September 30, 2025 • 28 mins
Staying obsessed with the customer and what they care about is how you win long-term in business, as demonstrated by the 92-year-old Zamzows chain of stores in the Boise, Idaho area.
• Finding just 1,000 people who are absolutely obsessed with your company can create viral growth
• Jos Zamzow shares how his great-grandparents started with a small feed store during the Depression
• Passion for your product is more valuable than expensive marketing campaigns
• Regular employee training focuses on providing exceptional customer service beyond expectations
• The 33-year tradition of Frisbee Fest connects the stores with the community while supporting animal shelters
• Product effectiveness matters more than fancy packaging – customers return when products work
• AI phone assistant successfully handles customer inquiries during peak seasons
• AI implementation provides instant answers to complex questions that even experienced staff might struggle with
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stefanie Couch (00:00):
Staying obsessed with the customer and what they
care about.
That's how you win long-term inbusiness.
Jos Zamzow (00:05):
Once somebody shows you that blueprint, you realize,
even if you only own five bags,if you're standing there with
passion, that's worth more thanborrowing a million dollars and
having an ad agency in Chicagobuild you a campaign.
Stefanie Couch (00:17):
I agree.
You don't need a million peopleto love you If you can find a
thousand people that areabsolutely obsessed with your
company.
That is all you need for thatto spread like wildfire, and I
think it starts with one fan.
Jos Zamzow (00:30):
You mentioned, just as a side note, that AI could
answer phones.
I went up to you after and justsaid did you say?
I can tell you that in theprocess of testing it, we
repeatedly were just tickled andwe would like laugh out loud.
We were so happy.
Even my dad, who's 78, he wouldcall me and say Josh, this is
unbelievable.
Stefanie Couch (00:51):
Welcome to the Grit Blueprint podcast, the
playbook for buildingunmistakable brands that grow,
lead and last in the built world.
I'm Stefanie Couch, the founderof Grit Blueprint, and I'm a
lifelong building industryinsider.
I was raised here, built mycareer here, and now my team and
(01:12):
I help others win here.
The truth is, you can be thebest option in your space and
still lose to someone else whosimply shows up better and more
consistently.
Each week.
On the Grit Blueprint, I'mgoing to show you how to stand
out, earn trust and turn yourbrand into a competitive
(01:33):
advantage that lasts.
If you're ready to be seen,known, chosen and become
unmistakable, you're in theright place.
Let's get started.
Thank you for joining me on theGrit Blueprint Podcast.
I'm your host, Stefanie Couch,and I'm coming to you live from
the Indianapolis ConventionCenter.
I'm here today at the Do itBest Group Market and I have a
(01:55):
very special guest, one of myfriends that I met actually last
year at the Spring Market andwe actually have been working on
a project together.
You also have a 92 year oldstore chain in the Boise, idaho
area with 12 stores Jos Zamzow.
Welcome to the show.
Jos Zamzow (02:13):
Thank you so much for having me.
Stefanie Couch (02:15):
We've been working on a pretty cool project
together, so I want to talkabout your stores first and the
amazing history you have, andthen I want to get into this AI
stuff, because we're innovatingand testing some things out.
But tell me a little bit aboutyour 12 stores.
What do you sell, what do youdo and how do they get started?
Jos Zamzow (02:33):
Our business started with our great-grandparents,
august and Carmelita Zamzow, andthey sold their farm in the
worst year of the Depression in1933 and bought a little feed
store and they were literallymixing feed formulas on the
floor with a shovel and and thenmaking hundred pound bags and
(02:54):
carrying them out and adaptingthose formulas for the local
population According to what,what kind of things that the
animals needed.
Stefanie Couch (03:02):
Where was the first store?
Jos Zamzow (03:03):
The first store was on Fairview Avenue in Boise,
idaho, and literally you knowone patch of concrete.
The rest of it was all woodfloor.
That was their mixing station.
Fast forward 20 years.
My grandfather then purchasedanother feed mill and created,
you know, we got a little bitheavier into the feed business.
But all along that time, youknow you can't sell feed without
(03:25):
selling a shovel or some twineor whatever.
And so the business has kind ofgrown alongside.
And then my dad, when my dadtook over with his brother in
the 70s, they kind of expandedthe lawn and garden portion of
our business.
And then in the 80s we reallyembraced pet and so while we had
(03:47):
always sold, you know, evenfrom the 50s we were selling dog
food and other things Petwasn't really a division until
until about the 80s, and now wekind of do a little bit of all
of it.
Stefanie Couch (03:58):
Yeah, and you've got crazy millennials like me
that are obsessed with theirgolden retriever that are like
I'll buy whatever it is.
Jos Zamzow (04:05):
It doesn't matter, the price or the thing.
Stefanie Couch (04:07):
So you've got the pet stuff, which piqued my
interest a lot because you dosome really cool events and some
some things in the community.
This summer you had a was it aFrisbee contest?
Yeah, so tell me about that.
Jos Zamzow (04:20):
Well, the Frisbee Fest.
This this is our I think our33rd year of doing the Frisbee
Fest, but it's all designed tobe a donation for the local
shelters People.
You know, they sign up in storeand get a little Frisbee with
our name on it and then we setup a course where we've marked
off the distances and we have acouple of radio personalities do
(04:41):
the announcing and, you know,literally throw the frisbee, the
dog runs down and catches itand there's a style, uh, portion
and a distance and also, uh,you know, the little tiny dogs
have their own division.
But it's, it's really fun and weget as many people come to
watch as do to participate yeahand uh and, and all for a good
cause, so it's a cool event Ifeel like I need to be there
(05:02):
next year it's it sounds so, butyou really have a lot of cool
stuff for pets.
Stefanie Couch (05:08):
You have your own line of dog food, right?
Jos Zamzow (05:10):
right.
Stefanie Couch (05:11):
How did that come to be?
Jos Zamzow (05:13):
My dad in the early 80s.
He really wanted to introducepeople to premium food, and at
the time Science Diet was thebig brand of premium food, but
it was veterinarian only, and sohe started looking around
trying to find one.
He found a mink food calledIams.
They were just feeding minksand as he started looking at it
(05:35):
he's thinking I think this wouldalso be good for dogs.
And we actually became theexclusive Iams dealer for all
the Northwest when we weretransitioning it from mink food
to dog food.
And then, as that became a bigcorporation and things changed
there, we realized we had tocreate our own, and so we've
been making our own dog food fora long, long time and, just
(05:57):
like every phase, that thatwhole environment is changing
really drastically right now andit's hard to stay on top Takes
a lot of effort and innovationto be involved in that yeah,
that's one of the things thatstruck me about you and your
sister, callie, who's in thebusiness as well, but you're now
fourth generation right, callieand I are and it sounds like
your family's been pretty darninnovative and and really
(06:20):
willing to take a risk, take achange and actually go out there
and try something for the wholetime that your family, so it
must run in your veins.
