about AutoNet TV.

I think most of our industry probably has an idea of who AutoNet TV is.

You're in a lot of shops across the country.

Tell us a little bit more about what that's all about.

Yeah, so AutoNet TV started in about 2009.

And the whole goal was to help dealers educate their customers and the

repair shops.

It began with because we believe that if today's consumers understood

the benefits of automotive maintenance, it'll help build trust between the

service visor and the customer, which then which will then aid in

increasing sales.

And so AutoNet TV is we produce our own content.

We have a full production studio.

We do anything from 360 images to custom videos to 3D animation,

motion graphics, those types of things.

But we are in probably all close to 18,000 shops across the country.

We're in all of the Napa auto care centers.

We're in some Napa part stores.

We have relationships with AutoZone or Riley Federated Pet Boys.

We're in a lot of OEs.

We're in every Nissan and Infiniti.

We're in Hyundai.

We're in Kia.

We're in Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram.

We are in Ford.

We are in Mitsubishi.

And we're just continuing to grow because people are starting to see the

need to have this consumer education stuff playing in the waiting room

or on a menu board behind a service advisor desk or in a showroom to

really educate the consumer on the benefits of automotive maintenance.

$60 billion, the reports say the $60 billion of service goes

unperformed every single year because there is a trust factor.

And the trust factor comes with turnover at the automotive repair shop.

Not because they're not educated, but because that soccer mom that has to come

into the dealership or the repair center to get their oil changed, they find

problems and it's a car.

There's always going to be problems.

No car is perfect out there.

And so when they come in to get their oil changed, that's what they're expecting.

But then they find that there's a cabin air filter that needs to be replaced.

And so they go to the soccer mom and say, hey, your cabin air filter needs

to be replaced and she's like a cabin air filter.

My car has a cabin air filter.

Yeah, your car has a cabin air filter.

Well, it needs to be changed.

Well, let me call my husband.

He calls the husband and the husband says, our car has a cabin air filter.

Yeah.

And so they do the service and then the next time she comes in

to get her oil changed and she wants to deal with that service advisor,

they're not there.

So there really becomes a massive trust factor because unfortunately in the

automotive industry, repair shops have a bad reputation of trying to rip people

off by performing services that aren't needed.

And that's an unfortunate thing that we have to deal with in the automotive

space, but and when you look at the numbers of 60 billion, that reflects

that distrust.

And so the whole purpose of AutoNet TV was to put content that is consumer

friendly, that's fun and educating to educate them on, yes, your car has a

cabin air filter and why here's why it needs to be changed.

And that helps educate them on the services that they're that the

dealership or the repair shop is selling them.

And it really gives them a peace of mind and a comfort that knowing that

dealership or that repair shop is not ripping them off.

They build a relationship with them and that's what and ultimately it drives

sales because as they're sitting there watching, you know, if they're if

they're looking having a break job done, educating the consumer on the

difference between ceramic brakes and regular brakes and disc and disc

brakes and pads and rotors and helping educate them on all of these

different things that go into having your car safely stop is a huge factor

because there is a massive difference in brakes and you can't if you the

repair shop is going to sell you what fits your car and will do the job, but

there is a massive difference in how the car stops and the length of

distance that it requires to stop and performance brakes and those types

of things. And so educating the consumer is very big on helping the

consumer make an educated buy and driving repair orders for that dealership or

that repair shop up.

You mentioned the trust factor with customers.

I think a lot of times some of this perception from customers comes from

decades past where maybe we had this kind of we had this outside perception

that it was a rip off or that there were shops that were shady and to this

day there are shops that are shady, right? Shops that don't treat their

people well and as a shop, I think everybody's goal, especially if you're

listening to this show, I'm guessing you're not in that shady group, right?

I'd hope that you're not in that shady group, but I think

it's whether you're a technician that's out there or you're a shop owner or

a dealer principal or a general manager, whoever you are, one of your

biggest goals is to gain that trust so that when you do recommend that

cabin air filter, that they ultimately believe that you're acting in

their best interest, right? Which you should be. I think I firmly

believe that as a shop, your job is to really kind of do the same

thing a doctor does, which is when they're performing a physical, which is

just kind of give you an update as to how you're doing or how your

vehicle is doing and how do you report that back in a way that is

trustworthy and doesn't feel like you're trying to rip that person off?

