93 - Fortune in the Followup & Inspiring Women

93 - Fortune in the Followup & Inspiring Women

March 13th, 2024 - 00:53:17

 

Show Summary:

The real growth in your business doesn’t come from chasing new customers, it comes from taking care of the ones you already have. In this powerful episode, the host Jimmy Lea from the Institute discusses relevant industry topics with Ryan D’Souza from Steer CRM, and Summer Guerrero of Affinity Auto Service explore how CRMs, personalized communication, and automation can unlock long-term growth for automotive repair shops. Summer shares her incredible personal journey, proving that grit, heart, and the right tools can drive success no matter where you start.

 

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

 

Guest(s):

Ryan D’Souza, Steer CRM

Summer Guerrero, Owner, Affinity Automotive Services

 

Episode Highlights:

[00:04:40] - “It costs five times more to get a new customer than keep the ones you've got” — Ryan explains that the real revenue lies in your existing database, not new customer acquisition.

[00:06:11] - Summer shares how missing CRM automation caused a 6-month drop in returning customers and phone calls, proving how essential follow-up is.

[00:07:09] - Customers who trust you will spend more and return more often, follow-up drives lifetime value.

[00:08:01] - A great CRM must support data-driven personalization, compliance, and multi-location visibility to truly nurture customer relationships.

[00:11:35] - Reviews are a huge trust signal; automated review requests via text are a key feature of a good CRM.

[00:15:24] - Ryan breaks down dynamic automation: CRMs should trigger follow-ups based on key events (like service due dates or birthdays), so you can “set it and forget it.”

[00:16:36] - Summer says CRM automation saves time and keeps the personal touch, freeing staff to focus on higher-value tasks.

[00:30:34] - Steer CRM supports A/B testing for campaign optimization, helping shops learn what messages drive the most revenue.

[00:21:37] - Summer uses CRM reporting to target marketing—like identifying top vehicle makes for future campaigns.

[00:46:53] - Ryan concludes: the goal of a CRM is to free up your time, grow revenue, and personalize communication that builds long-term customer loyalty.

 

In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.

 

👉 Unlock the full experience - watch the full webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSlefIap_3w

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Jimmy Lea: Welcome, everybody, as you are filing in. So glad to have you here with us as we are going to have an awesome webinar.

Jimmy Lea: Super excited to have with me Ryan and our special guest. And our webinar today it was supported by the institute and steer CRM. Thank you, Ryan. I gave you a raise here the other day, Ryan we had you as chief revenue officer and we did give you a raise to the chief growth officer. I'll show you.

Ryan D'Souza: Perfect. Perfect. Hopefully it comes on my paycheck soon. 

Jimmy Lea: And infinity automotive service. Summer Guerrero is going to join us as well. So there you go, Ryan. How about that right there? Chief growth officer. Perfect. Oh, so excited. So excited to have you with us. Exciting for our conversation that we're going to have here as well.

Jimmy Lea: And especially, let's see, we'll stop that. Yes, here we are. All of us, we've got attendees coming in. They're coming in fast and furious. Thank you to everybody who's joining us on this live event. In fact, this is going to be interactive for both of us. We want to make sure that everybody understands how to be interactive with this webinar.

Jimmy Lea: So at the bottom of your screen, there should be a questions and answer a Q& A box. Go ahead and click on that box. And then type in, if you will, please, where you're joining us from today. I love to see everybody where they're joining us from where city state that you're joining us put in there. Also your shop name.

Jimmy Lea: We'll give you a shout out here as we're going live with this. Webinar, show, chat, show on the cloud, on the computer, polls and quizzes. Where's my Q and A? There it is. Found it. Found it. All right. Those that are joining us from today. Well, I thought I found it.

Jimmy Lea: Anybody seen the Q and A? Where are people joining us from today? 

Ryan D'Souza: Yeah, we can see it. I can see it. 

Summer Guerrero: Welcome our guest! New City, Florida. Boston, Massachusetts. We have Lynn from Mad Hatter Automotive. What's up, Lynn? 

Jimmy Lea: I saw Mike. We saw Mike at Vision. Did you see them, Summer? 

Summer Guerrero: Mad Hatter? I did not, but I have checked out their brand new customized website.

Summer Guerrero: So you gotta check it out. It's pretty awesome. 

Jimmy Lea: Yes. Yes. Yes. Love that. And Lynn, it's showing that you are Mike. How about that? Tom Thomas from Greenville, South Carolina. First class halt for locations. Welcome, Thomas. Glad to have you here with us. Tulsa auto doctors, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jeff McKill McElroy.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I think I got that one right, Jeff. Thank you. Thank you. Don from Kearney. See, and we said it right, didn't we, Summer? 

Summer Guerrero: Yeah. Huntington Beach. Love the beach. Love it there. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. California. Mike from Appleton, Wisconsin. How's the weather in Wisconsin? Trish from Gustafson's Brothers Huntington Beach.

Jimmy Lea: There's your Huntington Beach one. Nice. Loving that. Mike at Mad Hatter. Carny Tire. Hi, from Atlanta, Georgia, Emily. Thank you, Emily. Ottawa, Canada. There you go. 

Ryan D'Souza: Hey, there we 

Ryan D'Souza: go. Another Canadian. 

Jimmy Lea: Ah, perfect. Another Canadian. We are deep into our international broadcast right now. How about that? Jamie Sanders from San Diego and Mike.

