August 28, 2025 • 31 mins
In this episode, my guest is Shasta Haddock, Chief Operations Officer at Epic BDC and host of I'm A Car Chick Podcast. With over a decade in automotive, she’s built high-performing BDC teams and even created the industry’s first elite response team that turns social media traffic into real showroom appointments.
We get into some very real challenges that are still holding dealerships back in 2025. Things like response times that feel “fast” but are actually losing sales, CRM processes that quietly drop leads, and the outdated templates that make customers tune out before a conversation even starts.
Shasta also shares how her team stumbled into a breakthrough approach that changed the way dealerships convert Facebook traffic, and why one lesson she picked up from her husband’s work in law enforcement completely reshaped how she thinks about accountability in the BDC.
If you’ve ever wondered why some leads vanish, how to make your first customer touchpoint more powerful, or what role AI should really play in your dealership today, this episode will give you plenty to think about.
Grab your free copy of my #1 bestselling ebook Don’t Wait, Dominate! here → www.flexdealer.com
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FlexDealer Need Better Quality Leads? FLX helps car dealers generate better quality leads through localized organic search and highly-targeted ads that convert. They also help integrate marketing with internal operations for optimal results, and unparalleled growth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
If you could pinpoint that one thing that's like definitely
get rid of these word tracks orthese types of templates, what
would that be for you?
My number one phrase that, whenI see it or read it from a
salesperson or a VDR, makes mewant to immediately stab myself
in the shoulder, is One of thethings that I enjoy most about
(00:20):
producing the dealer playbook ishearing from you the messages
that I get of people who aregetting so much value out of the
podcast, applying it to theirday-to-day workflows and finding
a thriving career right here inthe retail auto industry.
It means the world to me, andyou know, one of the ways that
we make doing this possible isthrough my agency, flexdealer,
and, of course, in the spirit ofproviding value, I think this
(00:42):
is a perfect time to head overto wwwflexdealercom to show even
further support for you, mybeloved DPB gang.
Right now, if you go to mywebsite, wwwflexdealercom, you
can get a full, free PDF of mynumber one bestselling book
Don't Wait Dominate.
And the reason I think it's sospecial is that a lot of the
(01:03):
topics that are discussed inthis book are even more relevant
today than ever, with thissurge in popularized AI and
people wondering, well, what canI do next?
How can I have a competitiveadvantage?
Well, that's all here in thisbook, and so I'd love to be able
to offer you a free copy ofthis If you go to FlexDealercom.
It would mean the world to me,because that is how we continue
(01:25):
to produce this show for you.
Shasta Haddock is the chiefoperations officer at Epic BDC
and host of the I'm a Car Chickpodcast.
(01:47):
With over a decade inautomotive, she's built high
performing BDC teams, createdthe industry's first elite
response team to convert socialtraffic into sales appointments
and train dealers nationwide onmodern customer engagement
strategies that drive results.
I'm so excited to dig in todayand I'm coming out of the gates
(02:07):
hot.
Shasta.
I know there are dealers who westill hear this.
They brag about their 30-minuteresponse time.
In actuality, we get into thestore, we find out it's closer
to 60 minutes, but we'll givethem the 30 minutes and they're
bragging that it's lightningfast.
But I've heard you suggest thatthat might not actually be
(02:30):
great.
That's pretty slow still,especially in this digital age.
So I'm curious your take rightout of the gates.
If you walked into that store,what would you do to start
shaving time off of thatresponse time?
Shasta (02:43):
There's so many things.
First off, you got to see whatthe internal CRM process looks
like.
Are the notifications set upproperly for when the lead comes
in?
Who is receiving those?
Is there a backup plan if thatperson or team isn't there?
And most of the time there'snot.
I mean, we talked to adealership, probably less than
two weeks ago, that they hadleads that had sat for three to
(03:04):
six days without being touchedor before they got touched for
the first time, and it's painful.
It's so painful because it's soeasy to get them.
I mean it comes down totraining your BDC, your BDC
manager, to know how to go findthose.
There's some CRMs that once youopen the lead, it removes the
notification even if you don'tmake contact on it, and so
(03:26):
knowing how to find those andchecking those periodically so
that that doesn't happen.
I mean there's so many things,but I would definitely start
with the CRM processes and getin touch with your CRM rep.
They're really amazing.
It's their job to make your CRMwork properly.
But get in there and make sureyou've got those notifications
set up properly you don't haveany old users in there that are
(03:49):
receiving those that are nowgone and really just make that
as efficient as possible,because you can do a lot with a
good CRM process.
MC (04:02):
I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, okay, 10
years in the industry, over adecade now in the industry, and
do you feel like?
Sometimes I feel this way, soI'm curious your thoughts.
It's like it's 2025.
Are we still talking about CRMhygiene?
Shasta (04:15):
You know and you probably see the same thing.
It's funny to me how, talkingto different dealers in
different parts of the country,how some are like so in the now
and some even in the future asto how they're doing things, and
then other parts of thecountries are still operating in
the eighties and nineties andit's like, how are you even
operating like that with all ofthese broken things and there's
so much good technology outthere, how are you still doing
(04:36):
so bad at this Like and it'spainful, because you want to
help them and you want to, youwant to see like them operate
efficiently, and it's likethey're they're holding
themselves back because they'rejust so laser focused on one
thing.
MC (04:48):
It's yeah yeah, it's like it's kind of this um oxymoronic
hyperloop, because it's likewhat do I want to do?
Well, I want to sell more carsand I want to book more service.
I want to keep my service basefull.
Well, what are you going to doto get there?
I'm just going to focus on thatyou like.
But what if you paid closerattention to your engagement
(05:09):
rate and your proposal or yourappointment rate and your show
rate and your proposal rate andall these sorts of things that
actually line up to that first?
It kind of brings me to thenext thing I want to talk to you
about, loosely related.
Right, you look into the CRM,you're going through a hygiene
exercise and you're realizingthat some of these response
templates that they're usinglook like they were pulled out
(05:31):
of an Amway catalog from 1954,right, dusty, old, outdated
templates.
But I know you've got a knackfor getting people actually
respond.
So when you are looking atthese templates and you're
examining the CRM, what are someof the things going through
your mind that you're like, guys, that is outdated.
(05:54):
If you could pinpoint that onething that's like definitely get
rid of these word tracks orthese types of templates, what
would that be for you?
Shasta (06:03):
My number one phrase that, when I see it or read it
from a salesperson or a BDR,makes me want to immediately
stab myself in the shoulder isare you still in the market?
I can't stand it.
I hate that question.
It's so ineffective.
Anything that says that andthat's easy to take out of a
template, but more so just goingthrough those templates and
(06:24):
cleaning them up, making themengaging.
If they're just something basicthe stuff that the CRM puts in
there automatically wheneverthey set you up for the first
time it's a placeholder.
It's not meant to be yourforever solution and, honestly,
now that we are in the age of AI, it's so easy to change those.
Come up with somethingdifferent and make it more
creative and engaging.
That's the beauty of thingslike ChatGPT.
(06:47):
Even if you don't have an AIsoftware at the dealership,
chatgpt is free.
Go in there If you know hey,this is a 13-day email that's
going out to an uncontacted lead.
Tell your ChatGPT that.
Have it.
