00:05
Hello and welcome to the CarGuy Coffee Podcast. This brew has been brought to you by Certified
00:10
Solutionaries and if you want to consume more brews or want more information about how to
00:16
build your brand on our podcast and want to see how you can sponsor the brew, go to CarGuyCoffee.com.
00:22
Let's brew! What's going on Car Guys and Car Gals? It's Lou Ramirez. And it's Fred Lynn Arts.
00:28
And we are excited to be brewing solutions with the one, the only, Julie Douglas. Welcome to the
00:34
party, Julie. How are you? I am fantastic. How are you guys? Oh, living it up. Excited. We're in
00:41
beautiful St. Augustine, Florida, hanging out with the Bozar team. Excited to talk to them
00:45
about dealer pain. We'll talk about that some other time. But no, what you guys have is something
00:49
that they definitely need. I believe what you all have is something that the whole country needs
00:53
inside their stores. It's a beautiful technology that's really helping people be able to get the
00:57
payment and know how to resource it and where it's at, what's going on with it. So there's no
01:01
questions asked. It's just simple, easy and very beautifully done. And I love a lot of the integrations.
01:06
At NAD, I'm talking, but I can't, I'm excited because at NAD, I got to learn even more about
01:10
your product, see some of the integrations that you're doing and partnerships that you're making.
01:13
So particularly with DriveCentric, which was phenomenal to see how that all laid out,
01:17
watching the demo of it, blew my mind how easy it was and how quick everything is right there
01:22
in one card, one contact card. So it's beautiful. Great job with that. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah,
01:27
it was a lot of fun. Still a little exhausted from the show, but a lot of great stuff. It was a blast.
01:35
Everybody from that show definitely left there with a bag full of goodies as far as information,
01:41
great swag and a whole stack schedule to get to. I'm sure that your schedule is full, our schedule
01:47
is packed and we're having some fun making sure that we do talk to the industry about what it is
01:52
that actually brewed out there while everybody's on the ground doing what it is that they do. But
01:56
speaking of people out there doing what they do, thank you for joining into the show, wherever it
02:00
is that you are. Let's get more car guys and car gals involved in the fun and tag a car guy.
02:05
Tag a car gal and share, share, share, share, share, share. Get the message out there. Come on,
02:10
we do. We got some really great news and we got some great information to share with you. A lot of
02:13
us, a lot of us dealers, a lot of us business people are here. We're grinding. We got some great
02:18
ideas. We just left NADA. Our mind is exploding with so many ways to make our business better.
02:22
But man, are you going to do it the right way? We have some really great tips for you all today
02:26
to make sure that you do take all this information and organize it so that you can be better with
02:30
your stores. So I'm excited about that today. And the last time that we got together, it was the
02:34
conversation that needed to be had, especially as everybody was getting ready to get into the groove
02:39
of being on the move because we talked about the cost of standing still and why it is that it could
02:44
paralyze the movement of your actual flow of the day. And we went over those points. You guys
02:49
got to go back, listen to that episode here, what it is that we brewed. There was some great stuff
02:53
out there. But as we continue that conversation moving forward, because you know, we got to keep
02:58
it moving forward, we got to talk a little bit about how the systems actually are when the systems
03:04
don't work together. This is something that you all always have to consider, especially when you
03:09
see the new shiny objects out there and you do different things inside of your business or your
03:13
tech stack that maybe makes your fun not so fun anymore. And we want to make sure that we jump
03:20
into that. And we're pumped up, Julie, to have this conversation with you because there is a lot
03:24
brewing when the actual conversations are not really conversing. Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.
03:32
This is exciting to be able to have this conversation. So please make sure that you do drop
03:37
a coffee cup emoji, drop a thumbs up, drop a couple of hand claps if you're ready for some
03:41
conversation, or put somebody's name in the comments that you know needs to hear this,
03:45
or needs to consider smoothing out their system. So let's talk a little bit about how things are
03:51
actually brewing for this February. And maybe what we can give people a smell of that they're
03:58
going to be getting inside of this brew. Yeah, so we talked early about the customer experience.
