Wake up, Buy Here, Pay Here people. It's a beautiful day. Go grab yourself another cup of joe and say hello to Jim and Michelle Rhodes on the Buy Here, Pay Here Morning Show. Take it away, you two. Good morning. Hey. Hey. Greetings from Oklahoma. Greetings from Oklahoma. Happy Monday. Happy you're here with us. We just, uh, wanted to, uh, make sure and, uh, get a couple of announcements made right off the top here. Got, uh, one quick thing I want to put a mention in. We got, um, our first March meeting this week for, uh, VA that'll be group one. Yeah. And they're full. Yeah. And we're, uh, We're looking for data today. Today's the deadline. Those of you who are listening, yeah, today's the day. And this will be the first month that I've denied access to the meeting. If they don't provide their data in a validated fashion, yeah, they will. And then group two is also full. Group two has got one spot. It does have one spot? Okay. Very good. Yeah, that's the larger dealers of 500 accounts or more. So if we've got somebody listening, yeah, you can definitely get enough. Yeah, absolutely. And then, yeah, other stuff that's going on. We've got the webinar next week on Thursday. And right. And yeah, you know, we've got some topics lined up, although I can't even think what our Wednesday topic we decided on for White Hat Wednesday. We've got several things around White Hat Wednesday coming up. Of course, a week from Wednesday, we have the tip of the hat event. with Rick Reeves. So that'll be on the 20th. Please put it on your calendar. You're going to want to watch it. Yeah, that's a good one. Yep. So I think that's it in the way of announcements for me. Well, yeah, I think that's about it. So should we dive in? Sure. So this is it's I remember we did a thing at Buy Your Pair United the first year that they did it. And it was on how is how is Buy Your Pair like a chicken sandwich? And people were probably like chicken sandwich. Well, today it's about Red Hanger and customer service. Yeah. And for those not familiar with Red Hanger, it's a dry cleaning service. And I think they're in many parts of the country. I've seen them in lots of places. I don't know how wide their footprint is. At home. And so that's kind of where we chose to do our business. cleaning, dry cleaning and all of that. And and there was something that, you know, as we were we do a lot of brainstorming. You all know that we talk buy here, pay here most of the time. And and we were just sitting there brainstorming. And Jim, this is probably about a month ago or so that you that you said, you know, there's a real good lesson or, you know, a good example with Red Hanger. that he was like we should share that in in the um on the morning show one of these days so um because well do you want to yeah yeah I mean you know when you as I said in the description of the show is like you know with michelle and I and the work that we do as coaches and advisors We're just a little more maybe attuned to customer service experiences than some. And and especially as it relates to the use of technology. So this is part of what kind of triggered me to realize that as I was kind of experiencing as a customer and they don't really know me from anybody. Right. I mean, one of their many customers. But they certainly wouldn't know me by name or face for that matter. So I think it was just kind of observing the experience that you have with them as a customer and how they just really seem to... pay attention to how people's lives are busy and how dry cleaning is just one, you know, menial thing on the task. It's usually on like, I've got to go run errands and here is my dry cleaning. And don't forget to pick up the dry cleaning. And I mean, it's for a lot of people, it's just part of their, their, their day and, or their week or whatever. So it's part of their errands. And I, And I think for those of you listening, you say, I don't use a dry cleaner or whatever. Like, that's fine. It's not the point of the story. It's like, if you really pay attention to the experience that we have with them, it's just like the learning experience and the opportunity in what we see with them is, first of all, the technology piece. Like, let's just talk about their system. They apparently use some sort of a CRM where they have the ability to, you know, send a text alert. Yes. Yeah. so for example we receive a text alert on a sunday evening just says you know tomorrow's the day we'll be in your area oh so I think we should back up just a little bit is that one of the services that red hanger does and it's no additional cost to us is that they will come by and pick up our dry cleaning And then drop it off when it's done. And it's just, you know, it's one of those things that they just offer. And, you know, we all know dry cleaning is not that big. I mean, it's, you know, a few bucks a shirt kind of thing. To have that as an added service, you know, we have this just a van that goes around the whole area. we'll drop off and pick up and they gave us a bag and everything and so because we um we said yeah we'd like to do pickup that we get this text message on sunday and their pickup day is what monday okay so you just give me yes or no you know if you want a pickup and of course if you have um clothes ready then they'll drop those off at the same time and they would come to drop off even if you weren't picking up but it's like they offer delivery services included and you might ask well how does the price that you pay per shirt compare to other dry cleaners and I said I just my answer would be I don't know and I'm probably not gonna know because we like the service yeah it's like the service is such a high value to me that it's kind of those one of those examples where my business is theirs to lose And so I think that's the key. Yeah, it is. It's like when you look at that and you realize, I can't imagine going anywhere else to do my dry cleaning business. They're so, you know, a few times I've dealt with them by phone. They're super friendly and helpful. Their system is such that and, you