Jimmy Lea: Mike, it was actually Andrea. Oh, from the office with Lynn. So, oh, very nice. Well, that was a Mad Hatter comment right there. So excited that you guys are here. So excited that we are going to pump the, prime the pump and talk about finding the fortune in the follow up. There is a fortune. There is the follow up.

Jimmy Lea: There is hidden gems. In your information, and I'm so excited to have Ryan here so we can talk about this because not only are we going to ask questions of Ryan, but summer's going to ask questions of Ryan as well, which is awesome. And then we'll flip the tables and ask some or some questions as well.

Jimmy Lea: So Ryan, help us understand. I'm a new shop owner, or I'm a shop owner that's been in business for five years, 10 years, 20 years, I've got a database, or maybe I don't have a database. Where can I find that fortune? 

Ryan D'Souza: Well, listen, I mean, I think everyone's trying to look for it. Some check in the mattress, I'm checking the backyard, digging up holes, but the reality is most folks don't realize that.

Ryan D'Souza: it actually costs you five times more to get a new customer than keep the ones you've got. So the fortune actually sits in the customers you already have. And when you think about, not only is it more expensive to acquire a new customer, but the conversion of an existing customer is 60 to 70 percent when, five to 20 percent on the new side.

Ryan D'Souza: So listen, When you're talking about three times as easy to get someone who already knows and trusts you to buy more stuff from you, the formula seems simple, but the key is how do you get them to trust and love you? And that is really what I think everyone on this call and everyone even not on this call is looking for in their business, customer love.

Ryan D'Souza: And that customer love comes in many different ways, but ultimately if you can get that customer love and trust, then they're more willing to accept recommendations. And hence spend more with you and ultimately increasing their lifetime value with your business, which is where the fortune lies. 

Jimmy Lea: It's true. It's true. That follow up is so important. So everybody's looking for the silver bullet. There isn't one. Shocker, right? Is there a silver bullet, Ryan? Summer, is there a silver bullet? 

Ryan D'Souza: Yeah, we're looking for it ourselves to put on our shelves as our next big thing to sell. But no, no silver bullets yet.

Jimmy Lea: Summer, have you found that silver bullet yet? 

Summer Guerrero: Well, I will tell you that the follow up is huge. Like that is our bread and butter of what continues to grow our business and make us successful. And you had Ryan, you had just mentioned how important it is. And there was a time that. We had changed management systems that and we didn't realize that we didn't have our CRM set up.

Summer Guerrero: And it took us about six months to realize that because we saw a downfall in phone calls and customers coming back in. And then they were calling and they were a little upset because they didn't get the reminders that we normally send out. We I guess, prepare our customers and train them how we want things to be in our business.

Summer Guerrero: And so when something's not right in your business, your customers are definitely going to feel it and they're going to tell you. And so, Those appointment reminders are super important. Text messages about your appointments when they're coming up reminding them. I mean, it's a busy world right now.

Summer Guerrero: So if you can make sure that those things are in place that's where the money is going to be at. And it's going to your customers that already trust you are going to spend more money with you than the ones that you have to really work for. And another like, super amazing part of CRM is it.

Summer Guerrero: Like we're very personable in our business. So anytime we can customize it, the more customizable and personal, we can make those text messages out to our customers, the more that they love them because it is us actually touching them. So yeah, you are 100 percent on that. 

Jimmy Lea: And I love that. Thank you, Summer.

Jimmy Lea: That's such valuable information. I love the customization. I love the personalization. And to that point, Ryan, what should a shop owner look for in software, in a software for a CRM program? 

Ryan D'Souza: Yeah. So listen, there's a number of things out there and I think folks get into a feature war and a tick box war.

Ryan D'Souza: And I think that's the wrong approach. I think there's a couple of things that you want to make sure you do. And. Some are touched on it a bit in terms of personalization. If you can picture yourself talking in a room with thousands and thousands of people, and you're in the audience, the way you connect with the speaker is when they hit you in a personal way.

Ryan D'Souza: When you say, ah, Hey, that's me. He's speaking to, or she's speaking to, and that level of customization and that personalization only comes with. Understanding your data within your organization within your shop. Not every CRM does that. You want to make sure you look at CRMs that have a rich data structure that looks at D duplication service advisors in a rush.

Ryan D'Souza: You might have john smith in there four times, you don't want to send john smith the same message four times because guess what? They'll know it's a machine and they'll not feel very personally talked to. So that's one thing you want to make sure, D duplication and data is such a big part of it.

Ryan D'Souza: So that's one. Another big thing too, is compliance. Like, we all know it sucks that we have rules that govern the world, and in some cases they hinder us more than they, they help us, but, with recent changes to what's called 10 DLC, and the FCC basically saying, if you're a commercial texter, you better make sure we know how much you text, otherwise, There's going to be a problem.

Ryan D'Souza: You want to make sure that the provider has good 10 DLC registration, make sure they protect you from yourself. Cause guess what? Sending messages is amazing. Unless you're flagged as someone sending spam messages. And then it's something that's really tough to recover from. So make sure your supplier, watches your back in that respect for sure.

Ryan D'Souza: And then one other massive thing is if you've got more than one shop. You want to make sure that the data can be seen across all your locations, whether it's 2, And you can be in corporate looking at data across everybody. You can be in a region looking at that region. And when we say looking at data, it's really understanding how to get your customer segments to love you.