04:03
And then we talked, like you said, last time about the cost of standing still. I think what's
04:09
important, especially coming out of NAD is to talk about siloed technologies. Quick story for you,
04:16
when I first started dealer pay, it was a standalone solution. It was our technologies,
04:22
they were fantastic, they still are. But it did not really bring that level of sophistication
04:28
to the dealer until we started doing integrations. So all the manual processes that were required
04:36
to make a transaction happen are now being automated. And I don't know about you guys,
04:42
you guys talk to tech companies all the time. But if these systems don't talk to each other,
04:47
you just have a bunch of individual siloed technologies. And I don't know about you,
04:53
but I think it's inefficient. It's not just inefficient. It's like really clunky, right?
04:59
It's like having one spoke out on a wagon wheel, right? It's you're feeling the non-smoothness
05:08
like speed bumps inside of a fun drive. And depending on what kind of machine it is that
05:14
you're driving, you've got to take those speed bumps really slow and do other things inside
05:22
of the flow that actually could derail the entire fun of the experience, which is ultimately we
05:28
want to make sure is the smoothest part, just at least how we process payment goodness,
05:33
that it should be a nice, smooth little quick and easy. Here you go. Here's your pay.
05:39
And he's right. And too many dealers are complaining about having to log into 20 different
05:43
things in order to do business for one thing. So it's important that we really make it really
05:46
simple and not silo to one, but where everybody is really working together. There was something that
05:51
I heard from a good friend of ours, Lyman, many years ago was how we need to have a great
05:55
collaboration and automotive. And that's what I love about your heart is that you're really
05:58
trying to make that happen right now. You're trying to collab, trying to make things go right,
06:02
trying to bring the end result as smooth as possible, which is make the customer experience
06:06
phenomenal, right? And if we can make that happen, then customers will come to us in droves and it's
06:11
so much easier to get them to do things that make them a little uncomfortable. So it's important
06:15
that we do that and really grow from that and really make that situation better. It really is.
06:19
And that's big. 56%. And this is a stat that we actually got from McKinsey and Company. It says
06:25
56% of operational inefficiency stemmed from disconnected systems. That's huge. That's a
06:31
big stat number. 56%. I think that happens. Yeah. Here's the thing with integrations
06:40
and various technologies involved. It's not just an exchange of data. There has to be automation.
06:46
So when you look at a stat like that, you almost got to wonder what is that costing the dealership
06:54
monetarily? It's hard to put that number on it, but think about it from paying your employees,
06:59
paying your systems. All those things are going to be costs that aren't like in your face,
07:04
but imagine how much you could save or be more profitable if you bridge the gap.
07:11
That's a great insight, but I would venture to say, based off of all the solutionaries that we
07:17
know are in the business to make things easier for dealers, they don't really set out to create
07:22
this fragmentation. They have a great idea. They have a great system. They have an actual great
07:27
solution, but this actually begins to develop a gap of getting this coordination down. How do
07:38
you mention these different systems? It becomes challenging for the dealership user, whether
07:43
they're invariable fixed or in the office, to constantly have to manage these individual processes
07:50
versus a workflow. Over time, dealers tend to just get used to it. I think that's what we see and
07:59
that's what we talked about with the cost of standing still. Either they're used to it and
08:03
they fear change or they don't know there's a better option out there. That's what I hope we're
08:10
talking about today is just to give dealers a little bit of insight into looking at different
08:15
options, but making sure there's an integration, making sure that your systems are talking to
08:21
each other for the greater good of your dealership employees, the greater good of your dealership
08:27
customers, and ultimately the greater good of your profitability. That's so true because
08:33
the thing is we don't want to do workarounds. When you do workarounds, what that does, it ends up
08:37
becoming pretty expensive at the end of the day. It takes more time, more man hours, even just a
08:42
man hours alone, but they become permanent and that's the problem. We start to think it's normalized
08:46
and I guess that would lead to the next question. Why do you think these red flags don't just jump
08:50
up immediately for most of these people? Because they're used to it. They're used to dealing with
08:57
the pain. They're used to having to get frustrated and hopefully the employee is savvy enough to not
09:05
portray that over to the customer, but sadly the industry, as much as we've advanced technologically,
09:12
there's still that mindset that there's all these things that have to be done manually.