know, we bumped into their people who deliver products. The clothes are very friendly, very helpful, and they're out delivering even when it's snowing. Even in the winter. We don't want to go out, but they're still delivering. I think the whole point is they just make it so easy and so convenient. The few dollars that we pay for the dry cleaning, it's not even close. It's not even something to consider. going anywhere else. So I think that's the lesson that I see. And you kind of thinking about how it works and how it relates to our buy here, pay your business is like, we have so much opportunity. We have a long relationship with our customers in the buyer payer space. And so it's just an opportunity I recognize for us to be able to improve the experience. And I, you know, I know technology, is moving in our favor, certainly our ability to text our customers and remind them and even offer them the ability to make a payment directly from, you know, a text message or what have you. Those are things that I see us having an opportunity to do, but I think the goal should be, and I would just challenge our dealer listeners, especially to really examine the whole experience. You know, we're, we're guilty often as business owners is looking at the experience from our side, what makes it easier for me? think we really need to carefully examine the whole experience from the customer side look at that whole string and and examine that carefully and just make sure that we're you know being intuitive in terms of how how it looks from the customer side of the experience so this is just something that this is why the subject was something I wanted to bring to to our listeners just because it's it's something and I'm sure you know our listeners have other interactions with other businesses that they can point to themselves where the experience is positive or where they have a certain amount of loyalty. You know, what is it that contributes to that loyalty? So for me, in this element, like I say, just the simplest way I know to say it, and I think my business is theirs to lose in the case of Red Hanger. And they've just created a process where, you know, they do a good job, obviously, with the clothing. And who knows? I may be paying a few bucks more than I could somewhere else. Yeah, we've not been disappointed with the quality. But it's one of those things that... you know we've we've seen different uh webinars and and classes and I know um uh painier me did a webinar on you know making it easy that it's like we should make it as easy should we strongly strongly advise that we make it as easy as possible for our customers to pay their bill and to interact with us if they have a question or if they have, you know, whatever it is that it's that we make it as easy as possible. And so there's a lot of technologies and things like that out there that can help with that. But, you know, it's the the the days are gone. We've talked about this before where you see everybody come in on Friday. And so, you know, because people are coming in and they're paying cash and And yes, we still do have a segment of our of our customers that do that. But most of them, based on a lot of the research that Pay Near Me did, really want ease and, you know, a simple way of of being able to to take care of their bills. Reminders, because, again, reminder Saturday morning. Hey. Do you have anything you want to drop off? Just a reminder that tomorrow is the day. Please put your dry cleaning outside. And I mean, how nice that is. And it's just it's an automated text. And so there's actually there's one more thing. It's a yes or no. I can I need to respond with a yes in order to get a pickup. Like if they don't have anything for me. They won't come to me unless I indicate yes by 7 a.m. or something. So it's like their system is pretty smart to be able to be efficient for them. They don't need to come to me if I don't have a pickup, right? So they're able to prescribe their route and so on. But how their technology works is, is less important than how your technology works, you know, as a dealer, like, how do you, how do you make that experience as seamless as possible? Are you really aware of the, the customer experience as well as you could be? And so getting inside that and making sure that we're providing our customers as many opportunities. And I think technology, as far as I can tell, you know, it's right down to in this day that we live in with our ability to order a pizza through a mobile app and that whole experience. Oh my gosh, Grubhub even. Yeah, the whole thing is like when, and I realize some of our listeners are in, you know, maybe not in a metropolitan area where they wouldn't have that kind of solution available. But what you can just see is that technology is moving in that direction. I think the other opportunity, and we can bring this back in a future conversation, is like, I think the other opportunity, because you touched around people don't come to the dealership as often as they used to. You know, it's a nature of of kind of technology being what it is and the way we live now. But I think we also have an opportunity to utilize technology to create interaction at different levels and perhaps encourage customers to come. But whatever that experience needs to look like for you as a dealer, this is about engagement. This is about ease of use for the customer. And for me, it's really about that thing we talk about, about customer becoming sticky. becoming loyal so committed and devoted to you as a dealer that that they can't imagine doing business anywhere else and they would quickly think of you when it comes time to refer friends and family now we haven't uh received any kind of survey or anything from red hanger but that's a really great way for you to understand what it is that the customer experiences. We have opportunities to be able to send short surveys or whatever, and it's just like, how was your experience? Even at the end of a payment, it's like, how was your experience and what can we do to improve it? And I think