Help you build a response.
If you're just not thatcreative of a person, I mean
it's very simple.
But at the end of the day,you're not going to sell a car
(07:07):
over email.
You're just looking forengagement.
You need to earn their trustand you need to sound like
something other than every otherdealership they've shopped with
.
MC (07:15):
Ooh, I love it.
Two things that you said that Iwant to touch on and dig into a
little bit more.
The first is ChatGPT is free.
Free and you're really sayingbut give it the context it needs
, cause I think most peopleright now are using GPTs or
other LLMs like glorified Googlesearch and they're like no, the
responses stink and it's likeno.
(07:36):
What Shasta said is youactually have to qualify your
prompt in order to get a betterresult back.
And then the second thing isthat understanding that you are
trying to just get a responsefrom them, to engage them and
build trust.
So what is your ideal?
What do you find a lot ofsuccess with?
Are there certain phrases orword tracks or subject lines
(07:59):
that you're finding whether it'stext or email or whatever that
just get that person to respondback?
Shasta (08:06):
I've had a lot of success talking about things
other than the vehicle theyinquired on, which is almost
wacky and seems opposite of whatwe're trying to do.
I will throw a wrench in there,asking about their trade, what
they love about their currentvehicle that they want in the
next one.
Do you want a sunroof in yournext vehicle?
Are you looking for cloth orleather seats, like super random
(08:27):
things?
Obviously, check and make surethey didn't already send that
over with the lead information,but just those random things
that they're not used to seeingthat kind of just make them
double take a little bit arewhere I have the most success,
and so the more out of the box,the more.
Not struggling for words rightnow not usual unusual responses
(08:49):
are what can queue them up to belike oh, this might actually be
a real person, because yourcustomers know we're in the
world of AI.
They know more than likely yourfollow-ups AI.
So anything that you can do tostick out a little bit if you're
doing human response, you don'twant to look like AI.
You want to look like a humanbeing and you want to look like
hey, this is me legitimatelytrying to help you, without also
seeming desperate, because I'veseen that too.
MC (09:12):
I love it because it's back to the roots of hospitality.
Yes, like observe, you know.
Like you said, pay attention towhat they submitted in their
initial request and don't askthem dumb questions that they
might have already given you.
All the information on thisidea of hospitality starts with
observing a need, or observingan opportunity, and then feeding
(09:36):
into it more accurately.
This is going to be a side notequestion, but loosely related
to this, because I know your.
Your husband is a police officer, right, and first of all I want
him to know we thank him forthe work that he does, cause
that is not, I can't evenimagine.
I've got buddies that arepolice officers and I'm like,
(09:58):
well, I can't, even you're, no,no day is the same and they're
out there doing the thing.
But I know that, whether wethink of it this way or not, he
is like got to be insane atcustomer service because he is
dealing with people day in andday out.
He's dealing with critique andfeedback and anger and all the
(10:21):
emotions and all those things.
What, if anything, have youbeen inspired by from your
husband that you've brought intoyour BDC rituals, if you will?
Shasta (10:33):
I mean I don't know that it's anything particular that
he's done, but the awarenessthat has been brought to me
about the standards that are puton law enforcement, that every
single move that they're doingis watched it.
I mean they have to have theirbody cams on at all time.
It's it's now federal law, um,which is which is good, you know
, good for the community, it'sgood for them, for their
(10:53):
protection, that you know theyhave that.
But also, when you know you'rebeing watched, um, I think that
the you generally know to act acertain way or to say things,
stuff like that.
And so in the BDC space,letting them know, at any minute
we could have to pull any ofyour calls, we could have to
(11:13):
pull any of your textconversations, and so you want
to make sure that you're stayingabove reproach on absolutely
everything.
You never know when you're goingto get coached, when someone's
going to complain to thedealership and say you said
something that you didn'tconstantly stay above reproach.
And you have to.
You can't lie.
If we find out anybody lieslike that's immediately out the
(11:34):
door.
Um, you cannot lie to acustomer, you cannot mislead
them.
You have to be honest with themand be the person that you
would want to be speaking to onthe other side, and I think with
law enforcement it's the sameway.
They're just a citizen like you.
MC (11:49):
Yeah, that's really powerful though, this idea of
accountability and increasedaccountability and follow
through, I think.
I think a lot of organizationsand I know I've been guilty of
it in the past as a leader it'slike you set kind of these
expectations but don't createthe follow-up or the
accountability mechanism.
(12:09):
And what you're saying, I thinkis so powerful because from my
observation and I want to getthis out of the way that, come
on, dpb gang, you know I loveyou, you know I'm not here to
hurt anyone's feelings, but ifyour feelings are going to get
hurt, I just you know it is whatit is.
You know, which is this like.
(12:30):
I don't think anybody's showingup to work in our industry
desiring to be a poor performer.
Shasta (12:39):
No, I say that.
MC (12:40):
Sorry, say what.
Is it desiring?
To be a poor performer?
Shasta (12:43):
No, I say that all the time, Sorry say what is it?
MC (12:46):
I say that all the time Nobody wants to come to work to
do a bad job.
Right, and.
But what I do think happens iswe favor short term wins so much
that there's a great amount ofethical fading.
Nobody knows why they show.
They start to go down this pathwhere they don't know why they
want to show up, and then we'reinstalling an accountability
mechanism in the wrong sequencewhich just creates more faded
like ethical wondering on thisemployee's part.
(13:08):
And now, all of a sudden, wehave a dysfunctional operation
from BDC all the way tofrontline, all the way to back
of the house, and so on and soforth.
So I love what you're sayingabout hey like no, there needs
to be accountability.
You will be observed.
We do want to make sure thatyou're finding fulfillment in
(13:29):
the work you do, and the waythat you find that is by
providing an experience rightout of the gates to customer
that they're going to bethrilled with.
Shasta (13:37):
Well, and it goes back to something you said earlier
with hospitality, because we inthe BBC especially when a new
BDR gets trained, it can be veryeasy to get caught up in the
tasks and the minute work, thedial, the text, the email, the
video, whatever it is thatthey're doing.
It's so easy to just get caughtup in that and forget that it's
not just phone numbers on theother side or email addresses on
(14:00):
the other side.
These are real human beings whoare about to make a very large
purchase and want to find theplace that they can trust with
that investment, and so it can'tjust be another dial, another
text, another task checked off.
It has to be.
I'm here to be your assistantin this process.
Tell me how I can help you.
Here are the things that I know, that I've learned, that I'm
(14:22):
passing on to you.
These are the ways that I knowI can help you.
But you tell me what you needfrom me, and it goes back to
hospitality every timeanticipating their need before
they have it.
MC (14:31):
Ooh, one of my favorite words Shasta anticipation.
Use it in your language and youwill avoid, oh, so many
arguments.
Um, you may experience this.
You may feel that you, that's,you know, I love anticipatory
communication, just trying tostay ahead of of things.
Shasta (14:53):
Oh, that's so powerful it's so much in the bdc.
You get that from just readingthe lead, like if there was a
magic wand that I had that Icould just fix every one problem
for every dealership at thesame time.
It would be that every firstresponse text message, phone
call, email, whatever it iswould know everything about a
customer's journey based on theinformation they put in the lead
(15:13):
.