Ryan D'Souza: Because someone who has a Ferrari might love you in a different way than someone that has a Ford F 150 maybe. So you want to make sure you look at your data in a segmented way that you can speak to the person, even though you're sending out maybe a mass text. So you can feel, make them feel like you're speaking directly to them and you really get it and you get them.

Ryan D'Souza: And that builds customer love. So again, data structure, watching your back in terms of compliance on texting and a database that cleanses and looks across all your locations and has multiple permission sets to allow you to look at it from the top down or from different layers, depending on what you decide.

Ryan D'Souza: And then there would probably be an overarching thing is work with a company Literally got a handout to help you whenever you need it. Self serve easy tools are great, but I don't know how many shop owners out there have a ton of spare time. If you do raise your hand and tell everyone else how you're doing it.

Ryan D'Souza: But spare time is not something that most people have. So partner with a company that's going to be able to run campaigns for you, monitor your data and ping you and go, Hey, like you didn't get as good a results as you could have last month. Maybe we should tweak X or tweak Y. That's really what you want to look for.

Ryan D'Souza: So I don't know, maybe a longer answer than people are expecting there, Jimmy, but there's lots to think about when you're looking for a new software partner, other than just features or price. I was 

Summer Guerrero: just going to add real quick was we're talking about text messages and follow ups and just those touch points with the customer and where the bread and butter is, but something Ryan, you didn't really mention and I think is huge is the way that customers communicate now is more so by text or by I mean, they are still checking their emails as well.

Summer Guerrero: But a huge one is, I mean, When that phone does ring, why is it ringing? It's a lot of times it's because of reviews. And so we have the opportunity of having people that have everything linked to their phones. And when we're sending them that text message to ask them for that review when they're happy as well as, you can send a text before the review and just make sure that their car is fine.

Summer Guerrero: So there's Okay. Multiple ways to be able to communicate with your customer and how you want to personalize it, like you were saying, but reviews are huge with a CRM as well. 

Ryan D'Souza: Yeah, absolutely. No, great point. A reputation is something you build over time, but can lose in a minute. So really important to make sure you have a tool that you can, respond with, that you can see feedback good and bad, because honestly, the bad feedback makes us better.

Ryan D'Souza: We oftentimes don't feel that way when it comes in, especially if it's on a Friday night after a few cocktails. But when you see that come in, you need to make sure you take a breath and say, Hey, maybe they've got a point. Even though it may seem alarming at that time, but yeah, great point summer.

Ryan D'Souza: Thank you for that. But absolutely. These are all important things. And, next Friday at one central. If you're in the room in Ogden, you'll hear a ton about it and super excited for those that are going to be there from this call. Be sure to act surprised if you hear the same thing again. 

Jimmy Lea: Well, they're not going to hear the same thing again.

Jimmy Lea: You're going to expand on this and this is going to be face to face and what in the world are you talking about, Ryan? 

Ryan D'Souza: Yeah, no, it's absolutely true. I mean, to be in that room will be a big difference. And, you'll hopefully be able to see exactly what I'm talking about when we talk to things that are directly impacting you and you'll feel personally connected, you'll come up to me after and go, Hey man, you really connected with me there and that'll be great.

Ryan D'Souza: And that's what we need a CRM to do with your customers, through their phone, through their email, and listen, even through direct mail, if you can find a tool that connects with the customer the way they want. 

Ryan D'Souza: And 

Ryan D'Souza: that's really a key piece is depending on where you are in the city, in the country rural versus urban, you might have a very different demographic, and you might have millennials, you might have retirees, they might want to communicate differently.

Ryan D'Souza: A tool that allows you to communicate the way the customer wants is huge as well. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I love that. And the the room that Ryan is referring to is the Mars Conference at the Institute in Ogden, Utah. You definitely want to be there. March 21, 22, 23. It's going to be amazing. Let me give a couple more shout outs here real quick to Tommy Nicholson down at Advanced Auto Repair Denton, Texas my good friend, Mr.

Jimmy Lea: Craig Zale, Craig's Craig's Car Care in Lucas, Texas. I always thought you were in Allen, Texas, Craig. A very good love Craig Zale. Been to his shop a few times. Super awesome, you guys. And he's getting air conditioning put in there. Is it done yet, Craig? Is it done yet? Tracy Peters Paul's Automotive, Sacramento, California.

Jimmy Lea: My brother lives outside of Sacramento. He's up in Cameron park. So not too far. We'll have to stop by and say hello next time we're up there in that neck of the woods, back to shop owners being busy. Some of you didn't raise your hand. You didn't say that you have extra time. Ryan, I'd love to talk about automation because if ever there was a silver bullet automating those personalized messages.

Jimmy Lea: Going to customers is about as close as we're going to get. Tell us about that. 

Ryan D'Souza: Absolutely. So you want to make sure you use a tool that allows you to create, macro segments, everybody that I haven't seen in a year and micro segments, people whose birthday is tomorrow. And be able to. Set those campaigns up and be dynamic.

Ryan D'Souza: And when I say dynamic it means that when someone meets the criteria, hence someone's birthday is tomorrow, they are automatically added to that campaign and get those messages. So you can set it and forget it. Knowing there's someone watching in case something goes awry or they're not working as well.

