How RNR Tire Express Builds Better Shops Through Training, Service, and Leadership

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to the RTO show.
I'm your host, Pete Chow.
Today we got somebody for youtoday.
But first, listen, guys, I'mgoing to talk to you about some
stuff.
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(01:12):
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We appreciate it.
But let's get down to business.
I am with somebody from RR TireExpress today and fascinating uh
backstory, fascinating story,period, because he's doing

(01:34):
something great.
And I've got Jason Shuheon fromRR Tire Express.
And listen, Jason, been dying totalk to you.
You've got a lot going on,especially behind you, man.
You've got the setup over there.
I feel like I feel like I shouldbe where you are.
You know what I mean?
We need to be talking overthere.
One of these they've got to dolike a personal interview in the
man cave.
But Jason, how are you doingtoday?
I'm doing great.

(01:54):
How about yourself, Pete?
I am excellent.
Listen, I was doing some uh someresearch here.
I'm going on the backstory andI'm like, oh my God, dude,
you've been everywhere andeverything for the wheel entire
side, and you've done quite abit.
Now, there is there is a storyto be told from where you've
gone to where you are nowbecause you started in a
completely different setup andyou've come to rent to own.

(02:16):
You you're really taking on adifferent role where you're at
this really important guy, justover shop and really kind of
telling people how to get itdone, which is super important.
I really love it.
Give me a little bit aboutyourself though, Jason.
How are you doing today?
What's going on in the man caveof of all in North Carolina?

SPEAKER_01 (02:33):
Yeah, that's exactly about it.
Doing good.
Just got back from a long roadtrip.
Uh, visited a couple stores inGeorgia, uh, back in South
Carolina, and then came backhome yesterday and uh right back
at it.
Already got phone calls comingin while I'm on here, so it's a
never ends.
It's always something.
Guys, guys, give me 60 minutes.
Give me 60 minutes, give it apause.

SPEAKER_02 (02:52):
God, but you know, it's it's one of those things
that when you take on theseroles, especially when you have
so many stores, and you guys are24 stores, is it right now?
24, 25 in about three weeks, and26 probably in about two months.
That is amazing.
Uh, what I will tell you guys,this RR franchise right now,
killing it, making some seriousrevenue, doing some really good

(03:13):
things, and trying out some newpositions such as your own,
where Jason's going around andreally handling some business,
showing a lot of what he'slearned, his experience, and
getting these shop techs up tolisten, doing an amazing job,
but they're just following hislead to be able to do it even
better.
And that's why they're growing.
And I love these ideas.
I want to talk to you a littlebit.
So, before all this started,1996, we're in Sears back when

(03:37):
Sears used to be at Sears.
You remember that, Anthony?
Do you remember the Sears AutoCenter was something, man?
I miss that place, right?
It used to be something.
So back then, you get startedASC certified.
Tell me a little bit like whydoes that certification marit?
Because I know that coming fromthe traditional side, we don't
have any certifications likethat.
So, what's an ASE certifiedtechnician different between

(03:58):
somebody who's just in the shop?

SPEAKER_01 (03:59):
So it's changed a little bit over the years.
When I was 17 years old, and youknow, when I started with Sears,
I was still taking tech school,so I was learning stuff doing
tires.
Really more hands-on, kind ofwhat we've brought in today, but
more hands-on learning from someof the older techs while I was
in there, and that's what gaveme the direction on where I
wanted to go.
Um, but back then, and you'retalking 96, 97, 98, ASEs was the

(04:21):
thing.
If you got if you had thecertifications, much easier to
get a job as a technician.
Uh dealerships were looking forit.
Um, it was just a big plus.
Um, very hard test.
It's not for the weak at heart,that's for sure.
Um, it's it's kind of hard toexplain, but the ASCs are
written by be by guys behind thecounter, not as much as guys in

(04:41):
the field.
So the answers they're lookingfor is not what we would
typically do in the repairfacility.
Um, but yeah, I've literallyjust like most of our guys in
our company that come from theshop, they start in the shop
spot as a tire tech and justmove your way up and learn more
as you go.
Um and that's where thisposition has kind of grown now,
is where I'm that older guy nowthat's bringing down any kind of

(05:04):
knowledge into the youngergroup, and hopefully there's
it's sticking to them.
Um but yeah, I've been throughthem.

SPEAKER_02 (05:11):
When I see 96, to me, that was not that long ago.
I'd say a couple years ago.
That's showing our age.
But now that we come into it,man, that's 30 years ago.
Yeah, it is.
That was 30 years ago.
So we got a young and spry Jasonhandling some business as an ASC
certified technician.
You also done roles in and youknow, uh Tire Kingdom and

(05:32):
Goodyear.
So it wasn't just in one spot.
You've had the ability to kindof go around and and and really
see that what is the differencebetween those, real quick?
Like, what's the differencebetween like a tire kingdom and
a Goodyear and a Sears AutoCenter?
I mean, is there is there a realbig difference?

SPEAKER_01 (05:45):
It is when it comes to what we do now and what I've
seen from the retail side ofthings to where we're on the RTO
side and with the customerservice side of it.
A lot of those big box stores donot take the customers in mind
as much.
That I learned very quickly.
Um, and most of those places, Ididn't work as a technician
there.
I'd already been put through theposition of when I became a

(06:06):
sales manager, then I became aservice, basically a service
manager at that time, ran theshop and so forth.
But you you tend to see things alittle differently between how
they treat their customers, um,how they treat their employees.
You know, uh when you're withthese big pox companies, you're
a number to them.
They they there's nopersonalization with it at all.
Um, and that's the one nicething now growing up through

(06:28):
that, kind of being just like aparent.
You learn things from yourparents, I learned things from
past companies, you know, andand we try to not go that route
now.
So now it's knowing our people.
I like to go to my stores andknow everybody's name.
You know, it's it's it's a goodfeeling to see that we kind of
change that, especially cominghere.
Um but yeah, I mean it's anexperience that you don't you
learn from.

(06:48):
You know, I'll never take itback.
I'm glad I did it.
But yeah, it's the biggest thingis customer service and how they
treat their employees.
You know, business-wise, thebusiness doesn't really change,
but having someone over you thatyou know don't know you at all
and and expects you to do stuffand turn out numbers but don't
know how to communicate witheither.
So it's it definitely there's abig difference between that and

(07:11):
where we're at now.

SPEAKER_02 (07:12):
Well, you know, I see these changes happening,
right?
Because right now, R and R TyExpress is over 200 stores, you
know.
And I talk to me a little bitabout your franchise because
although you're R and R franch,you know, you're R franchisee,
you have your own company.
What's the name of that companyand who are some of the guys
that help you get this going?
And then who are some of theguys that actually own the

(07:33):
business and kind of get youguys from 24 to 26 stores and
beyond?

SPEAKER_01 (07:38):
Yeah, so it's Rims USA LC.
Um Tony Raffo is obviously wasthe owner, just recently passed
away, which was a big thing, andit was definitely a shock from
us.
Um, you know, myself being heregoing on 17 years.
Um, Ken Ken Mashburn, ChrisRaffo, um, those are our two
owners, regionals, yeah, ScottGregory.

(07:59):
Um, district managers play a bigpart in it too.
Uh, John Clark was one of mybasically my mentor who brought
me into the company 17 yearsago.
Um, Greg Miller, ReggieGambrell.
I mean, the list goes on and onwith the team that we got built
here.
I mean, it's it's and you metsome the other night you guys
were up here, you know.
I did, I did.

SPEAKER_02 (08:18):
I had the chance to go up and do some DX3 leadership
with them, and man, I went withWilliam Naylor and you and a
couple other guys.
Yes, William John Smith.
Yes, sir.
Just some great people, man.
I love the I love so we go inthere.
You gotta understand you guysgotta understand this.
We're going to rims, and as wego in, there is an entire
section already dedicated tolearning.
Like it is a huge, huge area.