It does.
But I think also we.
I think when somebody shows youlike we have in our family, how
you can?
I mean we're bootstrappers.
So I'd like to tell you that wedeveloped a dog food and then
(06:42):
one built million dollar plant.
That's not how we do it.
You know, a lot of times you'rebuilding a one ton batch of dog
food and you're putting it outthere, You're literally sharing
it with customers and say, hey,feed this and tell me what you
think.
And if you hit it and it works,then it starts to grow from
there.
And I think once somebody showsyou that blueprint, you realize
(07:03):
.
You realize, man, I don't haveto.
I don't have to have 10 milliondollars to start something.
I can really start small andgrow.
Stefanie Couch (07:11):
And we've just done it over and over and over
again yeah, I want to doubleclick on that a little bit
because taking, like the, thehardware, the lawn and garden,
all that out of it just ingeneral for people that are
listening to this that maybethink they want to start
something or think they want toexpand in their business they
already have I believe that'ssuch a great point because it is
(07:31):
easy to think I'll do this whenI get this capital or I'll do
this when I have this skill, andwhat I've found my whole life
is you'll probably never haveenough time, you'll probably
never have enough money Right,and you most likely won't know
how to do anything until you tryit and probably screw up
several hundred times.
Jos Zamzow (07:48):
Right.
Stefanie Couch (07:48):
And I think that spirit of being able to say I'm
going to do this anyway, eventhough I'm not really prepared,
I don't have the money and I'mnot sure if it's going to work
out.
Jos Zamzow (07:57):
Right.
Stefanie Couch (07:57):
What's a time that you've seen that happen,
and then you're like I don'tknow what's going to happen, and
then it works out.
Jos Zamzow (08:03):
When the whole thing with Iams happened, I mean,
literally a huge portion of ourbusiness was selling and
distributing Iams pet food andthen when they became a big
corporation and took that awayfrom us, that was like, what are
we going to do?
This is such a huge portion ofwhat we're doing and I think
(08:27):
it's a generational confidenceof you.
Know even great-grandma who shelived to be 104.
Wow, she was still alive atthat time.
And people are havingconversations around the dinner
table saying you know, we didthat with this particular feed.
Grandpa got sideways with Purinain the 50s.
(08:47):
And so we've had theseexperiences where we say, all
right, here's major changes inwhat we do and we're going to
have to try something different.
And I think my thought would befor people that want to try
something different.
It's about the people who havethe passion for the product.
And if you're standing in frontof a display, even if you only
(09:09):
own five bags, that's all yougot is five bags.
But if you're standing therewith passion, you know that's
worth more than than borrowing amillion dollars and having an
ad agency in Chicago build you acampaign.
Stefanie Couch (09:23):
I agree.
And especially becausegrassroots, like on the ground
people that love your stuff, youcan sell those five bags of dog
food to five people that loveit, until five more people each,
and then that's how you get afollowing.
And I read a book recentlyabout something called raving.
It's called Superfans, but ittalks about raving fans and I'm
(09:44):
going to actually talk aboutthis today in my learning
session.
I think we all get really caughtup a lot of times I know I do
especially because you seepeople going viral.
They're getting a million views, they have a million followers,
but you don't really need that,especially in a small business
where you're in a local market.
You don't need a million peopleto love you.
(10:04):
If you can find a thousandpeople that are absolutely
obsessed with your company, yourlocations, your products, that
is all you need for that tospread like wildfire, and I
think it starts with one fan.
And if you can't have a product, amazon Jeff Bezos started in
his garage, obsessed over thecustomer, and he's built this
(10:25):
giant thing that's become thiswhole other deal.
And whether you love or hatehim, it shows you that staying
obsessed with the customer andwhat they care about that's how
you win long term in business.
Jos Zamzow (10:36):
Absolutely, and I think the other piece of it is
if you start off with a productthat's genuinely good, not just
looks good and I think I can'tspeak for this show, it's not
set up yet but at a lot of theother shows this is the year of
packaging.
It seems like maybe it'stariffs or whatever.
(10:57):
Nobody's innovated any products, they've just changed packaging
, and I think that's fine andgood to a point.
What what?
What our experience is is thatif people have a product and it
works, it doesn't matter whetherit's something that cleans your
deck or something that givesyour dog some relief from joint
pain.
(11:17):
If it doesn't work, then peopledon't care if the packaging
looks good or if the colors aremodern.
Stefanie Couch (11:23):
The packaging is going to go in the trash anyway
, once you start using theproduct.
Jos Zamzow (11:27):
The packaging maybe helps it get them in the dog's
mouth, but it doesn't get themto come back.
The dog can jump up in thetruck now.
That's when people say whoa.
And honestly, in our locationsour packaging is never national
standard.
We do a lot of craft and a lotof simple things with stick-on
labels, because that's what wecan do, but the products work
(11:47):
and people respond to that.
Stefanie Couch (11:49):
Yeah, and also I do think people like that
anti-modernism a little bit.
My husband and I talk aboutthat a lot.
I think people want things thatfeel nostalgic.
You know, there's stuff that Igrew up with that I would
literally.
I'll give you a super Southernexample, Okay, so you're
probably not going to know whatthis is when I say it, there is
this bold peanut stand.
(12:09):
So I'm going to spell it foryou, because I don't know if you
can hear me.
B O I.
Jos Zamzow (12:13):
L E D, that's my.
Stefanie Couch (12:14):
Georgia twang.
So they're just water, salt andpeanuts, so it is pretty simple
and if you don't love them, youhate them, like there's's no in
between.
But this guy has a littletrailer with one of those little
uh noodley arm men and a burnbarrel that just has smoke
coming out of it, and everyweekend, if he's there, I stop
and get those peanuts right,right, right and it's because I
(12:35):
grew up eating them and there'ssomething about it.
But the product's good and it'sjust in a styrofoam cup and I
don't care yeah, right so that's.
you said it's what do you loveand how, who?
And here I am on a podcasttelling you about Robert's
peanuts, so it's cool to seethat.
What kind of other customerexperiences Cause?
I know you guys have a lot ofexperts in your store,
especially around lawn andgarden, where, if you don't know
(12:57):
what you're doing, you mighttell someone something that
could kill your grass.
Tell me a little bit about howyou breed that in your culture.
Jos Zamzow (13:02):
We do a training every six weeks.
We literally take half.
We have about 250 employees, sowe take about half of them,
like Wednesday morning, forexample, and and the other half
of the staff mans the store, andthen Thursday morning we do the
other half and we regularly adda segment of just customer
(13:23):
service.
What does customer servicebeyond people's expectations
look like?
And we talk to people aboutwhat you know.
These are the things that we'vedone in the past that have made
a difference, and I thinkpeople want to provide good
service.