09:17
I can't tell you still how many dealers I talked to who still write credit card numbers down in
09:23
their parts department because it's easier for them to get to because they don't know
09:29
that there's a system out there that can securely store them and make it easier for their customers
09:34
to pay. That's just one example and obviously that's a huge compliance problem. I think knowledge,
09:41
just us talking and getting some information out to these dealers to let them know there are better
09:46
systems that connect with your other programs. That's so true and there's something that we
09:52
do respect of the auto industry. When we consider what it is that they're doing, they are masters
09:57
of being able to have one plate spinning here, another plate spinning there. Eventually it looks
10:03
like we're in the circus and that's what these managers are able to do, keep these different
10:08
plates spinning and spinning and balance another one here then balance another one there and then
10:12
you're like, I don't think I can balance anymore, but wait a minute, I got something I can balance
10:15
right there and they do have all of these things that are spinning and working and moving together
10:20
and the idea of even simplifying it even just down to a few, sometimes it seems just unfathomable
10:27
for people that are just used to doing that and there are certain people that can learn how to
10:31
balance that. Our hats are always off to the managers, to the leaders that are always doing
10:36
those things between the people, the processes, the customers, no matter what they got to keep
10:41
those plates spinning and they got to keep the show going on and do it with a smile,
10:44
but you mentioned profitability, sometimes it does impact the profitability because they are
10:51
spinning all these different wheels and sometimes a plate gets dropped and another one gets broken
10:56
and sometimes the whole system collapses. How are the different ways that it actually can cross the
11:02
dealership? Again, Lou, it's not their fault, right? Like you said, they're juggling, they're
11:07
doing what they're supposed to be doing and I think a lot of times the idea or the concept
11:12
of improving a manual process in their head thinks, oh, it's going to be more expensive,
11:18
right? Or after change, like we talked about. Believe it or not, some of these technologies,
11:23
including ours of course, is going to actually save you money. Cost of change or improving
11:29
processes doesn't always have to come with a price tag. So that's something that's very important
11:35
because I think that's not common knowledge in space. I think it's a really big, I think I love
11:41
that. There's another stat out there that says that up to 30% of employee time is spent reconciling
11:55
across systems and that's big. Like thinking about the time, that alone, 30% of their time,
11:59
which is wasted time, that could be spent doing something that's more efficient for the store,
12:04
something that could actually bring more profit. You don't even know what the ROI is on that.
12:08
Like just in time alone, there's what you can tell there's some stuff that could be done,
12:10
but the stuff that they could be doing to bring more profit is even next level. So that's massive.
12:15
When you talk about CFOs, controllers, office managers, if you could save them 20 hours a month,
12:22
what do you think they could do at that time? They could close the books faster. They could
12:27
manage cash flow. Gosh, if they didn't have to chase salespeople and finance managers and
12:33
service writers around to understand what ticket goes to what, I mean, there's just so much involved
12:37
in reconciliation. And with multiple systems that don't talk to each other, they have to reconcile
12:45
each one individually, make sure the deposit matches the bank and all the things. It's a lot.
12:52
It's more than a full time job. And that's why dealers have such massive accounting departments
12:59
to make sure they don't miss a beat. But imagine the time that could be saved and the money that
13:05
equates to just poor integration increases operating costs 20 to 25 percent is what they
13:10
say in some other stats that we've read. And that's huge. And when you think about that's a lot of
13:14
time. And at the end of the day, for you dealers, you owners, that's a lot of money that you could
13:18
be using that as simple as getting the right up system inside there that does have great integrations
13:24
that does run smoothly so that everything is in one place. One of the big words that you said
13:28
earlier to me really is making sure that our compliance is right. You know, above the money,
13:33
we don't that we don't waste with our people. Think about the money that we could be spending
13:37
because we're not in compliance. We could be spending thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds
13:42
of thousands of millions of dollars, which I've heard some dealers have to do because they're
13:45
not doing what they're supposed to be doing when it comes to customer data. So it's important that
13:49
we make sure that we keep this super safe. So it's all of this stuff together. It's not the
13:53
mis-push of a button can cause you so much issues, right? So when you don't have to press that button,
13:58
when you could save people from that, why not do that? I think that's massive huge.