(08:39):
We're fitting 30 people, andwe're probably gonna have to fit
some more now that they got somegrowth.
So we gotta worry about that.
But you gotta let you guys letyou guys expand on those walls.
But you know, it was great.
I mean, they have uh the setup,you have the slides, you have
the ability to play video, youhave the ability to sit
everybody down in this classroomsetting, but really it's more
about the learning and being,you know, one-on-one and kind of
just getting that knowledge frompoint A to point B and a good

(09:00):
environment.
And it I loved it.
I loved it because, and I'm notgiving you know shade to
anybody, but I've been to placeswhere that's just not as much of
a priority as getting therevenue and making it happen.
But I believe that part of thesuccess that RIMS has is
focusing that dedication on howdo I get my guys to learn
exactly what we need to do,exactly how they need to do it,
so that the customer not onlyfeels better about coming back

(09:22):
and spending their revenue everysingle week, every single month,
but then when they pay out orthey're done with their
transaction to come back later,not only with them or the
referrals that they have or justtheir family members, right?
I mean, most of the time, Ithink there's there's some
things that out there say 60,70% of our business that comes
in is from the business wealready have, right?
So those referrals are coming inand it's and it's really, really

(09:44):
important.
So, you know, two out of threepeople are coming back because
somebody told them, hey, I had agreat, you know, I this this
thing happened.
It was great.
Jason took care of me, orwhoever it was took care of me,
you know, I used to probably goover there, which I think is a
great thing.
And I want to get into some ofthe differences between what
you're doing at RR and whatyou've seen in those big box
retailers, because I would havenever guessed starting out here,

(10:05):
you hit you have some prettyheavy names right here.
And then you spend more time outof the last 30 years at R Tire
Express with Rims than you didin those big boxes, right?
So 17 years out of the 30 yearsthat we're talking about, I mean
31 if you want to count 2026,but you know, I mean, it's just
one of those things, like that'sthat's a big change, that's a
big difference, and you've donewell here.

(10:26):
Not only have you come here, butyou've succeeded.
But we'll get into that rightnow.
But like, you know, so you arethe corporate service manager
and trainer for RIMS.

SPEAKER_01 (10:37):
That was something new.
This is a brand new position.
Um, I've kind of been doing itbefore the position was made
100%.
Um, when I was managing thestore, um, I was doing a lot of
traveling, uh, which obviouslystressed my assistant managers
and stuff out, but I had it wasa good good prep course for
them.
You know, they kind of knew whatto look for.
Um but at first, when I firstprimarily did it, I was

(10:58):
basically just training onbalancing alignments, our
typical day in, day out stuff.
As it's grown now, it's we'veput service managers into play,
which is the first in in our andat least our franchise.
I don't know what the other onesare doing, but we basically have
uh system managers, managers,and now service managers who
completely run the shop, uh shopflow, selling the product to the

(11:22):
customer, explaining everythingto the customer.
Um and it's kind of an i if youwant if you're asking what's
kind of the difference betweenthe retail and this, this is the
part that retail actually is agood thing.
This is that management sidethat we never got into that
retail's had forever.
But the difference is in our ourmotto, you know, to serve not

(11:42):
just service, you know, and andwe try to bend over backwards
for our customers.
Uh, we try to do everything wecan, and that's if the biggest
thing from coming from theretail side is like I said
earlier, the customer servicepart of it.
Just like his employees being anumber, those customers are a
number to them.
Here it's not.
Here we take it personal.
You know, we we try to doanything we can to take care of

(12:05):
the customer.
Um you know, a big thing a lotof people don't look at anymore
is you know, we could treat acustomer 100% good, they're
likely to tell you tell one ortwo people.
You treat a customer bad,they're gonna tell 20 to 30
people.
And it's something people stilldon't realize, you know, and and
and our retention and and ourreferral programs and the amount

(12:25):
of customers that bring theirfamilies.
I couldn't tell you.
Obviously, being here 17 years,you could get an idea, but I
remember I have customers thathad their kids coming in when
they were little kids at onetime to where they're grown
adults now, and they're comingto get stuff from us.
That's you're making me feelaged right now, man.
You're making me feel aged rightnow.
I mean, but but that's that'swhat makes it that's what it's

(12:47):
so satisfying about the positionis to be able to see these
customers come back, seeingtheir family members come in,
and the constant just flow of itjust returning back and forth.
Um, you know, we a lot of thesecustomers, if not all of them,
are considered family.
I mean, we see them on such alarge basis, you know, it's not
like I see you once every seven,eight months.
I'm seeing you weekly,bi-weekly, monthly, and that's

(13:09):
where that relationship comesinto play.
Absolutely.
Um but yeah, this this positionis is gonna be definitely
something well needed, and it'sgonna be a big part of the
future because it's just anotherstep to take care of it.

SPEAKER_02 (13:22):
Absolutely.
I mean, I love the idea becausesometimes, you know, you have to
you have to well they well, theyhate to say it, but you have to
break a few eggs to make anomelet, right?
Sometimes you just gotta dosomething new.
You've got to get outside ofyour four walls and say, how do
I make this better?
And you've got to trailblazethat.
I got a question though, you gotassistant managers and GMs,
which is something that might bepretty normal depending on who
you got.
Now, the shop manager beingsomething different, is there a

(13:43):
level that you get to before youget a shop manager, or is this a
permanent position you say, hey,there's gonna be a shop manager
no matter how our revenues orhow our customers are.

SPEAKER_01 (13:51):
So so originally we had talked about it was gonna be
a revenue or certain customercount.
Um, once we put it into play andwe see how well it changed a lot
of our outlooks on things andhow it well it worked, we've now
turned that corner where nowit's gonna be fresh.
Like Hickory, which is openingin two weeks, brand new store,
service manager already in play.

(14:12):
Um, Johnson City, the nextstore, will have a service
manager in play.
And we're trying to fill themup, which I think we have
currently.
We just hired another one, Ibelieve Thursday.
So I believe 17 of our 24 storesnow have service managers.

SPEAKER_02 (14:26):
Oh okay.

SPEAKER_01 (14:26):
Um, and it's you know, like anything else, it's
it's added to the bunch, andeverybody gripes about it at
first, you know, that theexpense-wise, but you know, once
again, it's not always about theexpense.
It's it's about being able totake care of the customers, what
it comes down to.

SPEAKER_02 (14:40):
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Depending on when this comesout, it might actually not be

(15:44):
two weeks from the date of thisrelease.
When is the date that that storewill open or at least within a
couple days?

SPEAKER_01 (15:50):
Uh I would probably say so it was three weeks at the
beginning of the week.
So we're down to two weeks now.
So you're you're looking, what,the 14th?
Around April 14th, April 13th,somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_02 (16:01):
All right.
Sounds good.
I'd love, I mean, I can't waitto see it.
That's gonna be another store tovisit.
You know, as you're goingthrough, how long do you think
it's gonna take to get thosebetween the 17 stores and the 24
stores that you have left,right?
The six stores that are left.
What is the transition period ofgetting a shop manager in those?
And then how long do you when Iguess it's a two-part question?
When you put somebody in, right,at in that shop manager

(16:21):
position, how long do you givethem to get acclimated before
you say, okay, now we're gonnastart judging the numbers
between when we have a fullyfunctional service manager and
when we didn't, so that we cancompare is this, you know, and
not that it's not something youdon't want to do, but like where
is the payoff on this and andare you doing what you need to
do?

SPEAKER_01 (16:37):
So so the one nice thing, and that's part of the
reason I'm in the spot I'm innow, is when we get these new
service managers, I go there andand and spend usually the first
three or four days with themwhen they start.
That way they get on the righttrack, understand how we're
doing things.
Um and like we talked before,hands-on is my biggest thing.
I could show everybody videosall day long and tell them what

(16:59):
to do.
Hands-on is where it is when itcomes to to getting people
prepped and getting thingsready.
I don't, you know, within a weekor two, because the people we're
bringing in, we refer, we'drather, I'm sorry, get somebody,
one of our techs that has beenwith us for a long term time to
promote them into that positionbecause they already know how we
work and what we do,inspection-wise, and looking

(17:20):
over vehicles.
But we don't have that, it's notalways a hundred percent thing
that's gonna happen.
So when we're bringing peoplein, most of those people have
some sort of experience inautomotive.
If it's the retail side of it,um, if it was a mechanic at one
time that wants to get intomanagement, because I'd rather
have somebody that doesn't bringover a whole bunch of bad
habits, anyways.
I'd rather be able to treat themand take care of them from day

(17:43):
one and get them on the righttrack.
Um so I mean, time limit, it'shard because I I I don't judge
anybody on time because I knowsometimes you gotta get the
respect of your technicians.
There's there's a lot of stuffthat comes into play.
Um personally, I'd probably saywithin the first month, you
should be good after that,especially with the amount of
training we're gonna give you,um, and what I'm gonna be

(18:05):
involved in doing step by stepwith everything.
So I would say within the firstmonth after that, they should be
good on what they're what theyknow to do and what
forecast-wise, what we want themto do.