It is with building trust with that client. I think video is a great

way of doing that. I've seen firsthand the content that AutoNet TV

puts out and it is really, really helpful for that person that might

have that insecurity or that unknown kind of, I don't know, nervousness

that are these people trying to take advantage of me or are they

trying to help me with my vehicle and making sure that my family is safe,

right? And so that trust piece I think is only going to get more

important as we move forward. I think you and I both know there's

increasing pressure on labor rates to go up for profitability of shops.

We need that profitability to be able to buy the tools we need to take

care of our staff and we know how hard it is to find technicians.

We need that profitability to be able to pay these technicians.

So all of this kind of works in this ecosystem to where at the end

of the day, we need customers and we need customers to be able to be

profitable enough to be in a successful business. So I think it's

really key. That video piece is a big piece of building trust and

loyalty within your customers. And when I look at it, I can't say

it enough. I mean, that that trust side is such a huge, huge

piece of our business.

No, you're 100% correct. You don't want the the soccer mom to

feel like it's a grudge buy. You want them to feel like she's

buying it because she truly needs it to make her families keep

her family safe, and that you're have their best interest in

mind. Because nothing is worse than leaving a repair shop or a

dealership with uncertainty about whether you made the right

decision. Because they're if that's the case when they leave,

they're going to think about, can I go to the guy down the

street and have a better experience? And let's be honest,

Jay, if if you're playing videos in your shop or in your

dealership, that's educating the consumer, you that probably

means you do have their best interest in mind because you're

educating them, rather than having them just take your

word for it. You are truly educating them to make them help

them make an informed buy.

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Do you get any sense as to whether it's popularity of

video or you know, where is it that maybe we lose customers

a little bit on the trust side? Is it when the inspection

comes through and they see all of the stuff that they need

to do? Or is it more of any particular type of job that might

drive that that insecurity? You know, is there anything that you

see in particular on the video side that might help us

understand where we could do a better job at at building some

of this trust?

There's a couple of things. I don't think it has it's not

job specific by any stretch of the imagination. I think it

comes from the fact of consumers are not educated on a car. It

gets them from point A to point B. They don't know what I mean,

let's be honest, some people don't even know what type of gas

they have to put in their car. But they don't understand the

parts. They don't know understand how things operate.

They know that they have to change their oil every 5000

miles, they have to have their tires rotated. But when

it when a car goes into a service bay, and they have to, it's

inspected by a digital alignment tool, and it gives them the tire

depth and it gives them all these other things about an

alignment. And I think the consumer gets overwhelmed when

there are so many things that could potentially be wrong on a

car. If you if you walk in the service advisor walks over

and says, Here's your inspection report, we have

about five things that need to be fixed. The only the first

thing that a consumer is going to think is dollar signs. Holy

cow, this is going to cost me a fortune to get my car fixed. And

so they end up having to fix it because they want their family

to be safe. But it becomes at that point, because they're

not educated, it becomes a grudge by. And the last thing

you want us for them to have that grudge by because

it's like going to the doctor, the dentist like you

mentioned, everybody has to go to the doctor, the dentist. The

big difference between going to the doctor and the dentist and

having your car fixed is they trust that doctor or the

dentist. They don't necessarily trust that service advisor

because as I stated earlier, the next time they go, that

person may not be there anymore. And so there is a massive

technician shortage as you mentioned. The other thing that

we need to educate consumers on not only about everything that

goes on in their car is the benefits of going to a shop

that has ASC certified technicians, because there are a

lot of shops out there that that doesn't mean anything to

them. And so they don't have certified people. That tells

me that they're not going through the proper training to

the continue education. They're just there fixing the car

not saying that they can't do a good job because they

probably can. At some point they were trained and

certified. But that is a big factor now that a lot of

people need to understand that going to a shop or a

dealership that has certified technicians means the jobs are

going to get done properly. They're staying educated. And

they're doing the things that they need to do to ensure

that your safety is of utmost importance to them.