Like that would be the thing.
That's the thing that mostdealerships around the country
are just missing.
That would be the thing.
That's the thing that mostdealerships around the country
are just missing.
MC (15:22):
Hey, does your marketing agency suck?
Listen before we hop back intothis episode.
I know you know me as the hostof the Dealer Playbook, but did
you also know that I'm the CEOof FlexDealer, an agency that's
helping dealers capture betterquality leads from local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convertleads from local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convert.
So if you want to sell morecars and finally have a partner
(15:44):
that's in it with you, thatdoesn't suck visit flexdealercom
.
Let's hop back into thisepisode.
That's powerful stuff.
Okay, switching gears a littlebit and related of course,
you've built the this uh eliteresponse team that took Facebook
likes and social uh metrics andand I I'm going to say the word
(16:07):
somehow, because I think somepeople still wonder how this
possible you somehow were ableto turn them into butts in the
showroom.
Uh, how did that idea even comeabout and what were some of the
key steps you found that madethat work?
Shasta (16:21):
I think, the same way that a lot of people's success
came in automotive by completeaccident, what when we had
freshly started off, we wereworking with a few dealerships,
but the company was built tohelp small businesses, and so
back in I want to say it was2017 or 2018, we had a local gym
(16:43):
where you would go to work out,that kind of gym where we were
running Facebook ads for them,trying to just help them acquire
new customers, things like that.
And one day I was placing adsfor them and came across a brand
new type of ad, which weremessenger ads, and I was like I
wonder what these are.
It's kind of interesting.
So I was like I told everybodyhey, I'm going to try this out,
(17:04):
I'm just going to throw a couplehundred bucks behind it, see
what happens.
And it was pretty cool.
You could kind of give thecustomer some responses that you
wanted to have up front.
And then we played with thosefor about a week or so and all
of a sudden I was like we shouldtry this for a dealership,
because at the time we were justdoing the regular lead formats
or driving traffic to theirwebsite, things like that, and
so I placed them for adealership whose ad budget was
(17:26):
like really, really high and waslike let's throw the whole
budget behind it.
What's the worst thing that canhappen until you realize that's
going to equal hundreds ofthousands of messages.
MC (17:36):
Right.
Shasta (17:37):
Somebody has to answer and you, otherwise you just have
an inbox full of messages.
And we we had a very, verylight what we called
notifications team at the timethat would monitor comments,
shares, reviews on Facebookpages, but nothing to that scale
.
They weren't trained how to bea BDC by any means, they were
just.
They were just handlingnotifications, making sure that
problems got responded to,whatever.
(17:58):
So, out of nowhere, with thisvery large ad budget where we
now have like 300 messages a daycoming into one inbox, we're
like, holy crap, we've got tobuild something to solve this.
So I had a few years in the BDCat that point and so I was like
we need a BDC essentially, butthey're not going to have
headsets, they're just going tobe on Facebook.
(18:18):
And so we kind of startedtraining these team members on
how to have these responses.
These leads are going to bemuch colder.
Well, the conversations aregoing to be much colder because
these people aren't in themarket for a vehicle per se,
they're just.
At the time we couldn't targeton Facebook, and so these are
kind of just blanket.
And these are people who saw thead and they're either
interested in a low down payment, a low monthly payment, a low
(18:40):
APR, something along those lines, and more than likely they're
going to be more on the subprimeside.
So we've got to have thesewarming, trust building
conversations with them.
So we had to not just trainpeople, build out a schedule,
build out software so that wecould get once we converted
those into leads and orappointments get those to the
dealership, to the BDC orwhoever needed to have those,
(19:01):
and then, before we knew it,like it was actually going
really well, the ROIs wereamazing, the, the sold vehicles
coming from it were amazing, andwe're like, what did we just do
on accident?
And so it?
It just kept growing andgrowing.
And then we we even furtherturned it into sales events
doing that for for that, fordealerships who wanted to just
(19:21):
do like a little quick 7 to 10day thing.
But what's awesome is that alot of people think that
Facebook traffic has to bespecifically targeted.
We've got to be looking forthis specific audience and
that's not necessarily the casebecause you've got 98% of your
market is not in Tinders.
But will the right offer hookthem in?
MC (19:39):
Yeah, 98% of your market is not in tenders, but will the
right offer hook them in?
Yeah, I mean, well, look thattracks for me.
Incredibly, because you know,it's like we talk about this in
the industry, where people arenot buying cars every day and we
are working in the space everyday.
So there's already a disparitythere between what the customer
is actually thinking about moreoften and what we're thinking
(20:00):
about more often and we talk tothem as if they are buying a car
every single day.
They're not.
They are more interested in somany other things, day after day
after day.
That to your point and youbrought this up a little bit
earlier talking to them aboutthose interests or things that
they're engaging with.
I want to say Robin, robinWilson, Do you call her Robin at
(20:23):
work?
Okay, yeah, I had the samething.
I worked with my dad for years,but at work he was Joe, you
know Right.
So she talked about turningtattoos.
Okay, hold on turning tattoos.
Okay, hold on, I'm digging backinto the well here.
But she talked about turningtattoos into, like a sold car
(20:47):
for a dealership there in Joplin.
Shasta (20:49):
Yeah, so that is funny.
I actually participated in that.
So she did it when we were inthe works of launching our new
company, social Grenade.
We were playing around withsome different ideas and so,
because of how the Facebookalgorithm works, if you get
people to engage with your poston day one, then you will have
that audience for about 24 to 48hours afterwards that your next
(21:11):
posts will also pop into theirfeed.
Now, granted, they'll only saythat if they continue to engage
with you.
So you know if you want to findsomething to connect with
someone on.
You know, tattoos are a bigthing.
A lot of people have tattoos,and so this one was show me your
ink and tag your tattoo artistsif you have them on social.
(21:32):
And the comments blew up.
It was absolutely wild becauseit's something that all of us
number one.
We get it because we want toshow it off.
Like I've got my arms are alltatted up, and so absolutely
Everybody's jumping in thecomments.
You have to respond to all thecomments to keep them engaged,
but then you keep them in youralgorithm for the next 24 to 48
hours.
(21:52):
So now we've gotten a tribe.
Now we're going to post avehicle, or I think in that
specific instance she had thatsalesperson grab their freshest
trade or something like that,which was like a Camaro, and say
you know what, what monthlypayment could you afford on this
?
And had several of the peoplewho'd commented on the tattoo
post yeah, and they ended upselling that car that day to to
(22:13):
several of the people who'dcommented on the tattoo post.
So genius, yeah, and they endedup selling that card that day
to one of the people whocommented in it.
So it's all about just buildingyour funnel within your
Facebook and using the algorithmto your advantage instead of
just complaining that nobodysees my posts.
Okay, we'll make them.
MC (22:27):
I want to transition here slightly because and obviously
related because what we'retalking about right now, I don't
.
I don't think many areunderstanding how massive the
opportunity is when you usesocial the right way.
(22:47):
Let's let's quantify or definethe wrong way.
So come on, but they're holdingup the white post for so glad
you're here.
That define the wrong way.
So come on, but they're holdingup the white post for so glad
you're here.
That's the wrong way.
Shasta (22:59):
Hey, I sold a car.
MC (23:01):
Hey guys, yeah, exactly, um, right way.