Ryan D'Souza: And this idea of finding the formula that works for your shop because Not every shop is built the same and everyone's customer base is slightly different. The cars they service are slightly different. And so you need to look at that data and see, is it working? Could it be better? Let's try tweaking. So tweaking and iterating.

Ryan D'Souza: But once you find that formula and you start generating 20, 30 percent growth top line growth year over year, which is what folks CRM can do. You just set it and forget it. And it will continue to work dynamically with the data that's collected through your shot management system and piped in automatically.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I mean, that's a little ShamWow situation, but Summer, how has automation helped you or saved you? 

Summer Guerrero: Well, I was just gonna actually pipe in and say that it is. It's huge because that is something that I felt like I needed to handwrite those letters every time. And that is something else that you can add.

Summer Guerrero: But a lot of times just having the automation and I know that it's happening, they, they are contacted two days after their repair, make sure that everything's good. And it's my personal message. Definitely helps. And with, yeah. I don't know about anyone else, but you know, everyone at our shop has extra tasks already, and they are, trying to do their best at everything.

Summer Guerrero: So this just took one, one thing off of our plate to not have to worry about that. And then just every morning, come in and just keep an eye and log in and keep an eye on all the text messages and any anything that happened during the night. So it's definitely. Helped free me up to be able to do more things.

Summer Guerrero: And then even my staff, this takes one less thing off of them. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's cool. That's super cool. Ryan, I have a question for you about about I mean, in fact, it's about your software about steer. And I wonder if other CRMs have this ability as well. Can I schedule when I want my messages to go?

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Automatic ones. 

Ryan D'Souza: Yep. The set it and forget it mentality is one that allows you to absolutely, schedule And, put timing on exactly when they're going to run. So yeah, that, that's a feature that's one that's utilized. Not only, weekly, but daily and hourly by people. You can also do that across multiple locations.

Ryan D'Souza: So if you have multi locations, you can, from one point set it for all your locations, so you don't even have to worry about doing it 23 times. If you have 23 shops, just do it once and duplicate that campaign across all your shops. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that. And anybody with 23 shops, we need to talk. 

Ryan D'Souza: Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan D'Souza: Absolutely. Three shops at 23. It doesn't matter. Absolutely. 

Jimmy Lea: Right. I mean, let's expand. Let's grow. Let's get better. Let's get better. Absolutely. I love it. What else can, what else does the steer CRM software, what else does it do that really helps a shop owner? 

Ryan D'Souza: Yeah. So, I mean, listen, there are a ton of things.

Ryan D'Souza: That it does today. But also, you know what's coming. I think when you look for a partner in software, you want to make sure the innovation doesn't stop. In the past year, we've had almost 50 new development releases, eight new products released. And the plan is to actually accelerate that, not slow that down.

Ryan D'Souza: And so we have things like new appointment scheduling coming up where you can, define what kind of appointment it is a follow up different types, appointment types is one thing obviously the data driven nature of our campaigns is the foundation of the fortune, the follow up, so to unlock that, we have tools that allow you to analyze your data to see Hey, what's the campaign that was the most profitable?

Ryan D'Souza: Let's duplicate that and run that across my shops my shop's database. So we have those tools at your fingertips. The reporting is massive. It's probably more robust than any shop owner needs, but that's the point is to arm them with tools that they wouldn't normally have. And maybe too many numbers is scary, but that's what we're there for.

Ryan D'Souza: Just, give us a call, give me a call, message me directly. Happy to help you. Dig into the data to find that formula to get you to unlock that fortune because it's there. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. And I love this question that's coming in. Summer, did you see this question?

Jimmy Lea: The question and Ryan, the question is, and I'm going to expand on this David, I'm going to add a little bit to your question.

Jimmy Lea: So this question is, does your CRM allow AB testing? And I want to take this. A, B, C, D. So if I've got four different messages that I want to test out to find out which one's the best one, which one hits home the strongest, can I put out four A, B, C, D? Or is it just A, B? Or do I have to create two different campaigns if I want to send out those A, B testing?

Ryan D'Souza: Great question. And so, yes, the simple answer is yes, we do. You have functionality to allow A, B, C, D, E, F, G testing if you want. It is by campaign duplication and tweaking. The additional thing we can do there though is set it so that the data success criteria is set up in advance and then we can look at it and you can tell us, Hey, when we get, when the campaign reaches 20, 000, the first one to reach 20, 000 in invoice revenue.

Ryan D'Souza: Let's just go with that one and we would monitor track it and then turn off the other ones and run with it so we can actually help with the analytics part of that. You can just tell us the formula and your success manager would basically implement that for you, provide the data and go, Hey, here's the one that one do you want us to turn this on monthly, weekly, so yeah, great question and I love where your head's at because AB testing and iteration is the only way to make sure that.

Ryan D'Souza: The formula for your shop is the right one. And you're getting the most out of your tools and your customer base. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. That was a great question, David. Summer. 

Summer Guerrero: I was just gonna mention that, like, the reporting that Steer has is top notch. Like, I use the reporting for other marketing that I marketing that I do because it is so thorough and it actually has texted our customers that knows their, their how they do their maintenance.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, their maintenance. 

Summer Guerrero: Yeah. So, as well as, if I want to pull a report and see what makes are, my top five makes so that I can market to them, you can utilize the reporting. It is so good to help you in other areas of your business. 

Ryan D'Souza: It's pretty awesome. Thank you. Thanks for that, Summer. And I think there's another question coming up.