Man, I couldn't have said that better. And I feel like all of

this stuff as we're trying to justify ourselves as true

professionals, you know, we hear that complain a lot with

technicians, right? Where maybe they don't feel the respect

from the outside world or even our inside world from a

professionalism standpoint, from a respect standpoint, you

know, and you'll get a lot of arguments against an ASC or

even sometimes factory certifications in terms of well,

anybody, you know, anybody could pass that doesn't mean they

could fix a car or vice versa, right? Like I've seen people

fix cars without needing the certification. I think maybe

taking a step back from that argument and having the

conversation around, you know, from a shop leader

standpoint, it helps us out so much as an industry when

we have that credential to be able to show and and

something to be able to sit down with a customer and say,

hey, you know what? We do have an ASC certified technician. I

think it gives you maybe a little bit of an assurance that

this person is properly trained. This person does know

what they're talking about. And as we want to go to where

we want to go in this industry with that trust factor and

maybe be seen more in the light of a doctor or a lawyer or

dentist or whoever from that professionalism standpoint,

that certification can mean a lot. And so as you're talking

through that, I couldn't agree more. I think it's very

important. And at some level, I think it's important for our

industry to get on the same page, right? The whole the

whole origin story of ASC as a whole with manufacturers

coming together to start it because they didn't want the

government controlling this. We have to understand like,

we have to get our ducks in a row as an industry. These are at

times very dangerous pieces of equipment running down the road

that if they're not properly repaired, could put somebody's

life in danger. And so as we kind of go down this path, the

more we want to keep the government at bay, because I

think we've all seen how the government can maybe

interfere or not run things the way that we would hope they

would. I do think getting our industry on the same page in

recognizing whether it's, you know, it's ASC. I do think there

are, you know, the factory certifications and the training

that happen at the dealer level are great. There's more

and more on the independent side that are getting better

and better. But a universally accepted credential, I think

is essential for the long term success of our industry as

a whole.

No, I couldn't agree more. I mean, we still have to educate

people on what ASC means. Yeah, because I don't think they

there's definitely a misunderstanding of what

that means. But let's be let's be honest here, you're not

going to go to a doctor or a dentist or a lawyer that

hasn't gone through school, doesn't have credentials, and

doesn't stay up with everything that's going on

that's current. Your car costs a lot of money. I mean,

cars anymore, 30, 40, $50,000 on the low end, you know, and so

why would you want to take your

equipment that costs a lot of money

to a shop that doesn't have certified technicians? You

wouldn't go to a doctor that didn't have credentials. You

wouldn't go to a dentist that didn't go through school

forever. Why do you think that your car shouldn't go

through the same process?

Well, I don't know about you, but every time I go to the

doctor or dentist or even my eye doctor, they have their

credentials hanging on the wall in the doctor's office

that I'm sitting in, right? Like I think every single

medical professional that I go into, if it's their kind of

home office, they've got their plaques up on the wall,

they've got their degrees up on the wall, they've got

you know, everything to show you that they are

qualified to do what they're doing to you that day.

I don't know why we're any different there.

We shouldn't be any different. We every certified repair

shop that has ASC technicians should have ASC

certificates for all of their techs hanging on the wall.

They should have signs in the windows that says they

have ASC technicians. There's no difference here. And to

me, this all starts in the high schools and the trade

schools, because we need technicians. And technicians

is not there is a bad misnomer in the schools that

technicians are still it's still turning wrenches. You

know what technology is evolving just as fast in the

automotive spaces that is in the healthcare space. And

it's not just turning wrenches anymore as you are

well aware. Computers are running cars now. You don't

have to turn wrenches. You can make a lot of money by

being a technician that knows how to program cars and

those types of things. It's not just turning wrenches.

And we have to get that message out that it's not

just about fixing a car and turning wrenches. It's

about keeping people safe via computer. There every day

cars have more and more and more electronics. There

could come a day when you don't need a wrench to fix a

car.