They don't always know how I'msaying and people mean our
employees and a lot of ourcustomers are so used to bad
(13:45):
service they're not even surehow to take it.
And especially, you know, we wetrain about how, how to
approach somebody.
You know we call it the chemwall, where people are trying to
figure out what bug to kill oror what weed to kill.
We're teaching them and if youwalk up to the wall and say, can
I help you, people always sayno.
Stefanie Couch (14:02):
Yeah.
Jos Zamzow (14:02):
You know they, but they're desperate for help Like
they don't they really need help.
Stefanie Couch (14:05):
Right.
Jos Zamzow (14:06):
And so there's a, there's a technique to walking
up and and and breaking the icea little bit so that they will
say, oh my gosh, I'm so glad tohave you help me.
Yeah, Cause they're used tojust saying, no, get away, I
don't want help or somebodycan't really help.
Stefanie Couch (14:20):
They ask that out of obligation, but then they
don't know what the answer isthere's a lot of places you go
that that is the case.
So what do you tell them to sayto people?
Jos Zamzow (14:33):
We always encourage them to ask open questions and I
and you know everybody hastheir own style.
My style was always to say youknow, what are you trying to
kill today?
Or something silly, you know,but we'll walk this this, do it
best show.
And we're looking for products,but we're also looking for
stories and we're looking forcompanies that will help us tell
those stories.
Because if our people, you know, if they find a new mop, that's
(14:55):
really different.
And they say no, I, the ladywho built this, came to our
training and showed it to us andhere's how this thing works.
People will buy a mop, even ifthey weren't thinking about
buying a mop, because they lovea story, they love the
information.
Stefanie Couch (15:10):
Yeah, I think storytelling is probably the
most undervalued thing inbusiness because if you think
about what you remember from amovie or from something that
happened in your life, it almostalways has a story around it
and people love the brandstories that relate to them.
So I love dogs.
We've already established thatIf someone has a Golden
(15:32):
Retriever in their commercialI'm going to pay attention, and
then if it's a cool, I thinkabout the Subaru commercial
where the Golden Retrieverfamily's driving.
Basically every commercial hasa dog in it now.
But like the Aflac goat withNick Saban and Deion Sanders,
that story that they're tellingaround, that if you like animals
, if you like football, allthose things resonate.
I think that's perfect for youto be looking for that.
(15:54):
So what makes a good story, inyour opinion?
Like, what are you looking forwhen you walk around looking for
a story?
Jos Zamzow (16:00):
So we bring a group of buyers and and we talk about
before we start the show.
I say don't walk past the guythat doesn't have a fancy booth,
because those are thoseopportunities where you'll have
somebody there and they justsneaked into the show at the
last minute and they don't haveall their stuff together, but
(16:22):
they've got a great product thatnobody's heard of and that's
what we're looking for and we'vegot.
You know, we've done businesswith most of the places that are
here, but the ones that arebrand new, those are the ones
where where a lot of times we'llsay hey, you know, if we were
to place a pretty good sizedorder, will you come to Idaho
and train our people?
And they always look at eachother and say yes, and then they
(16:45):
come and share that samepassion with our employees,
which they pick up.
You know, even if it's just amop if we're going to use that
example they can feel thepassion from the mop inventor
and they want to pass that ontoo.
Stefanie Couch (16:59):
Yeah, Well, and this fall show is really great
for you guys with the lawn andgarden because they've got
everything here that's going tobe hot in the spring, so I'm
sure you'll find I love theflower section and all that.
I know you guys have a ton ofthat.
You have plants, you havegarden stuff, that you know food
garden things.
I think it's really cool.
I can't wait to come see one ofyour stores, absolutely.
(17:25):
So let's talk a little bit aboutour project we've been working
on.
So in the spring you came toone of my sessions.
It was at the Do it BestKnowledge Hub and I was speaking
on innovation in brandingsocial media and AI was a part
of it.
That was in March, so AI voiceagents had actually just come
out.
It's kind of crazy how fast AIis moving, because there's
things that were here, you know,in March.
Now they're totally differentand exponentially better now in
(17:46):
the fall.
But tell me a little bit aboutthat session, Like what struck
you from that and what was thething that piqued your interest?
Jos Zamzow (17:53):
Well, we were.
You know, one of the thingsthat's hard for us is in the
peak of garden season.
We're so busy that we cannoteffectively answer the phone.
And even if we would want to,you know I've told my people, if
you have three people standingin front of you in store, don't
(18:14):
you answer that phone.
But at the same time thosepeople calling are potential
customers.
And so you'd like to answer thephone, but you know we're for
sure not going to interrupt theconversation we're having in
store to do that.
And so we were struggling withthat and we've looked at
different answering services andsending it off to India and
whatever else.
And you mentioned, just as aside note, that AI could answer
(18:37):
phones.
And I just came, I went up toyou after and just said, did you
say?
And you said, yeah, it's brandnew, but we can do this.
And the thing that blew me awayand it was I said, well, this
has got to be a really longprocess, like how long does this
take?
And you said, probably we couldhave one up that could do basic
stuff next week.
(18:58):
And it was like okay, I'll callyou.
Stefanie Couch (19:00):
We were on a call next week talking about it,
I think.
Right, yeah, it's really coolbecause, like I said, that
really had just come out.
I think we had started testingit in January or February, and
so you were kind of a beta, likefirst test, and so kudos to you
for having a problem and beingrisky enough to say let's see
what happens.
(19:20):
The good news is the phone callsweren't being answered anyway,
so it's hopefully not going tohurt anything to try it.
One of the things I think iscrazy is small businesses.
Over 70% of phone calls goamiss and a lot of those people
don't call back.
So it is a huge problem and youjust can't throw enough bodies
at that.
Especially, like you said, ifsomeone's in front of you, you
got to take care of thatcustomer in the flesh.
Jos Zamzow (19:40):
And I did the math, I did back of the napkin
calculation.
I just said, all right, if Ihired someone and put them in
the office and didn't let themgo down to help customers and
they just sat there with aheadset and answered the phone.
One, I still wouldn't be ableto answer phones when they took
a break or at lunch or afterhours.
(20:01):
And two, in order for them tobe able to answer questions, I
would have to have an employeewho was seasoned, which means I
would have to take someonereally good off the floor and
put them in the office, whichdidn't make any sense.
And so this is a reallyfascinating concept and we're
learning an awful lot about itevery single day.
It's not perfect.
(20:22):
It's not perfect.
Stefanie Couch (20:23):
No, and I think that's the thing that I think
about.
A lot is, you know, I'vetrained a lot of people.
You've trained a lot of people.
I worked in a hardware store,in a lumberyard, and I've worked
in technical products.
Jos Zamzow (20:34):
Yeah.
