AutoFix TechnologyCast

Chris Cotton [00:00:00]:
It's time for the Autofix Technology Cast. Here's your host, Chris Cotton. Hey, everybody, thanks for joining us today. My name is Chris Cotton, host of the Autofix Technology Cast. And today I have Craig O'Neill with Auto Flow and also the host of I'm Going to Mess the Rest of this Up. But it's Speak up. And the rest of the name is Effective Communication. Effective Communication on the Aftermarket Radio Network.

Chris Cotton [00:00:32]:
If you're not listening to that podcast, go out, find it, listen. But, hey, Greg, thanks for joining me today. How. How are things going for you?

Craig O'Neill [00:00:40]:
Oh, man, it's going great, Chris. I'm happy to be here with you. I'm sorry I missed you while you were in town in my home city of Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Autowares Tech Expo while I was off in Florida.

Chris Cotton [00:00:50]:
I know you, you're in the nice weather. We were in the cold weather. Okay, so, so, so I gotta ask you though, because I asked our Uber driver and we drew blank stares from our Uber driver. So we in our family, we have this thing called basement Italian, where the best Italian restaurants that we've ever been to are like in the basement of something else, like a hotel or a bar or you have to go downstairs to get into it. So is there a basement Italian place in Grand Rapids that we missed that we need to go back for? Wow.

Craig O'Neill [00:01:25]:
You know, it actually brings me way back. The best Italian places have kind of given away to some of the more chain type places over the years. There's a really great one, actually, when typically, traditionally when I'm in town in Grand Rapids, Eric Ziegler, technical trainer, you know Eric, he usually grabs a couple other trainers together and we all go down to an Italian place that's very close to my shop. The family business that I grew up in over in Cascade Township, it's a fine Italian restaurant. I would never call it a basement Italian place, but it's called Noto's and a little bit pricey on that one. But if you're looking to go what I would almost consider a basement type place, here's the one I would recommend. JT's Pizza. JT's Pizza & Spirits.

Chris Cotton [00:02:11]:
Now, I think we saw that when we were looking.

Craig O'Neill [00:02:13]:
Yeah, right across the street from my family shop. And I kid you not, I've been all over this country and it is the best pizza that you will find anywhere in the United States, hands down.

Chris Cotton [00:02:26]:
Interesting. Okay.

Craig O'Neill [00:02:27]:
That has been verified by multiple others who have been around.

Chris Cotton [00:02:32]:
So if you're in the Grand Rapids area, go to JT's Pizza or if you live in Grand Rapids or if you went to Ottawares and you're listening, let us know. Go to JT's and let us know. We did make it to the butcher's experience, I think is what it's called downtown there. We walked and it was great, but it was cold. So Kimberly's like, this is the only night we're getting out. Like after this, it's a no go.

Craig O'Neill [00:02:56]:
The amount of time we eat downtown, I feel like the people who live in the burbs in Las Vegas, right. How often they go downtown? Never. I go downtown like once or twice a year maybe. Yeah. And that's where the expensive restaurants are. And yeah, we just don't go.

Chris Cotton [00:03:11]:
It was really good though. So that was our normal date night. So it was, it ended up being a good date night for us. So.

Craig O'Neill [00:03:16]:
Good, good.

Chris Cotton [00:03:17]:
Anyway, so we're, this is the autofix technology cast. So we are here to catch up on all things technology and autoflow was deep into that. So I'm going to kind of just cut you loose and we'll, we'll walk or walk and slash, talk our way through it. But what's new with autoflow? What's going on?

Craig O'Neill [00:03:36]:
Oh, wow. You know, what's new is a loaded question in software because there's what's new that I can tell you about right now and there's what's new that's coming. But you know, it's, as you well know, the technology space, Chris, is a very dynamic space, very similarly to our auto repair industry. There's a couple of things that the technology sector is facing I find very, very intriguing. One is AI, right? You can't be a software company today without mentioning AI. The other thing is consolidation. There's rapid consolidation right now and autoflow is one of the very few that still goes it alone, so to say, has not accepted investment money at this phase and has not merged with another entity yet. We have our vision, we are sticking to it and we are constantly striving towards it.

Chris Cotton [00:04:30]:
And I get some of that, but it seems almost to be ridiculous at this point. Like you've got, you know, tech metric and they've gobbled up some people or added or like, I don't feel like we get the real story of what's actually going on and may never like, you know, does TechMetric 100% own these companies or not? And then you've got, you know, velo and everything. Just the whole, the whole Auto Repair landscape is just all about consolidation at this point. Like there's, I don't think there's one point that's not being consolidated right now.

Craig O'Neill [00:05:04]:
Oh, I agree. And the companies aside, I think there's some ramifications for the end users and, and the shops that the software specifically aimed at the auto repair industry is serving. I think that you lose something as this does. This trend continues. I feel like I'm already seeing this. Chris, I was having a great conversation with one of my clients today that they're looking at ways they can differentiate themselves further from their competition. The example I've used before, think about it this way. I had a birthday was last year.

Craig O'Neill [00:05:42]:
I go to eye doctors, I go to dentist, I go to all those things. There's been consolidation in the medical space too. And they're all using similar platforms. An identical one between my eye doctor and my dentist. On the day of my birthday I get an identical generic happy birthday text.