Let's dissect what you'retalking about.
Well, first of all, I mean eventhink about if I wanted to
build relationships and I wasnew in a community or new
selling cars or a new BDC rep, Imean I would go and see what
Facebook groups existed aroundmy community that had I don't
(23:24):
know, doesn't really matter 500plus members and I would see how
active they are and I would getinvolved and I would find out
what people are talking aboutregularly and then I would use
that to stimulate conversationand I would never tell anybody
as my first thing hey, by theway, I sell cars or I'm a.
No, I would just go and lookwhat you're talking about.
(23:45):
I would just buildrelationships on the thing that
they're interested in.
I love that you have this veryclear example.
I love that you have this veryclear example and I know you
guys have more of how to turnjust relationship building into
top of mind when they're in thatmarket and how to leverage the
algorithms to do that.
And I want to.
I want to guess, I guess I wantto transition a little bit to
(24:09):
AI and get your thoughts on it.
We touched on it briefly earlierin this idea of where, like
ai's a buzz right now.
I can only imagine we're gonnaget to a place where it's like
we all use it.
Who cares?
Like the way google was in theearly, you know, mid 90s or
whatever everybody's talkingabout.
It became a verb and all thethings yahoo rose and
(24:30):
disappeared and all the thingshappened.
It's a bit of a buzz now, but Ican't think of a better
opportunity, when everyone isfocused on over here, like this
AI thing, to jump back in onsocial and build relationships
of trust with people as a humanbeing, without AI getting in the
way right now Cause, like yourcompetitors, looking in the
wrong, not the wrong direction,but you know, in this context
(24:54):
they're looking in the wrong,not the wrong direction, but you
know, in this context they'relooking in the wrong direction.
Shasta (24:57):
Well, there are businesses that are so focused
on on, you know, the speed tothe lead or making sure that at
least something is handled.
It may not be the perfect way,but at least something is
handled.
You can trust, because AI isgoing to be there.
It's not going to call in sick.
(25:17):
It's not going to get its nosering stuck on a pillow and not
be able to make it into work forthe day.
Is this a real story?
But AI is always going to bethere.
But us, as a human being,forced, we're starting to be
able to tell, I would say atleast 80% of the time when we're
talking to AI versus when we'retalking to a human, and we all
know from the experience thatwe've all done it.
You call into a business and useWalgreens, for example.
(25:39):
You get stuck in their phonetree and you can't get out of it
, and then the AI is trying tohelp you.
Please tell me which departmentyou'd like to talk to.
I'm sorry I didn't get that.
Please tell me what departmentyou'd like to talk to.
And so you're just trying toget to a human being.
You, you're just trying to getto a human being.
You're trying to get to a humanbeing because this is something
that this is a very specificneed.
This is very important to me.
I just need it handled quickly.
I don't want to have to takethe time to do this, and AI is
(26:01):
getting smarter.
We've got agentic AI now thatis very interactive based and
learning very quickly.
That I think we should probablybe paying a little bit of
attention to on the dealershipside.
Is it perfect?
No, but it's getting better.
Maybe someday it will be perfect, I don't know, but it's one of
those things that, yes, if youare lacking efficiencies.
(26:21):
I mean if anybody knows whoMatt Raymond is.
Matt Raymond is the COO ofBowtie Solutions, which is a
service BDC outsourced, and hisnumber one thing that he always,
without fail, shocks the crapout of me with is all of the
missed calls at dealerships.
He does a lot of overflowservice calls and even
dealerships where they're likewe have absolutely no missed
(26:44):
calls, we're on top of it.
And then he's like okay, great,Try me out.
For three days.
You let your team have threerings, let it go to a different
department, and then I pick upeverything after that and the
numbers are astronomical, andnot just the calls he's getting,
but the appointments they'regetting from it, the missed
money.
So even on the dealerships whothink they have it a thousand
percent dialed in, there'sopportunity there and it's.
(27:05):
It's mind blowing how muchwe're missing, but you know AI
won't miss calls.
MC (27:10):
Interesting.
Shasta (27:12):
Yeah.
MC (27:13):
It's not going to miss the call, but it may miss some
nuance, right, it's like a weirdin-between.
I wonder if my thesis here isthat we're eventually going to
get to the point where it's socommonplace, ai is doing so many
different things and then ourhuman nature is still going to
kick in at some point and we'regoing to be like but can I just
look another human being in theeye and just get their feedback?
(27:37):
You know, just get there.
And so I think you know where.
Where I think about the BDC andI could be totally wrong here
and I'm open to that is thisidea of okay, but now imagine
the value of you sitting in thatroom getting to be the first
human touch point that thecustomer gets.
Like I think now let's up theante.
(28:00):
This is going to make what theydo that much more valuable, and
I think we're in a period, toyour point, where, with this
little in between, where, sadly,by nature of the beast and in
the name of progress andevolution, these, these um bdrs
are just going to have to bebetter equipped at handling the
(28:20):
complaints that come from havingto go through the ai phone tree
for a minute well, and it'sit's humans need to focus on
what humans do best and what aican't do, which is being a human
being, having empathy, sympathy, excitedness, like all of the
emotions that we can have, thatAI can try to have, but it,
(28:40):
again, is not a human being.
Shasta (28:42):
It cannot have emotions.
It can portray emotions, butthat's where we come in and,
like I mentioned earlier, we allknow buying a car is a massive
decision, unless you're abusiness owner just needing a
tax write-off.
For most of us, buying a car isa really big decision.
It's a multi-year investment,it's something that we want to
be absolutely sure about, andthere's a percentage, a very
(29:03):
small percentage, of customersthat can do it completely
transactionally no emotion in it, no big deal.
But the masses it is somethingthat they have put a lot of
their time into, researching alot of money into.
Maybe they bought the wrong carbefore and realized that this
has features that I don't want,or it doesn't have features that
(29:24):
I do want, and so it becomesvery emotional for them to know
when they're getting what theywant versus not, or when they're
being heard versus when they'renot.
I think about the process, andwe talked about it off air for a
minute, but the process that acustomer has to go through in
their journey before they evenmake it to the dealership.
(29:44):
There's thousands of differentways, like thousands of
different places they couldsubmit a lead and most of the
time, we're handling the leadthe same way, which is not how
it should be.
It shouldn't be the sameconversation every time, whether
it's a lead from Facebook theywere scrolling on Facebook or if
they were on AutoTrader orCarGurus or Carscom, one of
those other places versus ifthey organically came to your
(30:07):
website because they drove past,saw this car and said I have to
know more about it.
All of these different journeysare different conversations and
AI, yeah, can probably nailthat on the head most of the
time by scanning through thelead.
What the human part of that isis knowing how much time and
effort the customer put intothat, acknowledging that, hey,
(30:28):
you've been doing a lot ofresearch.
This is awesome for you and weneed to make sure that we get
this right and that we get youexactly what you're looking for.
And it all comes down to thehuman level of understanding
that AI really cannot provide.
MC (30:41):
Yeah, which we're going to crave the deeper we get into
this whole AI experiment.
I love it, man, this is so muchfun.
There's so many other questionsthat I want to ask you, so
we're going to have to get youback, because I want to pick
your brain.
In closing, though, how canthose listening and watching
connect with you?