14:02
Yeah, I did a presentation at NADA just last week about dealers don't want to be masters at
14:09
compliance. In fact, they don't even want to talk about it, right? It's not something that's in their
14:14
site. They want to use a partner who does it for them. Just like they expect uptime and security
14:20
and deposits being fast, they need to use a system that's checking the box for compliance. And
14:27
the company behind that system has got to be buttoned up. And not just, okay, it's 2026.
14:34
We did everything we could to make sure everything's compliant. This is a constantly moving target
14:39
from states to taxes to surcharges to security. And I can't tell you the amount of resources
14:47
that we've had to do or use to make sure that we're hitting that mark consistently,
14:53
daily, not just each year. And it's in real time. The ultimate goal for a manager is to sell the cars
15:02
or all the people want to do here is I just want to sell the cars. I just want to solve the problem.
15:07
I just want to take care of the customer. And I don't really want all of these hoops that I need
15:11
to jump through help these systems link together to where I can naturally do what I do in the best
15:17
way possible for my customer and for my employees and for my atmosphere and for my own workflow.
15:23
We want it to all come together. And it's very easy for us to point out and to be able to see
15:28
maybe where all these holes in the boats or the areas that we can fix or where the problems can
15:33
fall apart. All of us will say, yep, I know about that. Oh, you're right. I've seen that before.
15:39
Let's actually do it more like solutionaries do. We don't necessarily point at the problem more
15:43
than we point at the solution. So tell us a little bit of what it actually looks like
15:47
for a dealership to be in line, having these systems in place, actually getting them connected
15:52
strategically. First and foremost, you know, their worries of loss don't have to be there.
15:59
Their worries of their employees, which are human beings making mistakes, don't have to be there if
16:05
the system that they're using takes care of it for them. Now, I'm not saying it's going to take care
16:11
of everything because even with AI, we still have to be humans. We still have to interact with said
16:18
systems, right? But if the system they're using protects them, each transaction, they feel more
16:25
secure. That means they don't have as much loss. They don't have as many charge backs. They don't
16:32
have to worry that maybe they're violating a state law or that they're violating one of the card
16:40
brands. God forbid visa. They just know that the partner that they're using already has that button
16:46
up. That's so true. That's so true. So what more or less would it look like in real time if you had
16:53
to describe, Hey, if I jumped into this, what does it look like if I actually get these systems
16:57
lined up? Like what for the dealers are like, show me the money. How does it actually work? What does
17:02
my atmosphere look like afterwards? Sure. So when you talk about integration, this isn't just a data
17:08
exchange, right? Because it's the dealer's data, right? The DMS is storing all the customer data,
17:14
all the transactional data, the repair orders, the parts tickets, the deals data. It's the dealer's
17:21
data, right? It's the system that takes that data and uses it to perform a necessary function,
17:29
to perform something that's efficient, that's compliant, etc. So an example, we have a system
17:35
that does real-time fraud mitigation. So let's just say, Fred, I sent you a payment request,
17:41
and it was for $1,000 worth of tires, okay? You paid, me as the parts manager got it back,
17:49
and it said, Oh, Fred's been involved in five chargebacks in the last year involving this same
17:56
credit card and this same email address. That user is going to be like, Man, I don't really know if
18:03
I should do this transaction with Fred. But guess what happens? They have that choice. And we put
18:08
that in front of their vision real-time. Whereas later, it would have batched, there would have
18:14
been a chargeback. Fred would have had $1,000 worth of free tires because he used somebody else's
18:20
credit card. And the dealer is sitting there scratching their head, like, how did this happen?