Chris Cotton [00:05:58]:
Oh yeah.

Craig O'Neill [00:05:58]:
From both of them. Identical. And if I reply to it, it doesn't go to a person. It's just this automated message. And I mean I'm telling you that within I have a picture of it somewhere and I saved my screenshot of it. Like it's so clearly this automated impersonal just I guess it replaces the. Once upon a time we had those hand signed cards that dentists and doctors would send. Some of the good ones still do.

Craig O'Neill [00:06:24]:
But it even replying a thank you to it, it just caused it to repeat the message and it was just so like, gosh, happy birthday. Oh, thank you. Now I actually like feel like it's a lazy lob at trying to seem like you care at people and this is what technology consolidation looks like in the end because what? I'm pretty loyal to my eye doctor. I'm pretty loyal to my dentist. Chris, do clients of auto repair shops always stick with one repair shop?

Chris Cotton [00:06:56]:
Never.

Craig O'Neill [00:06:57]:
Yeah, they cheat on me all the time. Yes. And so okay, now we all have similar repair shops solutions these days is because they're consolidating. And so you have this system in your shop. The shop up the street has the same system. That client has been to both shops. Chris, what do you think happens on their birthday or with their deferred services or any of the things. All those messages come from multiple people.

Craig O'Neill [00:07:25]:
They all sound identical. Are you standing out?

Chris Cotton [00:07:29]:
Yeah.

Craig O'Neill [00:07:30]:
Oh my gosh. This is the world we are headlong rushing into and no one's pumping the brakes and asking is this effective?

Chris Cotton [00:07:39]:
Right.

Craig O'Neill [00:07:41]:
And I don't think that the reporting in a lot of these platforms is truly demonstrating its effectiveness, as much as we would like to believe. And that's a challenge. And when I look at the reports for autoflow, we're really conservative, probably to our own detriment. Yeah, yeah. Because I don't go and claim X number of dollars because they made an appointment because we sent a text that happened to coincide with their scheduling an appointment. We can show you that stuff if you want to see it. But that's something I just. I never bought into when I was in my shop either.

Chris Cotton [00:08:17]:
Right.

Craig O'Neill [00:08:17]:
I just had that question marks, like really Just by sending a text that created this revenue. Really?

Chris Cotton [00:08:25]:
Yeah, yeah. And that's been the issue in the industry for a long. Like I. And I get it, people are trying to. They're trying to justify what, you know, the dollar spent and everything. But I think a lot of them over credit what they do. Yeah.

Craig O'Neill [00:08:39]:
They're justifying dollars and that we call it roi, but really it's just a justification of an expense in some cases. Now, I'm not going to say that's an expense. And this may seem weird. I'm a technology guy. I'm talking about some. Something that I feel technology is missing the mark on a little bit. But here's the real crux of it. And I think that.

Craig O'Neill [00:08:57]:
I think we've talked on this before and I'll resonate. And I've done this on my podcast as well. It's. There's a term that I like to use. It's called client relating capability, and it is an old term. I have an article from 2003. It put me. I did episode 17 on the speak Up Effective Communication podcast is where I discussed this old article from 2003.

Craig O'Neill [00:09:18]:
And the author of the article, George Day, he's a professor at. I think it's University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. I think it's somewhere in Philadelphia. He says, hey, one or two companies in every market stand out. Fair statement, I think. And then he goes on. He says their advantage, however, does not have much to do with CRM tools and technologies. Whoa.

Craig O'Neill [00:09:41]:
All right. In fact, he says information technology is merely necessary but not sufficient condition for achieving an advantage on its own, as mounting evidence indicates. Quoting from the article. It contributes little to creating better relationships with customers.

Chris Cotton [00:09:57]:
Interesting. Yeah.

Craig O'Neill [00:09:59]:
That's 2003, Chris. The dawn of the Internet, Right? Right. It's an early phase for a lot of these sort of things at that time. And I feel like this message is ringing true today at the dawn of AI.

Chris Cotton [00:10:14]:
Well, I think the term AI is overused. I think a lot of people are, I think a lot of people use it because it's the catchy word and they don't really actually use AI because there was, I was creating presentation for one of my peer groups and I was trying to figure out like shop management systems, things like that that used AI. And so I just did a basic Google search and of course it gave me like 40 different companies in the auto repair industry that use AI. And I know most of, I know, I know most, I know people at most of these places to where like you, like if I, if I just saw something was like, hey Craig, I saw on the Internet where you know, autoflow use this is that true? And most of the people were like when I messaged them, they're like, no, we don't, we don't claim that or anything else but if you look it up on the Internet it says that they do.

Craig O'Neill [00:11:12]:
They're an AI summary that thinks it's true because.

Chris Cotton [00:11:15]:
Well, yeah, even outside of that AI summary, but. So I asked 10 out of the top 10 and nine of them were like, yeah, we don't use any AI technology in anything that we have, which is just interesting. And then I don't know if you saw recently Google reviews have gone wonky.

Craig O'Neill [00:11:37]:
The last week I saw something about that. I was trying to put my finger on the pulse because I've seen. When I started searching for that Chris, I started seeing articles from like 2021 where this happened before.