Shasta (31:00):
I'm very easy to find.
I feel like the cool thingabout having a unique name
Shasta Haddock on any socialFacebook, linkedin.
Really don't use Instagram.
That's just me though.
The podcast I'm a car chickpodcast.
You can find it anywhere youlisten to podcasts or at the BDC
on all the socials too, but,like I said, I'm very
Google-able.
MC (31:20):
I love it.
Thanks so much for joining meon the dealer playbook podcast.
Thank you for having me.
Hey, thanks for listening tothe dealer playbook podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPB community on social media.
Check back next week for a newDealer Playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
If you could pinpoint that one thing that's like definitely
get rid of these word tracks orthese types of templates, what
would that be for you?
My number one phrase that, whenI see it or read it from a
salesperson or a VDR, makes mewant to immediately stab myself
in the shoulder, is One of thethings that I enjoy most about
(00:20):
producing the dealer playbook ishearing from you the messages
that I get of people who aregetting so much value out of the
podcast, applying it to theirday-to-day workflows and finding
a thriving career right here inthe retail auto industry.
It means the world to me, andyou know, one of the ways that
we make doing this possible isthrough my agency, flexdealer,
and, of course, in the spirit ofproviding value, I think this
(00:42):
is a perfect time to head overto wwwflexdealercom to show even
further support for you, mybeloved DPB gang.
Right now, if you go to mywebsite, wwwflexdealercom, you
can get a full, free PDF of mynumber one bestselling book
Don't Wait Dominate.
And the reason I think it's sospecial is that a lot of the
(01:03):
topics that are discussed inthis book are even more relevant
today than ever, with thissurge in popularized AI and
people wondering, well, what canI do next?
How can I have a competitiveadvantage?
Well, that's all here in thisbook, and so I'd love to be able
to offer you a free copy ofthis If you go to FlexDealercom.
It would mean the world to me,because that is how we continue
(01:25):
to produce this show for you.
Shasta Haddock is the chiefoperations officer at Epic BDC
and host of the I'm a Car Chickpodcast.
(01:47):
With over a decade inautomotive, she's built high
performing BDC teams, createdthe industry's first elite
response team to convert socialtraffic into sales appointments
and train dealers nationwide onmodern customer engagement
strategies that drive results.
I'm so excited to dig in todayand I'm coming out of the gates
(02:07):
hot.
Shasta.
I know there are dealers who westill hear this.
They brag about their 30-minuteresponse time.
In actuality, we get into thestore, we find out it's closer
to 60 minutes, but we'll givethem the 30 minutes and they're
bragging that it's lightningfast.
But I've heard you suggest thatthat might not actually be
(02:30):
great.
That's pretty slow still,especially in this digital age.
So I'm curious your take rightout of the gates.
If you walked into that store,what would you do to start
shaving time off of thatresponse time?
Shasta (02:43):
There's so many things.
First off, you got to see whatthe internal CRM process looks
like.
Are the notifications set upproperly for when the lead comes
in?
Who is receiving those?
Is there a backup plan if thatperson or team isn't there?
And most of the time there'snot.
I mean, we talked to adealership, probably less than
two weeks ago, that they hadleads that had sat for three to
(03:04):
six days without being touchedor before they got touched for
the first time, and it's painful.
It's so painful because it's soeasy to get them.
I mean it comes down totraining your BDC, your BDC
manager, to know how to go findthose.
There's some CRMs that once youopen the lead, it removes the
notification even if you don'tmake contact on it, and so
(03:26):
knowing how to find those andchecking those periodically so
that that doesn't happen.
I mean there's so many things,but I would definitely start
with the CRM processes and getin touch with your CRM rep.
They're really amazing.
It's their job to make your CRMwork properly.
But get in there and make sureyou've got those notifications
set up properly you don't haveany old users in there that are
(03:49):
receiving those that are nowgone and really just make that
as efficient as possible,because you can do a lot with a
good CRM process.
MC (04:02):
I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, okay, 10
years in the industry, over adecade now in the industry, and
do you feel like?
Sometimes I feel this way, soI'm curious your thoughts.
It's like it's 2025.
Are we still talking about CRMhygiene?
Shasta (04:15):
You know and you probably see the same thing.
It's funny to me how, talkingto different dealers in
different parts of the country,how some are like so in the now
and some even in the future asto how they're doing things, and
then other parts of thecountries are still operating in
the eighties and nineties andit's like, how are you even
operating like that with all ofthese broken things and there's
so much good technology outthere, how are you still doing
(04:36):
so bad at this Like and it'spainful, because you want to
help them and you want to, youwant to see like them operate
efficiently, and it's likethey're they're holding
themselves back because they'rejust so laser focused on one
thing.
MC (04:48):
It's yeah yeah, it's like it's kind of this um oxymoronic
hyperloop, because it's likewhat do I want to do?
Well, I want to sell more carsand I want to book more service.
I want to keep my service basefull.
Well, what are you going to doto get there?
I'm just going to focus on thatyou like.
But what if you paid closerattention to your engagement
(05:09):
rate and your proposal or yourappointment rate and your show
rate and your proposal rate andall these sorts of things that
actually line up to that first?
It kind of brings me to thenext thing I want to talk to you
about, loosely related.
Right, you look into the CRM,you're going through a hygiene
exercise and you're realizingthat some of these response
templates that they're usinglook like they were pulled out
(05:31):
of an Amway catalog from 1954,right, dusty, old, outdated
templates.
But I know you've got a knackfor getting people actually
respond.
So when you are looking atthese templates and you're
examining the CRM, what are someof the things going through
your mind that you're like, guys, that is outdated.
(05:54):
If you could pinpoint that onething that's like definitely get
rid of these word tracks orthese types of templates, what
would that be for you?
Shasta (06:03):
My number one phrase that, when I see it or read it
from a salesperson or a BDR,makes me want to immediately
stab myself in the shoulder isare you still in the market?
I can't stand it.
I hate that question.
It's so ineffective.
Anything that says that andthat's easy to take out of a
template, but more so just goingthrough those templates and
(06:24):
cleaning them up, making themengaging.
If they're just something basicthe stuff that the CRM puts in
there automatically wheneverthey set you up for the first
time it's a placeholder.
It's not meant to be yourforever solution and, honestly,
now that we are in the age of AI, it's so easy to change those.
Come up with somethingdifferent and make it more
creative and engaging.
That's the beauty of thingslike ChatGPT.
(06:47):
Even if you don't have an AIsoftware at the dealership,
chatgpt is free.
Go in there If you know hey,this is a 13-day email that's
going out to an uncontacted lead.
Tell your ChatGPT that.
Have it.
Help you build a response.
If you're just not thatcreative of a person, I mean
it's very simple.
But at the end of the day,you're not going to sell a car
(07:07):
over email.
You're just looking forengagement.
You need to earn their trustand you need to sound like
something other than every otherdealership they've shopped with
.
MC (07:15):
Ooh, I love it.
Two things that you said that Iwant to touch on and dig into a
little bit more.
The first is ChatGPT is free.
Free and you're really sayingbut give it the context it needs
, cause I think most peopleright now are using GPTs or
other LLMs like glorified Googlesearch and they're like no, the
responses stink and it's likeno.