Ryan D'Souza: But while that's, being looked into and brought forth, another couple of things that are super important is, one, when you're looking at features and functionality. You want to make sure that it's stuff that you actually use and need a lot of bells and whistles aren't things you'll ever blow.

Ryan D'Souza: But what's going to be important for your business? Things like the reporting are critical. We've recently launched customer surveys, so you can actually run surveys of your customers within the platform. Use that data beyond just the campaigns and asking for them to come back in and do things. You can leverage the data to staff.

Ryan D'Souza: You can see and plan specials for days when you have your senior texts there. Maybe more complicated things, or if someone calls in sick, you can, fill your calendar with other things using the tool. So there's a million different ways to find your formula and we're there to help.

Ryan D'Souza: Absolutely. We've also recently launched a reserve with Google. So if you go to Google and search auto repair in that market, if you've enabled it within steer. You can just click a button directly from the home page of the search page of Google and book an appointment. With the shop. So we all know Google doesn't want anybody to leave their site.

Ryan D'Souza: So if you can't beat them, join them. So let's just put the appointment booking button right on the Google search page. So no one has to click more than one time to get to you. So that's a great new feature that we've recently launched and is live and steer today. 

Jimmy Lea: Love it. Love it. So Gary, you've got a question.

Jimmy Lea: You've got your hand up. Ask it in the Q and a, we'd be happy to ask those questions for you. Let's give a shout out to Bree Tilford, Japanese auto care in Orangeville, California. Awesome. Thank you for joining you guys. I love the CRM. Let's ask one more question, Summer, and I'm going to ask this of you.

Jimmy Lea: You now have a magic wand. If there were a wish that you could be granted for your CRM, and Ryan, here's where we take notes. If you could wave the magic wand, what would you wish for in your CRM? 

Summer Guerrero: Really, honestly, Probably our biggest thing right now is that all of our messaging systems are not together.

Summer Guerrero: So like Facebook messaging is not in with the Google because the Google messaging is just awesome. But if you could add the other messaging platforms to the one so that when the team comes in, they're just looking at one and maybe have like a message there that says where that came from. But I would say that's probably the one thing right now I'm running around that could save me a little bit of time.

Ryan D'Souza: Well, Summer, and you know what? Great news. What, what is coming in the third quarter of this year, it's step, step one to get to where you want to is the centralized review response platform. So within STEER, you'll be able to respond to reviews across your social media. The next phase after that would be.

Ryan D'Souza: Messaging messages that aren't reviews that are coming in from there. So, stay tuned. Thank you for the feedback. And for those on the call that are not summer and have a microphone, love to get that feedback as well. So whatever we can do to make steer better for your shop. Yeah, 

Jimmy Lea: there's, that's a, it's an awesome request.

Jimmy Lea: And from a software development side, and I'm hearing what Ryan's saying, cause it makes my, the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Yeah. Yeah. Great requests. Summer. Yeah. We're working on that. It'll take us to third quarter and about a million dollars to develop that, but we're getting there.

Summer Guerrero: I kinda heard through the grapevine just cause I have an amazing manager that I talk to on a monthly basis. And so 

Summer Guerrero: she knows my. Concerns and things that would help me and definitely is keeping me in the loop that this is coming 

Ryan D'Souza: Good. 

Summer Guerrero: We did get a question in there that says is there additional charge for steer through steer for that appointment button through google 

Ryan D'Souza: No, it's covered in your platform.

Ryan D'Souza: There's three different plans that we offer and they're all based on the registration on commercial texting So the texting level that you have the size of your shop whether you want to communicate Fully engage or just keep in contact with your customers. We just, the plan that meets the needs of the business is what we'll fit into.

Ryan D'Souza: And that feature is available across all of them. So we don't restrict features across the platform. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. That's awesome. Thank you, Ryan. Ryan, let's turn the spotlight onto summer here. for a few minutes. It's it's the month of inspiring women in history and summer. I put you right up there with Amelia Earhart with Madame Curie.

Jimmy Lea: You have had an extraordinary life. Tell us a little bit about your life and your inspiration so that we can document this and have this for posterity. 

Summer Guerrero: Well, I can tell you that Mark and I had, did not come from a family of entrepreneurs at all. And we've been together since we were 15.

Summer Guerrero: And my first Touching of a car was in a 1971 Nova that he had under a big oak tree and a come along hanging from it. And he said, hey, let's take this engine apart. And I was somebody that did not work on cars did not have 30 clothes to get. 30. And here he is telling me, let's go take this thing apart.

Summer Guerrero: And his big thing was, he was raised by a single mom and he had a soft spot for women and he just told me, I just don't want you to be taken advantage of. So, I want you to come in and do this. And so that kind of leads into my. My past and I tease him about, when we pulled that engine apart and he was such a good instructor and teacher and taught me how everything moved and talked about, fuel air and fire that I became a firefighter and I blame him, but 

Jimmy Lea: oh, it's his fault.

Jimmy Lea: I didn't know that. 

Summer Guerrero: I tell him he says, whatever. But, yeah. No I tease him about that because that was like my first, little understanding of chemistry there and how everything worked. But I did become a firefighter. I was a firefighter for 15 years, loved helping people, led a team of rescue, of a rescue squad.