Stefanie Couch (20:34):
Kind of like the grass thing where, hey, you use
the wrong pesticide or you knowproduct grass, well, you mess
up a door right with one wrongclick somewhere.
But people screw up too.
So I think that's the thing islike with ai you're never going
to have something that'll answerevery single question under the
sun, no matter what the contextis.
But it gets them to a point towhere you can answer the phone,
(20:57):
answer basic questions, answersome pretty advanced questions
and then get them to a humanthat can at least not lose the
phone call because we didn'tanswer at all.
Jos Zamzow (21:04):
Well, and I can, I can tell you that in the process
of testing it, we repeatedlywere just tickled and we would
like laugh out loud.
We were so happy with some ofthe things that that are our
chat bot was able to answer thatthat were beyond.
I mean, if I hire a new uh, youknow, like a high school
(21:27):
graduate cashier, thoseemployees cannot answer those
questions, uh and and so in someways, far better than an
entry-level employee, and that'skind of hard to wrap your head
around that.
Stefanie Couch (21:41):
Yeah, and we named her so tell.
So tell us about what we namedher.
Jos Zamzow (21:45):
We named her Faye, which is my mom's name, and so
that nobody else knows that.
That was kind of a fun piece of, you know, tying the whole
family together.
But we, I think, over thesummer and through this process
we have a record of eachinteraction.
We know what people were askingand what the what she told them
(22:06):
and we're able to makeadjustments to how that and
there was a lot at the verybeginning and now it's just fine
tuning.
Stefanie Couch (22:12):
Yeah.
Jos Zamzow (22:12):
Just getting slightly better all the time.
Stefanie Couch (22:14):
And one of the things that's cool is you do get
that full transcript, but youcan also get it just a little
summary, an email or a textsaying hey, Stephanie called.
She wants to know about petfood.
Call her back.
Here's her name and phonenumber and email.
Or that person that just wantsdirections, or something simple
like a store hours.
Do you sell lawn and gardenstuff at this store?
(22:35):
It's just instant.
Jos Zamzow (22:36):
Instant and we were able to create it so that it
doesn't answer questionsrandomly.
It doesn't pull randominformation.
It pulls from information thatwe wanted to, so it recommends
the products that we wanted torecommend.
That was one of the things thatwas really important to us.
I didn't want the chat botrecommending products we didn't
(22:57):
sell or things that we don't doin our area of the country.
That would be improper, and wewere able to get all that done.
Stefanie Couch (23:05):
So what would you say to someone who is on the
fence?
It's like I don't know if Iwant to put this into my
business.
I hear you know people say Idon't know if people are going
to like AI and not everyone doeslike AI.
So what would you say to peoplethat maybe are like I don't
know if this was a good idea ornot?
Jos Zamzow (23:19):
The reality about AI at least for the next year or
so, we'll see how it plays outis the people that call our
stores.
They're still looking up thephone number and calling the
stores.
That's a certain generation.
We don't even have to label thegeneration, but it's a certain
generation and those people arenot instantly warm to AI.
(23:45):
And what we're learning, ourlatest version of this is we're
not going to say that it's AI,we're going to just have Faye
say hi, I'm Faye, how can I helpyou?
Instead of saying you know, I'man AI chat bot because people
freak out, you know.
But the reality is, even my dad,who's 78, when he got to
(24:06):
talking to her, he would call meand say joss, this is
unbelievable.
I mean, she calculated this,the, the exact number of cubic
feet of potting soil I neededfor a planting bed.
How many of your people coulddo that on the phone.
And I said, well, not very many.
I mean right, right, I meanthey could do it if they, you
know, called them back.
But right, instantly, not verymany.
And and so so there's a lot ofthose things that I think once
(24:29):
people have good experienceswith it and they realize that,
if my choice is getting somebodyfrom bangladesh who doesn't
speak super clean english, who'sreally just going to give me
stock answers and take a messageanyway, I'd rather talk to an
AI agent that you've created adatabase of information from it
(24:51):
to pull from.
It's kind of like talking toyou because we've kind of built
it in our own image.
Stefanie Couch (24:56):
Yeah, absolutely , and one of the things we're
going to be working on next thatI'm really excited about and
we've talked about a lot, isusing it to internally train
your teams, because you'realready doing these trainings,
but you have to take time offthe floor.
On Wednesday and ThursdayYou're doing just one training.
It's not hey, I don't know thisthing.
Can I go do a training now, orcan I learn about this?
So we're going to weave that inand we're going to figure out
(25:20):
how we can use it for otherthings, especially like a chat
bot.
We've got a website chat botabout to go live, which is going
to pull from that same exactknowledge base.
I think one of the biggestthings that is either a make or
break is how good is yourknowledge base, because if you
just do it with a standardscrape of your website, if your
website's really great, thenthat's going to be good.
(25:40):
If your website has noinformation, it's going to be
pretty basic.
Still, probably better than notanswering the phone, though I
think.
Jos Zamzow (25:46):
If we say we're going to put this effort into
training an employee that mightleave, if we put the same effort
into training our AI agent,we're going to have a
sustainable thing that's goingto get better and better over
time.
The latest thing that I'm superexcited about is being able to
email or text a customer.
(26:06):
You know an answer to aquestion Like if they, if they
said you know I need some helpsetting a lawn spreader, we're
going to be able to say can wesend you the spreader setting
guide that has all the settingsyou know, in case they threw
away the fertilizer bag or itgot wet and they couldn't read
it anymore, being able to justsend it to them right there.
They could pull it up on theirphone and immediately set the
(26:28):
spreader the way they want.
Or our seed starting guide thattells when do I plant carrots
and when do I plant onions, thatkind of stuff.
Those things are going to be.
People are really going toembrace that.
Stefanie Couch (26:39):
Well, I'm excited to keep working on it.
It's been a fun project andwhat I appreciate the most, like
I said, is the spirit ofinnovation and also the spirit
of hey, we're going to figurethis out.
It's not going to be perfectand we're going to have to keep
iterating it and, you know,getting it to where you want,
and you and Callie have beengreat to work with.
So, it's been really fun.
Jos Zamzow (26:57):
Well, thank you.
Stefanie Couch (26:58):
And I'm excited I have to come to the Frisbee
contest next year.
That's a non-negotiable for meand I love Boise, so I've spent
time there and I know it's goingto be nice in the Frisbee time.
Jos Zamzow (27:09):
Absolutely.
Stefanie Couch (27:10):
Well, I hope that you have a wonderful market
.
We will, and I'm excited to seewhat stories you find.
I'm going to call you next weekand figure out what you found
here that struck your fancy.
But I hope you have a wonderfultime in Indy.
Jos Zamzow (27:22):
You're going to a big basketball game tonight
we're going to go see the feverplay.
Stefanie Couch (27:26):
Yeah, so I hope that they win and you get to.