(07:36):
What Shasta said is youactually have to qualify your
prompt in order to get a betterresult back.
And then the second thing isthat understanding that you are
trying to just get a responsefrom them, to engage them and
build trust.
So what is your ideal?
What do you find a lot ofsuccess with?
Are there certain phrases orword tracks or subject lines
(07:59):
that you're finding whether it'stext or email or whatever that
just get that person to respondback?
Shasta (08:06):
I've had a lot of success talking about things
other than the vehicle theyinquired on, which is almost
wacky and seems opposite of whatwe're trying to do.
I will throw a wrench in there,asking about their trade, what
they love about their currentvehicle that they want in the
next one.
Do you want a sunroof in yournext vehicle?
Are you looking for cloth orleather seats, like super random
(08:27):
things?
Obviously, check and make surethey didn't already send that
over with the lead information,but just those random things
that they're not used to seeingthat kind of just make them
double take a little bit arewhere I have the most success,
and so the more out of the box,the more.
Not struggling for words rightnow not usual unusual responses
(08:49):
are what can queue them up to belike oh, this might actually be
a real person, because yourcustomers know we're in the
world of AI.
They know more than likely yourfollow-ups AI.
So anything that you can do tostick out a little bit if you're
doing human response, you don'twant to look like AI.
You want to look like a humanbeing and you want to look like
hey, this is me legitimatelytrying to help you, without also
seeming desperate, because I'veseen that too.
MC (09:12):
I love it because it's back to the roots of hospitality.
Yes, like observe, you know.
Like you said, pay attention towhat they submitted in their
initial request and don't askthem dumb questions that they
might have already given you.
All the information on thisidea of hospitality starts with
observing a need, or observingan opportunity, and then feeding
(09:36):
into it more accurately.
This is going to be a side notequestion, but loosely related
to this, because I know your.
Your husband is a police officer, right, and first of all I want
him to know we thank him forthe work that he does, cause
that is not, I can't evenimagine.
I've got buddies that arepolice officers and I'm like,
(09:58):
well, I can't, even you're, no,no day is the same and they're
out there doing the thing.
But I know that, whether wethink of it this way or not, he
is like got to be insane atcustomer service because he is
dealing with people day in andday out.
He's dealing with critique andfeedback and anger and all the
(10:21):
emotions and all those things.
What, if anything, have youbeen inspired by from your
husband that you've brought intoyour BDC rituals, if you will?
Shasta (10:33):
I mean I don't know that it's anything particular that
he's done, but the awarenessthat has been brought to me
about the standards that are puton law enforcement, that every
single move that they're doingis watched it.
I mean they have to have theirbody cams on at all time.
It's it's now federal law, um,which is which is good, you know
, good for the community, it'sgood for them, for their
(10:53):
protection, that you know theyhave that.
But also, when you know you'rebeing watched, um, I think that
the you generally know to act acertain way or to say things,
stuff like that.
And so in the BDC space,letting them know, at any minute
we could have to pull any ofyour calls, we could have to
(11:13):
pull any of your textconversations, and so you want
to make sure that you're stayingabove reproach on absolutely
everything.
You never know when you're goingto get coached, when someone's
going to complain to thedealership and say you said
something that you didn'tconstantly stay above reproach.
And you have to.
You can't lie.
If we find out anybody lieslike that's immediately out the
(11:34):
door.
Um, you cannot lie to acustomer, you cannot mislead
them.
You have to be honest with themand be the person that you
would want to be speaking to onthe other side, and I think with
law enforcement it's the sameway.
They're just a citizen like you.
MC (11:49):
Yeah, that's really powerful though, this idea of
accountability and increasedaccountability and follow
through, I think.
I think a lot of organizationsand I know I've been guilty of
it in the past as a leader it'slike you set kind of these
expectations but don't createthe follow-up or the
accountability mechanism.
(12:09):
And what you're saying, I thinkis so powerful because from my
observation and I want to getthis out of the way that, come
on, dpb gang, you know I loveyou, you know I'm not here to
hurt anyone's feelings, but ifyour feelings are going to get
hurt, I just you know it is whatit is.
You know, which is this like.
(12:30):
I don't think anybody's showingup to work in our industry
desiring to be a poor performer.
Shasta (12:39):
No, I say that.
MC (12:40):
Sorry, say what.
Is it desiring?
To be a poor performer?
Shasta (12:43):
No, I say that all the time, Sorry say what is it?
MC (12:46):
I say that all the time Nobody wants to come to work to
do a bad job.
Right, and.
But what I do think happens iswe favor short term wins so much
that there's a great amount ofethical fading.
Nobody knows why they show.
They start to go down this pathwhere they don't know why they
want to show up, and then we'reinstalling an accountability
mechanism in the wrong sequencewhich just creates more faded
like ethical wondering on thisemployee's part.
(13:08):
And now, all of a sudden, wehave a dysfunctional operation
from BDC all the way tofrontline, all the way to back
of the house, and so on and soforth.
So I love what you're sayingabout hey like no, there needs
to be accountability.
You will be observed.
We do want to make sure thatyou're finding fulfillment in
(13:29):
the work you do, and the waythat you find that is by
providing an experience rightout of the gates to customer
that they're going to bethrilled with.
Shasta (13:37):
Well, and it goes back to something you said earlier
with hospitality, because we inthe BBC especially when a new
BDR gets trained, it can be veryeasy to get caught up in the
tasks and the minute work, thedial, the text, the email, the
video, whatever it is thatthey're doing.
It's so easy to just get caughtup in that and forget that it's
not just phone numbers on theother side or email addresses on
(14:00):
the other side.
These are real human beings whoare about to make a very large
purchase and want to find theplace that they can trust with
that investment, and so it can'tjust be another dial, another
text, another task checked off.
It has to be.
I'm here to be your assistantin this process.
Tell me how I can help you.
Here are the things that I know, that I've learned, that I'm
(14:22):
passing on to you.
These are the ways that I knowI can help you.
But you tell me what you needfrom me, and it goes back to
hospitality every timeanticipating their need before
they have it.
MC (14:31):
Ooh, one of my favorite words Shasta anticipation.
Use it in your language and youwill avoid, oh, so many
arguments.
Um, you may experience this.
You may feel that you, that's,you know, I love anticipatory
communication, just trying tostay ahead of of things.
Shasta (14:53):
Oh, that's so powerful it's so much in the bdc.
You get that from just readingthe lead, like if there was a
magic wand that I had that Icould just fix every one problem
for every dealership at thesame time.
It would be that every firstresponse text message, phone
call, email, whatever it iswould know everything about a
customer's journey based on theinformation they put in the lead
(15:13):
.
Like that would be the thing.
That's the thing that mostdealerships around the country
are just missing.
That would be the thing.
That's the thing that mostdealerships around the country
are just missing.
MC (15:22):
Hey, does your marketing agency suck?
Listen before we hop back intothis episode.
I know you know me as the hostof the Dealer Playbook, but did
you also know that I'm the CEOof FlexDealer, an agency that's
helping dealers capture betterquality leads from local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convertleads from local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convert.
So if you want to sell morecars and finally have a partner
(15:44):
that's in it with you, thatdoesn't suck visit flexdealercom
.
Let's hop back into thisepisode.