Summer Guerrero: So, but during that I was, Also army. So I went away to Iraq for about 16 months. So Mark had to raise the kids. And he did a wonderful job. When I came back from Iraq, I found out that I had stage four breast cancer. So I went through all of that realized so many people need uplifted and even that situation.

Summer Guerrero: And so that's when I really knew my purpose is and what makes me happy and my heart light up is helping people. And Back when we were 16, Mark's like, I want to own a shop one day to show people there's good, honest technicians and shop owners and things out there. And so after I went through chemotherapy, I just has uplifted me.

Summer Guerrero: He's taught me all about cars. I can, wow, all the guys. I can help all the women just be empowered. And with Mark empowering me through all of that and allowing me to be a firefighter, which is really hard for a man to, be the only spouse that is of a different background. Usually in the big balls and everything like that.

Summer Guerrero: But, that was pretty, that says something about how much Mark loved me. And so, after going through the chemo, I started. Looking for ways to learn how to be a business owner and so that he can own and have his dream one day. And so, there's several ways that you can, be, learn how to do business.

Summer Guerrero: And I can tell you some of the cheap ways because we sure didn't have a lot of money at that time. We sold everything we had to start the business, or at least we sold everything and mark wasn't quite sure it was going to happen until I just gave him the keys and told him today's the day you start a new job Good luck I got this i'll handle everything else on my 24 on and 48 off.

Summer Guerrero: You just Work from front to back and make it all happen. But yeah, I just realized he hadn't lived his dream, but he sure did. Let me do what I wanted and empower other women that way too. 

Jimmy Lea: Summer, that's such a beautiful love story. That's really what I heard is the love that you and Mark have for each other that he has for you cause you're right.

Jimmy Lea: There's a lot, not a lot of guys out there that would be able to express that kind of love. There's a lot of single dads. There's a lot of single moms, they're doing the best they can and props to you for making it happen props to you and Mark for making it happen together. You're fulfilling his dreams and he was fulfilling your dreams.

Jimmy Lea: That's such a beautiful thing. I love it. Thank you. So Mark is the, I call him the wrench, the phone and the computer. With your 24 on your 48 off you were coming in that had to be exhausting for you How long were you able to maintain that before you're finally like, all right, we're good. 

Summer Guerrero: Oh really?

Summer Guerrero: It was only about six months and yeah, because then I started Getting a little crabbier because you know some shifts, you get sleep some shifts you don't. And but really it was about six months, and then we realized that we had exhausted everything that we had learned through. Business development centers and things like that, that we, if we were going to grow, we needed help.

Summer Guerrero: And so we actually the story really is funny as you got, we get this mailer in the mail and. Nope. It's money. I throw it away. And Mark's like, wait a minute. Isn't this what you're talking about? We might need some help from these coaching companies that are industry specific, 

Jimmy Lea: right?

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. How about that? 

Summer Guerrero: Yeah. So, about six months in, we aligned with a coaching company and within another six months, now we're hiring our first. team member and figuring out the whole structure behind actually the automotive industry, business development centers are great because business is business and everything.

Summer Guerrero: There are certain things that are the same all across the board, but the automotive industry has some different KPIs that you really should focus on. And just having someone that knows that for you to be able to help give you that focus and grow your business really makes a difference.

Summer Guerrero: So if you're struggling, that's one thing I can say, if you are struggling, you definitely need to find the right coach. Or consulting company that will give you what you need right now to boost you up and get you through whatever's going on and help you grow your business. 

Jimmy Lea: Love it. Love it.

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Ryan, you have a question for Summer. 

Ryan D'Souza: I do, as a father of four daughters, definitely inspiring female stories are amazing. I would love to maybe double click a little bit on the industry. It's not an industry that's very female heavy and women in auto care is something I've been involved with as a periphery person, obviously not being a woman, but supporting it and trying to hire folks within the team at steer, not only divert, not only just women, but fully diverse.

Ryan D'Souza: I would love to understand, how you staff your shop and how you're feeling as a minority in the industry. 

Summer Guerrero: So I'm pretty naive to it. I don't even, I have to have, sometimes people have to tell me that I am different. 

Jimmy Lea: Well, she, in the army, she was in charge of a platoon of men and women.

Jimmy Lea: It didn't matter. So she's not seeing gender. She's seeing valuable people. And I love that. I mean, Summer, you're even the chairman of the MWACA. 

Summer Guerrero: Yeah, I am president of MWACA. And yeah, the first one man, but you know, I understand all the hard work that all the men are doing in our industry and the passion that they have in this industry and how good they are with their hands and why they love what they do.

Summer Guerrero: And so women can see that. I think a lot of women have that connection with seeing. If someone has passion about that and our team actually, I think they're proud to have a woman as one of the owners, because I learned so much from Mark through the years of the testing and repairing, and I'm not afraid to get dirty and.

Summer Guerrero: Work on the cars or diagnose or test something to be able to help a customer because you just do what it takes. And I think a lot of moms just automatically do that when it comes up. If you're a mom, or you've had to take care of even a family member of some sort that nurturing. Side of us understand when there's a need and we just make it happen.

Summer Guerrero: Like that's the will and the power of a female. And so I guess that's something Mark and I do talk about too. Cause he's empowering to me and he doesn't always feel like he is. He just feels like I'm very powerful in what I do always. And 

Ryan D'Souza: well, you know what the staff should feel great and be proud.

Ryan D'Souza: Cause it's not just. A female, but great people are great people and everyone loves working for great people. So, kudos to you. 