Maybe get you a jersey orsomething, and I will see you
soon.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thanks for joining me on theGrip Blueprint Podcast.
Thank you for listening to theGrip Blueprint Podcast.
If this episode helped youthink a little differently about
how to show up, share it withsomeone in your building world
who needs it.
(27:46):
If you're ready to turnvisibility into growth, then
head to gritblueprintcom tolearn more and book a call to
talk to us about your growthstrategy.
Until next time, stayunmistakable.
Staying obsessed with the customer and what they
care about.
That's how you win long-term inbusiness.
Jos Zamzow (00:05):
Once somebody shows you that blueprint, you realize,
even if you only own five bags,if you're standing there with
passion, that's worth more thanborrowing a million dollars and
having an ad agency in Chicagobuild you a campaign.
Stefanie Couch (00:17):
I agree.
You don't need a million peopleto love you If you can find a
thousand people that areabsolutely obsessed with your
company.
That is all you need for thatto spread like wildfire, and I
think it starts with one fan.
Jos Zamzow (00:30):
You mentioned, just as a side note, that AI could
answer phones.
I went up to you after and justsaid did you say?
I can tell you that in theprocess of testing it, we
repeatedly were just tickled andwe would like laugh out loud.
We were so happy.
Even my dad, who's 78, he wouldcall me and say Josh, this is
unbelievable.
Stefanie Couch (00:51):
Welcome to the Grit Blueprint podcast, the
playbook for buildingunmistakable brands that grow,
lead and last in the built world.
I'm Stefanie Couch, the founderof Grit Blueprint, and I'm a
lifelong building industryinsider.
I was raised here, built mycareer here, and now my team and
(01:12):
I help others win here.
The truth is, you can be thebest option in your space and
still lose to someone else whosimply shows up better and more
consistently.
Each week.
On the Grit Blueprint, I'mgoing to show you how to stand
out, earn trust and turn yourbrand into a competitive
(01:33):
advantage that lasts.
If you're ready to be seen,known, chosen and become
unmistakable, you're in theright place.
Let's get started.
Thank you for joining me on theGrit Blueprint Podcast.
I'm your host, Stefanie Couch,and I'm coming to you live from
the Indianapolis ConventionCenter.
I'm here today at the Do itBest Group Market and I have a
(01:55):
very special guest, one of myfriends that I met actually last
year at the Spring Market andwe actually have been working on
a project together.
You also have a 92 year oldstore chain in the Boise, idaho
area with 12 stores Jos Zamzow.
Welcome to the show.
Jos Zamzow (02:13):
Thank you so much for having me.
Stefanie Couch (02:15):
We've been working on a pretty cool project
together, so I want to talkabout your stores first and the
amazing history you have, andthen I want to get into this AI
stuff, because we're innovatingand testing some things out.
But tell me a little bit aboutyour 12 stores.
What do you sell, what do youdo and how do they get started?
Jos Zamzow (02:33):
Our business started with our great-grandparents,
august and Carmelita Zamzow, andthey sold their farm in the
worst year of the Depression in1933 and bought a little feed
store and they were literallymixing feed formulas on the
floor with a shovel and and thenmaking hundred pound bags and
(02:54):
carrying them out and adaptingthose formulas for the local
population According to what,what kind of things that the
animals needed.
Stefanie Couch (03:02):
Where was the first store?
Jos Zamzow (03:03):
The first store was on Fairview Avenue in Boise,
idaho, and literally you knowone patch of concrete.
The rest of it was all woodfloor.
That was their mixing station.
Fast forward 20 years.
My grandfather then purchasedanother feed mill and created,
you know, we got a little bitheavier into the feed business.
But all along that time, youknow you can't sell feed without
(03:25):
selling a shovel or some twineor whatever.
And so the business has kind ofgrown alongside.
And then my dad, when my dadtook over with his brother in
the 70s, they kind of expandedthe lawn and garden portion of
our business.
And then in the 80s we reallyembraced pet and so while we had
(03:47):
always sold, you know, evenfrom the 50s we were selling dog
food and other things Petwasn't really a division until
until about the 80s, and now wekind of do a little bit of all
of it.
Stefanie Couch (03:58):
Yeah, and you've got crazy millennials like me
that are obsessed with theirgolden retriever that are like
I'll buy whatever it is.
Jos Zamzow (04:05):
It doesn't matter, the price or the thing.
Stefanie Couch (04:07):
So you've got the pet stuff, which piqued my
interest a lot because you dosome really cool events and some
some things in the community.
This summer you had a was it aFrisbee contest?
Yeah, so tell me about that.
Jos Zamzow (04:20):
Well, the Frisbee Fest.
This this is our I think our33rd year of doing the Frisbee
Fest, but it's all designed tobe a donation for the local
shelters People.
You know, they sign up in storeand get a little Frisbee with
our name on it and then we setup a course where we've marked
off the distances and we have acouple of radio personalities do
(04:41):
the announcing and, you know,literally throw the frisbee, the
dog runs down and catches itand there's a style, uh, portion
and a distance and also, uh,you know, the little tiny dogs
have their own division.
But it's, it's really fun and weget as many people come to
watch as do to participate yeahand uh and, and all for a good
cause, so it's a cool event Ifeel like I need to be there
(05:02):
next year it's it sounds so, butyou really have a lot of cool
stuff for pets.
Stefanie Couch (05:08):
You have your own line of dog food, right?
Jos Zamzow (05:10):
right.
Stefanie Couch (05:11):
How did that come to be?
Jos Zamzow (05:13):
My dad in the early 80s.
He really wanted to introducepeople to premium food, and at
the time Science Diet was thebig brand of premium food, but
it was veterinarian only, and sohe started looking around
trying to find one.
He found a mink food calledIams.
They were just feeding minksand as he started looking at it
(05:35):
he's thinking I think this wouldalso be good for dogs.
And we actually became theexclusive Iams dealer for all
the Northwest when we weretransitioning it from mink food
to dog food.
And then, as that became a bigcorporation and things changed
there, we realized we had tocreate our own, and so we've
been making our own dog food fora long, long time and, just
(05:57):
like every phase, that thatwhole environment is changing
really drastically right now andit's hard to stay on top Takes
a lot of effort and innovationto be involved in that yeah,
that's one of the things thatstruck me about you and your
sister, callie, who's in thebusiness as well, but you're now
fourth generation right, callieand I are and it sounds like
your family's been pretty darninnovative and and really
(06:20):
willing to take a risk, take achange and actually go out there
and try something for the wholetime that your family, so it
must run in your veins.
It does.
But I think also we.
I think when somebody shows youlike we have in our family, how
you can?
I mean we're bootstrappers.
So I'd like to tell you that wedeveloped a dog food and then
(06:42):
one built million dollar plant.
That's not how we do it.