Chris Cotton [00:11:47]:
Yeah. So but for our shop it happened a couple days ago. It just removed a bunch of reviews and then knocked our star rating back down. But I don't know if it, I don't know if the robots corrected themselves this morning or we got a five star review last night or. And that's what triggered it. But I, I checked this morning and all of the reviews are back now and our ratings been restored. So I don't know if the people actually fix the robots, the robots fix themselves or if the review triggered it. But anyway it seems like it's correcting itself already.

Chris Cotton [00:12:21]:
But there was another thing that I read where it's just in a trial stage. I haven't seen it or ran across it just yet, but say I wanted to call your shop and I didn't know anything about auto repair at all when I, before I hit the call button, there's a button coming soon to Google to where we can have Google use AI to do the phone call and ask questions of Auto repair shop. I don't know if you've seen or heard of that.

Craig O'Neill [00:12:51]:
I have seen it and I have, I have powerful feelings on these things. And they're just that they're feelings. I, I feel like technology again is entering a phase where we're starting to put something between people right? Not make our people better. And every time I see technology do this, I'm the guy hitting pause. And this again, guys like me, I'm you. I'm what you would consider a very conservative person who's enthusiastic about technology. I want to enter into it in a way that's going to be mindful of what is always going to be more effective, which is the relationships that people develop. You could strip technology out of the hands of everybody in the world today and there might be awkward at first when people are having more face to face time and everything else, but that is what we feel happiest when we're engaged with.

Craig O'Neill [00:13:53]:
And then going back to the article on client relating capability, it sounds like a condemnation on technology almost right? We're saying like, hey, this isn't sufficient by its self. But that's not what he's saying. He's not actually. He's saying technology is necessary, it's just not sufficient by itself. It needs to have some components of business engaged so that we are able to have a superior relating capability. That means AI using data. Like if it. Great.

Craig O'Neill [00:14:22]:
All right, I see the idea with that Google thing. It's trying to get some data for an individual beforehand so they can use that data maybe in a conversation if they do decide to have that conversation. All right, that's fine. But golly, is facts and data the only purpose behind a conversation with someone? Or are we making these incalculable judgment calls and decisions that are going on in our brain? Based on my assessed value of your trustworthiness, the kindness, the compassion in your voice and all of these other areas. Those are the areas people make decisions on whether they're going to come back to you or not when they've been in the shop. This is why I scuff at the idea that a text is going to generate revenue. It creates a raw opportunity for me to do my job and connect with people and make this visit such a great experience that I'm going to get them to come back again.

Chris Cotton [00:15:14]:
Right.

Craig O'Neill [00:15:14]:
And if I can leverage data to do it, great.

Chris Cotton [00:15:17]:
And I've always been big on making service advisors as productive as possible. Yeah, but I see a tipping point there where we're so productive, we're a robot and we're not, you know, we're not being personal or personable with people. And when I, when I taught this class this last weekend, I think I brought it up in all three of the classes. But I have a thing which I learned from my coach, you know, talking about spending relationship coins with the customer. And so to visualize that like every interaction, everything I do with the customer from the time they get to the store till the time they leave the store is me asking about them, their day, what they do. And when I do, I visualize myself taking relationship coins out of my pocket and handing to them.

Craig O'Neill [00:16:09]:
Interesting visual.

Chris Cotton [00:16:10]:
And, and so I'm giving them my relationship coins. And then after I, after we kind of release them from, from the drop off, then we look at whatever we're looking at, we look at the inspection, we look at images and then I ask for them. Relationship coin. I ask for those relationship coins back in dollars in order to get the sale for the company. And so if you're not spending any relationship coins, you're not going to get any dollars back. I don't think.

Craig O'Neill [00:16:43]:
Interesting. Yeah, no, I think certainly even if you do get those dollars back, they won't be back.

Chris Cotton [00:16:50]:
Could be for sure. Like it could be if you, if you didn't build the relationship. I mean, everything's based around the relationship.

Craig O'Neill [00:16:57]:
It is. And we paid lip service to this point all the time in our industries. Like this is a relationship based business. But the conversation I was having with one of my clients this morning was like, look, you know what's going to differentiate you? You know what's really going to differentiate you? It's picking up the phone, having a conversation with people. Right now that's one of the core strengths you have. And I'm Autoflow is a texting platform. Right. We don't have a phone call system.

Craig O'Neill [00:17:19]:
One of the sponsors of my podcast, though Inbound, they have a calling platform, the OIP phone system. Really great AI tracking of the conversations to see how well you're hitting your objectives. Some good stuff in that. But the, the thing that I, people forget with texting is that it is not all about trying to replace phone calls. They're meant to stage a phone call. It's staging the important calls. This is where if you're, if you go at a texting process chr. Without the idea of having that phone call, well, you're doing it wrong.

Craig O'Neill [00:17:51]:
And the, back in the earlier days of texting, you may remember this even five, six years ago, it was a situation where you talk to some shop owners and say, hey, you should be texting your customers. Like, wow, why would I do that? I want to talk to my customers.

Chris Cotton [00:18:04]:
Right?

Craig O'Neill [00:18:05]:
This is a relationship. Business is like, yes, I agree. We are never trying to get rid of those important conversations. But status update calls, appointment confirmations, reminders, some of those subtle things are simple things that just help keep the conversation moving towards the important points.