That's powerful stuff.
Okay, switching gears a littlebit and related of course,
you've built the this uh eliteresponse team that took Facebook
likes and social uh metrics andand I I'm going to say the word
(16:07):
somehow, because I think somepeople still wonder how this
possible you somehow were ableto turn them into butts in the
showroom.
Uh, how did that idea even comeabout and what were some of the
key steps you found that madethat work?
Shasta (16:21):
I think, the same way that a lot of people's success
came in automotive by completeaccident, what when we had
freshly started off, we wereworking with a few dealerships,
but the company was built tohelp small businesses, and so
back in I want to say it was2017 or 2018, we had a local gym
(16:43):
where you would go to work out,that kind of gym where we were
running Facebook ads for them,trying to just help them acquire
new customers, things like that.
And one day I was placing adsfor them and came across a brand
new type of ad, which weremessenger ads, and I was like I
wonder what these are.
It's kind of interesting.
So I was like I told everybodyhey, I'm going to try this out,
(17:04):
I'm just going to throw a couplehundred bucks behind it, see
what happens.
And it was pretty cool.
You could kind of give thecustomer some responses that you
wanted to have up front.
And then we played with thosefor about a week or so and all
of a sudden I was like we shouldtry this for a dealership,
because at the time we were justdoing the regular lead formats
or driving traffic to theirwebsite, things like that, and
so I placed them for adealership whose ad budget was
(17:26):
like really, really high and waslike let's throw the whole
budget behind it.
What's the worst thing that canhappen until you realize that's
going to equal hundreds ofthousands of messages.
MC (17:36):
Right.
Shasta (17:37):
Somebody has to answer and you, otherwise you just have
an inbox full of messages.
And we we had a very, verylight what we called
notifications team at the timethat would monitor comments,
shares, reviews on Facebookpages, but nothing to that scale
.
They weren't trained how to bea BDC by any means, they were
just.
They were just handlingnotifications, making sure that
problems got responded to,whatever.
(17:58):
So, out of nowhere, with thisvery large ad budget where we
now have like 300 messages a daycoming into one inbox, we're
like, holy crap, we've got tobuild something to solve this.
So I had a few years in the BDCat that point and so I was like
we need a BDC essentially, butthey're not going to have
headsets, they're just going tobe on Facebook.
(18:18):
And so we kind of startedtraining these team members on
how to have these responses.
These leads are going to bemuch colder.
Well, the conversations aregoing to be much colder because
these people aren't in themarket for a vehicle per se,
they're just.
At the time we couldn't targeton Facebook, and so these are
kind of just blanket.
And these are people who saw thead and they're either
interested in a low down payment, a low monthly payment, a low
(18:40):
APR, something along those lines, and more than likely they're
going to be more on the subprimeside.
So we've got to have thesewarming, trust building
conversations with them.
So we had to not just trainpeople, build out a schedule,
build out software so that wecould get once we converted
those into leads and orappointments get those to the
dealership, to the BDC orwhoever needed to have those,
(19:01):
and then, before we knew it,like it was actually going
really well, the ROIs wereamazing, the, the sold vehicles
coming from it were amazing, andwe're like, what did we just do
on accident?
And so it?
It just kept growing andgrowing.
And then we we even furtherturned it into sales events
doing that for for that, fordealerships who wanted to just
(19:21):
do like a little quick 7 to 10day thing.
But what's awesome is that alot of people think that
Facebook traffic has to bespecifically targeted.
We've got to be looking forthis specific audience and
that's not necessarily the casebecause you've got 98% of your
market is not in Tinders.
But will the right offer hookthem in?
MC (19:39):
Yeah, 98% of your market is not in tenders, but will the
right offer hook them in?
Yeah, I mean, well, look thattracks for me.
Incredibly, because you know,it's like we talk about this in
the industry, where people arenot buying cars every day and we
are working in the space everyday.
So there's already a disparitythere between what the customer
is actually thinking about moreoften and what we're thinking
(20:00):
about more often and we talk tothem as if they are buying a car
every single day.
They're not.
They are more interested in somany other things, day after day
after day.
That to your point and youbrought this up a little bit
earlier talking to them aboutthose interests or things that
they're engaging with.
I want to say Robin, robinWilson, Do you call her Robin at
(20:23):
work?
Okay, yeah, I had the samething.
I worked with my dad for years,but at work he was Joe, you
know Right.
So she talked about turningtattoos.
Okay, hold on turning tattoos.
Okay, hold on, I'm digging backinto the well here.
But she talked about turningtattoos into, like a sold car
(20:47):
for a dealership there in Joplin.
Shasta (20:49):
Yeah, so that is funny.
I actually participated in that.
So she did it when we were inthe works of launching our new
company, social Grenade.
We were playing around withsome different ideas and so,
because of how the Facebookalgorithm works, if you get
people to engage with your poston day one, then you will have
that audience for about 24 to 48hours afterwards that your next
(21:11):
posts will also pop into theirfeed.
Now, granted, they'll only saythat if they continue to engage
with you.
So you know if you want to findsomething to connect with
someone on.
You know, tattoos are a bigthing.
A lot of people have tattoos,and so this one was show me your
ink and tag your tattoo artistsif you have them on social.
(21:32):
And the comments blew up.
It was absolutely wild becauseit's something that all of us
number one.
We get it because we want toshow it off.
Like I've got my arms are alltatted up, and so absolutely
Everybody's jumping in thecomments.
You have to respond to all thecomments to keep them engaged,
but then you keep them in youralgorithm for the next 24 to 48
hours.
(21:52):
So now we've gotten a tribe.
Now we're going to post avehicle, or I think in that
specific instance she had thatsalesperson grab their freshest
trade or something like that,which was like a Camaro, and say
you know what, what monthlypayment could you afford on this
?
And had several of the peoplewho'd commented on the tattoo
post yeah, and they ended upselling that car that day to to
(22:13):
several of the people who'dcommented on the tattoo post.
So genius, yeah, and they endedup selling that card that day
to one of the people whocommented in it.
So it's all about just buildingyour funnel within your
Facebook and using the algorithmto your advantage instead of
just complaining that nobodysees my posts.
Okay, we'll make them.
MC (22:27):
I want to transition here slightly because and obviously
related because what we'retalking about right now, I don't
.
I don't think many areunderstanding how massive the
opportunity is when you usesocial the right way.
(22:47):
Let's let's quantify or definethe wrong way.
So come on, but they're holdingup the white post for so glad
you're here.
That define the wrong way.
So come on, but they're holdingup the white post for so glad
you're here.
That's the wrong way.
Shasta (22:59):
Hey, I sold a car.
MC (23:01):
Hey guys, yeah, exactly, um, right way.
Let's dissect what you'retalking about.
Well, first of all, I mean eventhink about if I wanted to
build relationships and I wasnew in a community or new
selling cars or a new BDC rep, Imean I would go and see what
Facebook groups existed aroundmy community that had I don't
(23:24):
know, doesn't really matter 500plus members and I would see how
active they are and I would getinvolved and I would find out
what people are talking aboutregularly and then I would use
that to stimulate conversationand I would never tell anybody
as my first thing hey, by theway, I sell cars or I'm a.
No, I would just go and lookwhat you're talking about.