You know, a lot of times you'rebuilding a one ton batch of dog
food and you're putting it outthere, You're literally sharing
it with customers and say, hey,feed this and tell me what you
think.
And if you hit it and it works,then it starts to grow from
there.
And I think once somebody showsyou that blueprint, you realize
(07:03):
.
You realize, man, I don't haveto.
I don't have to have 10 milliondollars to start something.
I can really start small andgrow.
Stefanie Couch (07:11):
And we've just done it over and over and over
again yeah, I want to doubleclick on that a little bit
because taking, like the, thehardware, the lawn and garden,
all that out of it just ingeneral for people that are
listening to this that maybethink they want to start
something or think they want toexpand in their business they
already have I believe that'ssuch a great point because it is
(07:31):
easy to think I'll do this whenI get this capital or I'll do
this when I have this skill, andwhat I've found my whole life
is you'll probably never haveenough time, you'll probably
never have enough money Right,and you most likely won't know
how to do anything until you tryit and probably screw up
several hundred times.
Jos Zamzow (07:48):
Right.
Stefanie Couch (07:48):
And I think that spirit of being able to say I'm
going to do this anyway, eventhough I'm not really prepared,
I don't have the money and I'mnot sure if it's going to work
out.
Jos Zamzow (07:57):
Right.
Stefanie Couch (07:57):
What's a time that you've seen that happen,
and then you're like I don'tknow what's going to happen, and
then it works out.
Jos Zamzow (08:03):
When the whole thing with Iams happened, I mean,
literally a huge portion of ourbusiness was selling and
distributing Iams pet food andthen when they became a big
corporation and took that awayfrom us, that was like, what are
we going to do?
This is such a huge portion ofwhat we're doing and I think
(08:27):
it's a generational confidenceof you.
Know even great-grandma who shelived to be 104.
Wow, she was still alive atthat time.
And people are havingconversations around the dinner
table saying you know, we didthat with this particular feed.
Grandpa got sideways with Purinain the 50s.
(08:47):
And so we've had theseexperiences where we say, all
right, here's major changes inwhat we do and we're going to
have to try something different.
And I think my thought would befor people that want to try
something different.
It's about the people who havethe passion for the product.
And if you're standing in frontof a display, even if you only
(09:09):
own five bags, that's all yougot is five bags.
But if you're standing therewith passion, you know that's
worth more than than borrowing amillion dollars and having an
ad agency in Chicago build you acampaign.
Stefanie Couch (09:23):
I agree.
And especially becausegrassroots, like on the ground
people that love your stuff, youcan sell those five bags of dog
food to five people that loveit, until five more people each,
and then that's how you get afollowing.
And I read a book recentlyabout something called raving.
It's called Superfans, but ittalks about raving fans and I'm
(09:44):
going to actually talk aboutthis today in my learning
session.
I think we all get really caughtup a lot of times I know I do
especially because you seepeople going viral.
They're getting a million views, they have a million followers,
but you don't really need that,especially in a small business
where you're in a local market.
You don't need a million peopleto love you.
(10:04):
If you can find a thousandpeople that are absolutely
obsessed with your company, yourlocations, your products, that
is all you need for that tospread like wildfire, and I
think it starts with one fan.
And if you can't have a product, amazon Jeff Bezos started in
his garage, obsessed over thecustomer, and he's built this
(10:25):
giant thing that's become thiswhole other deal.
And whether you love or hatehim, it shows you that staying
obsessed with the customer andwhat they care about that's how
you win long term in business.
Jos Zamzow (10:36):
Absolutely, and I think the other piece of it is
if you start off with a productthat's genuinely good, not just
looks good and I think I can'tspeak for this show, it's not
set up yet but at a lot of theother shows this is the year of
packaging.
It seems like maybe it'stariffs or whatever.
(10:57):
Nobody's innovated any products, they've just changed packaging
, and I think that's fine andgood to a point.
What what?
What our experience is is thatif people have a product and it
works, it doesn't matter whetherit's something that cleans your
deck or something that givesyour dog some relief from joint
pain.
(11:17):
If it doesn't work, then peopledon't care if the packaging
looks good or if the colors aremodern.
Stefanie Couch (11:23):
The packaging is going to go in the trash anyway
, once you start using theproduct.
Jos Zamzow (11:27):
The packaging maybe helps it get them in the dog's
mouth, but it doesn't get themto come back.
The dog can jump up in thetruck now.
That's when people say whoa.
And honestly, in our locationsour packaging is never national
standard.
We do a lot of craft and a lotof simple things with stick-on
labels, because that's what wecan do, but the products work
(11:47):
and people respond to that.
Stefanie Couch (11:49):
Yeah, and also I do think people like that
anti-modernism a little bit.
My husband and I talk aboutthat a lot.
I think people want things thatfeel nostalgic.
You know, there's stuff that Igrew up with that I would
literally.
I'll give you a super Southernexample, Okay, so you're
probably not going to know whatthis is when I say it, there is
this bold peanut stand.
(12:09):
So I'm going to spell it foryou, because I don't know if you
can hear me.
B O I.
Jos Zamzow (12:13):
L E D, that's my.
Stefanie Couch (12:14):
Georgia twang.
So they're just water, salt andpeanuts, so it is pretty simple
and if you don't love them, youhate them, like there's's no in
between.
But this guy has a littletrailer with one of those little
uh noodley arm men and a burnbarrel that just has smoke
coming out of it, and everyweekend, if he's there, I stop
and get those peanuts right,right, right and it's because I
(12:35):
grew up eating them and there'ssomething about it.
But the product's good and it'sjust in a styrofoam cup and I
don't care yeah, right so that's.
you said it's what do you loveand how, who?
And here I am on a podcasttelling you about Robert's
peanuts, so it's cool to seethat.
What kind of other customerexperiences Cause?
I know you guys have a lot ofexperts in your store,
especially around lawn andgarden, where, if you don't know
(12:57):
what you're doing, you mighttell someone something that
could kill your grass.
Tell me a little bit about howyou breed that in your culture.
Jos Zamzow (13:02):
We do a training every six weeks.
We literally take half.
We have about 250 employees, sowe take about half of them,
like Wednesday morning, forexample, and and the other half
of the staff mans the store, andthen Thursday morning we do the
other half and we regularly adda segment of just customer
(13:23):
service.
What does customer servicebeyond people's expectations
look like?
And we talk to people aboutwhat you know.
These are the things that we'vedone in the past that have made
a difference, and I thinkpeople want to provide good
service.
They don't always know how I'msaying and people mean our
employees and a lot of ourcustomers are so used to bad
(13:45):
service they're not even surehow to take it.
And especially, you know, we wetrain about how, how to
approach somebody.
You know we call it the chemwall, where people are trying to
figure out what bug to kill oror what weed to kill.
We're teaching them and if youwalk up to the wall and say, can
I help you, people always sayno.
