AutoFix TechnologyCast

Chris Cotton [00:00:00]:
It's time for the autofix Technology cast. Here's your host, Chris Cotton. Hey, everybody. Welcome in today. My name is Chris cotton with the AutoFix technology cast. Today I have Amber Wright from AutoLeap with us from sunny Atlanta area. We had to turn the shades down just a little bit, and she's. I think she's half a day ahead of me in Colorado because our son's just barely coming up here, but.

Chris Cotton [00:00:32]:
Good morning, Amber. How are you doing?

Amber Wright [00:00:33]:
Good morning, Chris. I'm good. How are you? Thanks for having me.

Chris Cotton [00:00:36]:
I'm doing good.

Amber Wright [00:00:37]:
Have our coffee together.

Chris Cotton [00:00:39]:
Yep, we're having coffee together. She called me a cow earlier. No, just kidding. She's got her cow cup. Didn't you used to have a cow picture behind you, too, at one point? Or did I. Am I dreaming that up?

Amber Wright [00:00:49]:
I think you're, you know, maybe on my shelf, I had a cow picture, but now it's a quote that says, if you get tired, learn to rest, not quit.

Chris Cotton [00:00:59]:
So there you go. Nice little.

Amber Wright [00:01:01]:
Little different than a cow picture.

Chris Cotton [00:01:02]:
Yeah. Well, I think. Well, I feel like you moved your room around. I think you used to be with a white wall background, and I think the cow was on the wall, but maybe again, who knows? Like, there's. There's no telling.

Amber Wright [00:01:12]:
I do have cows in my house, but I don't think it's ever been in my office.

Chris Cotton [00:01:16]:
Okay.

Amber Wright [00:01:16]:
I aspire to have a cow one day.

Chris Cotton [00:01:18]:
There you go. Well, I think, you know, we have a lot of highland cows here. Like, not a lot, but some. Like, we take a Sunday drive every Sunday to look for elk, typically, but we have a route where we have our. Our highland cows on our route. And so we stop and check those out. Like, I don't know. Kimberly likes the highland cows.

Chris Cotton [00:01:41]:
I don't know that she'd ever want one, but maybe someday. You never know.

Amber Wright [00:01:45]:
I say I want one. We went down the down chicken route, so we have chickens in our backyard. And I think. I don't know if people are gonna love this, but I think I'm a little bit animal. Doubt. So maybe in my next life, I will have a cow.

Chris Cotton [00:02:01]:
There you go. Maybe.

Amber Wright [00:02:02]:
So the upkeep of animals is just like, holy cow. Especially when you have young kids. A lot of heartbeats you're taking care of.

Chris Cotton [00:02:08]:
Yeah, I don't. I don't miss it at all. You know, I grew up in the. In the south, and of course, everybody. They either make you go to FFA or whatever, and so I had a pig and hated it like that was like the worst thing ever. So the year after the pig was gone, I went to Home EC and hung out with the ladies all the time in high school. So that was much better than the pig.

Amber Wright [00:02:31]:
There you go. I agree.

Chris Cotton [00:02:34]:
So anyway, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and Auto Leap.

Amber Wright [00:02:39]:
Yeah, yeah. So my name is Amber Wright, like you said, Chris. I am the director of partnerships at AutoLeap, so. So I oversee all of our industry relationships. I am the, whether you, I like to say it or not, face of a leap out in the industry at trade shows, really making sure that we are not only supporting the industry through associations, different coaching companies, but really making sure that we are adapting and learning what the industry needs and how it's evolving through technology. And I also play a role in our corporate companies that we have with Auto Leap. And so I oversee the relationships with them, whether that's a multi location, that's probably 50 locations or upwards to corporate companies or franchise models that have 140 locations or more. So, um, my background is not actually from the industry.

Amber Wright [00:03:41]:
Um, I came in four years ago to Auto Leap by a recruiter. I was actually working at nasdaq, most of you know, or it was a NASDAQ company called Investment. I was doing global events for them and so putting on large trade shows like the likes of Vision that we have in the industry or sema. And my role here was really to focus on driving the brand and relationship. So it's been an absolute joy to really get to know this industry and the incredible owners and the hard work and dedication that this industry has for the betterment of their customers.