(23:45):
I would just buildrelationships on the thing that
they're interested in.
I love that you have this veryclear example.
I love that you have this veryclear example and I know you
guys have more of how to turnjust relationship building into
top of mind when they're in thatmarket and how to leverage the
algorithms to do that.
And I want to.
I want to guess, I guess I wantto transition a little bit to
(24:09):
AI and get your thoughts on it.
We touched on it briefly earlierin this idea of where, like
ai's a buzz right now.
I can only imagine we're gonnaget to a place where it's like
we all use it.
Who cares?
Like the way google was in theearly, you know, mid 90s or
whatever everybody's talkingabout.
It became a verb and all thethings yahoo rose and
(24:30):
disappeared and all the thingshappened.
It's a bit of a buzz now, but Ican't think of a better
opportunity, when everyone isfocused on over here, like this
AI thing, to jump back in onsocial and build relationships
of trust with people as a humanbeing, without AI getting in the
way right now Cause, like yourcompetitors, looking in the
wrong, not the wrong direction,but you know, in this context
(24:54):
they're looking in the wrong,not the wrong direction, but you
know, in this context they'relooking in the wrong direction.
Shasta (24:57):
Well, there are businesses that are so focused
on on, you know, the speed tothe lead or making sure that at
least something is handled.
It may not be the perfect way,but at least something is
handled.
You can trust, because AI isgoing to be there.
It's not going to call in sick.
(25:17):
It's not going to get its nosering stuck on a pillow and not
be able to make it into work forthe day.
Is this a real story?
But AI is always going to bethere.
But us, as a human being,forced, we're starting to be
able to tell, I would say atleast 80% of the time when we're
talking to AI versus when we'retalking to a human, and we all
know from the experience thatwe've all done it.
You call into a business and useWalgreens, for example.
(25:39):
You get stuck in their phonetree and you can't get out of it
, and then the AI is trying tohelp you.
Please tell me which departmentyou'd like to talk to.
I'm sorry I didn't get that.
Please tell me what departmentyou'd like to talk to.
And so you're just trying toget to a human being.
You, you're just trying to getto a human being.
You're trying to get to a humanbeing because this is something
that this is a very specificneed.
This is very important to me.
I just need it handled quickly.
I don't want to have to takethe time to do this, and AI is
(26:01):
getting smarter.
We've got agentic AI now thatis very interactive based and
learning very quickly.
That I think we should probablybe paying a little bit of
attention to on the dealershipside.
Is it perfect?
No, but it's getting better.
Maybe someday it will be perfect, I don't know, but it's one of
those things that, yes, if youare lacking efficiencies.
(26:21):
I mean if anybody knows whoMatt Raymond is.
Matt Raymond is the COO ofBowtie Solutions, which is a
service BDC outsourced, and hisnumber one thing that he always,
without fail, shocks the crapout of me with is all of the
missed calls at dealerships.
He does a lot of overflowservice calls and even
dealerships where they're likewe have absolutely no missed
(26:44):
calls, we're on top of it.
And then he's like okay, great,Try me out.
For three days.
You let your team have threerings, let it go to a different
department, and then I pick upeverything after that and the
numbers are astronomical, andnot just the calls he's getting,
but the appointments they'regetting from it, the missed
money.
So even on the dealerships whothink they have it a thousand
percent dialed in, there'sopportunity there and it's.
(27:05):
It's mind blowing how muchwe're missing, but you know AI
won't miss calls.
MC (27:10):
Interesting.
Shasta (27:12):
Yeah.
MC (27:13):
It's not going to miss the call, but it may miss some
nuance, right, it's like a weirdin-between.
I wonder if my thesis here isthat we're eventually going to
get to the point where it's socommonplace, ai is doing so many
different things and then ourhuman nature is still going to
kick in at some point and we'regoing to be like but can I just
look another human being in theeye and just get their feedback?
(27:37):
You know, just get there.
And so I think you know where.
Where I think about the BDC andI could be totally wrong here
and I'm open to that is thisidea of okay, but now imagine
the value of you sitting in thatroom getting to be the first
human touch point that thecustomer gets.
Like I think now let's up theante.
(28:00):
This is going to make what theydo that much more valuable, and
I think we're in a period, toyour point, where, with this
little in between, where, sadly,by nature of the beast and in
the name of progress andevolution, these, these um bdrs
are just going to have to bebetter equipped at handling the
(28:20):
complaints that come from havingto go through the ai phone tree
for a minute well, and it'sit's humans need to focus on
what humans do best and what aican't do, which is being a human
being, having empathy, sympathy, excitedness, like all of the
emotions that we can have, thatAI can try to have, but it,
(28:40):
again, is not a human being.
Shasta (28:42):
It cannot have emotions.
It can portray emotions, butthat's where we come in and,
like I mentioned earlier, we allknow buying a car is a massive
decision, unless you're abusiness owner just needing a
tax write-off.
For most of us, buying a car isa really big decision.
It's a multi-year investment,it's something that we want to
be absolutely sure about, andthere's a percentage, a very
(29:03):
small percentage, of customersthat can do it completely
transactionally no emotion in it, no big deal.
But the masses it is somethingthat they have put a lot of
their time into, researching alot of money into.
Maybe they bought the wrong carbefore and realized that this
has features that I don't want,or it doesn't have features that
(29:24):
I do want, and so it becomesvery emotional for them to know
when they're getting what theywant versus not, or when they're
being heard versus when they'renot.
I think about the process, andwe talked about it off air for a
minute, but the process that acustomer has to go through in
their journey before they evenmake it to the dealership.
(29:44):
There's thousands of differentways, like thousands of
different places they couldsubmit a lead and most of the
time, we're handling the leadthe same way, which is not how
it should be.
It shouldn't be the sameconversation every time, whether
it's a lead from Facebook theywere scrolling on Facebook or if
they were on AutoTrader orCarGurus or Carscom, one of
those other places versus ifthey organically came to your
(30:07):
website because they drove past,saw this car and said I have to
know more about it.
All of these different journeysare different conversations and
AI, yeah, can probably nailthat on the head most of the
time by scanning through thelead.
What the human part of that isis knowing how much time and
effort the customer put intothat, acknowledging that, hey,
(30:28):
you've been doing a lot ofresearch.
This is awesome for you and weneed to make sure that we get
this right and that we get youexactly what you're looking for.
And it all comes down to thehuman level of understanding
that AI really cannot provide.
MC (30:41):
Yeah, which we're going to crave the deeper we get into
this whole AI experiment.
I love it, man, this is so muchfun.
There's so many other questionsthat I want to ask you, so
we're going to have to get youback, because I want to pick
your brain.
In closing, though, how canthose listening and watching
connect with you?
Shasta (31:00):
I'm very easy to find.
I feel like the cool thingabout having a unique name
Shasta Haddock on any socialFacebook, linkedin.
Really don't use Instagram.
That's just me though.
The podcast I'm a car chickpodcast.
You can find it anywhere youlisten to podcasts or at the BDC
on all the socials too, but,like I said, I'm very
Google-able.
MC (31:20):
I love it.
Thanks so much for joining meon the dealer playbook podcast.
Thank you for having me.
Hey, thanks for listening tothe dealer playbook podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPB community on social media.
Check back next week for a newDealer Playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
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