Stefanie Couch (14:02):
Yeah.
Jos Zamzow (14:02):
You know they, but they're desperate for help Like
they don't they really need help.
Stefanie Couch (14:05):
Right.
Jos Zamzow (14:06):
And so there's a, there's a technique to walking
up and and and breaking the icea little bit so that they will
say, oh my gosh, I'm so glad tohave you help me.
Yeah, Cause they're used tojust saying, no, get away, I
don't want help or somebodycan't really help.
Stefanie Couch (14:20):
They ask that out of obligation, but then they
don't know what the answer isthere's a lot of places you go
that that is the case.
So what do you tell them to sayto people?
Jos Zamzow (14:33):
We always encourage them to ask open questions and I
and you know everybody hastheir own style.
My style was always to say youknow, what are you trying to
kill today?
Or something silly, you know,but we'll walk this this, do it
best show.
And we're looking for products,but we're also looking for
stories and we're looking forcompanies that will help us tell
those stories.
Because if our people, you know, if they find a new mop, that's
(14:55):
really different.
And they say no, I, the ladywho built this, came to our
training and showed it to us andhere's how this thing works.
People will buy a mop, even ifthey weren't thinking about
buying a mop, because they lovea story, they love the
information.
Stefanie Couch (15:10):
Yeah, I think storytelling is probably the
most undervalued thing inbusiness because if you think
about what you remember from amovie or from something that
happened in your life, it almostalways has a story around it
and people love the brandstories that relate to them.
So I love dogs.
We've already established thatIf someone has a Golden
(15:32):
Retriever in their commercialI'm going to pay attention, and
then if it's a cool, I thinkabout the Subaru commercial
where the Golden Retrieverfamily's driving.
Basically every commercial hasa dog in it now.
But like the Aflac goat withNick Saban and Deion Sanders,
that story that they're tellingaround, that if you like animals
, if you like football, allthose things resonate.
I think that's perfect for youto be looking for that.
(15:54):
So what makes a good story, inyour opinion?
Like, what are you looking forwhen you walk around looking for
a story?
Jos Zamzow (16:00):
So we bring a group of buyers and and we talk about
before we start the show.
I say don't walk past the guythat doesn't have a fancy booth,
because those are thoseopportunities where you'll have
somebody there and they justsneaked into the show at the
last minute and they don't haveall their stuff together, but
(16:22):
they've got a great product thatnobody's heard of and that's
what we're looking for and we'vegot.
You know, we've done businesswith most of the places that are
here, but the ones that arebrand new, those are the ones
where where a lot of times we'llsay hey, you know, if we were
to place a pretty good sizedorder, will you come to Idaho
and train our people?
And they always look at eachother and say yes, and then they
(16:45):
come and share that samepassion with our employees,
which they pick up.
You know, even if it's just amop if we're going to use that
example they can feel thepassion from the mop inventor
and they want to pass that ontoo.
Stefanie Couch (16:59):
Yeah, Well, and this fall show is really great
for you guys with the lawn andgarden because they've got
everything here that's going tobe hot in the spring, so I'm
sure you'll find I love theflower section and all that.
I know you guys have a ton ofthat.
You have plants, you havegarden stuff, that you know food
garden things.
I think it's really cool.
I can't wait to come see one ofyour stores, absolutely.
(17:25):
So let's talk a little bit aboutour project we've been working
on.
So in the spring you came toone of my sessions.
It was at the Do it BestKnowledge Hub and I was speaking
on innovation in brandingsocial media and AI was a part
of it.
That was in March, so AI voiceagents had actually just come
out.
It's kind of crazy how fast AIis moving, because there's
things that were here, you know,in March.
Now they're totally differentand exponentially better now in
(17:46):
the fall.
But tell me a little bit aboutthat session, Like what struck
you from that and what was thething that piqued your interest?
Jos Zamzow (17:53):
Well, we were.
You know, one of the thingsthat's hard for us is in the
peak of garden season.
We're so busy that we cannoteffectively answer the phone.
And even if we would want to,you know I've told my people, if
you have three people standingin front of you in store, don't
(18:14):
you answer that phone.
But at the same time thosepeople calling are potential
customers.
And so you'd like to answer thephone, but you know we're for
sure not going to interrupt theconversation we're having in
store to do that.
And so we were struggling withthat and we've looked at
different answering services andsending it off to India and
whatever else.
And you mentioned, just as aside note, that AI could answer
(18:37):
phones.
And I just came, I went up toyou after and just said, did you
say?
And you said, yeah, it's brandnew, but we can do this.
And the thing that blew me awayand it was I said, well, this
has got to be a really longprocess, like how long does this
take?
And you said, probably we couldhave one up that could do basic
stuff next week.
(18:58):
And it was like okay, I'll callyou.
Stefanie Couch (19:00):
We were on a call next week talking about it,
I think.
Right, yeah, it's really coolbecause, like I said, that
really had just come out.
I think we had started testingit in January or February, and
so you were kind of a beta, likefirst test, and so kudos to you
for having a problem and beingrisky enough to say let's see
what happens.
(19:20):
The good news is the phone callsweren't being answered anyway,
so it's hopefully not going tohurt anything to try it.
One of the things I think iscrazy is small businesses.
Over 70% of phone calls goamiss and a lot of those people
don't call back.
So it is a huge problem and youjust can't throw enough bodies
at that.
Especially, like you said, ifsomeone's in front of you, you
got to take care of thatcustomer in the flesh.
Jos Zamzow (19:40):
And I did the math, I did back of the napkin
calculation.
I just said, all right, if Ihired someone and put them in
the office and didn't let themgo down to help customers and
they just sat there with aheadset and answered the phone.
One, I still wouldn't be ableto answer phones when they took
a break or at lunch or afterhours.
(20:01):
And two, in order for them tobe able to answer questions, I
would have to have an employeewho was seasoned, which means I
would have to take someonereally good off the floor and
put them in the office, whichdidn't make any sense.
And so this is a reallyfascinating concept and we're
learning an awful lot about itevery single day.
It's not perfect.
(20:22):
It's not perfect.
Stefanie Couch (20:23):
No, and I think that's the thing that I think
about.
A lot is, you know, I'vetrained a lot of people.
You've trained a lot of people.
I worked in a hardware store,in a lumberyard, and I've worked
in technical products.
Jos Zamzow (20:34):
Yeah.
Stefanie Couch (20:34):
Kind of like the grass thing where, hey, you use
the wrong pesticide or you knowproduct grass, well, you mess
up a door right with one wrongclick somewhere.
But people screw up too.
So I think that's the thing islike with ai you're never going
to have something that'll answerevery single question under the
sun, no matter what the contextis.
But it gets them to a point towhere you can answer the phone,
(20:57):
answer basic questions, answersome pretty advanced questions
and then get them to a humanthat can at least not lose the
phone call because we didn'tanswer at all.