Chris Cotton [00:04:24]:
Well, and I'm actually shocked that I, that we got together this week because we tried it like a month or so ago and couldn't get together. But don't you have Amplify like tomorrow or Friday?

Amber Wright [00:04:35]:
Right, yeah, so we have Amplify on Friday. It is the third year that we are running a large industry virtual conference. And so as you know, one of the things that we started early on with AutoLeap was we wanted to make sure that we drive thought leadership in the industry. So a lot of shops, you know, there's about what, maybe 3 to 5% of shops that go to coaching groups that have the ability to join a coaching group, go to the industry trade shows and coaching sessions. But we wanted to make sure that we could provide a, provide a platform to allow other shops to have that content free of charge. And so we've put on monthly webinars and then the thought was, you know what, we should really put all of this together and provide a virtual event which you just mentioned, called Amplify. So we have that on Friday. It brings in 800 attendees, shop owners that you know, all over the country, North America as well.

Amber Wright [00:05:41]:
And we have about 24, I think it's about 24 sessions.

Chris Cotton [00:05:47]:
Nice. And so if you like, by the time this comes out, people may have missed it, but if they want to follow, follow Auto Leap and sign up for Amplify next year or whatever, how would they do that? Or what's the best way to get.

Amber Wright [00:06:03]:
Yeah, no, I love that question actually. So depending on when this comes out, Amplify is on demand. And that's the beauty of being able to do a virtual conference. And so what I would suggest is go to autoleap.com we will still have Amplify running so you can actually register after the fact and still get access to all that content. Right. Because once a session ends we'll um, it'll render and then we'll just post it up on demand for 90 days. You'll still have access to that. So hopefully if you're hearing this, you'll be able to still get access.

Amber Wright [00:06:39]:
But if not, we generally open up Amplify about. I think we opened it up in February of this year. So kind of the same pattern. It'll be in the spring, early spring of 26 as well.

Chris Cotton [00:06:51]:
Awesome. That's a great feature. I didn't realize you guys had that on demand even after the fact or whatever. So that's good. So everybody that's out there, you can go to autoleap.com and go to the Amplify and pick that up. So for people that may not know what Auto Leap is, obviously it's a shop management system. What makes Auto Leap different from the other shop management systems?

Amber Wright [00:07:14]:
Yeah, I love that question. And it's one that we get all the time and Right. Like sometimes you can get so stuck in the feature dump. Right. A lot of shop owners really want to know like what do you have? And simplistic form. Auto Leap is a all in one cloud based shop management system. And so we really focus on areas that allow you to visualize your jobs. Right.

Amber Wright [00:07:43]:
Showing where each vehicle is in the repair process, digital vehicle inspections. So of course the estimating invoicing but parts ordering, having that integrated and really making sure that we have your suppliers with live pricing, inventory management with within the system. But not only that, but really focusing on the customer experience. Right. I speak about this often and we're all very aware. You know, I myself is an, I'm an older millennial, but the next generation is also Gen Z. Right. And when you think about these generations, they grew up with technology, right.

Amber Wright [00:08:21]:
Some one was either it was introduced into middle early on in their life or they were born with it. And so really focusing on what does that experience and customer want. And so Auto Leap not only creates a seamless workflow in your shop from the point of sale, but also really focuses on the customer and the convenience aspect. So allowing you to send out automated reminders about your appointments. Right. It allows you to create campaigns via deferred services. Right. Or maintenance reminders.

Amber Wright [00:08:59]:
And so those are the things that we're really focused on and driving innovation and the experience that we bring not only to the shops to be successful. Creating seamless workflows, focusing on how do we create efficiencies in the process. Right. Right. Now Chris, we just talked about like, you know, we're really focused right now on the estimate process for the shop. You can create an estimate within, you know, minutes, right? Minutes equals money for these shops or time equals money. And so how do we continue to evolve the software to make it quicker and more convenient for the customer? So really an end to end shop.

