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Dealer Pay Live “The Customer Experience”

Dealer Pay Live “The Customer Experience”

Car Guy Coffee Jan 13, 2026 29 min
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About this episode

The Car Guy Coffee Podcast introduces Dealer Pay Live, focusing on enhancing customer experience in the automotive industry. Hosts Lou Ramirez and Fred Lenards discuss the importance of seamless workflows and personal interactions in dealerships, especially during the busy holiday season. Julie Douglas, CEO of Dealer Pay, joins as a co-host, sharing insights on how technology can improve payment processes and customer satisfaction. The episode emphasizes that a great experience can outweigh price concerns, urging dealers to adapt and innovate to meet evolving consumer expectations.

Topics: customer experience workflows payment solutions technology in dealerships holiday season challenges personal interactions adapting to change dealer pay
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Hello and welcome to the CarGuy Coffee Podcast. This brew has been brought to you by Certified
Solutionaries and if you want to consume more brews or want more information about how to
build your brand on our podcast and want to see how you can sponsor the brew, go to CarGuyCoffee.com.
Let's brew! What's going on Car Guys and Car Gals? It's Lou Ramirez and it's Fred Lenards and we
are Brewing Solutions on the CarGuy Coffee Podcast. Excited to be brewing with you and in the end of
2025 we are really getting live with some awesome awesome friends and we are so excited to bring
you this entirely new show. Welcome to Dealer Pay Live! Yes we are excited. This is a new show. It's
going to be a monthly show that you're going to be seeing dropped around this time of month every
month. We'll have a full schedule for the year coming up soon so to share with you all keep
in mind that we may have to make alterations throughout the year in case things happen you never
know. Our allergies all kinds of crazy stuff may go down. Travel delays so just be aware that we're
going to make sure that every month we update it to make sure that it is going to be that day so be
looking for that very soon. Super excited. But folks it is holiday season right now. It's Christmas
time. It's the holiday season. It's the new year coming up so people got new goals new ideas and
they're ready to go to the new year. If you're an automotive we're looking forward to the next big
show. The NADA show. The biggest show of the year literally the automotive Super Bowl. So I'm super
excited about that. I'm super excited to bring on our new co-host right. We're going to be having
fun with her throughout the year. We're going to be hanging out with them. I'm sure you guys will
see us in our pictures and all our stuff as we do our travels. They're based out of St. Louis
where she is. I'm excited. They've teamed up with some really great companies over the last couple
months years really and they're just building something big right now to bring to you dealers
to make sure that your clients have access to better ways to be able to buy and I'm excited.
And today's show is a huge topic. It's a massive topic. It's all about customer experience and
one of the things and one of the places we actually got to meet our co-host is at this event. It was
now is non-negotiable and I love that it's a it was hosted by Katie Mayers and our good friend
Allison Rank and it was a great place to be. It was in Denver, Colorado. There was people there.
There were speakers there and it was all talking about how to treat people and how to make sure
that they feel something that they've never felt anywhere else so that they get an experience that
price just exceeds everything. It doesn't matter. They're like, oh, experience was so good that the
price doesn't matter anymore. And that's literally what we want to make sure every customer feels
because everyone thinks, oh, it's about the price. No, it's not. It's about how they feel.