Jos Zamzow (21:04):
Well, and I can, I can tell you that in the process
of testing it, we repeatedlywere just tickled and we would
like laugh out loud.
We were so happy with some ofthe things that that are our
chat bot was able to answer thatthat were beyond.
I mean, if I hire a new uh, youknow, like a high school
(21:27):
graduate cashier, thoseemployees cannot answer those
questions, uh and and so in someways, far better than an
entry-level employee, and that'skind of hard to wrap your head
around that.
Stefanie Couch (21:41):
Yeah, and we named her so tell.
So tell us about what we namedher.
Jos Zamzow (21:45):
We named her Faye, which is my mom's name, and so
that nobody else knows that.
That was kind of a fun piece of, you know, tying the whole
family together.
But we, I think, over thesummer and through this process
we have a record of eachinteraction.
We know what people were askingand what the what she told them
(22:06):
and we're able to makeadjustments to how that and
there was a lot at the verybeginning and now it's just fine
tuning.
Stefanie Couch (22:12):
Yeah.
Jos Zamzow (22:12):
Just getting slightly better all the time.
Stefanie Couch (22:14):
And one of the things that's cool is you do get
that full transcript, but youcan also get it just a little
summary, an email or a textsaying hey, Stephanie called.
She wants to know about petfood.
Call her back.
Here's her name and phonenumber and email.
Or that person that just wantsdirections, or something simple
like a store hours.
Do you sell lawn and gardenstuff at this store?
(22:35):
It's just instant.
Jos Zamzow (22:36):
Instant and we were able to create it so that it
doesn't answer questionsrandomly.
It doesn't pull randominformation.
It pulls from information thatwe wanted to, so it recommends
the products that we wanted torecommend.
That was one of the things thatwas really important to us.
I didn't want the chat botrecommending products we didn't
(22:57):
sell or things that we don't doin our area of the country.
That would be improper, and wewere able to get all that done.
Stefanie Couch (23:05):
So what would you say to someone who is on the
fence?
It's like I don't know if Iwant to put this into my
business.
I hear you know people say Idon't know if people are going
to like AI and not everyone doeslike AI.
So what would you say to peoplethat maybe are like I don't
know if this was a good idea ornot?
Jos Zamzow (23:19):
The reality about AI at least for the next year or
so, we'll see how it plays outis the people that call our
stores.
They're still looking up thephone number and calling the
stores.
That's a certain generation.
We don't even have to label thegeneration, but it's a certain
generation and those people arenot instantly warm to AI.
(23:45):
And what we're learning, ourlatest version of this is we're
not going to say that it's AI,we're going to just have Faye
say hi, I'm Faye, how can I helpyou?
Instead of saying you know, I'man AI chat bot because people
freak out, you know.
But the reality is, even my dad,who's 78, when he got to
(24:06):
talking to her, he would call meand say joss, this is
unbelievable.
I mean, she calculated this,the, the exact number of cubic
feet of potting soil I neededfor a planting bed.
How many of your people coulddo that on the phone.
And I said, well, not very many.
I mean right, right, I meanthey could do it if they, you
know, called them back.
But right, instantly, not verymany.
And and so so there's a lot ofthose things that I think once
(24:29):
people have good experienceswith it and they realize that,
if my choice is getting somebodyfrom bangladesh who doesn't
speak super clean english, who'sreally just going to give me
stock answers and take a messageanyway, I'd rather talk to an
AI agent that you've created adatabase of information from it
(24:51):
to pull from.
It's kind of like talking toyou because we've kind of built
it in our own image.
Stefanie Couch (24:56):
Yeah, absolutely , and one of the things we're
going to be working on next thatI'm really excited about and
we've talked about a lot, isusing it to internally train
your teams, because you'realready doing these trainings,
but you have to take time offthe floor.
On Wednesday and ThursdayYou're doing just one training.
It's not hey, I don't know thisthing.
Can I go do a training now, orcan I learn about this?
So we're going to weave that inand we're going to figure out
(25:20):
how we can use it for otherthings, especially like a chat
bot.
We've got a website chat botabout to go live, which is going
to pull from that same exactknowledge base.
I think one of the biggestthings that is either a make or
break is how good is yourknowledge base, because if you
just do it with a standardscrape of your website, if your
website's really great, thenthat's going to be good.
(25:40):
If your website has noinformation, it's going to be
pretty basic.
Still, probably better than notanswering the phone, though I
think.
Jos Zamzow (25:46):
If we say we're going to put this effort into
training an employee that mightleave, if we put the same effort
into training our AI agent,we're going to have a
sustainable thing that's goingto get better and better over
time.
The latest thing that I'm superexcited about is being able to
email or text a customer.
(26:06):
You know an answer to aquestion Like if they, if they
said you know I need some helpsetting a lawn spreader, we're
going to be able to say can wesend you the spreader setting
guide that has all the settingsyou know, in case they threw
away the fertilizer bag or itgot wet and they couldn't read
it anymore, being able to justsend it to them right there.
They could pull it up on theirphone and immediately set the
(26:28):
spreader the way they want.
Or our seed starting guide thattells when do I plant carrots
and when do I plant onions, thatkind of stuff.
Those things are going to be.
People are really going toembrace that.
Stefanie Couch (26:39):
Well, I'm excited to keep working on it.
It's been a fun project andwhat I appreciate the most, like
I said, is the spirit ofinnovation and also the spirit
of hey, we're going to figurethis out.
It's not going to be perfectand we're going to have to keep
iterating it and, you know,getting it to where you want,
and you and Callie have beengreat to work with.
So, it's been really fun.
Jos Zamzow (26:57):
Well, thank you.
Stefanie Couch (26:58):
And I'm excited I have to come to the Frisbee
contest next year.
That's a non-negotiable for meand I love Boise, so I've spent
time there and I know it's goingto be nice in the Frisbee time.
Jos Zamzow (27:09):
Absolutely.
Stefanie Couch (27:10):
Well, I hope that you have a wonderful market
.
We will, and I'm excited to seewhat stories you find.
I'm going to call you next weekand figure out what you found
here that struck your fancy.
But I hope you have a wonderfultime in Indy.
Jos Zamzow (27:22):
You're going to a big basketball game tonight
we're going to go see the feverplay.
Stefanie Couch (27:26):
Yeah, so I hope that they win and you get to.
Maybe get you a jersey orsomething, and I will see you
soon.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thanks for joining me on theGrip Blueprint Podcast.
Thank you for listening to theGrip Blueprint Podcast.
If this episode helped youthink a little differently about
how to show up, share it withsomeone in your building world
who needs it.
(27:46):
If you're ready to turnvisibility into growth, then
head to gritblueprintcom tolearn more and book a call to
talk to us about your growthstrategy.
Until next time, stayunmistakable.
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