SPEAKER_02 (18:16):
Gotcha, gotcha.
So now that you're in that, andit at what point, because uh you
did a lot in the prior life ofbefore getting into RR and RTO
and stuff like that, as you gotinto the RTO side of and started
working for R uh at Rams, likewhat made you decide, you know

(18:37):
what, I've I've done a littlebit of everything on this side.
I want to do a leadership roleon this side.
What what poised you and thepeople around you to say, Jason
is the guy, that's the guy?
I mean, I I've met you, so Ikind of know a little bit.
But for you know, somebody who'slistening to this today and
they're talking about, you know,I'm in the shop and I kind of
want to move up ahead too.
There are people out there whoare putting these shop managers,

(18:59):
and that does give me an ideathat I have somewhere to go.
What made you decide?
I'm in the shop, I want to go toleadership, and and what
advantages do you think thatthey need to start learning now
to make them ready for thatchange?

SPEAKER_01 (19:10):
Yeah.
Well, personally for me, it wasit was about going back again,
making us feel old, but about 20years ago, you know, I was still
I was still turning wrenches.
I was a shop, I was in the shop,but you know, uh, a lot of my
background, my family owned arestaurant, so I was always very
customer service oriented.
I've my family was very taking,you know, yes, sir, no, sir,
yes, ma'am, no, ma'am.

(19:31):
Always very straight on withthat.
And, you know, at the time, mymanager, when I was still doing
turning wrenches, he seen meconnecting with customers.
When customers would come backbehind the bays and start asking
questions about their car, heseen how I interacted with them.
And uh he really didn't give memuch of a choice.
He said, you know what, we'retaking you out of the shop,
we're putting you up at thesales counter.

(19:52):
So that was my introduction intosales.
So that was that was about how Ilearned that.
You're gonna get promotion,whether you like it or not.
So, but you know, it it fellinto place.
You know, I'm I'm a talkativeperson.
Uh, you know, I I enjoy helpingpeople.
I love training, I love teachingpeople, you know, and even in a
sales point, you're teaching,you're you're you're teaching a

(20:13):
customer in all reality.
When you come to them and you'reexplaining issues that are done
or issues that are going on withtheir vehicle and stuff like
that, um, the education part ishuge, even when it comes down to
tires.
Uh, the simplest time educatinga tire a customer about a DOT
number, making un have havingthem understand the date codes
and stuff on DOTs and theconditions of their tires, what
causes it.

(20:34):
It's still that same teachingaspect.
It's not just sales.
Um, but that's that's where thatstarted.
And you know, when I when Ioriginally came to RIMS, I came
in as a technician.
Um, I was basically burnt out ofmanagement at the time working
for retail.
I took six months off, went upin the mountains, kind of stayed
away from everything, anddecided, you know, now's time to

(20:55):
look for something.
And and RR at the time waslooking for a tire tech.
And uh started there, say theleast, lasted about two months,
and then went into sales again.
Account management, assistantmanager, and management.
Now here, you know, it's it'swhen you got it sometimes, you
got it, and it just said youcan't run from it.
It's it's gonna catch you.

(21:15):
I mean, it's just one of thosethings.

SPEAKER_02 (21:17):
That's when he grew the beard.
He went into the mountains andgrew the beard and it never
left.
That's he was he was justforaging for food, and that's
what happened.
No, it's awesome.
The baby face, man, the babyface back in the day.
Right?
I you know, I need to grow abeard too.
I'm getting a little older.
So let me ask you a question.
So, like when you're in the bigbox and you see all this, and
then then you see an ad forsomething like RNR, you see a
tire tech, you want to make acool, you know, transition.

(21:40):
How much of that experience doyou pull with you?
Like, uh, you know, either I seerims right now, and training
seems to be such a huge aspectof the ability to be uh
profitable and be able, youknow, really to expand, which is
really huge, uh especiallynowadays, because there's some
businesses that are just goingthrough it, and you guys are
doing very, very well.
How much of what you learn andthen those experiences How much

(22:00):
did that come with you so thatyou can, you know, kind of help
this situation?
Or was it like these guys aredoing it just all wrong?
Rems is a completely differentsituation.
Or what, you know, was that wasthere a pull through?

SPEAKER_01 (22:11):
It it it does.
A lot of it comes with me.
I mean, that's what built me asis what I am now when it comes
to that, when it comes to my myjob and and everything.
Um, the good with the bad.
You just tend to end up trimmingoff the bad stuff and you try to
put it forward.
And and when we're out therehiring people, you know,
truthfully, I think theautomotive side of it is the
hardest part to get managers tocome over to something different

(22:33):
because they don't realize it.
Kind of a little bit offsubject, but when a retail
manager, they pay extremely highsalaries, but they own you.
When I was a manager, I missed alot of my son's life because I
would literally go into work inthe morning when he was sleeping
and I wouldn't come back untilat night when he was in bed.
And I was working 70, 75 hours aweek, vice money, good money,

(22:55):
and all that, but you don'trealize that.
And even now to this day, to tryto get some of those guys to
come over to us and explainingthe benefits, you know, having
the family time, uh, the thebalancing of family and work,
it's always sometimes just toomuch driven by that money, and
it's hard to break that, youknow.
But a lot of it, yes, I mean,when I go and talk to text, I
explain to them I've been there,done that, and that's that's

(23:16):
what gets a lot of people isthey realize there there's a
chance for more.
Um, that you're not just stuckin a particular position, you
know, and that back end, thoughthose 30 years of experience and
and understanding what it's likeon the other side, you know, I I
love what I do now.
Even when I came in RTO, I hadno clue.
I didn't know what it was.
It was all new to me.

(23:37):
To me, it was just another shopjob.
It was me getting back in theshop, you know, and then as I
learned it, once again, mentors,people teaching you, and and
just learning everything, andyou you love it.
And then, especially when youwork with the group that we do,
the the care they give youtowards their family and and and
showing the respect to thatlevel is huge.
And that's the biggest thing Isay, Brent, is trying to explain

(23:59):
from the retail side to thisside the difference in that, you
know, and that's it's a bigthing, it's a big part of life
now.

SPEAKER_02 (24:06):
When did it hit you?
When you came over to Rent Ownand you're in the you're in the
tire shop, you're seeing tires,you're seeing patches, right?
That's pretty much the same.
When did it hit you that the RTOtransaction is a different
transaction than the retailtransaction or what you really
got yourself into?

SPEAKER_01 (24:19):
When I became an account manager, that was that
was that was it don't matter hownice I am or how good I am on
the phone, boy.
That is where you you learn thedeep side of RTO on the account
manager side.
And then you know what's funnyis when I was running the
stores, anytime my accountmanager, they know they knew not

(24:40):
to come to me with any kind ofquestions about accounts because
they knew what the answer wasgoing to be.
Give them what they want, justtake care of it.
Um, but it was a good becausethat taught my account manager
the proper way to run theaccount side of it.
But yeah, that was that waswhere the RTO really got me, was
when I went into the accountdepartment.
And uh it definitely takes aspecial person to be an account
manager.
100%.

(25:01):
That is that's a whole differentside.
But that's that's where it hitme hard.
That's where I got ran into thebrick wall and figured a way of
climbing over it.