Summer Guerrero: Customers do love it too, when customers come in and I know just as much as the guys and I can answer all of their questions. Or more. Or more, yeah. Yeah, so I actually can protect the guys from being interrupted, for the most part.

Summer Guerrero: So, there is a good part of being a female in this industry, and we can multitask like crazy to without people feeling like we're multitasking. So, yeah. Yeah. There's a lot that women do that can do. And that power makes a difference, I think, in anything that they bring to the table. 

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love that.

Jimmy Lea: I love that. Summer you have an inspiring story and Trish gives you a shout out as well. Trish says such a courageous woman, Summer, and you've got an exclamation point as well as a smiley face. So thank you for that. What advice would you give shop owners that are coming up in the industry?

Jimmy Lea: You weren't raised in the industry. You weren't a second generation wrench. You weren't, I mean, you learned on a note, but hopefully you never lit that on fire to have to inspire that firefighter side. Just kidding. What advice would you give the shop owners that are coming up in the industry?

Summer Guerrero: Well, I would say that it took us longer than it, it should have because a lot of times we let ego get in the way and we think that we can figure things out on our own, but business owners, and especially in the automotive industry, we've just found that Automotive shop owners really want to help other shop owners not make all of the same mistakes that they did.

Summer Guerrero: So, and things sometimes work out for you that wouldn't work out for someone else. So you do have to take things with a grain of salt, but listening to other business owners and communicating with them and actually just telling them your problems of what you have and just letting them.

Summer Guerrero: Give you some problems that they've seen and some solutions can make a huge difference. And again, like a coaching company, if you're struggling and you can't figure it out, like, just don't try and Do it for so long because you know that it's just going to be a little bit more work if you're going to feel like you're in quicksand and you're trying to get out of it by yourself, and there are so many helpful coaches and consulting companies that really want to help you and have the tools to get you out of it, you just have to listen and do what they when they give you that recommendation, really try and apply it because I mean, there were years that we were with which coaching company that, we fought it for a little bit.

Summer Guerrero: So, actually longer, way longer than what we should, we would be way further along in our company if, had we had listened then, but we just weren't their maturity. Why is Mark or I so I could for the first company that we had, it worked great within for six months to a year. And then tech and Mark started coming out and he started giving more pushback, but I was the owner hat, so I was like, no, we'll just change these little things.

Summer Guerrero: He won't notice until I can show him results. And then, that's how our business kept growing every year. And then I would probably say, if you have not implemented, Profit First. So Profit First is a book. Read it. And and then there are CPAs and accounting firms that can help you apply that.

Summer Guerrero: But that actually was a huge thing when we first started because you don't really realize that a lot of that money is not your money. Like it's already spent. So that's where you have to realize how to actually set up it. Your set up how you, for some reason I just drew a blank, but like how you feel like your labor rates and what you're charging is based off of all of your expenses.

Summer Guerrero: And when you do the profit first method, you're separating that money into different accounts. So you know, what accounts not to touch and what account is actually your money. So, to have a good. Foundation for your business. I think those three things really just remember you can we're here for you.

Summer Guerrero: Like, all of us want to help as business owners, even if it doesn't matter what level you're at as a business owner, you could be a one year business owner, because the things that you've learned The spar is going to help even someone that's a 10 year 15 year because we, like when I'm teaching someone or I'm talking with someone, I remember those things that crap, we've let that go, or why did I stop doing that, and I'm giving them the recommendation.

Summer Guerrero: So, you really help us if you're asking the questions to somebody that you feel is at a different level. The reality of it is you're helping them too by asking those questions so that they can make sure that everything that worked for them is still being applied.

Summer Guerrero: Ooh, you're muted. 

Jimmy Lea: Thank you. I hear that from a lot of shop owners that they say, I really wish I would have started with coaching and training sooner. Everybody needs a coach. Everybody needs a trainer. Think of all these professional athletes that are so successful. They have multiple coaches, they have multiple trainers.

Jimmy Lea: So yeah, in, even in the automotive industry, we are not immune to that. We do need coaches. We need trainers. We need somebody that is able to look at it from the outside, because maybe as you're in there somewhere, you get a little snow blind and you don't see things, but that coach is able to help you to see those things.

Summer Guerrero: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Cause you can't learn everything like all at once. Like there's so many things like we just focused on the, things that we understood at that time and then would start adding in different KPIs that we could see the changes in. So, and again, really that business owner touch just reaching out to other shops and, it doesn't we.

Summer Guerrero: Well, and I can go in, just being so involved in Milwaukee, like the 

Summer Guerrero: big 

Summer Guerrero: thing is we are not competitors against each other. Really? We're not. There are millions and millions of cars out there and it's just actually hard to justify how many cars are out there. So if we can all just get on the same page and help each other.

Summer Guerrero: Be successful and make a good living and just be happy and love what we do and why we do it, then this automotive industry is just gonna be better off. We have things that we need to actually fight together for, that are fighting against us that is not each other. So 

Jimmy Lea: yeah, for sure.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Go ahead, Brian. 

Ryan D'Souza: I was going to say, when you do that, when you actually love what you do, guess what? Customers can feel it too. 

Ryan D'Souza: And 

Ryan D'Souza: that love comes through and that whole cycle of building trust and building a community around your shop starts with you loving what you do, because that will translate into doing great work.