Chris Cotton [00:18:25]:
Well, and what you said earlier about we're letting technology replace skills, One of the things I talked about is most of the people nowadays, they don't know what it was like to call a customer up 30 years ago and explain a problem over the phone. Or, you know, we didn't have any of those things. But I think if we think about a process for that, I think a good. I get. I think. I think a good process to have is text. You know, we have to know how the customer wants to be communicated with.

Craig O'Neill [00:18:54]:
And yeah, that's a conversation point. You have to have that.

Chris Cotton [00:18:57]:
That's a coin to spend, right? Like, how do you want us to talk to you? And if it's by texting or at least part of it, then you send them a text and be like, hey, we're almost done with your. With what we've done on your vehicle. I'm going to email you the inspection report, and then a couple minutes later, I'm going to email you the estimate. And then as soon as I see that you've seen it, I'm going to give you a phone call and then we can talk it over.

Craig O'Neill [00:19:21]:
You can email. And I think it's important to note some people still do.

Chris Cotton [00:19:26]:
Well, I think. I think the inspection reports come across better on email.

Craig O'Neill [00:19:30]:
Oh, my gosh. I send it both ways every time. Why not? Yeah, load them up. Yeah. No, Chris, you. You nailed it, dude. And one of the. My.

Craig O'Neill [00:19:38]:
My chief skill sets that I'll be. I'll be teaching at Vision this year, the art of advising with digital inspections. And one of the touch points that I will hit on in that class is simply texting the client to stage that sales call. Once you know, they viewed the inspection, send that text message that says, hey, estimate is ready. Give us a call when you can. Why is that effective? It's like, wow. I always like hearing the ideas from the classroom when I ask that question. And there's a couple of good answers that come immediately because you have advisors all the time.

Craig O'Neill [00:20:07]:
It's like, oh, yeah. Sometimes when I call up the client and they answer the phone and they're like, driving or they're just sort of in a loud environment and you ask if it's like a good time to talk and they just say, yeah, it's false. Yes.

Chris Cotton [00:20:18]:
Right. Because you've got, you're talking to the sky.

Craig O'Neill [00:20:21]:
Yeah, you're talking to the sky as you're going down. Your idea of what's going to be an effective sales pitch for things that they're not even paying attention. Attention to.

Chris Cotton [00:20:28]:
Right.

Craig O'Neill [00:20:29]:
So common.

Chris Cotton [00:20:30]:
And the thing, you know, back to what we were talking about earlier, this makes service advisors more productive. Because if you go back, like I said 30 years ago, when I started, all we had was the phone. And if you're playing phone tag with somebody or you call, you had, you know, you had a car on the rack you're waiting for approvals on, and then you've got like a bay that's not being productive and efficient and things like that.

Craig O'Neill [00:20:53]:
Yeah, but you have two phones in that shop. And so when that, that like you, you call someone else afterwards and then the other one starts ring the guy that you were just talking to. Now you got them on. Oh, it's just, it's, it was agony.

Chris Cotton [00:21:04]:
Oh yeah, it was terrible. Yeah, the, the young pups don't know how good they have it now.

Craig O'Neill [00:21:08]:
They got it so good.

Chris Cotton [00:21:09]:
I think it's, I think it's setting the stage. Right. Like how. What does that process look like in using it? And I think most of the people that I've talked to that are successful with the, with the DVIs and estimates and stuff are doing it that way.

Craig O'Neill [00:21:21]:
You're right. But hey, Chris, before this leaves my mind, you said something earlier I thought was really interesting. You mentioned 30 years ago and people calling. Let's go back further. Let's go back further. Dale Carnegie's book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Okay, wonderful read. And everyone who's not read it, I only read it about three years ago now and I was one of the people like everyone I've talked to.

Craig O'Neill [00:21:44]:
Oh, I wish I would have read it 15, 20 years ago. So book recommendation, if you've never picked it up, Dale Carnegie's how to Win Friends and Influence People. The reason I mention it is if we go back beyond 30 years ago, let's go back 60 years ago. To call on a business meant what?

Chris Cotton [00:22:00]:
Oh my gosh, like you were talking to maybe a secretary or somebody, you.

Craig O'Neill [00:22:05]:
Were going to it. Do you remember like the old signs that were inside of the building that said thanks for calling. Even when I was a kid, that was so out of style that that was what it was to call a business. To actually physically go to that place of business typically dressed nice.

Chris Cotton [00:22:24]:
Right.

Craig O'Neill [00:22:25]:
Ready to go out in public. Probably a hat and a suit and whatever and like going and calling on a business.

Chris Cotton [00:22:31]:
Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Craig O'Neill [00:22:32]:
Oh my gosh. So you're with me here, right?

Chris Cotton [00:22:34]:
Yep.

Craig O'Neill [00:22:35]:
Think about it. Telephones come into prominence. That's a step removed from what that interaction was like. And now texting, that's another step removed even from the phone call. And now AI assistance. Another step removed from that thing. We are getting further apart and that eventually that, that resistance band is going to get too hard to resist and it's going to come crashing back together where we're going to be in a spot. I believe even in this Gen Z and the generation behind them, they are going to value interpersonal communication face to face.

Craig O'Neill [00:23:12]:
Even for Gen Z is already cited as preferred. Even if it's a zoom meeting or video share. Like this higher value than anything else. I think that's interesting.