SPEAKER_02 (25:09):
We know on the on the traditional side and on the
furniture side, it's really hardbecause sometimes, you know,
like you said, you don't havethat bench and you have to hire
and you make these things.
And one of the things that I'vealways noticed is that if a GM
comes into the role, it doesn'tmatter how much sales
experience, doesn't matter howmuch floor experience does,
matter how much they've doneinventory-wise and they get a
shipment, if you haven't doneaccount management, you will

(25:31):
fail.
And it's because they don'tunderstand the business, right?
So it's like, you want to be aGM?
Great.
You're gonna sit in accounts forthree months.
You have to learn it frombeginning to end.
You have to be able to open aroute, you have to be able to
close a route, you have to be,and now, mind you, there's
things that happen in between,right?
There's training, there's otherthings, but like if you can't
open and close a route andreally understand where your

(25:52):
customers are coming from,really have those deep
conversations.
If you're not on the roadknocking on doors and just
really having that one-on-onerelationship, if you can't build
that, you really just can't be aGM.
Because it's not that we'retrying to keep it from you, but
you might need we need to putthat little time frame off until
you really get it, because it'sit is different.
RTO is a completely differenttransaction.
So I gotta ask, because you'redoing all this, you go, you get

(26:15):
the beard, and you know, you'reup in the mountains.
Well, then what when you sawthat ad at R, did you realize
that you know, as you saw it,did they say it was like
anything to do with you know theRTO side, or was it just hey,
this is a tire technician, I'mgonna go do that, and then you
got it later.

SPEAKER_01 (26:31):
That's what it was.
It was it was just a tiretechnician spot.
Um and and once again, this isthe mindset of me, I was burnt
out of retail, and that's whatit'd do to you.
I mean, it literally burnt burntme down to nothing.
Um and then coming in and justwanting to get back in the shop
because that's where I camefrom.
That was my life.
It's I didn't care about themoney.

(26:53):
Um, you know, I I famously telleverybody I started here with
this company at$8.50 an hour.
That was that was where Istarted at, you know, and then
and worked my way up.
But you know, when when that adcomes out, and I think that goes
for a lot of the techs now.
When they see the ad, they don'tknow what the back end of the
company is.
Um now I do explain it to them.
I tell them that when we getinvolved, when they come in for

(27:15):
interviews, I do tell them thatyou know I was never told that,
I just knew it was a tire spot.
Um but yeah, the ads wise arejust presenting just as another
service shop.
Um and and talking about thefurniture side of it and stuff,
and and that's that was thehardest thing.
I think with what we do, thebest combination we could have
is one of those old school RTOguys and a tech guy working

(27:37):
together as either assistantmanager and manager or manager
and assistant, one of the two.
Um because, like you said,having that idea of how things
work, even though coming fromthe RTO side of in the furniture
side, but you have no clue aboutthe automotive side.

unknown (27:52):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (27:52):
Same aspect.
If you don't know automotive,you ain't gonna, you're not
gonna succeed, you're gonnafail.
So it kind of goes hand in handwith it.
Um, and something I don't thinkwe talked about at one time, but
I don't I don't know if any ofthe other franchises have it,
but you know, we have an MITprogram, a manager and training
program to where to where webring other people in, and they
before they get into themanagement side, either
assistant manager or manager,they go through shop training,

(28:16):
account training, sales admin.
So it's not a just instantpromotion, you're getting in
here.
We put you, you go through theringer, you you're going out in
the shop with me for threeweeks.
You're gonna learn just as muchwork as they do out there with
the tire guys, you're gonna bedoing it.
You're gonna learn it.
Anthony, you can change sometires, right?

SPEAKER_02 (28:32):
You gotta learn today.
You're gonna learn.
You're gonna learn today.

SPEAKER_01 (28:35):
I love it.
I love it.
But yeah, that's that's just oneof those things.
But you know, that's it.
That's where, like you said, thetraining is key to to success
anymore.
You have to understand it.
Um and giving everybody all thetools to on to do it is is a big
thing.
And uh yeah, and and I love it.

SPEAKER_02 (28:55):
When you well, I could tell.
I can tell.
You invested in that, I cantell.
When you're talking about thetechnical side, when I say the
technical side on the car side,more let me phrase it that way.
You know, we're talking aboutthe automotive car side.
What is the difference for someof the people who are listening
who don't know what RR TireExpress does versus a Sears or
versus a Tire Kingdom?
What is the difference?

(29:15):
When you come into an RR TireExpress, what can you expect
versus going to one of thoseother retailers?
And then why does that make iteasier, better, and and more
efficient for a rent-ownedcustomer?

SPEAKER_01 (29:27):
The the biggest difference you're gonna see is
the customer service side.
Once again, going back to whatwe originally talked about.
Um, the packages we give all ourcustomers, the the the lifetime
rotation, balancing, flatrepairs, life of the tire
alignments, none of the big boxstores, these retailers aren't
doing that.
Uh, you know, you could buy it,you could pay for it, but we
give it to them as part of ourpackage that we do.

(29:50):
Um, the year of roadsideassistance.
I mean, that there's there's somany things that we just
include.
And the biggest thing is everytime you come in our store,
you're gonna get a smile, you'regonna be represented.
I mean, it's just it's it's hardto explain until you see it
yourself.
And you know, if if we couldhave everybody walk into a store
with a regular plane shirt andsee how they're treated at one

(30:10):
of our stores compared to goingto one of these big box stores
and walking in being ignored,you know, hey, how are you doing
today?
Right when you walk in, justthat's the difference, and
that's where the key part of itis.
Um once again, it doesn't alwayscome to the money, you know, the
price-wise stuff that service iswhat's going to keep our
customers, uh, no matter what wedo.

(30:30):
It it's that's the key part, andthat's the difference.
That's the difference.

SPEAKER_02 (30:35):
Well, that's absolutely I love the idea
because you really how do youset yourself apart?
What's the customers?
The customer, you you ask thecustomer, and if they're giving
enough five-star reviews, that'smy difference.
Yep.
But so what does a tire expressmean versus a full service
center?
Because if you went to you know,RR Tire Express, I'm I'm not
getting a transmission change,right?
There's there is a bigdifference between what we do
here at R Tire Express versus afull service.

(30:57):
So where where does it stop withthe Tire Express versus a full
service where they can almostget everything done?

SPEAKER_01 (31:05):
And you know, and that's kind of where the stores
are going now.
Now, obviously, before it wasjust wheels and tires.
Now we've gotten into passengertires, now we get into lift.
I mean, that's that the serviceside of it, yes, but there's
there's things that we're notgoing to do.
We're not doing fluid changes,we're not doing engine rebuilds,
we're not doing tune-ups, stufflike that.
But the biggest serviceintervals are your tires, your

(31:26):
rotations, your alignments haveto get done.
And with us now up in some ofour services to where we're
doing the brake repair, frontend repair, uh the lift kits,
lowering kits, all the extrastuff is because those customers
is a constant, they always aregonna need this service.
The tune-ups, you're gonna seesomebody once every 70,000 miles
for a tune-up.
You know, oil changes, yeah, alittle bit more consistent, but

(31:47):
there's a lot of um hazardousmaterial stuff, and there's a
lot more to come into play inthat, which we just as much as I
say we like to do it, it's alot, and I don't think we'll get
to that point yet, at least notright now.
Um, but yeah, the biggest thingis is we're gonna take care of
the biggest thing you're on theroad with.
You the tires, as much as peopledon't realize that tire is the

(32:10):
most important part of your car.
That tire goes bad while you'redriving it down the road at 70
miles an hour, it could be ahuge thing.
You know, it's a lot of stuffthat can happen.
An engine goes bad, you're gonnastop.
You know, it's this is to keepyou and your family safe.
We're doing everything you needto be safe, and it's we're
always gonna be there for you.
You know, it's it's service witha smile, it costs everything is

(32:34):
just it's it's to take care ofonce again.
I know I said it, taking care ofthe customer and giving them
that option where they're nothaving to bounce back and forth
to all these different places toget things done.
Um, and truthfully, that's whereI think this became the biggest
thing is I was in my position asa manager to have to tell my
customer to go to anotherlocation, another store or a
competitor to get something donebecause we couldn't do it for

(32:57):
them.
So backtracking that that'sprobably the biggest thing.
I don't want to have to sendpeople other different places.
I want to be able to take careof everything they need on that
one stop.
They come in for their tires,we're fixing their front end,
we're any kind of brake issuesthey got, we're taking care of
all that instead of sending thema million different places.
And and that's kind of what seteverything apart, and that's

(33:18):
where the growth and andeverything's coming from is
that.
So, yeah, I mean it's hard todifferent.
We may want to do more in thefuture, but where we're at right
now, it's it's starting to getto that point to where it's the
one-stop shop.
We're taking care of ourcustomers, we're not sending
them to different places, we'renot having to worry about them
going somewhere and havingissues.
We're we're getting everythingtaken care of on the spot.