So, well, we are all about making sure that people do enjoy how it is that we feel and we
got to get this cafe filled up with some serious solutionaries that are ready to feel something
special because once again, it is the holiday season. So that's one of my favorite Christmas
lines. I absolutely love that line. I'm excited about that. But right now we are pumped up because
yes, it did always just come down to numbers. All right. All right, then you need to have a smooth
way to pay. And we're going to talk more about that and about this solutionary that's bringing
this forefront solution to the industry. And we are really excited about it. But remember,
this show is not about perpetuating problems. It's about brewing solutions. That's right. And
we are pumped up for this guest, our new co-host of the show to jump in with us. So help us to make
welcome from Dealer Pay, the one, the only Julie Douglas. Welcome to the party. Hey, so happy to
be here. Look at you looking all festive, folks. I love it. Christmas time is here. I got to just
say, look, we got to put up so that everybody's feeling it right now. I know that I'm feeling
the season. I have so much gratitude in my heart and I'm just happy to have family around me right
now to be able to share this time of year with. We all have blessings that we should be thinking
about whether you thought it was the best or not. There's so many things to have gratitude for
and I have gratitude for you too. I'm so excited to have this show started and excited to share
this with the whole world. Let's go. Let's go. Welcome to the party, Julie. For those that do
not know inside of our audience who it is you are, what it is that you do, go ahead and give us
about maybe a two to three minute brew on you. Sure. So my name is Julie Douglas, president,
CEO of Dealer Pay. Sometimes referred to as the sales lady extraordinaire, but I founded this
company just under 15 years ago and so excited to continue growing it. Dealer Pay is a payments and
point of sale slash financial platform and what we do is only for dealers. So we work with them
on various levels and all their departments to make sure payments flow, workflows are in check
and ultimately they get paid. I love that. Absolutely love that. One of the things that I
know in your heart when it comes to just getting back onto that customer experience thing,
to talk a lot about workflow and how important that is. I'm looking forward to dig more into that,
how things are being passed around in between team members to make sure that experience is
so smooth because when there's a smooth workflow, the customer feels it and they know that there's
no kink in the armor and I love that. Absolutely. You bring that up because everyone always thinks
it's about, hey, giving somebody a coffee, right? That's part of it. It is. Don't get me wrong.
That workflow matters so much having that confidence of being able to get people from
one step to the other. It's like a good transmission, but you could tell when it's bad,
right? So if it has a good workflow in a sense, it's smooth. It gets right through and you get
to the next gear and you just keep moving. I love it. Getting to the next year and keeping
things moving is something that has to be intentional for any business. Simple, we encourage everybody
when you're trying to set up an atmosphere for your customers, setting that experience up as
professionals. We have to make our job or make their job of actually acquiring what they want
easier. That's why people deal with this, but where we did get the chance to meet was discussing
about that experience. Where is it that you feel like so many dealers actually get that experience
wrong? That's a great question. I think there are just too many products and too many departments
that aren't connected. The customer, they don't know what systems that the dealership has in the
background. All they know is how their experience was. If that particular user or let's just say
workflow, then ultimately they're struggling to make the user experience as optimal as it
could be. I think what's exciting about what we've done over the last 14-ish years is we've
showed dealers, there's something else out there that they didn't know existed and it really is
helping to connect the systems and make the workflow faster, easier, more productive, all those good
things. It's like a good brew, right? You get a good sip of coffee in the morning. You're like,
yes, I agree. We appreciate you dropping really a special brew for people today
and bringing this information. This show was created so that you can help people be able to
see the light in a sense. You want to keep giving. This is your gift to the automotive industry,
your gift to dealers, your gift to so many people. I'm excited to be part of that gift.
The energy matters inside of that. When it comes to a workflow, it's a real driver and customer
experience. Why is it such a big driver? Let's be honest with you. Let's even talk about the
month of December. It's frustrating for customers already to know they have to deal with a vehicle
repair, for example. They're in the dealership. If their experience while they're there in an
intimidating month as it is not optimal, then I think it really does escalate all the way through
the experience for them. If they're going to come back, how they're going to manage it,
are they going to spend the money? There's just so many factors that go with customer experience.
I have been lucky to be in this industry for a very long time. I've dealt with all the departments
from the front of the house to the back of the house and even the accounting pieces. I think
what a lot of people in the dealership space miss is what that interaction is with the consumer
and all the little baby details that go into making it as best as it can be. Again, when you
talk about systems, and there's a ton of great systems out there. I've been lucky to work with
some really great SaaS and software operators, but you know what? A lot of them are singular
solutions and they don't flow. If you've got, for example, one system here and you have an
antiquated payment solution and you have to walk that customer down the hall around the corner to
the cashier's office to make payment, and then maybe there's a line or maybe there was something
wrong on the repair order. Now we got to go back to the advisor. This one person's going to the
bathroom or they're at lunch. All of those reasons, yeah. Yep. So I just think that in modern times
with all the technologies we have, it's important for dealers to embrace systems that make them
more productive, efficient, because that's what the customer is going to feel. They don't see it.