That's kind of wild. I I think you see that evolution

more and more. And it does, to your point, I think

create this opportunity to appeal to different skill

sets of kids too, right? I think, you know, for me

growing up, I was a terrible student. I think the

industry appealed to a lot of us back of classroom types

of students that weren't what I would call overly

interested in school. So, you know, I think as as

you grow this industry, you've got to appeal to

the all bright kids, right? And maybe even if

they're not good in school, I've got a lot of

friends that were probably similar to me that

weren't the best students in the world, but have

turned their careers into something very, very

successful. I think we've got to have a combination

of that along with, you know, maybe that that kid

that is looking at an engineering career, but

starts to have this real deep passion for

vehicles. There's a huge opportunity for us to

stand out to that person that might be going

the four year route. And even if they go the

four year route, I've seen it more and more

where there have been young people that have

gone the four year route and then have come back

to work in our industry as a technician. So I

think, you know, just the general appeal to

young people. You talked about ASC in getting

involved with young people just in in general,

right? Like I think being able to show off

the professionalism of our industry at that

young age in the high schools is vital

because even if they're not coming to work

in our industry, that's a really good

opportunity to start to showcase the talented

people in our industry. And maybe that helps

with that trust factor as well, right? When

you're starting to get young people exposed

to what it is that we do, maybe getting a

peek behind the curtain at an early age

probably isn't the worst thing in the world.

No, I agree 100%. Think about who the

most respected people are in the world.

It's your service members, they wear

uniform, your doctors, your dentists,

they all your healthcare professionals,

they wear uniforms. Guess what?

Technicians wear uniforms, too.

Well, I was just on a podcast earlier this

week on somebody else's podcast, my good

friend Curtis Gardner. And we had this

discussion at length in terms of

professionalism in the industry. He is a

technician, a working technician. And we

talked about the need for technicians to

step up their games as well. And if they

want this level of professionalism, they

want this label, they have to act like it,

too. We're out here trying to fight for

the good of technicians. And we always

talk about the social media comments on

our TikTok, right? So, Wrenchway's

TikTok. Sometimes the comments we get

out there are like, okay, guys, can we,

you want this professionalism, you want

this pay, you want all this respect,

it kind of goes right in line with what

we talked about with certifications in

that you have to act like it in order to

get that level of respect, right? And

there are some, to me, one of the coolest

things, and for me growing up as a bad

technician, I talk about that a lot in

the content we do, there is nothing

more beautiful than a very polished,

very professional technician. And you

see their toolbox all organized and

clean. And they just act like a

professional. And they have a lot of

respect of other people. If you're in

that spot as a technician and you're

wanting to grow within your career,

there's a lot of opportunity for you to

get better. And maybe you're starting

to read books on self-development,

you're starting to just act like a

true professional. That's what it's

going to take for us as an industry

to kind of take that next step. I

think certifications fall right in

line with that. Oh, no, 100% they

do. And, you know, talking about the

uniform and being professional, what

could be more satisfying than knowing

that you could save someone's life

just by taking care of their vehicle,

changing their air filters, changing

their oil, rotating their tires. They

seem like simple things. But those

are the things that fail on cars that

could potentially save someone's life.

And so there's nothing more

professional to me than a technician

that takes pride in the work that he

does, goes home at the end of the day

and says, you know what? I did a really

good job today because I could have

saved. I worked on 10 cars today and

that is at least 10 people's lives I

could have saved today because I take

pride in the work that I do. I'm

staying up on technology. I'm staying

up on training and I love what I

do. Those are the kind of people that

we need in this industry that want to

take pride. And guess what? They're

going to be rewarded by great pay

checks by doing and being

expensive, being respectful and

taking care of those consumers

because they're going to come back

to you every time they need a repair.

I think it's interesting as you're

talking through this one huge

opportunity. We talk about that

customer level trust and I'll kind of

pivot a little bit back to that

because when we talk through

maintenance, you would think this

would be a very simple concept for

customers to understand, right? It's

the same as your home. It's the same

as your teeth. It's the same as

anything that if you don't take care

of it, it's not going to last.