(33:40):
And then our safety program thatwe do inspection-wise and making
sure that the cars are safe forthe customer is huge.
I promise you that's more thananybody else is doing.
Maybe a dealership might bedoing a little bit better, but
yeah, we we do a very good jobat it.

SPEAKER_02 (33:55):
So if somebody goes into like if somebody goes into
account management, because youknow, I agree with you 100%,
that's where the rubber meetsthe road.
That's when you start learningRTO and and how the flexible
payment options work.
What do if somebody's coming in,do they have the ability to go
directly into the accountmanagement position, or is it

(34:16):
key that they learn accountmanagement from automotive
first?
You got to go and do the tire,you've got to go learn uh, you
know, how it it is to put thison, take this off, and what you
have to do before you can gointo account management.
Or is there, do you have aprogram where you're like, hey,
we can kind of teach both at thesame time so you can be in
account management?
Like, how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 (34:34):
So, so we actually do have certain account managers
do go in the shop for training.
Our running position, you know,our account runner tends to have
to go into the shop for two orthree weeks to learn everything
that comes of that.
A regular account manager, notso much, other than the
scheduling side and understandthe repetition of when the
customers come in.
Now, personally, once again,kind of something to touch back

(34:56):
on.
I would rather have somebody100% green and teach them and
train them the right way.
Um, have we had account managersfrom other companies come in?
100%, yes, it happens.
But you being in the businessand knowing sometimes habits
come with those, and it's nothabits that we wanted, are are
locations.
That's not how we treatcustomers.
And knowing accounts, accountscan get rough.

(35:18):
And that's exactly why I said Ihit a brick wall, because I'm
not that rough guy.
I'm not the one to sit here andthrow the dabs over the phone.
You know, I'm I want to takecare of you, but you know, but
truthfully, I I if if I hadsomebody that just wanted to get
a job and wants to learn, and Iexplained to them what that
particular position includes ordetails, and they said they want

(35:38):
to take a chance at it, I'd 100%give them a chance.
Because, like I said, we couldteach them and train them from
day one on the way we want totake care of our customers and
how we want the accounts arehandled.
Um, I've been through a lot.
I've seen a lot of guys come infrom the furniture side, I've
seen a lot of guys come in fordifferent companies, and
everybody has a different way ofdoing things, you know.
And and what's weird is youwouldn't think that would be.

(35:59):
You would think everybody hasthe same basic steps when it
comes to the collections andaccounts, but that's not that's
far from it.
Um but yeah, I could takeliterally we could take anybody
and I could train for anyposition in that store just
because of how we do ourtraining program, how we we
scrub you down.
It's almost like being in theMarine Corps or an army.

(36:20):
We break you down and we buildyou back up.
And you know, it's it's it'sabout the easiest way I could
explain it.
But yeah, I mean anybody coulddo the job.
We just with the way we have theprocesses and the procedures we
have and play with our trainingand the hands-on abilities, it's
I could put anybody in there anddo it.

SPEAKER_02 (36:37):
So now that you're in this new position, you have
the ability to kind of seeeverybody, talk to everybody,
train everybody.
How many uh how many weeks areyou on the road a year?
How much are you traveling?
You getting those frequent flyerand Hilton points?

SPEAKER_01 (36:48):
What's going on?
Yeah, I mean, the last, the lastuh, my wife ain't happy about
it, but you know, the last uh Ibetter have to be a little bit
of a few the last month and ahalf, I've been gone pretty much
about a month of it.
So it's but it's it's it's it'swhat was signed up for.
I knew what I was getting into,and you know, it's it's
something I love doing.
To have that ability, like Isaid, coming from the retail
side, not having anybody do thatto myself, you know, no one knew

(37:12):
me.
You know, the training programsI was in when I was going
through it was not like that.
It was not the hands-on, it washere looking a book or do a
pre-test and then take the testand learn it.
Um being able to go and and helpthese guys knowing they have
families, you know, they havekids, everything is is is is
makes me very happy and proud ofwhat I'm doing.

(37:35):
Um it's just gonna keep gettingbetter.
You know, the the the moreexperience we bring into these
stores, even if it's not just onthe service side of it from
sales, accounts, because I couldput any point I want in there
and help somebody, you know, butit's it's yeah, on the road a
lot, but it's worth it 100%.
Um, I wouldn't like to be doinganything different than I'm

(37:57):
doing right now because it'sit's what I'm still feeling.

SPEAKER_02 (37:59):
Listen, I got a I got a question.
Would you be in a different spotright now if in your early years
somebody like you would havebeen able to step in and said,
Don't worry about reading thebook, let me show you, let me do
some hands-on, let me get behindyou, and really this is how it
gets done away from the pages ofthe book and the videos on the
screen.
Would you be in a differentposition right now if you had a
you 30 years ago?

SPEAKER_01 (38:19):
Probably, because you know, I wouldn't have I I
would have learned real quickwhere the responsibility could
be from a certain from thetraining side of things, because
you know, I don't knowdirection-wise, because that's a
tough one to say exactly whereI'd gone.
Maybe I would have been inmanagement a lot faster.
You know, I would have probablybeen in the management a little
bit quicker at that point, youknow.
But the the one nice thing Isay, I've only had a couple I've

(38:42):
had enough jobs that I couldcount on one hand through my
life.
I've not I'm not a jumper onthings and stuff like that.
Um, if anything, it would havesped me up into management.
I maybe wouldn't have beenturning wrenches for a couple
less years.
Um but you know, I wish therewas another me back in the day,
you know.
You know, and actually talkingto Ken yesterday, he he made a

(39:04):
thing.
He said, uh, always uh how'd heput it?
Surround yourself with peoplesmarter than you is what he
said.
And you know, I and you think ofthat and you're like, well, I
don't want well, no, I meanyou're right.
How it comes across becauseyou're always having someone
that has a little bit moreknowledge is just gonna teach
you.
And and me learning somethingnew every day, I'm down for.
That's that's 100% what I wouldI like to do.

(39:26):
But uh yeah, he made thatcomment.
And it took a little while atfirst to get it.
And I'm like, you know what?
In all reality, you're 100%true.
You know, you're not looking,you you got you can't have that
worry about they're better thanme, they're gonna take my job,
but they're gonna educate memore.
And you know, that's that's thebiggest thing.
I wish I yeah, I wish we couldgo back and have somebody that
was more hands on.
I wish that would have been theway the field was back in the
day.
It's just it wasn't, you know,it's just one of those things

(39:49):
that's coming around now.

SPEAKER_02 (39:50):
Yeah.
Well, you know, I can alwaystell you, one of the mentors
that I have was would always saythis to me.
We probably have three or fourconversations a week, and every
once in a while I I would hearthis uh, you know, show me their
five closest friends orcolleagues, and I'll paint you a
picture.
It don't have to, I don't haveto see that person.
I'll just paint you a picture.
And it's like, I really need tofigure out if they're painting
the Mona Lisa or if they'repainting uh my daughter's school

(40:12):
picture, you know, she showedme.
I love you, baby.
But you know, just it's just oneof those things, like it it
really does make a difference,and who you surround yourself
with is going to determine howfar you go because that
knowledge and and you'rebouncing things off of them and
they're bouncing things off ofyou, and you being able to learn
from somebody's experience orknowledge, or hey, I got knocked
down.
This is probably not a directionyou want to go.

(40:33):
How do you learn from this?
And you know, I take that.
So talking about that, walk usthrough your role.
You have a day-to-day role.
Walk us through like a week ofwhat it's like to be in Jason's
shoes in this new position.

SPEAKER_01 (40:47):
Uh well, I mean, first off, you got the road
time, obviously.
I mean, I'm I'm an early guy.
I probably get the stores a lotearlier than some of the
managers do.
You know, I'm uh on the roadearly, get there.
Usually it's a lot of theservice reports, which I showed
you some of that.
You know, I keep track of um howthe stores are doing on their
service, um, month to date, yearto date, so forth.