Chris Cotton [00:09:36]:
Management software and you guys seem to have a more of a all inclusive format or less maybe integrations where you have to keep paying for more and more and more as you go on.

Amber Wright [00:09:49]:
Yeah, yeah. You know there's definitely two models of SaaS, right. So AutoLeap and these tech companies that are in the market are SaaS based companies, right. And so they're subscription based. And so there's always two models of that business. It's a model of having, from a technical standpoint, an open API allowing other, other companies to come in and integrate with your systems. Or there's the model where you do have an all in one, right. Where you have integration with very strategic partners.

Amber Wright [00:10:23]:
And the second model that I just mentioned is what Auto Leap is. And the reason that we did that is because it's really important for shop owners to understand from a technology standpoint the fragmentation that happens when you have all of these different endpoints coming into one system. Right. It not only disrupts the customer experience, but it also disrupts the tech, the data that's being dispersed between these systems. And so we really focused on making sure that, you know, it's a seamless experience, there is less fragmentation. But we also don't ever want to find ourselves in a situation where you Know, we have a pricing model where it's like, hey, we have all these things, but you have to pay for this. And then the next time you turn around, you have to pay for this. But then we also don't want a situation where we're pointing fingers at a partner.

Amber Wright [00:11:19]:
Right. And it's their issue. Sorry, guys. George wants to come say hi.

Chris Cotton [00:11:23]:
George? He's fine.

Amber Wright [00:11:24]:
George is my very large doodle. That was supposed to be a small doodle, but he's not. He's like a Clifford the Big Red.

Chris Cotton [00:11:32]:
Dog, but there you go.

Amber Wright [00:11:33]:
Yeah. So, yeah, that's really our model. And. And you know, it. It's also like, it's dependent on the shop owner and what they need. Right, right. And we recognize that shop owners historically have carried five different softwares. Right.

Amber Wright [00:11:50]:
They carry the point of sale, that's creating the estimates and invoices. They're carrying a dvi. Right. A digital vehicle tool. They're also carrying probably two to three different labor guides that they're paying for on a monthly basis. And then they have marketing. Right. SEO.

Amber Wright [00:12:08]:
Yeah. The CRM aspect. And so that costs a lot when you put it all together.

Chris Cotton [00:12:15]:
I think he's going to push you out of the screen and take over your podcast here in just a minute. He's, like, leaning in this morning.

Amber Wright [00:12:20]:
He might. He needs love.

Chris Cotton [00:12:24]:
So, you know, I've been talking about, like, the last year or 18 months about making service advisors more productive. Like, how do we do that? Like, we're, for the most part, we're as productive as we can be in the shop or should be. And next is like, how do we. How do we make the service advisor be able to write better tickets and handle those things? And you've got some features that you've been working on, and you've already mentioned the dvi. So let's pick up there again and talk to me about the new stuff you have coming out with the DVI and the stuff you're working on.

Amber Wright [00:12:53]:
Yeah. So the DVI is super important for shops. Right. Not only from a financial standpoint, does it help shops to create larger, average ros. Right. But it does create trust. Right. Going back to that customer communication and how we're presenting the things that maybe a customer didn't know that they needed.

Amber Wright [00:13:14]:
Right. But how do we also position the shop as the expert in the industry? Right. When you go to a doctor, doctor or a dentist, they provide pictures and they show you your exam and, you know, whether you choose to believe that, you know what they're talking about or not, you know, the service advisor has to become the expert in what they're doing. And so the best way to do that is by providing videos and pictures. And so we've created a workflow with DVIs that really kind of ties it all together. So when a customer, let's just kind of like walk through a very similar small scenario when a customer comes in for an oil change, right. They've called you and that is their ultimate, their first concern. So we're going to document that concern.