Chris Cotton [00:23:24]:
Yeah, that is interesting. Well, and you know, you know, old things come back in style like all the time. Like it doesn't matter. Like it, like it, it happens. They always come back. So.

Craig O'Neill [00:23:35]:
Yeah, and that's the thing is I feel like in this technocracy we're creating right now and all of the things that are happening, I feel like a curmudgeon sometimes.

Chris Cotton [00:23:47]:
Yeah.

Craig O'Neill [00:23:49]:
I think I'm, I'm starting to slowly. I'm only in my 40s now and I'm already feeling like, am I the guy that's anchoring some of the ideals that people are rushing into now? And I'm just starting to think like, gosh, maybe I am.

Chris Cotton [00:24:06]:
I think we all are. Right. Because I'm, I'm a little bit older than you. I'm like in my early 50s. And I get closer to both my grandpa's every day. Like I remember being a kid and being like, man, I don't understand why they're acting that way. And now I'm like, I get exactly why they act that way.

Craig O'Neill [00:24:23]:
Like, dude, I think I could throw my phone in a lake, not miss it for a minute. I don't take it off. Silence. Like, if I show you, like I'm gonna put, I'll pull my phone up right here. I'll peel back this tab right here. You see that little red line on this apple? That means it's in silent mode. That means it can't make noise at me. It can vibrate a little bit subtly, but I Have this discipline I've started to create now where I'll look at it when I want.

Chris Cotton [00:24:45]:
Right.

Craig O'Neill [00:24:46]:
And that's the expectation that people reaching out to me have if I'm at my desk. I'm pretty good on email, so no worries there. Yeah. But yeah, like this is a world. I feel like more people need to start making that decision because we're actually at a very, very, very noisy planet right now.

Chris Cotton [00:25:02]:
Right.

Craig O'Neill [00:25:02]:
We're allowing a lot of noise to come in to our lives. And this is what shops are starting to do to their customers with too many automated type things that are happening on the automatic. And you wonder why it might not be helping you set apart. Because you're just part of the noise, my friends. You're just part of the noise.

Chris Cotton [00:25:20]:
That's interesting. And then the thing about the noise is you can't tell what's good noise and bad noise or whatever.

Craig O'Neill [00:25:26]:
Yeah. Which means you are probably missing some relevant and good and useful information that would be helpful to my life right now. And there's a book Chris Cloutier, my boss recommended Less Doing More Living. I will not remember the author right now but there's one depending defining point that really stuck with me from that book and there was a point he made regarding notifications and technology and I think that every one of your listeners could apply in their life right now. And here's the point. Notifications are for something you can do something about right now. So you say allow on notifications on any application. You have to ask yourself that question is this something that I must do something with when it makes that notification and if the answer is no, turn off the notification.

Chris Cotton [00:26:17]:
Interesting.

Craig O'Neill [00:26:18]:
Just go look at that app when you feel like looking at that app and that'd be perfectly fine. And you will find a lot more focus and attention is able to come into your life. All of us feel like we have broken brains right now. I could throw another book recommendation. Carm recommended it to me. Chris, maybe he's talked to you on this as well. Stolen Focus by Johan Hari.

Chris Cotton [00:26:39]:
I haven't heard of that one.

Craig O'Neill [00:26:40]:
Oh, it's a good one. The guy goes for like three months in the Cape and or Provincetown I think it was. No electronics at all, no email, no computer, no Internet, no nothing. And it is incredible to hear about what that experience was like and how deep thinking skills and abilities return to our minds if we can achieve that. Makes me want to disconnect some days. Really does it?

Chris Cotton [00:27:04]:
My only thing is is as a business owner of all of everything I have going on. What does that look like?

Craig O'Neill [00:27:10]:
Like it looks like not running a business when you don't want to be.

Chris Cotton [00:27:14]:
Yeah. So I mean, but you know, I'm able to take breaks from the businesses. That's one of the things I've been able to set up. So. Which is good. But there's never a time where I feel like I'm fully unplugged anymore. Even.

Craig O'Neill [00:27:29]:
Correct.

Chris Cotton [00:27:30]:
Even. Even now at our cabin, used to be there was no electricity and then no phone, no nothing. But now over the years, if the wind blows a certain direction, you know, something will come through the phone. And in order to be able to watch TV up there if we want to at night, because it gets dark early and then you're like in bed at 6, you know, we started taking the Starlink up there so that we could watch movies and whatever and then. Then you're fully connected again to the world.

Craig O'Neill [00:28:02]:
Yeah. Oh, Starlink. Boy, I want that hiking one. Sometimes I think, say, hey, I was talking to my wife, like, see this way, like we could actually go really remote with our work and go there. So. All right, Craig, do you really want to have work when you're out there in nature? Like, no, I guess I don't.

Chris Cotton [00:28:21]:
But I will tell you, as somebody who just got their Starlink mini yesterday, I plugged it into the car adapter and threw it on the top of the car and it gets just as much as my regular Starlink did. And we're going to be on like a two week road trip across the country because now we're getting ready to head, we're getting ready to head to Florida for peer group meetings and then visiting family in Oklahoma and then back home and then vision, you know. But for me though, it'll be mostly work, like work from the car while Kimberly's driving. So.

Craig O'Neill [00:28:54]:
Yep, I know the feeling. Boy, Starlink would help me when I go in northern Michigan. There is, there are some pockets there where it's real easy to be disconnected.