(41:07):
Um, updating any kind ofprocedures we're doing.
Um, you know, we're we're usingsome new programs that a lot of
people never used in theautomotive field for customer
tracking and stuff like that.
So going through that training,and then that's most of the
morning.
Afternoon is going to be in theshop.
That's where it is.
I mean, it's going through brakeprocedures, the safety

(41:28):
procedures, um, proper balancingtechniques, alignments.
I mean, it's almost like being atech again, but now I ain't
getting dirty.
Now I get to watch people getdirty.
But it's it's still, you know,that the hands-on part, like I
said, I could give anybody abook and do it, but sitting
there and explain it to themstep by step, and then have them

(41:48):
do it again and again, therepetitiveness is what gets it
in our head.
This is how we're gonna do it.
Um, and be able to do that andknow for a fact that when I
leave that store, um the guys orgals are certified, they're
gonna get a pay increase becausenow they're certified on what
they're doing, and now they cango full at it and start giving
that um service to the customer.

(42:10):
Um, and it's just it'ssatisfying to have that feeling
that you've made a difference insomebody's life when it comes to
that.
Um then reports and more stuff.
I mean, it's a constant, it's ago-around, man.
It's and then the next day,wherever store it's at, is is
it's it's a constant same on andsame on.
Um, a lot of phone calls, whichI have no problem with.

(42:31):
FaceTime, I'm really good at.
Um I've had texts, I've had DMscall me with issues, you know,
just to be able to get onFaceTime and help them walking
through them and get them fixed.
But it it's it's constant andit's busy all the time.
Um well, like I said, wouldn'thave it any other way.
That's what I signed up for.
Um you're in it now, baby.
You're in it now.

(42:51):
100%.

SPEAKER_02 (42:52):
So, what factors go into, let's say, you know, and
we can keep it weekly, but whatfactors go into you deciding,
okay, I need to be here, here,and here next week versus over
there, right?
What factors come into play?
Because you know, sometimes whenit's in sales, you can say, hey,
they're lacking in sales.
Hey, there, you know, we have acustomer complaint.
We need to be over there.
But what do you have thatdetermines, hey, this is where

(43:13):
I'm gonna be the next week andthis is why?

SPEAKER_01 (43:15):
So a lot of it, the new hire process, you know, if
we get a service manager in, Ialready know that that's gonna
be one of the not that's that'sone of the spots we're going to.
Um, that's gonna be a little bitmore in detail when it comes to
the service manager.
Um, going through the ShopMonkey.
Same thing with thecertifications, because in order
to be a service manager, youhave to be certified just like
the techs.
So they're gonna come in andthey're gonna go out there,

(43:36):
they're gonna turn the wrenches,they're gonna be able to do the
hands-on for when I'm not there.
If I can't get a hold of thatservice manager's gonna be able
to train and make sure they'regetting it done properly.
The techs, they have to be in aposition for a certain amount of
time before we certify them.
They got to prove a little bitof what they're doing.
Um, we have a couple differenttiers.
We have L1, uh, which is gonnabe our basic tire tech, doing

(43:59):
rotate, bounce.
Balances and tires.
L2s is a capable, same as theL1, but it's capable of doing
alignments on their own.
Uh complete front and rearwithout having to be watched
over.
L3s, additional to the L2s, isbrake certified.
Then we have L4s, which is liftkit certified, where they could
do the front end working liftkits.

(44:20):
And we've now got it to an L5,which is everything.
Plus, on top of that, if theychoose to get an ASC
certification, we give themadditional.
I've actually done pre-testswith AAC.
I've gone through about 250, 300questions and produced a little
pretest for all of our guys togo through to prep them for that
also.
Um, because the ASC testshaven't changed much from when I

(44:41):
took them.
If anything, they've gotten alittle bit more difficult when
it comes to that because youhave to be really on the
technical side.
Um, but a lot of it just dependson the placement and where
they're at.
And then when I do them, I tendto try to knock out two or three
stores in the area I'm at.
I don't want to, because welarge we cover such a large
area.
I just can't be traveling toTennessee and then all the way
back to the coast and savanna.

(45:02):
You know, I kind of got to groupthe stores where I'm gonna be
at, where the where the whereI'm needed at the most.
Um, but that's the hiring part,and then what level they're at
is where it goes to goes from.

SPEAKER_02 (45:13):
Hey everyone, it's Pete Chao here from the RTO Show
Podcast, and I want to tell youabout a company that's making a
real difference in therent-to-owned space.
WoW brands.
I've seen firsthand how theyapproach marketing.
And let me tell you, it's notjust about ads.
WoW brands build completedigital ecosystems designed
specifically for therent-to-owned industry.
Their e-commerce and leadgeneration strategies are built

(45:35):
to bring qualified leads.
And did I mention that they areactively working with the
rent-town industry while alsobeing members of April and Trib?
Listen, these folks arepassionate problem solvers.
They don't just slap somethingtogether, they design, build,
and scale the kind of digitalretail tools your business
needs.
Your customers actually want.
So if you're serious aboutgrowing, reach out to WoWBrands

(45:58):
at WoWBrands.com.
I trust them, and I think youwill too.
You know, you said somethingthere.
I mean, you you got training,you got levels, you got ASE.
You know, there's a level five.
I feel like I should graduate toa level five right now.
I need to, you know, spend moretime.
But so who trains the trainer asyou're going through this?
I know that they don't do thingsthat they did, you know, 30

(46:18):
years ago.
Things have elevated, they getbetter, tires get better,
compounds get better, you know,techniques get better, wheels
are different, right?
Wheels were way different nowthan they were back then.
They're all pretty much aluminumnow, and you know, not cars now.
They don't have hubcaps anymore.
I mean, I don't know.
There might be one that hasthem, but I mean everybody has
you know the solid rim now,they're getting a little bit

(46:39):
larger, you know, average is now17 inch, 18 inch.
You know, I think my car's gotlike 19.
I was like, oh my god, really?
Seriously?
Trying to sell me a tire there.
I'll have to come to you guys.
But what you know, who trains atrainer?
Who takes care of you, and howoften do you do that so that you
can pass that down to your guysand say, you know, because
they're gonna they're gonna wantto know.
I mean, obviously, my maincorporate trainer has got to be

(46:59):
on the level.
He's got to be, you know,certified in just about
everything that he's gonna teachme.
How do you get that?
And how long does that lastbefore you have to redo it?

SPEAKER_01 (47:08):
So, same aspect as what we talked about earlier,
having the smart people aroundyou.
You know, I I learn every daythere's technicians that know
things that I may not know.
Um, the processes from when Iwas doing them hasn't changed.
The technology has.
So the the practices we go alongwith, we're just making safer
for the consumer.
We're just making them safer forthe shop, less responsibility

(47:30):
falls on them.
Um, but like I said, there'sthere's little things that I
learned too on an everydaybasis.
There, there's a new new thingthat I have to learn myself.
Um, I do take my own ASCs, Ikeep myself up on an ASC
certification.
Um, I don't do all of themanymore.
Um, I I primarily stick to thesuspension brakes, and now they
have a service uh consultantASC, believe it or not, that a

(47:53):
service manager, which I'mthinking about, uh might be our
next step is get our guyscertified, ASC certified in the
service side of it.
Um, the only way really to learnmore is if we got into the more
technology technol technicologyor technology side of things
when it comes to the moreelectric cars and stuff like
that, which a lot of it now,especially with the electric
cars and stuff, the the rearparking assist on the brake

(48:16):
services and stuff, that's allnew to me, but it's opening up a
book or getting on a computerand and looking it up and
learning it.
And the repetitiveness of doingthat is where it just sticks to
you.
Now, if I could give me anotherperson that's similar to what I
do, it'd obviously make lifeeasier.
Um but we got to find somebodythat's willing to do it because
once again, you know, being awayfrom home, then the all that

(48:38):
comes into play.
Not everybody wants to do that.
Um but I self-teach a lot.
There's always gonna be somekind of new documentation,
there's something to learn fromit.
But the biggest thing is the theprocess hasn't really changed.
So it's not really learning thatother than some shortcuts on
things to make it go a littlefaster, make it a little easier.
Um but every day is a new learn.