They're going to feel it from the experience they have. Wow. I love how you described that
December is a month that reveals a lot about that experience for a customer and it truly does.
December is a month that's revealing to a lot of people. It helps people reveal whether they
still want to be in this business, reveal whether they want the people that are on their team.
There is so much that the month of December and just what the season itself does, right? There's
so many distractions. There's so much that's happening and a lot of it is good distractions,
right? Good. Christmas time is good distraction. I like it. I prefer it, whether it's Christmas
lights on a house or it's just how the actual feeling flows inside of a store for that time.
That is December, but being able to see where it points out a couple of your pain points,
that is very insightful. We love that. But for the next year, as we're going into 2026, why does
that matter and why is that so important from your side? Just what you said earlier, everybody
wants to go into the new year new, like refreshed, better, right? Even customers that walk in the
dealership, they want to have just the best experience. Hopefully they're buying cars with
the big red ribbon on them, right? But if they're not and they're in service, this probably isn't
the best month for their car to be in the shop, right? There's a lot of stresses on consumers,
financial stresses, time stresses. So all of that is what the dealership is feeling,
but it's how they deal with it is what's going to matter. And then further from that,
how they're going to fix it if it's broken going into 2026. 2026 is going to be a great year.
It is going to be a great year. Y'all definitely need to take a look at what it is that you're
brewing inside of your store as far as technology, as far as your processes, as far as how it is that
you do business and keep your experience customer centric. Of course it always should be, but keeping
it smooth and easy, the easier it is, the simpler it is for your employees and for your customer
is ultimately going to set the trend that we are going into an age where things are rapidly changing,
rapidly upgrading. And it's very important that we upgrade ourselves and our thinking
as we go into that. We should be upgrading a lot of things. One thing that I do know
after speaking with you, seeing you on many interviews now, I've done some research, right?
I checked out who you are as we partner up with people. We want to make sure that we're aligning
ourselves with, and we realize that really quick because I love your language. When you talk about
customer experience, you talk a lot about the customer. And I really love hearing that. When
we were, Katie talked about it at the event there too, when you talk to anybody like a,
when you're talking to high grade people who have great experiences at their businesses,
whether it's automotive, restaurants, everything is about that one more thing that we can do for
somebody, that plus one, right? And it's a big thing. What does that mean in practice to you?
I talk to my team about this all the time. We can do a great job to market to the dealer. We can
do a great job to demonstrate what our solutions do. We can even get the deal, right? But then
what happens? What happens after the sale? So we've spent just a ton of time and resources making
sure that our team does something that's not common anymore. We actually show up at the dealership
to do implementation and training. We actually walk them through best practices. We're like a
human being in a world where it's not as common. I'm not going to name the cell phone provider that
I recently left, but I couldn't change my credit card on my bill for three months because I could
not get a person to help me. So I finally just stopped payment on it and went to a different
provider. Can you imagine? That's rough. So from a business perspective and how we work with dealers
is ultimately the same concept because they're working with customers face to face in the same
fashion. So I think when you talk about the plus one showing up in person, in my opinion,
that should be a given. But the plus one would be showing up with that coffee or showing up
with doing your research on the dealership. Maybe there's something special about what they've done
and how they run their business that you can accentuate or tap into. I'm a big fan of just
making the experience personal because I think that is the plus one. It is the plus one. Especially
in today's world, we came off of a time in automotive in particular where it became very
transactional because inventory was super low. People were desperate and they were just buying
whatever they could find. So they didn't even really care about the experience, even customers.
So it went both ways. It wasn't just one way street there, two way street, because if you're
like, I need that car, I don't care. Just whatever I have to go through to get it, give it to me.
So that became a lull when it came to how we treated customers because it just was an opportunity
to get better there. Now we're back in the age of inventory is out there. We're back in the spot
of we need to move metal where we're starting to hold onto inventory too long. So it's, hey,
how do I give people an experience that's above and beyond? And that plus one so much matters.
Giving somebody a personal experience. Again, we talked about the top of this show. It's,
if you do something like that, the price doesn't matter anymore. Not that we get them,
not that we get an over on people. It's just that it becomes like where it doesn't matter
if you're the best price in town, you're the best experience in town. I want to come see you.