Chris Cotton [00:29:02]:
Right? But yeah, I mean, again, technology, but you know, they're starting to fix that. So Starlink will connect your phones now so you'll never be in an area where you can't text or communicate with somebody, which for emergency purposes I get. And being the dad of a 21 year old daughter who's getting ready to go to, to Europe to language school soon.

Craig O'Neill [00:29:28]:
I mean, awesome.

Chris Cotton [00:29:30]:
It is awesome. But then you're like, oh my gosh, like if, like if, if something happened now I could drive and meet it, be to her in 14 hours. If. If the planes linked up, I could be there quicker. But to get from here to Vienna, you know, you're talking 24, 36 hours at the soonest, in case she needed me for anything. But, you know, she's an adult. That's what it is.

Craig O'Neill [00:29:52]:
Yeah. It's hard letting go. And the technology does increase the length of the tether, doesn't it?

Chris Cotton [00:29:58]:
Right? Yeah, it sure does. For sure.

Craig O'Neill [00:30:00]:
Yeah. I don't want to sound too much like a Luddite on all that stuff. There's so many great benefits of the technology and. And this is. This is where the balance of it comes in. I just had this conversation with David Boyd. There'll be the episode on. Oh, it'll be next week.

Craig O'Neill [00:30:14]:
I think it's the 17th. That episode of Era. We're talking about the balance of technology. And it is, folks. It's a balance. You have to make sure that you aren't letting the good be unrealized. But then when you create opportunity for some of the distraction to come in, you have to be able to turn that off.

Chris Cotton [00:30:31]:
Yep, for sure. Gotta. Gotta download yourself or whatever. Not download's not the word I'm thinking of.

Craig O'Neill [00:30:39]:
Yeah, it's. Upload yourself now you can have an avatar. An AI Avatar will make decisions for you in the future. Oh, my gosh. Just killing me, isn't it?

Chris Cotton [00:30:47]:
Well, I forget what the Bruce Willis movie is, where you just lay in the chair and send your body out or a body out to work, and you just control it with your mind. I cannot remember the name of that movie.

Craig O'Neill [00:30:57]:
Yeah, that'll come back to me. I know which one you're referring to. Absolutely bonkers.

Chris Cotton [00:31:02]:
We're all headed towards Terminator Ville. Anyway, I guess, I don't know.

Craig O'Neill [00:31:07]:
Skynet.

Chris Cotton [00:31:08]:
Skynet. There we go.

Craig O'Neill [00:31:10]:
Yeah.

Chris Cotton [00:31:10]:
Which is awfully close to Starlink. Like, I don't know if Elon thought.

Craig O'Neill [00:31:12]:
About that or what, but my guess is he did.

Chris Cotton [00:31:16]:
Yeah. And if you want to, like, here's like, my. My dad. Every time we go to visit my dad, he's like, have you seen this movie? And it's like a movie from the 60s or 70s or something. That's just so weird. But it was with Charlton Heston, and I think it was called Soylent Green.

Craig O'Neill [00:31:34]:
Wow.

Chris Cotton [00:31:34]:
And if you've ever seen that movie, you need to go see it and put up. It is like, crazy. Just the sexism and everything else in there. It is just like. But it'll make.

Craig O'Neill [00:31:47]:
Movies are pretty funny that way. Oh, man.

Chris Cotton [00:31:50]:
And. And I won't. I won't spoil it. But there's actually a product called Soylent in, like, if you go out and go to the grocery store the week after we saw this movie with my dad, Kimberly's like, hey, have you ever seen this? And it's, gosh, where'd it go? Soylent is a. It's a meal replacement. And I'm not going to ruin the movie. But you need to watch the movie. And if you want to.

Chris Cotton [00:32:20]:
If you want to kind of Fast forward every 10 minutes and catch a little bit of it and then go to the end. But it's one of those movies that'll make you think, like, right. Like, who knew Charlton Heston was so deep? You had the Planet of the Apes, like, and then this movie, Soylent Green or whatever. It's crazy.

Craig O'Neill [00:32:36]:
Yeah. Well, the movie Idiocracy is another one like that too, where it is really raunchy humor, not necessarily a family flick. But on the flip side of it, it actually has this very interesting message hidden inside of the ridiculousness of how we're automating so many things and how technology is kind of could make us a lot.

Chris Cotton [00:33:00]:
Right.

Craig O'Neill [00:33:00]:
And what's the world look like once people start losing basic skills? And it's horrifying.

Chris Cotton [00:33:05]:
Right.

Craig O'Neill [00:33:05]:
Everyone wears Crocs, for example, and gets their law degree from Costco.

Chris Cotton [00:33:10]:
Interesting. So that movie came out in 1973.

Craig O'Neill [00:33:13]:
Okay, so that's even older.

Chris Cotton [00:33:15]:
Yeah, yeah. So it's a year younger than me, but golly. Anyway. Yeah. So if you get a chance, watch it before Vision and we can talk about it.

Craig O'Neill [00:33:24]:
But I'm not gonna have to try.

Chris Cotton [00:33:25]:
It was just. It was just very. It's just one of those that makes you go, so we've talked about a lot of stuff, but we haven't talked about autoflow at all. Would you like to tell.