(49:00):
I mean, it's it's just there'salways gonna be something new to
catch, something to learn, andit's just one of those things
you I have to sometimes yougotta look in the mirror and go,
okay, I need to do this myself.
I can't wait for somebody tobring it.
Um but that's where it comesdown, the self-learning side of
it.

SPEAKER_02 (49:16):
You know, you mentioned something that I
didn't really think about that.
I mean, going from 24 to 26stores, and eventually I know
that you guys are gonna getmore.
Is there gonna be a time where,like, Jason, you can't handle
all the stores by yourself, oryou're gonna be out 52 weeks a
year?
You know, where does that divideline where they come in and say,
Jason, you're gonna have totrain somebody to kind of do
what you do and maybe take over10, 13 stores so you can split

(49:37):
it in half and have some time athome?
Because that is important, youknow, and especially you know,
some of the guys that when Iwent to uh North Carolina and I
saw them, they you know, they'revery family oriented, very smart
guys, and they understand how itis to have a home life just like
it is to be you know dead onwith your business.
Is there is there a part of youguys even talked about that yet,
considering how new this is?

SPEAKER_01 (49:56):
It was it was talked about at the beginning.
You know, they're they'reactually very concerned about
that, you know, and that's andjust like you said, it is a
family business, it is familyoriented.
Our our business and life,family life is a is a good mix.
Um, the problem is with it, isfor how important this position
is, the safety-wise for thecustomers.

(50:16):
We don't want to just haveanybody go into it, someone's
gotta be prepared for it andwilling to do it also.
Um, with the amount of stores wehad, we had to make the decision
a little faster than I thinkthey wanted to.
Um but just on the safety sideof it, it's it's so huge.
And like I said, it's it's gottabe the right people.
We can't just have someone goingaround and pointing to telling

(50:38):
somebody to do something, butnot actually getting into that
part with them, the hands-onsituation to make sure it's
getting done properly.
Because anybody could do that,you know.
Um, the one the one thing Icould say with pride is you
know, with this business, thebiggest safety thing is like we
talked about, is the tires andwheel side of it.
Um we started this in January.

(51:00):
Um and the one thing I'm saying,I'm happy to say we're almost
into the fourth month and nowheel-off situations, no
customer damage, nothing.
Great.
I mean, it's it's practicallybeen eliminated, knocking on the
wood, you know, but that's it'syou got they always say, Can I
make a carbon copy of myself?

(51:20):
That's across the board.
Managers say it all the time.
I need another me to do this.

SPEAKER_02 (51:24):
I've heard that a million times.
Anthony, can you carbon copyyourself in the plan?

SPEAKER_01 (51:28):
I need one too, man.
But that but it's 100% that.
And yes, it was it was a concernof theirs, and they still check
up on me.
They make sure I'm and that'sthat's what I love about this is
you know, the owners, managementwill always check on you to make
sure you're okay.
And you know, that's that's thebiggest thing.
That, you know, are you okay?
You spend enough time, is thisgoing good?
You need anything?
It's a constant question becausethey want to make sure we're

(51:49):
happy and we're doing, you know,obviously doing our jobs, but we
got to get the right person andeventually it will.
We'll we'll find somebody andthen and we'll split it up or
whatever we got to do to make ita little bit easier across the
board.
Um, but we're not just gonnathrow anybody in that position.
It's just like a manager, we'renot just gonna throw anybody in
a manager's position and run astore and expect to take care of
the customers and the businessat the same time.

(52:10):
We gotta have the right, rightcombination.
Um, but yeah, I I foresee it.
It happened.

SPEAKER_02 (52:15):
I love I love the talk, man.
I love you know the training andthe technical side and saying,
hey, we haven't had any issues.
We have zero days when you say,when's the last problem that we
had?
It's been uh, you know, 100, 300days, not yesterday.
So that's I love that.
I love how that is.
But going back just a hair, assomebody comes in, right?
They might not have the RTOexperience, like you did.

(52:36):
You didn't have that RTOexperience, you didn't know what
it was like.
What are some of the the couldyou know, if somebody comes in,
what attributes do you thinkbenefit them going into this
technical road in the in theshop or as an RTO person and the
tire and wheel side and the RRside, what do you think, you
know, coming into the business,what is something that they
could already have or haveworked on or have experience in

(52:59):
that would give them a leg up?

SPEAKER_01 (53:00):
You know, it it's a hard question to answer because
me, anytime I'm looking to hiresomebody, obviously from the
service side, it's the technicalknowledge.
Um, and not all technology isgood because how they were
trained at one particular placeisn't always the best.
They could say they knoweverything and then come to us,
and it's a complete opposite.
Um truthfully, when it's frontcounter, even accounts, anything

(53:23):
like that, I look at thepersonality, you know.
And that's a key part of it.
The personality with what thecustomers see day in and day out
and what they hear over thephone is a big key, you know, um
the ability to communicate withpeople properly.
It's it's not always about theskill base, especially on the
front side of it.
Shops a little different, but onthe front side of it, when it

(53:44):
comes to sales, accountmanagers, the communication,
personality, all plays a bigpart of it.
I I can I like I said before,you give me a guy that's got 20
years experience at one place,and you give me somebody that's
coming in fresh, I got a betterchance of training that guy that
comes in fresh with a goodattitude, good communication
skills, and a hell of apersonality against a guy that's

(54:05):
a hard and 20-year vet in thebusiness that is just gonna come
over and and I hate to say it,but think they know everything
and and it's their way or noway.
So it's it's one of those flipquestions.
Server-side, 100%, you got tohave a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 (54:20):
We we have one of those situations, and we used to
call it, you know, when somebodycame in and we were doing
interviews, we would try to dothe interviews on one or two
days a week because you know youcould spread them out for
forever and ever and ever,right?
And uh one of the things that weused to say to the GMs was if
you get them green, make themlean.
You know what I mean?
Like they can come in and juststreamline it and they don't
have all these pre predisposed,you know, ideas of what they

(54:41):
should be doing or the cursorsof, hey, I've done this, I've
done that, I've done this.
But have you done it like us?
And that's always a big thing.
Talking about that, and I wantto read this right because I
wrote this down and I wanted tomake sure that I asked you the
right way.
How do you balance speed,quality, and safety in a high
volume environment, such as rimsunder RR Tire Express?

SPEAKER_01 (55:02):
So, what it comes down to is Jason.
I just want you to know I'mtrying to stump you, man.

SPEAKER_02 (55:06):
I'm trying to throw you some hard questions.
I'm trying to throw a couple ofhard questions in here.

SPEAKER_01 (55:09):
So it's it's it's so I come from a store, Gastonia.
We were over 1100 customers.
We did a ton of service work.
We we we constantly we havestores now.
You got Knoxville andChattanooga that are 1700, 1600
customer stores.
Um the speed and stuff it's theprocedures and policies.

(55:29):
I mean, the the these guys areso in tune with how we do
things, and especially from thesafety aspect.
You know, we talk about speedand safety.
You know, Shop Monkey, which isa big part that we came about
about two and a half years agoand started doing um the
processes that we put in play,the procedures of how the how
the vehicles are looked over,how things get brought to the

(55:50):
customer while the guys arestill working on it.
It's all flow.
I mean, I guess that's the bestway of talking about it when it
comes to the shop, is especiallywith the service manager
position.
They're they're they're lookingat the tickets that are hanging,
they're figuring out what isgoing to be priority, what's not
priority, what could be put offbecause it's a customer
drop-off.

(56:10):
You know, that's where all thistechnical side with shop monkey
comes into play now because nowit's digital.
Now we got a big TV, a 52-inchTV on the shop that is
color-coded by what is waiting,what the service is.
The guys see it and they canprep themselves as they're
working through the day on whatneeds to be done.
And then you got the servicemanager in there coordinating

(56:31):
it.
He's the general, he's the onethat's making everything move in
the right direction.
And then obviously the safetyprocedures.
There's a lot that go into,there's a lot of moving parts
that come into play.
Uh, so a specific part of it toanswer that is not, it's just
the whole thing.
Everything just works together.
It's a well-oiled machine.

SPEAKER_02 (56:49):
I guess it's everybody working under one
light sign of uh light of sightand uh you know having a shop
manager in there and sayingthis, this, and this.