Yep. And it's a convenience. Everybody's running. I'm sure you guys run. I run every day. I've got
two kids. I manage a business. I'm running. These consumers are no different. If antiquated systems
are in the dealership that slow things down, how would you feel waiting in line a couple days
before Christmas to get your car? Because the systems in the dealership weren't keeping up.
Come on. And that's what so many people need to just analyze real quick. Jump on your customer
side of things and see what does that actually look like. Let somebody walk through your showroom
and tell you whether or not you're actually hitting that point. There are a few things that are
key givens, but we are never going to stop encouraging everybody to understand that the
only time to wow your customer is now. It's very important that you find different ways to wow your
customer. And sometimes it's not doing anything extravagant. Doing the things that have to get
done simpler, easier, smooth and transition, putting a wow on their face of, man, that was
actually pretty easy. And those things stand out because for anybody that's bought a car more than
two or three times, they know some of the glitches inside of the system or some of the things that
slow it down and the frustration. And we encourage sales pros all over the country to recognize that
time and confusion kills car deals. It's those two things together that makes a customer not feel
comfortable being where it is that they are. And we've heard you say before that leaders
shouldn't necessarily just pay attention to having friendly people. That should be a given.
That should be happening. You should be smiling. You should be nice to the person that's trying
to give you business. But why is it that you feel like, or why is it that you feel like right now,
this shift is so important to make sure that we are giving them systems that make them great
at what they do. We're equipping them to be great at what it is that they do.
Why is that such a big shift? And why is that happening now?
Because nobody has patients anymore. I don't have patients. I'm pretty lucky though, because I've
been in this industry so long that I know the ebbs and the flows of things. But new consumers,
younger folks in the space, they're transactional as well. And just being in the transaction
business payments, that's the last spot. That's the final thing that happens is when someone
pays. And if it's not convenient, it's slow, it's broken, maybe they don't take the kind of payment
I want to pay with, then it's frustrating. I'm not trying to call out the details of our economy
right now, but there's financial strain with a lot of consumers right now. And dealerships have
to be cognizant of that in the systems that they use as well. Because if you want the business,
you've got to be able to accept the payment that the customer wants to use.
That's so true. Meet them where they're at. It's no different than how they communicate. We coach
really hard inside stores on communicating where people want to communicate. Not everybody picks
up the phone, not everybody texts messages, not everybody emails. Some people do a little bit
of everything. Some people only talk on social media and use social media messengers, right? So
knowing where people are at, being able to provide a place where they can feel like I can make payment
any which way I need you to be able to help me. I need Bitcoin. I got Bitcoin, can I buy a car with
Bitcoin? We can do that. Exactly. Yeah, we can do a car with Bitcoin. It's an amazing experience.
Julie, I'm going to go off script a little bit. I got to ask a customer experience with what you
do. I'm sure you have a success story, something that you can share that was something similar to
this where somebody wanted to make a payment and because they had a tool like dealer pay inside
their store, they were able to provide a service that most places don't have yet. Yeah, absolutely.