Your vehicle's not going to last and

you're going to have some expensive

repairs. Something as simple as that

oil change at 5,000 miles like you

were talking about. I love whenever

we're able to give a customer a

visual of what lack of maintenance

looks like because they might have

heard or maybe they haven't been

properly trained on how important

something like a simple maintenance

is. And when they go in and maybe

they get that inspection back and

they're like, well, they're saying

we need ball joints now. And with

ball joints in some other

suspension work, we need an

alignment now. And you know, I

think as you go through that as a

customer, you're like, oh, this is

expensive. But what they don't

understand is if they don't do that

stuff, it gets real expensive,

especially as vehicles get more

sophisticated, more expensive.

That visibility to be able to

show them the impact of

maintenance is an absolutely huge

thing. And it's not just me as a shop

now saying it. Now you've got some

visual proof of this isn't this is

some important stuff.

Yeah, that's where videos come

in and they play a huge factor

because now technology is such

that when almost all dealerships

or repair shops do some kind of a

digital video inspection, they

walk around your car with

their cell phone or they have

equipment that does that. But

technology is such now that

Autonet TV is actually integrated

in a lot of DVI platforms where we

can send the customer, the

consumer, a video that talks

about that specific service that

needs to be done and why it's

important. If you send them a

30 second one minute video about

why that cabin air filter needs to

be changed and what the

ramifications are if you don't

change that air filter, it seems

like a really dumb example. It's

a it's an air filter and it's

inside of your car. But the

pollutants and everything that

come through those air filters

are huge factors. And if you

have if you're sensitive to

those types of things and have

allergies in those types of

things, that's an important

factor. And so sending the

consumer a video about the

repair that needs to be done

and educating them, they're

more likely to say yes to that

repair because now they

understand the importance of

why that needs to be done. You as

a technician could sit there and

talk to them till you're blue in

the face, explain it 10

different ways, and they're

still not going to get it. The

internet and technology has

evolved so much that

everybody wants to watch

videos now. They want to

watch 30 second reels. And so

if you can get that service

explained to them in 30, 45,

60 seconds, you're going to

win.

I couldn't agree more. Now one

thing as technology continues

to evolve that we're going to

have more challenges and

trying to explain to a

customer are all of the

complications that come along

with Ados. And I want to

talk through that in a little

more detail because this is

something where a customer

truly isn't used to having

their sensors recalibrated. And

this might seem like a, you

know, we're talking about that

trust barrier that we have

between shops and a customer.

That's a huge challenge in

trying to, you know, from a

shop standpoint, explain that

if you don't do this, that

is another potential risk. And

so on top of car repair or

any type of repair being

very expensive already, now

you're adding another layer

to this and maybe a layer that

there's not a lot of

understanding on, right? I

think there is a lot of

opportunity for shops to help

educate customers on this in

that this isn't going away.

This is something that's going

to be a staple in our

industry for a long time to

come. You just have to be,

you have to as a customer or

a consumer be able to

understand why that's

important to you.

Yeah. And nobody

understood. I mean, Ados

is evolving as fast as any

other technology. But

let's clear the air here.

Ados, 99% of the consumers,

and I would say a lot of

shops and technicians don't

understand Ados because

it's new and it's

technology. And let's be

honest, it is the all of the

safety features of your

vehicle fall under this new

Ados systems. And so you

have to be taking

continuing education. You

have to be trained on these

systems because it's not

just your lane departure

signals, and it's not your

backup cameras and your

forward looking cameras and

your adaptive cruise

control. Those are big

components of this. But

it's a lot of cars have

stuff built into the

windshields now. Like I

have a Subaru that you

can't just replace it

with any with a normal

windshield. You have to get

a specialized windshield that

costs three times the price

of a normal windshield

because it has all of these

safety features built into

it. And so for the consumer

to be educated on Ados is

almost, if not more important

than the technician

understanding, because those

are the safety features of

your vehicle. And if

something is not working,

most of the system is not

working. And so you need to

understand that if you're

signaling to go left or

right and your lane

departure things are not

working, it's more than just

that in probably most cases.