SPEAKER_01 (56:59):
And that's where it comes into play.
And you know, that's whatsometimes makes the difference
from a 500, 600 counts customerstore to the 11, 15, 1700
customer count store is theability to have that shop
because if if a customer comesin and is sitting in our store
for two and a half hours to geta set of tires, they're not
gonna come back.
I'm sorry, it's just not gonnahappen.

(57:20):
So that's where the shop flowand everything comes into play
from the front counter to theback when it comes to closing an
agreement.
Everything is just a constantwell-oiled machine on how it
works.
Is there hiccups?
Yeah, there's always gonna bespeed bumps.
That happens, but as long as wehandle it the right way and fix
it, you know.
But the flow chart policyprocedure and how just overall

(57:43):
the well-oiled machine.
I mean, I that's that's reallythe easiest way of saying it.
It's just we put everything intoplay to where it's pretty
consistent.

SPEAKER_02 (57:51):
Well, there's a couple things I want to talk
about real real quick.
I just want to mention, numberone, 1100 customers, and they
have stories that great guys.
If that if you saw threecustomers a day, seven days a
week, it would still take you anentire year to see every
customer.
That is amazing.
I love the fact that you know,we have the monitor up in the in
the shop, and you can see that.
I love the way that, you know,we as things progress, they also

(58:13):
progress with it.
Uh, I will say, and I'm notgetting paid by Shop Monkey to
say this, but you know, ShopMonkey being integrated with
some of the AI and kind of beingable to help take that load off
on times that we're not there,you know, after hours or early
morning really does seem to helpplay that role in getting
somebody into the store andgetting them taken care of as
soon as possible.
So it's just, you know, it'swatching AI get integrated and

(58:34):
still being able to take care ofthe customer with that friendly
smile as they walk in, take careof them quickly and get them out
safely without having anythinggo on, you know, still having
that thing like, hey, nothinghappened, uh, nobody wheels fall
off, no tire blew out for youknow erroneous means.
I love that.
I love the MIT program.
I love the fact that, you know,we can do whatever we need to do

(58:54):
with whatever positions totrain, learn, get certified, and
get them going as soon aspossible.
Jason, you've like really beenable to kind of highlight some
of the things that are going onat RIMS that makes you guys one
of the best franchisees that RRhas.
I'm not gonna say the bestbecause I don't want anybody to
get mad at me, but you guys aredoing an amazing job out there.
And if you want to learn, youmight want to learn from Jason.
He's doing a great job.

(59:15):
Coming into the end, I want to Iwant to shoot some small
questions at you and just gethow you feel about these things.
Uh, real quick, what changes areyou seeing in the tire and wheel
segment right now that you knoware are is new?

SPEAKER_01 (59:26):
Um, like what you're talking about, the AI part of
it.
Um, you know, with with I thinkpeople getting a little smarter
now and and or not, I don't wantto say smarter, but
self-conscious about money-wise,the wheel and tire business has
slowed down a little bit andit's now going kind of geared
towards the passenger side.
Um, I really don't see anychanges other than the AI that's
bringing some of the technologythat's coming along.

(59:48):
Um, even as simple as going outto the customer's car and
checking tread depth.
There's there's machines now,you just put it on the tire and
it reads everything for you.
I mean, the technology side isis is growing and is going to
keep getting bigger and bigger.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:02):
Wow.
I love that.
Is there anything coming downthe pipeline that you guys, as
far as dealers, should belooking out for?
Something new that's comingdown, or maybe something that's
you should watch out for as faras you know, you don't want to
get involved in that.
And it is it electric cars?
And I know that's a wholedifferent ball game there
because I know they weigh more,they wear the tire differently,
they have different tiresbecause of the weight, the way

(01:00:23):
they stop, the way they go.
Like, what is you know, what issomething coming down the
pipeline that you see that willcause us to shift our pivot a
little bit?

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:30):
You know, truthfully, the the the electric
car is the e-cars are going tobe a big part of it.
But if once again, theknowledge, if you know how to do
them, if you're trained rightthe way to work on them, you'll
never have a problem with them.
Um, a lot of it is is liftpoints on those cars.
Yeah, the tires are different,some of them have uh sound
deafening foam in them.
I mean, there's a lot ofdifferent things that come into

(01:00:51):
play.
Um, but the knowledge of knowingwhat to look for, the knowledge
of working on the cars, that'sreally what it comes down to.
If you if you're sending one ofthose cars into a store that has
no clue what they're doing, it'sgonna cost the store.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:02):
And I do have a side question because I just uh
thought about that right now.
That these e-cars and thesee-trucks that are coming around,
they weigh a lot more than yourtraditional vehicle, right?
Your ice vehicle is, I mean,they they literally have an
empty bed, but these guys, Imean, the whole undercarriage is
full of batteries.
Do you have to have differentlifts for these, you know,
e-vehicles?

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:23):
Not different lifts.
You have lift pads.
There's special pads that, yeah,they have special pads that
actually you could buy themaftermarkets.
Some of them come with them forthat situation if they get
broken down on the side of theroad.
But what it is, it goes, there'sa spot in the frame that is a
certain size, and then they havea pad that pops into it.
It's got a rubber seal, so it'slike popping it into place.
Then you can put your jack underand pick it up from those

(01:01:45):
particular positions.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:46):
Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:46):
That eliminates your racks from hitting any kind of
batteries.
But once again, if you don'thave someone that knows that and
they just go to pick them up,now you're talking a$30,000,
$40,000 damage repair onbreaking one of the e-batteries.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:58):
Just so you guys know, Jason is selling his
position right now.
If you don't have somebody whoknows, let me tell you, you
gotta get a guy from NorthCarolina who's gonna tell you
and again make it happen.
I love it.
Um, how do you how do you seeservice expectations evolving in
the RTO industry?

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:14):
Exactly.
You know, the route that a lotof our franchises are starting
to go now with the service sideof it is is where it's gonna be
key.
Um, we've adapted, you know,we've all learned, you know,
when I first came to R here withthis franchise, we never had
live stock.
You know, uh we started carryinglivestock, you know, we

(01:02:34):
alignments was the thing thatthe RTO on in any tire business
when it comes to RTO never eventhought about.
Um being able to do thealignments for the customers
eliminates one more problem.
Um, then we went to thesuspension repairs, the brake
repairs.
I mean, everything is just oneof those things that just
constantly goes and goes.
And and who knows in three orfour years, there's probably
something else that we're gonnaend up learning, which the only

(01:02:56):
thing I can say closest that Iknow is coming is uh Bluetooth
TPMSs.
That's gonna be the next thing.
Yeah, they're going Bluetooth,which is gonna change up
everything once again.
You know, it's gonna throw awrench in a lot of different
things because it's a wholewhole different program, but
that's that's gonna be the nextup and coming thing.
Well, thanks, Jason.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:14):
Now I have something to look up on Google when I get
off this looking up BluetoothTPMS sensors.
Oh, yeah.
Listen, Jason, it's been amazingto have you on the show.
You you are a breath of freshair, and we do a lot of
traditional side, and I'm notsaying that's a bad thing, guys,
but I love learning about thingsthat I don't know about and
talking to people that I reallyhaven't had the chance to sit
down with.
You've done an amazing job.
I'm gonna tell you if you guyswant to reach out to Jason and

(01:03:35):
ask any Venom questions that hehas, listen, between Jordans and
Venoms, he's got all the I'mjust looking at all the you
know, you stuff that you havebehind him.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:43):
I can't see the Jordans in my picture.
I guess they're back therehiding in the corner.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:46):
Yeah, they're back there on the left over there.
But I'm gonna tell you guyswhat.
If you guys have any questionsfor Jason Chewy or anything for
the show, reach out Pete at theRTO Showpodcast.com.
Email me, let's talk.
You can also find us onFacebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,
and YouTube where you're gonnasee this.
Jason, thank you so much forbeing on the show.
It's been great to talk to youand see all the stuff that you
have going on back there.
Guys, I'm gonna tell you, pleasedon't forget to subscribe, hit

(01:04:08):
that button so that you get anotification every time that we
put out a new show.
And I'm gonna tell you guys, asalways, go buy some swag on the
website and get your collectionslow to get your sales high.
Have a great one.

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