that we have a really great opportunity with technology. It's not a heavy lift for most of us to do simple things like that. And it's worth the small amount of time to get the data. We've seen so many times when we've talked to dealers that there's a lot of assumptions about how people interact, what makes the best loan. I mean, all of the things. And we've seen dealers as they're They're questioning their assumptions and they're measuring those things that lead into those assumptions. And sometimes it's exactly what they thought, but frequently it's not exactly what we think it's going to be. And it can be completely the opposite as well. And we just assume a lot and and it's it's uh any anytime you own a business any kind of business buy your pay or anything it's best not to assume the customer experience Yeah. And the example I always come up with that is like when we travel and you stay in a hotel and you you sometimes I'll even say it to Michelle. I said, I wonder if they ever just come stay in these rooms. Do they not realize the night experience? Yeah. It's like taking a moment to really understand your customer's experience. Well, in gym, we have two story house and there's a guest room downstairs. And then Jim's office has like a hide a couch. And so we know that, you know, we have company that we're going to put someone in there. And Jim is like, I think we should sleep in each one of these rooms and, and, you know, get the experience of what it sounds like, what things can we make the experience of our guests better, more comfortable, all of that. And it's, it's just about everything. It's just about asking the questions and, and, you know, putting that to the test to see how it, is it easy? Is it, is it something that, that is an enjoyable experience? Are we even, are we even asking how the experience is as, you know, as well? Yeah. And I think it's not just, you know, it's not enough in my mind to just ask. It's like, we should walk through it. Yes. It's push the buttons, make sure that we know what the experience is like. Are there any, any particular frustrations that could be resolved? You know, it's like, Why are we not able to just go through and look at it entirely from the customer side? So I think that's what today was about for me. It was just kind of introducing this idea that, you know, when you really create a super convenient and smooth customer experience where you feel appreciated, where the customer is able to feel appreciated, then then now we've got that loyalty that we're looking for. And everybody talks about it. And we're, we just started into an audio book. I was going to, I was going to try to segue into that. Yeah. So this book is, um, our, our dealer friend, Alison Harrison out of Ohio is on the broadcast. Oh, it was, she's an attorney. Yeah. Yeah. You said dealer friend. Oh yeah. Attorney. I'm used to saying it. I guess our attorney friend out of, uh, out of Ohio, shared this book. Do you remember the title? It's How to Never Lose a Customer Again. Yeah, How to Never Lose a Customer Again, something like that. Really good. We've been listening to it on the drive out here, and we'll probably be listening to it a little bit while we're here. Yeah, we'll bring back more on that once we finish that. Honestly, if you all are looking for something good to listen to or to read, highly, highly, highly suggest it. Because some of the things that we've been coming away with are because it's it is about what is the customer experience and where are we placing our time and dollars as well into the customer experience. And there are some things that so many times that we were just like, stop. yeah yeah that that's a really great point I mean some really really great points so how to never lose a customer again something like that got it on amazon we did it audible and it's part of what inspired me to go ahead and bring this red hanger conversation back because it just it you know it does talk very specifically about that customer experience and so it's just something that we're aware and I think in our our industry there's a lot of opportunity for improvement and we just think that you know we ask dealers to just be cognizant of what it looks like from the customer side and yeah and do anything we can to make that experience we have we have really it's there are customers to lose and we do you want to lose them right and um you know because we start talking about like what is acquisition costs and what are you know blah blah blah blah blah And and it's it's like if you if you can keep a customer and have them into the next car, how much do you save and how much do you gain outside of, you know, like even just bringing in a new customer? It's it's if they're willing to come back. and drink at the trough of your dealership, then how many people are they bringing with them too? Yep, absolutely. We should probably wrap up there. That was a fast one. Good morning, George from Florida. Hi, George. George, weather update. Here, it's supposed to be like 76 today. And so I am just so thrilled. So thrilled that it'll be nice and warm. So we miss our Florida weather this time of the year. Often, because I grew up here, often in the springtime, the warm weather is accompanied by wind. So we'll see if we get some windy days. But all good. Happy to have you guys join us. And we'll keep you posted. Again, look for updates on our topics for Wednesday and Friday. And then March 20th, next week from Wednesday, I should say, is our Rick Reeves tip of the hat day. And so look forward to having you tune in for that one. where we're going to acknowledge you know rick's contributions to our industry and especially on the customer service side and the customer kind of the perception of the customer and how to uh how to think about customer success so anyway that'll be on the 20th yeah in the meantime thanks for tuning in today fantastic week it's monday another great week uh maybe there's still some of that tax money that's starting to roll in all right guys everybody have a great day thanks again