It is a whole system that

needs to be recalibrated and

reset. And it's a lot of

it's in your infotainment

system that sits right

there. And you can see

the diagnostics and a lot of

those things you can see

as a consumer right in your

infotainment system screen.

But it's still like speaking

Chinese to us because we

don't get it.

Well, I think that's that's

part of the problem, right,

is maybe our industry

doesn't even fully understand

it. At some level, there's

been I've gotten a lot of

feedback from industry folks

that were like, even the

OEs aren't on the full

understanding of it yet,

right? And an example we

had from one of our prior

podcast guests was like, if

you had somebody that bought a

new F 250 and put a

lift kit in it, the proper

procedure as of right now is

to take the lift kit out, do

that the calibration and

then you're I don't know if

you're supposed to put the

lift kit back in or not, you

know, it's just makes zero

sense because then if you

were to if the lift kits

back in, you're changing

all the angles, you're

changing everything again.

So I do think there's some

level of uncertainty at the

OE level yet, or maybe just a

lack of getting what the

engineers know out to the

general public. I think from

a shop standpoint right now,

or if you're that technician

and you're out to a cocktail

party, if there are

opportunities to proactively

help explain this to

customers in ways that are

bite sized that help them

understand it, it's going

to help you out a lot in

the future because this is

going to continue to get

more advanced. There are

going to be a lot more

uncertainties or just

a uneducated people talking

about this, right? You know, I

think the more you can get

out in front of it in a

proactive fashion, that helps

when you do, you know, give

that estimate and it's got an

ADOS calibration on that

estimate and they're like,

what what in the world is

this, right? Like, I think

we have to be a little bit

more proactive in relation to

educating the general public

on ADOS.

No, we definitely have to

and part of the problem with

this is the technology is

changing so rapidly that what

you learned last week is

still probably accurate, but

there's so many other things

that could go along with

that that you have to do.

And you know, as well as I

do, Jay, that you can't

explain this well enough to

a consumer or a customer for

them to understand it. You

have to show it to them.

If you show it to them

through a video, they're going

to understand better.

I'm not I'm not going to ever

say that they're going to

understand it fully because I

don't think any of us are

going to understand it fully,

but you're at least going to

help them understand why

the calibration is important

because even on my Subaru, if

I have to have the windshield

replaced, I have to have

the whole system recalibrated.

You can't just change the

windshield and say, oh, we're

good to go. No, you have to

recalibrate the entire system

because the windshield works

with the mirrors and the

they everything works and the

cameras and they all work

together as one system.

And so that's why the S in

Ados stands for system.

You have they all work

together. And so you have

to educate the consumer and

the customer, your customers

about why calibrating that

system is important because

if one piece of that system

doesn't work, none of it works.

For example, for example, I'll

give you an example here.

My 21 year old golfer that

lives in Oregon calls me the

other day. He has a 2020 Ford

Escape titanium calls me

other day and says, Dad, I

got this TPM TMS warning on

my on my car. And I said, well,

go get your tire, go have

discount tire or a tire less

swab or whoever's up there,

put air in it. So he goes to

the tire place and get some

filled and they recalibrate

it. And they're like, your TPM

sensors are bad. And so he

calls me like, Dad, they say

the TPM sensors are bad. And

I said, well, what look at

your dashboard and tell me

what it says? He's like, Dad, I

have so many things flashing

and blinking on my dashboard

that says it's all out of

whack. He's like, I can't even

get my phone to connect to my

car because the TPM sensors

are not working. And I said,

okay, you're going to have

we're going to have to

replace the TPM sensors,

call the call the store and

get a quote on replacing

the TPM sensors. Once that's

done, then we're going to

have to call forward. And

you're going to have to take

your car in and have the whole

thing recalibrated. Because I

said the tire plate the tires

company could replace your

TPM sensors and they can

probably recalibrate the TPM

sensors. But those are all

tied to a million other

things that in order for

your dashboard to not be

blinking and flashing

everywhere and get your phone

to connect, you're going to

have to go to forward and

have that have it

recalibrated. And he's like,

wow, Dad, this is really

complicated. And I said,

you know what, it is

complicated. And the fact

that you don't understand it

and you have to call me is

fine because you're only 21

and I get that. But you're

pretty tech savvy, you're a

21 year old kid that grew up

with technology. If you don't

understand this,

in the public is nobody's

going to understand this.