18:27
That's a real-life thing. It happens all the time. That is a very real-life thing. I've had that
18:31
not too long ago happen to my credit card. Like, I was not going to say who the dealer was,
18:36
but I get a charge out of nowhere for, I want to say $800. And I'm like, and I bought some stuff at
18:43
the store, at this dealership in their parts department, music, some swag, stuff like that,
18:47
but nothing near. I can talk to $50. And this is, when I wasn't there, I get a charge. And so I
18:53
called them and they could not explain how it happened. Luckily, I knew them. I loved everybody
18:57
in the place. So I was able to talk to them and make sure that doesn't happen. But that's
19:01
something that should never happen to anybody. Somebody would raise a huge stink, but that could
19:05
be even a lawsuit possibly. And that's something we refer to as PCI compliance. So in the event,
19:11
your card number was written down and stolen from someone. That's a big deal.
19:16
Yeah, huge. That's huge. Never good, right? And so that being said, you can avoid all that.
19:22
What I love and honestly, what I love is that it had, I didn't know that you guys had that kind
19:27
of data to be able to share with your customer. That was like a new thing I just learned. So
19:30
folks, if you're watching this, wow, think about that again, as a owner, like just knowing that
19:34
your people have, there's something in front of them that shows them what type of people are using
19:39
this card, right? It's important that we know that there's been fraud known to this card or this
19:42
person's name or this email address, because we don't want to do that. You don't want to take a huge
19:46
chunky down payment to maybe an offsite delivery somewhere that's going to be delivered to them
19:51
and realize all of it was fraud. There's a lot of ways to make sure that we don't do that. And
19:55
that's just one little way to do so, folks. One huge way. It's massive. It's big. A lot of you
20:00
all out here right now are thinking, man, I got all this stuff. I have so much technology. How do
20:05
I get all this right? It's really just sit down with your technology partners and see who they're
20:09
aligned with. Really focus on that first. Find what you really love and then work around that.
20:15
I know one thing about DeLaPay is they're willing to work with anybody. They want to help people
20:18
get better. They want to make your dealership do so much more. They know that this is because
20:22
the Harvard business review states that 70% of digital transformation efforts miss ROI targets
20:28
due to lack of operational integration. So make sure that you get the right integrations that
20:34
they're all operational. It's so big and it will make a huge difference for you. You will get the
20:39
ROI you were looking for, but 70% of digital technology is only as good as it's adopted
20:46
by its users too. So even if you update your technology, if it's not implemented in a way
20:53
where it's very much folded into your daily processes, guess what? You're not getting the ROI
21:00
out of your technology either. So there is bringing back that human component because
21:06
training and real life examples and working with dealers using words like CSI scores and
21:13
things like that's what the dealer users need to be able to fully implement technology and this
21:20
technology needs to be easy to use. Easy to use. That's right. And easy for everybody. But the thing
21:27
is making it an intentional part of putting our actual eyes on it. See the data is only so good
21:33
as the eyes that get to see it are actually implemented. Many eyes get to see the data,
21:39
but very few actually take action on it. And so for those that are actually out there watching,
21:44
for those that are paying attention and trying to challenge themselves and pay attention to
21:48
their own systems, if they really wanted to take an honest look at this and evaluate what they
21:52
actually would look like, they can do it this month. Tell them a little bit about how they can
21:57
actually get that started. So dealer pay is still riding the NADA wave. We do have a pretty great
22:04
promotion going on, which is basically 25% off of our software fees, which is huge. You can
22:11
definitely go to our website. We have a specific NADA page. You can click scan that QR code that's
22:18
right above Fred over there. And we're going to call you direct and really show you what the
22:23
comparison is. What's really cool about what happens at NADA is I think a lot of dealers are
22:29
now sending their operations folks as opposed to just the dealer principle. So we're able to get
22:35
in front of the people who are actually using the systems every day, the fixed ops managers,
22:40
the business and finance managers, the office managers, these folks that are actually using
22:46
the system. And then you go to the dealer principle and say, look what I did, I'm going to save you
22:51
X amount of money per month. I sound like y'all need to get with dealer pay right now,
22:58
get set up so that you can bring something great to your operations people's man. I'm telling you
23:02
they're going to love you for it. Yes, they will. Yes, they will really is folks dealer pay is doing
23:09
some big things. They're not just doing it for NADA. They're doing it all year round. They're
23:12
doing it all the time. They're constantly looking for ways to help people improve. But more importantly,
23:16
they're looking inside themselves and finding ways to get better inside their business. I've seen
23:19
the growth of dealer pay and I can't wait to see what the next year brings for you and your business.