And it goes back to, like you said, how do they want to be transacted with? Do they want to send
a text to link with a payment in it so they can quickly make payment? Are they a repeat customer
where I've already got their payment on file and I can just build them? I'm a modern consumer. I don't
want to have to get my card out. I don't want to have to call anybody on the phone and give them
my credit card number. That is so insecure. Sending a payment link, guys, is it's more secure than
any of that. In some cases, more secure than even them right in front of your face. December, yes,
it's a sensitive month, but it's also the highest fraud month. And dealers are not protected when
it comes to a lot of that stuff. No, they're not. Wow. The knowing that your system and your tool
is evolving towards the need specifically for the dealer. And this is what's awesome about
one, just the awesome opportunity we have inside of a country, inside of a world, inside of an
industry where we can modify our solution to the need of today. I'm sure that over time,
you've evolved what it is that you've been doing. You don't get where it is that you are,
especially inside of a dealer world, without being able to shift and be adaptable. And the core key
actual value of a solutionary is to be adaptable. And that's what I'm describing. You've probably
seen a whole lot of things. What were some of the things that inspired you to continue to evolve
this dealer pay tool for your customers? Like what dealerships, if you want a specific give names,
and you don't necessarily have to, we're not afraid if you do, but what types of systems and
customer experiences at stores made you say, Hey, we can take that and we can hope to model that
to some of these other dealerships. What were some of the inspiration that you were able to receive
inside of developing it to where it is today? Sure. I mentioned that dealer pay has been in
existence for about 14 years. I've actually been in the industry for 25. So I used to be a sales
person that worked for a large conglomerate. So I used that early experience in my life to
pay attention. When finance managers are calling at nine o'clock asking this guy wants to pay with
his AmEx, how much is this going to cost me? Or an office manager calling saying, I can't reconcile
my batch. Where's this transaction? I have 10 transactions for 102.50. And I don't know which
customer it goes to. And this is crazy, but even crawling on the floor of these nasty dealerships
early on, because their wires weren't even plugged in, their terminal didn't work. There's just so
many examples of all those crazy things. And I just paid attention and I tried to develop a solution
that would fix those problems for the dealership. And that challenge is ever changing.
So it's really neat to be in my shoes. We almost enjoy when a dealer calls and says,
hey, I love this, but can it do this too? And there it goes. And then I'm calling my developer,
hey, can we make that happen? And most of the time we do. I love that. And that's what it is.
That's what it's like. The experience, your experience being out in the field throughout
the years, 25 years. Congratulations to you. And what a success story to constantly grow and evolve.
And I love that. Super impressed. Our key mantra is forget, focus, fly, and keep growing. You've
done that so well. And I love that you literally been on your knees crawling in it. I know what
it's like, the dealership floors are disgusting. Nasty. Anything underneath desk, man. It's crazy.
I know what it's like to go underneath there and have to figure out how to pull the plug.
Why isn't my printer working, right? All this stuff. And so I thought you're being that person who
paid attention and saw that there was something that needed a solution. You saw problems, but you
didn't, you didn't percolate the problems. You grew a solution there. And we appreciate that. It's
what a true certified solutionary does. And we absolutely love that. Thank you for sharing that
story. And that's good to hear that about you and people, you should hear that. This isn't
somebody who's just only been a CEO, right? Or a founder. This is a car gal who's been inside
stores and seeing the things that needed to change. It was out in the field. I love that.
That's like a soldier out there that came up in the ranks and now as an officer.
That definitely builds credibility amongst the dealer landscape, right? If there's anything that
car guys and car guys want to be able to know and have a connection with somebody that knows what
they're going through and knows how to speak their language. If there's anything that we try
to make sure that we do for the different vendors that serve dealers is help them speak
car guy, help them speak. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Thank you for talking about it. And from your vantage point of having the experience that you
have, that definitely brings a bit of credibility to your conversation and
people leaning into the wisdom that you're giving, right? Say, guys, do you see this?
You look at this every day and you probably didn't even notice how dirty this is. Or you'd
look at this every day and you probably don't know how much this is slowing down your business
and is a headache for your customer. But you just do it every day. Remember,
people don't realize that the funk is in their face once they're sitting in it that long,
but we everybody get the funk out of my face. We are jumping into this. What's up, Stacey?
Welcome to the party. Best in the space. How are you? She's all right.
Applause to that. Thank you. Hey, keep in mind, we'll be doing the show every month. So
stay tuned for the next episode coming up soon. Stacey, this is a show good for a year. So let's
go. We're excited about that. And when it comes to everything that we're learning and everything
that we're trying to do here, we're always trying to figure out something to take it to the next
level. We're always trying to figure out and team up with people who do big things. And
that's something that we definitely want to say that about you, that you are taking it to the
next level. If a dealer leader only remembers one thing from the show, if there's only one
thing that they could take from the show and be able to go back and make a difference, what would
that be? Don't be afraid to change. Because not changing can be worse than changing in the industry
we're in. So true. We've been to events where this company was on top of the world and five
years later, they didn't change. They rested on laurels. And in today's world, with all the
technology, let's not use the bad word AI, I'm going to say, I just said it. So it's a great
word. I love it, but it's used so much right now. But at the end of the day, it is awesome
intelligence and it does speed things up and it does make things a little bit better. But with
that tool even being out there, if you're not changing, everyone else around you is, but most
importantly, the people buying cars are changing. And if we're not evolving to where they're going,
then we're going to definitely be faded out. And I don't want to be, I don't want to be towards RS.