Amber Wright [00:14:02]:
But then they also let you know that their, their brakes, when they break, it's making a noise. Right. So I'm going to document that concern as well and then it's going to let me know that we need to do an inspection, a brake inspection. So with the oil change, let's just say for this example we do a comprehensive DV anyways. And so just like if you are a dog owner, which obviously I am, and I go to a drop my dogs off at the puppy daycare, I want to get pictures of my dog right throughout the whole process. So we'll be able to do a whole view of the car. So that full walk around view pictures on there. Who is the technician that was doing this? The service advisor that was overseeing it.

Amber Wright [00:14:45]:
And so as the DVI starts going through, right. They're all customizable, but we've, we've pre populated it with conditions that the system has learned. So talking about how we're thinking about AI in the system, right. We want to make sure that we can make the service advisor as efficient as possible. So how do we speed up this process and help them or the technician? So let's just say, you know, we look at the brakes and they're worn 2 millimeters. They're worn. Right. So I'm going to press that button in the system and then it's actually going to pre populate canned notes based on that condition.

Amber Wright [00:15:20]:
Right. So again looking at the speed of service and then as once that DVI is completed, the service advisor is then going to start building out the ticket. Well, going back to those pre concerns, I'm going to build the estimate based on that and it's telling a story. So here's a concern. Here's what we found from the inspection and here's the actual service line item that links to that. And so when the service advisor goes back to present it, it's this kind of like story with a nice bow on it that allows the service advisor to be able to do their job more efficiently. And get the work done.

Chris Cotton [00:16:00]:
So, and, and I've seen a little bit of this. I've. I've known. I didn't know you guys had it, so I'm glad we talked. I've seen it from some other people. You know, technicians are not the best spellers in the world, let's be truthful. Right. And for me personally, the way my brain works, like, if I was to write out something, people get mad at me because I'll send them an email and they're like, stop yelling at me.

Chris Cotton [00:16:25]:
But I do everything in all caps because if I don't, some stuff's like uppercase, lowercase when I'm writing. Some of it's in cursive, some of it's in, you know, print, and there's just no rhyme or reason to it. But I think this helps a lot from the technician side of it as far as, like, notes and note taking. And then if you're a service advisor that has to go in and clean up all that, it's like pre cleaned and ready to go. Saving time.

Amber Wright [00:16:51]:
Yeah. Or, you know, your service advisors aren't having to go in the back and ask the technician what they. What they meant, you know, whether they're a good speller or not. Their hands are also dirty and they're trying to type in either to their phone or tablet and. Yeah, right. They're trying to get things moving forward. So we're really trying to focus on areas of, like, how can we help them in their workflow? And we spend a lot of time, Chris, in shops. So when we have an idea, when our product team has an idea of, like, building this out, we've.

Amber Wright [00:17:20]:
We've, for lack of better terms, kind of storyboarded it, created the images. We're going to then present it to a shop owner. Right. Or go visit the shop and see how it would work in the shop to make sure that we're thinking about this clearly. Right. Because an engineer's mind is very black and white and they aren't a technician or a service advisor. And we recognize that. And so we kind of combine, you know, the technology expertise with the factual workflow.

Amber Wright [00:17:49]:
But really. Yeah, go ahead.

Chris Cotton [00:17:50]:
And no, I was going to say that takes us into kind of like the AI aspect of, like, what's coming and how that helps. You have anything else you want to mention about, like, the AI side of things?

Amber Wright [00:17:59]:
Yeah. So one of the things that we released, I think the end of last year, beginning of this year, is the magic part, Lookup. So we call it the magic in the system. And so what it'll allow you do is instead of having to click into your parts ordering process, going out of your estimate into the parts. Right. We want to again understand the time. And so keeping you on one screen and allowing it to, let's just say going back to that brake job, right. We need to go and do brake pad R and R.

Amber Wright [00:18:35]:
And so right on the estimate there's going to be a button that says parts and inventory. And so you click that button and what it's going to do, it's going to quickly look into your inventory. If you keep those thing in local inventory, make sure that we utilize that first. So more so like filters, right. You would generally keep filters in your shop where then it's going to go and call out to the likes of parts tech or next part, depending on where you are in the country and what you prefer to use or the world packs. And so it's going to help kind of streamline this process and call out to the system through aces and pies how it's built on the back end. So really again, keeping efficiency there. What we are working on this year as well is some things I can't mention.