23:23
Julie, but importantly, for you all businesses out there who watching this, what dealer pay can do
23:27
not just as their software, but as they can do as a partner, how they can align you and make
23:32
sure that you're set up and make sure that you're integrating the right way so that your ROI doesn't
23:36
come back short. It comes back fat and filling your pockets up. So let's make it happen. Let's make
23:42
that happen. Yes. And remember, solutionaries that are out there, those that are watching,
23:46
it's not so much that it's just about dealer pay. We're out here to really provide solutions to all
23:52
of you and for you to have a real honest conversation at what you're doing to make it smoother on your
23:58
people, to make it smoother on your customer, to make it smoother in general. These are all great
24:04
concepts for you to pay attention to, for you to really take a good honest look at what you're
24:07
doing. Dealer pay is a solutionary that is 100% CGC approved. And we want to make sure that you do
24:14
know that there are solutions out there for you. But at the end of the day, providing the best
24:18
experience for the customer to think well about doing a transaction in our incredible industry
24:24
of automotive. That's what we want to make sure we advance forward. That's why everybody unified
24:29
last week at the NADA conference to be able to make sure that we find a way to make sure we
24:34
impact our nation and the world with a greater experience in owning, purchasing, fixing an
24:41
automobile. And we want to make sure that it's right for you. So take an honest look at it. See
24:45
what it is that you're doing because you all are contributors. You help make this industry
24:49
better and we appreciate you. We appreciate your time, but we challenge you. Take a look at your
24:53
system, see how they integrate, or is it a little bit comfy? Is it a little bit bumpy? Let's go ahead
24:58
and smooth it out just like a good brew of CarGuy Coffee. We appreciate you all. Thank you for
25:05
spending this time with us. Julie, we can't wait for the next brew that we get to do with you.
25:09
But until we do, is there anything you want to let people know? Again, you need to jump on this
25:14
opportunity 25%. That's a big chunk, everybody. Huge. It's huge. Get after it. The only other
25:20
thing I want to add, guys, it's February, right? We're still at the first part of this year. Now
25:25
is the best time to make these changes because it's going to finish your year where you projected,
25:31
probably higher. I know that we're doing year in and taxes and audits and all those things,
25:37
but my managers and my operators out there, bring this to your folks. Show them that there is
25:43
a good chunk of the business that can improve by doing something now.
25:49
That's right. Not tomorrow now, folks. I'm telling you. They always say, when's the best time to
25:54
plant a tree? 10 years ago. Second time right now, not tomorrow. So make sure you guys go plant
25:59
those trees. At least learn something. The demo costs you nothing, but it can make you everything
26:04
and it can really change everything and keep you compliant, my friends, right? And profitable. So
26:12
now is certainly rising. Definitely. That's right. Thank you. We appreciate each and every one of
26:18
you that is trying to go with us. I am Lou Ramirez and I'm Frelin Arts and you've been brewing
26:22
solutions on the Fargo I Call Me podcast with the one, the only Julie Douglas. We'll see you soon,
26:30
everybody. Keep brewing solutions on three. Let's forget focus fly. One, two, three. Forgive.
26:36
Focus. Focus. Fly and keep growing. We'll see you soon, everybody. Keep brewing solutions. Thank you.