I don't want to be Sears. I don't want to be all these. I want to walk buster walk busters.
Opportunity and they passed on it. And that's so sad. Yeah, it is. And that's why it's so important
that us, us people out here who really want to help our dealers look for change every chance you
can. And don't be afraid to be uncomfortable. That's such a great point. I appreciate you sharing
that. Absolutely. The Santa hat is purposeful today. I'm actually going out to see Santa Julie
today going out to see some of my dealers and spread some holiday cheer with them. But also,
this is also a great time of the year for me to thank these dealers. I've had some dealers with
me for 25 years. And these guys are not just business partners with me. These guys are my
friends. And I just, I love this space. And it just makes me happy to be able to go out to their
stores and bring cookies and little bottles of booze and all kinds of things.
So I do miss being at the store and getting the gifts from our good friends, the vendors,
the people who really helped us take it to the next level. It was always a good time to see
them to thank them at the same time. I want to thank you for all the things that you do for
your dealers and also for this automotive space. And also thank you for wanting to share information
for everyone out there. This is free. This just takes time, folks. Just get on here, listen.
We're going to be sending out a lot of, this is going to be replayed. This is going to be on
podcast. So if you listen to podcasts and you want to hear it just on the sound and go back,
we're going to be having this out very soon, folks. Be looking forward. It's going to be two to
three episodes based off of this one. And then we also are going to be dropping little shorts for
you guys and some reels so you guys can enjoy some of the sound bites from the show that were
just phenomenal. We look forward to sharing the great news, being able to share great information
and edutainment so that you can go out and be better than you were in 2026, my friends.
And 2026 is going to be the biggest year and the biggest tip I can give all you all is listen to
the show. Jump on here and learn some things. That's right. Let's go. Car guys and car guys
out there that are seeing the show that are hearing this on the replay, watching it live
or what have you. Use that comment section. Drop a name. Tag a car guy. If you're a customer
of any dealership anywhere and you're like, they need to probably take a look at maybe a
growing a solution in this particular section and how people render payment for a product,
please tag them. Drop them in the comments. If your dealership needs it, tag your store,
highlight it, make sure that you do scan that QR code right above my head. You guys have been
seeing that the whole show, but there we'll actually take you to book a demo on their webpage,
folks. Go book yourself a demo. That costs nothing, but it can gain you everything for your clients.
It could speed up the process and also make the workflow better, which in turn gives you a great
customer experience. And then all you got to do is do that plus one and you are magnificent,
my friends. You keep growing. Easy tip to give you to get the year moving. That's simple. Let's roll.
We are so excited. Love the festivities. Love the joy that you're going to be bringing.
Bring that energy. Bring that car guy coffee energy. Now that you've been brewing solutions
with us, you are officially part of the family. We got to make sure one last thing really knows
you got to drop those f bombs. Oh, we got to forgive. We got to focus. We got to fly. But
before we do that, I do want to say one thing. Is that dealer pay and our good friend,
Julie Douglas is 100% CGC approved, my friends. And you guys give me so much to go there,
but let's get out of here with some forgive, focus, fly. Julie, if you don't know the moves,
they go wipe off the weight of unforgiveness. We're going to focus. We're going to reach out
and fly together and keep growing. We're going to do it on a count of three. Let's have some fun and
let's roll out. Here we go. Roll out on three, one, two, three, forget it. Focus, fly and keep growing.
Thank you so much. Car guys and car guys. You have been brewing solutions on the Car Guy Coffee
podcast. I'm Lou Ramirez and I'm Frelin Arts. And you have been with our guest today, the one,
the only, Julie Douglas. From dealer pay, get you some, spread the joy.
Spread the joy, everybody. We will see you soon. Keep brewing solutions. We're out.

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