Craig O'Neill [00:33:34]:
Oh, shit. We should probably talk about autoflow Representative.

Chris Cotton [00:33:37]:
Right? So think. Think that people have never heard about autoflow. What does autoflow do?

Craig O'Neill [00:33:45]:
Well, you know, most people come to us for the digital inspection. I find that so funny, because where I love spending my time is the workflow, the process and the communication attributes of autoflow. And I'm a digital inspection guy. I've really, really enjoyed a lot of consultation, helping shops refine their inspection process. And boy, best in class dvi. Absolutely. Hands down. There's some cool features inside of that that if you're using your basic shop management system, you're missing out.

Craig O'Neill [00:34:12]:
We integrate with most of those shop management systems, too, so it won't duplicate your efforts. It'll just make a actual standout client experience. We even let you brand your own DVI so that it looks different than all the other DVIs of every other shop out there in the world today. But like I was mentioning, texting, communication and workflow. Gosh, Chris, this is the magic of it. The joke I always make when I tell try to help people understand how autoflow helps them so. Well, if you're a service advisor, we help reduce your eye twitch.

Chris Cotton [00:34:44]:
Okay.

Craig O'Neill [00:34:45]:
Yeah. You know the one. Yeah. You've been interrupted for the 10th time today for a status update and all these things. There's some automation to the workflow and status updates that we do to actually will help make your phone ring less. Oh, wait, Craig, you care about valuable conversations, right? It seems like it's almost this hypocrisy that I would be teaching. It is not my friends, half of the time that phone calls. Those phone calls are useless.

Craig O'Neill [00:35:11]:
And they are actually keeping you from being focused on important relational calls or your sales calls. It's as bad as if you asked your technician who's midway through like a valve body repair and a transmission to go and answer that phone. You know what happens then? He misses something and that transmission gets burnt up on the road test. It's horrible the things that can go wrong when you interrupt a technician in a complex thing. And if you're in a complex conversation and you've got multiple lines going, are you present in those conversations? Probably not.

Chris Cotton [00:35:40]:
No. Yeah.

Craig O'Neill [00:35:42]:
And. Or my other favorite thing to say. And not just the itwitch removal, but we actually make it so that when you go home, you have words left.

Chris Cotton [00:35:51]:
There you go. I love that.

Craig O'Neill [00:35:52]:
Yeah, because dude, I've been that advisor. I've been a technician, I've been an advisor. I've been the owner, manager of the family business. I quit wearing all those hats. Grew my hair out instead. But here's the thing. I know firsthand what it's like when you're trying to juggle all of those responsibilities. It's exhausting.

Craig O'Neill [00:36:11]:
It is exhausting. And burnout. Very, very real auto flow. We, we save lives, man. We absolutely do.

Chris Cotton [00:36:20]:
Well, I mean, there's nothing, you know. Exactly. I've never heard of it. Phrase that way about, you know, have words left over for the day. But when you spend all day talking to people, being on the phone, being on, or your alter ego or whatever, the last thing you want to do when you get home is talk to anybody.

Craig O'Neill [00:36:37]:
Yeah. Oh, Chris, I needed that 30 minute commute to just recharge. I mean, I think I was a zombie the whole way home. And I finally started to get better. I was not good at it in my 20s. In my 30s, I started to learn. I think now I'm better, but now I don't have a commute. I work from home.

Chris Cotton [00:36:55]:
There you go.

Craig O'Neill [00:36:55]:
I have to go for a walk.

Chris Cotton [00:36:57]:
And we spend all that time thinking about the one bad thing that happened instead of the 50 good things. Right? Like, that's the. Yeah, that's, you know, typically what hap. What happens when you're doing that?

Craig O'Neill [00:37:06]:
Oh, of course. That stuff sits with you. It's. And you got to process these things. And now look, I've learned a lot about Jewish culture over the years. There's a really great book that I've been recommending too. It's called Thou Shalt Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Really, really good book.

Craig O'Neill [00:37:23]:
And some of the principles for business that translate from that and transpire from that. Like, if you think of Jewish culture, just total sidetrack here. I know, but go with me here. So this is the tall grass, right? So here's the thing. It's like if there's a death in a Jewish family, they have a sitting shiva. And that happens for like a period of a week. Families coming in and out of the home bringing you food. Never flowers, by the way, if you have Jewish funeral food.

Craig O'Neill [00:37:47]:
And the. The principle behind this is like a death is a major event. You need to process that before you return back to your regular life. Jewish weddings, One of the traditional things that that culture will do after a wedding is the husband and the wife. New husband and wife will spend several days, not just on like a honeymoon, away from everything, but actually going and visiting friends. Because one of the most important thing you can do after you get married is go and integrate with society that has known you forever as a married couple and be recognized that they have this emphasis in every area where a major transition occurs. You spend the time embracing that transition.

Chris Cotton [00:38:29]:
Interesting.

Craig O'Neill [00:38:30]:
Oh, it's so good. And it's has to do with waking up in the morning, too. You spend time quietly, not immediately jumping up and going and shoveling snow. That's how people end up having heart attacks. Bodies going from horizontal to vertical too quick.