Amber Wright [00:19:24]:
But how do we preemptively show the service advisor what needs to be done on an estimate before they know what needs to be done? And that happens through data that keeps within the system. Right. And that can only happen when you keep it in one area and it's not dispersed and you're not having to call out to other tools to gather that data. So it's happening instantly.

Chris Cotton [00:19:50]:
I mean this is all super interesting and who knows where we're going to end up. I love it. It's still, I still run across a lot of people that use like winworks and Mitchell and all this stuff. And I'm like, they haven't really done anything in years and they're just systems like yours make shop owners way more money than they cost. I think some people get wrapped up in, oh, what's the cost per month versus what it can save you in time, make you in money. And we haven't even talked about parts matrixes and labor matrixes and shop supplies and all those other things.

Amber Wright [00:20:28]:
Yeah, it's interesting, right. And not only do we get the price question first. Right?

Chris Cotton [00:20:35]:
Right.

Amber Wright [00:20:35]:
Our hope is that we can show you the value before we get to the price. Right. And it's just like brand loyalty. Right. I have an iPhone, I think you have an Android, don't you?

Chris Cotton [00:20:46]:
I recently switched. So there's a whole story. I have a whole podcast about how Lenovo messed it up and I had to get a new laptop, a new laptop. So I chose a MacBook. And then after I got my MacBook, I'm just like, I might as well bite the bullet and get an iPhone. So not anymore.

Amber Wright [00:21:04]:
Yeah, yeah, I thought that. But it, it is, right? It goes back to loyalty and service, right? You will pay for something that is good. You will pay for something that you know you can trust. And so we want to make sure that we can build the value there too, right? Taking just the technology, right? When you're looking at it in comparison to other software that's out there, it's really hard to see the value, right? When you don't understand, and I don't mean this in a bad way, the benefit of having stuff all in one, right? When you know, when you're just looking at it from an apples to apples, when it's really apples to oranges. But you also don't take in consideration the support that's behind the technology. You know, what is invested in your success and the continuation of like, is the, is the vendor that you're looking at, do they promise to continue to innovate or are they going to stagnate? Right. That's what's happening with a lot of these older systems. And don't get me wrong, like some of these systems that have been here for 20 to 30 years, they, they are good because they have so much value in the reporting, right? But what happens is they just stop innovating and they can't keep up.

Amber Wright [00:22:14]:
And so it's really important to know that about the vendor that you choose well.

Chris Cotton [00:22:18]:
And you know, on, you know, some of those, again, like you said, they have people, they have people paying the subscription and they've paid for 20 years. And most of those shop owners are like, oh, I can't change because I'm so ingrained in that. But really a system like yours is like, you could teach that and get people up and running in less than a week. And I've had some people switch from like Mitchell over to a cloud based system like yours, like in the middle of a week for whatever reason. And just like one day they're not and the next day they are and boom, you just go and take off. The. The one thing I like about the innovation is you guys probably have one of the better tire integrations because most, most of the other ones, they really haven't put much thought into tires and don't think about it. You want to talk about what you've got going on there or what's new?

Amber Wright [00:23:11]:
Yeah, yeah. So just like where we started, right, we did start just for general, like general repair, independent general repair shops. But our, our founders and some of our board members actually have involvement with the likes of like Bridgestone. And so we kind of got into it by way of a customer. So we have a large customer that has 50 locations that is more tire focused. And so I think the beginning of 24, we really started to pivot to understand the dealer side of the business. And so we did a direct integration and it was kind of like the first phase of it with Tire Hub. And the reason we did that was really just the, the relationship, the, the benefit to our customer.