Yeah, that's the that's

where we need to educate

people on ADOS and

everything else that goes on

in their car. I mean, EV is a

whole nother topic of

conversation that's going to

have to happen at some point

because these batteries that

are in these EVs,

everybody's like, oh, it's

saving the saving the

environment. And oh, I'm

saving, you know, I don't

have to I don't have to put

fuel in my car. And guess

what, the the batteries

that are residing in these

EVs are deadly. They are

very dangerous. And people

don't understand

how dangerous these batteries

are. And so there's a whole

another thing with EVs and

electric vehicles that has to

be taken into consideration.

And it applies to hybrids

too, because they still have

part pieces of the electric

along with the gas piece of

that. And so, you know,

there's a lot of things

that we have to educate

the general public on in the

automotive space, because

they're not understanding.

Well, and I think you

had mentioned this earlier,

but the education of our own

industry, right, in making

sure that we all know what's

going on. And it's harder

than ever right now in

trying to stay on top of it.

If you are a technician out

there that is working your

tail off to stay on top of it,

or if you are in leadership

and you're trying to, you

know, read every article

that's out there or read,

you know, listen to every podcast

or whatever it is that you're

trying to do, you run short on

time. It is really, really hard

to stay abreast of everything

that is going on,

especially when you consider

that these changes are

happening, happening rapidly.

They just keep happening.

Every day is a new evolution

of something, right?

And it's only going to get

harder to stay on top of this

stuff. It's a real challenge

for those of us in the

industry to keep our thumb

on and really have a pulse,

a finger on the pulse of what

is going on.

My first comment to that would

be thank you to those that are

working hard to try to stay on

top of it because that that

shows that you care, but

you're 100 percent correct in

the fact that it is

changing rapidly.

I mean, there's this old

adage with computers that I

could go buy a computer at

the store today. And by the

time I walk out the door,

it's going to be outdated.

That's exactly what's going on

with cars right now.

You literally could go buy a

2026 car right now,

drive it off the lot and

get home. And there could be a

software update for your car.

It is changing that rapidly

that it's hard.

It is very, very hard to stay

up.

At some point, it'll slow

down and it'll level out.

But everybody's trying to

come up with better

safety systems and more advanced

systems to gain an edge

and to get market share.

And again, the government

is involved here because

it's a safety factor

and the government needs to be

involved, you know, on these

types of scenarios because these

are safety systems.

And so

thank you to those that are

trying to stay up because it is

tough.

But from a consumer's

perspective, these safety

systems are there to keep you

safe.

And that's the reason that they

have been implemented and you

can't buy a car right now without

a safety system because

it's that it has been proven

that they are that much safer.

Oh, absolutely.

As we get closer to the

conclusion of this and it's

been such a wonderful

conversation really

about that customer

awareness piece and building

that trust, which I think as

an industry, we need to keep

chipping away at we need to

keep working at.

Now, as we kind of get towards

the end here, we do have

a few questions for you

that are more of these rapid

fire type questions.

And

just kind of a little

off topic. But first

question is what is the first

car you ever owned?

I worked on when

I was growing up on a seventy

two Ford Ranchero with my

dad, big old boat.

But what a fun car it was.

We had a seventy two Ford

Ranchero.

We had a sixty five

Ford Fairlane 500 convertible

and we had an eighty three

Camaro and the Camaro was

the first car I drove

when I got my driver's license

in high school. But I had

plenty of experience working

on that car.

Had lots of experience

working on the seventy two

Ford Ranchero.

But man, that sixty five four

lane fair Ford Fairlane 500

convertible. That's cool.

And that that thing was a big

boat. But man, what a ride.

You're seeing I see more of

them. I feel like on the show

car scene now more and more

of those fair lanes coming back.

Next question.

This might be a little tougher

one.

Who is your industry role model?

Oh.

That's a tough one.

That is a tough one.

That is a very, very tough one.