Ryan D'Souza: And that's where it all, the foundation of that customer love and trust happens. So great point. Awesome. Well put. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. It is super awesome. The author of your book, Profit First is Mike McAlowicz. Yeah. So everybody should read that. If you're listening right here, you need to get the book and you need to read it.

Jimmy Lea: It will change the way you do business and you'll find yourself to be more profitable. 

Summer Guerrero: His audio book is pretty entertaining too because he reads it himself. So if you're like me and we don't have a lot, we drive a lot of back and forth. So, but I do recommend the book cause there are illustrations that you will want.

Summer Guerrero: But definitely if you don't do, I mean, cause some people are overwhelmed that there's so many accounts that he's talking about. You don't have to do all of them, but at least you get the gist of, like in my business we have the we have payroll, we have expenses, we have 

Summer Guerrero: Taxes, owners distributions is huge.

Summer Guerrero: Your money. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. 

Summer Guerrero: So it's huge. 

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Warranty work, tire warranties. But you have a little different. 

Summer Guerrero: You 

Summer Guerrero: can have many accounts. 

Jimmy Lea: Absolutely. Absolutely. Trish gives a shout out, says that coaches and mentors are a plus for sure. So thank you, Trish. We really appreciate that. This has been a phenomenal discussion.

Jimmy Lea: You guys absolutely phenomenal. Any final words of advice? 

Summer Guerrero: I would just say no that I am one for sure that I can speak for that if you need help or you have questions you can definitely reach out to me. I'm open to that. And I. actually look forward to meeting more business owners and hearing their stories and learning from them too.

Summer Guerrero: So, you would be giving me a call would be beneficial for me as well. So, but don't struggle very long at all. Like we're all here to help. And I mean, Mark and I are actually growing right now. We're, we do a 10 year plan. And so, the next generation of technicians and service advisors is our big focus right now.

Summer Guerrero: And, focusing on the EV and ADOS and all of that. So we are remodeling and setting up for the next 10 years. So our shop is, we'll be alive in 10 years, and so, even if we're not actually in the business as much as we are 

Jimmy Lea: on a beach, sipping mai tai's is a good place to be. And the shop can run itself.

Summer Guerrero: Yeah. 

Jimmy Lea: Yes. Or 

Ryan D'Souza: you can run it from your iPad because steer works wherever you are. So you could be in the Cayman islands, managing campaigns, talking to us. No problem. 

Ryan D'Souza: Working on the business 

Ryan D'Souza: versus in the business is still adding value. So absolutely. 

Summer Guerrero: That you mentioning that like that has been that was a focus last year was trying to get everything cloud based in our shop so that anybody could access anything, anywhere, even with our technicians to because we put a lot of notes in and they like their notes to be good and sometimes doing it.

Summer Guerrero: In the middle of working on a car is not the best time for them. So they'll put a notes later, so the whole automatic and just the accessibility is what is really going to be helpful and attract those new young, technicians and advisors, they love that technology. 

Jimmy Lea: Yep.

Jimmy Lea: We all do Ryan last bits of final advice for our shop owners. 

Ryan D'Souza: Yeah, honestly, I think, you know what we talked about right off the hop, do great work, get your customers to love you by personalizing communication, use a tool that frees up your time to run your shop and allows you to do the things that You want to do every day and that's probably not building campaigns and marketing.

Ryan D'Souza: We can do that for you. So, I think that's a big part of it. And again, however, we can help to make your lives better and grow the shop revenue so you can do less and make more. That's what we're here for. So happy to help. 

Jimmy Lea: Love it. Love it. To put a final capstone on this. Is to say everyone, just as summer said, let's get together next week.

Jimmy Lea: Mars marketing for the automotive repair service industry. We are doing a Mars conference in Ogden, Utah. This is the best marketing conference that you can attend. Spoke is focused specifically on you and on your shop. Ryan's going to be there talking about steer. We've got seven other presenters talking about marketing methods that will work for you as well as additional additional sponsors that have time that, Oh my gosh, this is, it's going to be so good.

Jimmy Lea: Let's come together. Let's get together and. Share ideas so that we aren't competition. We understand we're not competition. We're working together to elevate the industry. Let's lock arms together and become one tribe to make sure we all make it to the finish line. As someone was saying, you need coaching and training.

Jimmy Lea: Come talk to the Institute. I'd love to talk to you about what we have to offer you with your advisors, managers. There's groups, there's one on one coaching and training. There's even high level, high performance groups that we have available for you. So let's get together and talk about what that looks like for you.

Jimmy Lea: Everyone needs a coach. So do you. We'll see you guys soon. Thank you very much. This has been awesome. Let's check out any other questions, comments, concerns? Nope. Looks like we are good. We'll see you there. Oh and at the Mars conference. At the very end, you will be setting up in a breakout session.

Jimmy Lea: You'll be setting up your annual marketing plan. Oh yeah, baby. You go home ready to rock and roll, hit the ground running. Let's do it. Set it and forget it. I'll see you there. I'm Jimmy Lee. Here's Ryan with steer summer with summer with affinity auto service. Guys are awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time.

Ryan D'Souza: Thanks everyone. Take care. Be well. Okay.

Jimmy Lea: So just stay right here and keep smiling.

Jimmy Lea: Cool. All right. I'm going to shut it down now. 

Ryan D'Souza: We're clear. All right. Take care. Thank you. Great job, everyone.