Amber Wright [00:24:05]:
But it, it spearheaded understanding that inventory management from a tire side specifically because we're in North America as well. And you know, shops in Canada go through tire season, really need a robust tire program. And it also needs to have the reporting just like the general repair side. And it needs to have mechanisms that allow you to track things like minimum and maximum levels. It needs to be able to do things like good, better, best. Right. And so those are the things that we're really focused on ensuring that, you know, when a shop has a warehouse that's, you know, 30,000 square foot and, you know, or whatever the case may be, and they have to have a buttload of inventory of tires and keep track of those, how does our system help with that? So those are the things that we're really focused on through, you know, creation of a VIN scanner and. Yeah.

Chris Cotton [00:25:11]:
So is there anything else that we haven't covered that I mean, we've covered a lot and new stuff that you guys are working on. Is there anything that we've left out or forgotten? Maybe.

Amber Wright [00:25:22]:
I think I've shared with you all that I am able to share for the moment. We did just release the Tire Storage 2.0. We call it kind of 2.0. We just released DVI 2.0 and now we're already on DVI 2.1. And so what I can say is that we aren't slowing down. The innovation is going to continue. And we're really making sure that not only are we focused on driving, driving the best for our corporate customers, but also in thinking about what we are building, that it's applicable to all of our customer base. Whether you are a franchise model or you are a one shop, smaller mom and pop.

Amber Wright [00:26:07]:
Right. Like, we want to make sure that we are really focused on driving your businesses forward and you see the most revenue.

Chris Cotton [00:26:15]:
I think that's awesome. Any final thoughts or anything you want to say before we.

Amber Wright [00:26:22]:
No, I think that, you know, we would love to. If you're thinking about looking at a system, you know, we would love to be able to show you how we can work with you and how we can help step in as a partner and not just a vendor. Right. We really want to make sure that you are set up for success. And so we do have different options for you of, you know, depending on your car count during the week. So I know cost is sometimes an objection and we're here to help kind of understand what those are. Is it because of the size of your shop, but you know, and meet you where you are. So we would love for you to reach out.

Amber Wright [00:27:02]:
You can either reach out to me@amberautoleap.com or you can just simply go to our website and click the demo request. A demo. And we will reach out transparently. We probably are the quickest to reach out. We'll reach out with within. Under. I think we are supposed to reach out with under like two minutes. My team that's.

Amber Wright [00:27:20]:
That's working on demo request. So we are here to support you and I really appreciate all that you do, Chris.

Chris Cotton [00:27:26]:
Thank you.

Amber Wright [00:27:27]:
Yeah.

Chris Cotton [00:27:28]:
And, and so too, your website's autoleave.com, go to the demo and then anything else. Okay. Any final thoughts? I know I think I kind of already pushed you there, but.

Amber Wright [00:27:39]:
No.

Chris Cotton [00:27:39]:
Anything else?

Amber Wright [00:27:40]:
I think that's it. I think.

Chris Cotton [00:27:41]:
Okay.

Amber Wright [00:27:42]:
Yeah, I think that's it. Or if you don't get to register for Amplify before this goes live, definitely go to our website under the resources tab. You'll be able to see Amplify and you can surely sign up for that at any time.

Chris Cotton [00:27:58]:
Awesome. Thanks for so much for joining us today. The sun's out. I know your kids are home from spring break. George needs some love. Go throw or actually, actually don't make your kids throw the tennis ball for George. They should be doing that.

Amber Wright [00:28:08]:
They are still sleeping, which is wonderful.

Chris Cotton [00:28:11]:
Really. This is like. I guess it is, but it's like 9:30. I guess it's 9:30 there, so that's all right.

Amber Wright [00:28:16]:
Yeah.

Chris Cotton [00:28:17]:
Well, they're. They're growing kids.

Amber Wright [00:28:19]:
They are. They were at Nona's house the last two days, so I think she wore them out. And it's nice to be home in their beds, I think.

Chris Cotton [00:28:26]:
Awesome. So that's good. Thank you so much, Amber. Have a good day and try to have a non stressful amplify event.

Amber Wright [00:28:32]:
Oh, it'll be great. We're all ready for it. Thank you, thank you.

Chris Cotton [00:28:35]:
You bet. 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. 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.

Chris Cotton [00:29:08]:
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.