You know what? The person I learned

the very most from all to say

that's the person I learned the

very most from about the

automotive industry and

how things operate is actually

the president of ASC now Dave

Johnson. Because when I first

met Dave,

greatest, most humble guy in the

world.

And he was the one that helped

us.

He was in.

He was key in the Ford Omni

Craft project that I helped

launch. And I learned so much

about automotive and

distribution and global things

from Dave when he was at

Ford and we were working on the

Omni Craft together that

really helped shape the

career path that I have now

because he was just key

in teaching me

and helping me learn everything

about the automotive space from

a big, big company

perspective.

He's absolutely one of the best

absolutely one of my role models

as well. And I think

so many people that have worked

with him have a similar experience

to you, right, where it just

a very humble, very smart,

very fair person.

And and yeah, somebody

that we I think all look up

to in this industry.

Last question, name

your favorite piece of the

technology you recently

discovered.

That's a tough one, too.

The marketing team really brought

some some tougher questions.

No kidding.

You know, one of the coolest

technologies I've seen lately

are coming

in the alignment

and the collision space.

There are some cool technologies

out. I mean, Hunter's been

around for a long time and

their system is awesome, but

there's some new

alignment companies out there

that are that just have

towers of cameras.

And as you drive through the bay,

they're snapping camera so

fast that it's getting

a 360 of your car.

Even though it's not going around,

it's getting a 360 of your car

and it's looking for

dents and alignment

issues and all of these things

that can all be done

just in these little towers

with these cameras and these

fast computers that that

technology is growing rapidly

in its and it's amazing

what technology

is doing in in

all the alignment space and in

the collision space.

That's a great answer.

And I think we talk so much

about the technology of the

vehicles themselves, but

the tools that are coming at

such a rapid pace for all

of our technicians to be able

to use is

it's just insane.

And I have to give Mark credit

here because this is

fairly new segment of our show

and I'm still a little rusty at

asking those questions.

I didn't prep him with those

questions. He came up with those

out of the top of his head.

And and I apologize for that,

Mark. Normally, I try to at least

give those questions a little bit

ahead of time so that you have

some time to think.

So a lot of credit to you for

coming up with those off the top

of your head.

Hey, no problem. Thank you.

I mean, I love

I love impromptu questions.

I'd rather not be prepared

because it's it's more genuine

to me. Let's be honest.

Very authentic questions

answers to those questions.

So I appreciate you working

with me on those and also

just appreciate everything

you're doing for the industry.

We've been able to work together

here the last few months.

I've really appreciated getting

to know you and the entire

team at AutoNet TV.

Shout out to Mima because they

were the reason that we met in

the first place in Detroit.

So just

very grateful for our relationship

with you and the entire AutoNet TV

team and look forward

to seeing what we can do.

It's a we're hopefully

going to be doing some really cool

stuff with the schools here

soon and some more to come on

that. But just wanted to say

thank you for that.

Thank you for being on the show.

Thank you for everything that

you're doing.

Yeah, and I'm grateful that you

asked me to be on the show

and I'm grateful for our

relationship as well.

And grateful for all the good

things that Wrenchway is doing.

I mean, your school to assist

program and we're really

excited to be part of that

because that is what's going to

drive the future and get more

technicians and education

into exactly the topics

that we talked about today

because those those are the

future.

And we all know that those

kids do not learn by reading

a textbook.

They learn by watching and

gaining knowledge through video

and that's going to be the

future and that's placed

perfectly into what AutoNet TV

does. But the things that

Wrenchway are doing to

connect

dealerships with schools and

students is

by far the best program I've

ever seen and kudos to you

guys for changing focus

and realizing that that is

where things need to happen

and where things can

make the most impact.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

And and you along with

so many other folks that have

helped support us in this

journey to kind of maybe take

a little bit more of a long

term look at this and and

try to hopefully have an impact

at the core rather than trying

to duct tape this thing

together. So I really

appreciate the support again.

Thanks for coming on the show.

Hope to do it again sometime

soon.

Thank you for having me

any time. Love to love to

be on it.

That wraps up another episode

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Building Trust Between Shops & Customers

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