Chris Cotton [00:38:43]:
Well, lots of stuff. And that's interesting about the funeral. Like in like Southern funerals, it doesn't matter if you're like Methodist or Baptist or whatever. Like you have a Southern funeral. Kimberly's mom recently passed away and we were there for like Two weeks, I think. And oh my gosh, I was so fat. Because every night somebody's bringing food and you might like the first night you have like fried chicken, coleslaw, all that, whatever else. And about three nights later, somebody else is going to bring the exact same thing.

Chris Cotton [00:39:18]:
I've eaten more fried chicken this year than I have in the last 20. But they, but, you know, do the same thing. Similar. But why no flowers?

Craig O'Neill [00:39:28]:
You know, I never understood that either. But I think it's like, when you think about it this way, oral tradition of Jewish culture of long, long oral tradition of wandering around and everything else. Like, like food. Sitting down together, talking and experiencing each other's company. Food is one of those things that people come together around. And I think that's, that's just a really, a sacred thing. Like when you think of what you want to do, like your team is celebrating success, what do we do?

Chris Cotton [00:39:54]:
We go.

Craig O'Neill [00:39:55]:
We break bread together. And that's exactly it. There's. There's these, these things that. This is what we're designed for. Right? Like, you're thinking of ways, like all the time with technology differentiate shops. Bring this puppy full circle here on this. Like, look, look, look.

Craig O'Neill [00:40:09]:
Back in the early humanity days, what brought people happiness? Community, company food. They're all the simplest ingredients that you're ever going to need in anything. We are over complicating everything else with our technology. The roots are simple and the roots tell us exactly what we need to be doing.

Chris Cotton [00:40:29]:
It's very interesting. So we're going to wrap it up here. If for. For people that thought they were going to get a whole pitch on autoflow but didn't. How. How can they get in touch with somebody if they want to Learn more about AutoFlow?

Craig O'Neill [00:40:44]:
Www.autoflow.com actually, everyone, every time I say www, Craig, like, you don't need that anymore. All right. It's autoflow.com.

Chris Cotton [00:40:52]:
Okay. I still put the WWS in everything.

Craig O'Neill [00:40:56]:
I'm telling you, it's a web address, right?

Chris Cotton [00:40:58]:
Yeah, but most of those people don't know what it was before web addresses. Right? Like, so that's the thing. That's. That's what happens when you get older.

Craig O'Neill [00:41:07]:
You remember when I'm gonna keep the WW just to age myself, that's what I'm resolved. My kids will roll their eyes and I love it.

Chris Cotton [00:41:15]:
Exactly. Okay. And then. So let's, let's go ahead and plug your podcast one more time here.

Craig O'Neill [00:41:20]:
Hey, speak up. Effective communication on the aftermarket radio network. I'm so, so Humbled to be one of the hosts on Carm's channel with my buddy here, Chris Cotton.

Chris Cotton [00:41:30]:
Weekly blitz. Chris Cotton.

Craig O'Neill [00:41:31]:
Yeah, buddy.

Chris Cotton [00:41:33]:
So, any final words?

Craig O'Neill [00:41:35]:
You know, Chris, I'm gonna plug the podcast because the mission behind it is, is core to who I am and it's core to what I do at autoflow. Effective communication skills are the last thing the machines will ever be able to take away from us. And I think that it's really, as I mentioned in my recent episode, Coming up with David Boyd, the balance of technology is key and where we need to be focused right now. In my opinion, as a shop owner, as someone who works with shop owners, in my case, I would encourage your audience focus on your advisors. That's who people are relating with. And if we're going to take this real seriously, hey, look for the ways for them to actually be engaged with the technology, not let it do it for them. Engage it.

Chris Cotton [00:42:18]:
So thank you again. Great final words. Thanks, Craig, for joining us as we begin and grow the technology cast here. And I would say you're welcome back anytime.

Craig O'Neill [00:42:30]:
Oh, dude, I can't wait to hang out. Vision in Kansas City. Sorry we missed you here in Grand Rapids. We'll make up for it in a few weeks.

Chris Cotton [00:42:36]:
Absolutely. And okay, so here's the thing. If any of you out there listen to this and want a funny story about a swimming pool, ask me and Craig, together or separately.

Craig O'Neill [00:42:47]:
Oh, my gosh.

Chris Cotton [00:42:48]:
We have a swimming pool story from, I think, STX in Orlando.

Craig O'Neill [00:42:52]:
STX in Orlando? Yeah, I had some, some, some great stories from that pool at STX in Orlando. And this, I know, was one of them.

Chris Cotton [00:43:00]:
Never drank a drop, but just sat there and people watched and it was very interesting.

Craig O'Neill [00:43:04]:
So it was a wild time.

Chris Cotton [00:43:06]:
If you, if you see us out and about, ask us about the story. We'll see everybody soon. Thanks, everybody. That wraps up this episode of the autofix Technology Cast. Thanks for tuning in and being part of the conversation about the tools and technology driving the auto repair industry forward. A special thank you to our sponsor, Cinch, for making this podcast possible. Remember, Cinch isn't just a tool. It's a game changer for your shop's customer retention and outreach.

Chris Cotton [00:43:31]:
I use it in my shop and I know it can help yours, too. Don't forget to check out Cinch IO Autofix to claim your free onboarding, a $3,000 value. And as always, rise and grind, folks. I want you to keep pushing forward, Stay on the cutting edge and keep your mindset positive. Together, we'll keep driving success in the auto repair industry. Until next time, take care and keep thriving.