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

A tire shop can sell rubber all day and still lose the customer the moment service feels cold, slow, or unsafe. We bring on Jason Shuey from RNR Tire Express to explain how a fast-growing rent-to-own automotive franchise builds loyalty with training, systems, and real customer care that feels personal the second you walk through the door.  

We talk about Jason’s path from Sears Auto Center into leadership, why ASE certification can matter, and why hands-on coaching beats “read the book and take a test” training when real cars and real families are on the line. Jason breaks down the service manager role his group is rolling out across stores, how an MIT program rotates future leaders through the shop and accounts, and why account management is where you truly learn the RTO transaction and earn long-term trust.  

Then we get practical on operations: what RNR Tire Express includes for customers, how the business expands beyond wheels into alignments, brakes, suspension, and lift kits, and how digital workflow tools like Shopmonkey help balance speed, quality, and safety in high-volume locations. We also look ahead at tire and wheel industry trends like AI-enabled tools, electric vehicle lift-point risks, and the next wave of Bluetooth TPMS sensors.  

If you care about customer retention, technician training, safety culture, and scalable processes in the rent-to-own industry, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a leader in your shop, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Welcome And Listener Support

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Hello and welcome to the RTO show. I'm your host, Pete Chow. Today we got somebody for you today. But first, listen, guys, I'm going to talk to you about some stuff. I want to tell you, I've done some math. I think I got it down to 47% of you guys that are watching every single week. Do not have the subscribe button hit. Please do that. Hit that subscribe button, hit that bell to get notifications, and let you know what's going on. Also, the newsletter is coming out for one of 2026. Make sure you go on the website, the RTO Showpodcast.com, click that thing there, put your information in. Let me know that you want a newsletter. I'll make sure I send it out to you. And don't forget, buy some swag. Listen, today I'm wearing the red shirt that I got from Vox. That's remember everybody deployed. Also, I want to give a shout out to my guys Dave Deep, Ray Muncie. Dave Deep runs the Wake for Warriors, and Ray Muncie runs the Buddies Down Georgia. He also helps with the Wake for Warriors. These guys are doing amazing stuff. If you want to, go on the website, go to that link on the Wake for Warriors, and please donate. They need your support. And what I'm going to say is, I know now it's hard. I really do. I know that nowadays money is tight, but it's even harder for those vets. This is a great cause. Give anything you can. And if you can, at least just send them a letter and say, hey, we love you guys. Send them an email. Say show some support. Go on their Facebook. We appreciate it. But let's get down to business. I am with somebody from RR Tire Express today and fascinating uh backstory, fascinating story, period, because he's doing something great. And I've got Jason Shuheon from RR Tire Express. And listen, Jason, been dying to talk 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 should be where you are. You know what I mean? We need to be talking over there. One of these they've got to do like a personal interview in the man cave. But Jason, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. How about yourself, Pete? I am excellent. Listen, I was doing some uh some research here. I'm going on the backstory and I'm like, oh my God, dude, you've been everywhere and everything for the wheel entire side, and you've done quite a bit. Now, there is there is a story to be told from where you've gone to where you are now because you started in a completely different setup and you've come to rent to own. You you're really taking on a different role where you're at this really important guy, just over shop and really kind of telling people how to get it done, which is super important. I really love it. Give me a little bit about yourself though, Jason. How are you doing today? What's going on in the man cave of of all in North Carolina?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, that's exactly about it. Doing good. Just got back from a long road trip. Uh, visited a couple stores in Georgia, uh, back in South Carolina, and then came back home yesterday and uh right back at it. Already got phone calls coming in 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 a pause.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

God, but you know, it's it's one of those things that when you take on these roles, especially when you have so many stores, and you guys are 24 stores, is it right now? 24, 25 in about three weeks, and 26 probably in about two months. That is amazing. Uh, what I will tell you guys, this RR franchise right now, killing it, making some serious revenue, doing some really good things, and trying out some new positions such as your own, where Jason's going around and really handling some business, showing a lot of what he's learned, his experience, and getting these shop techs up to listen, doing an amazing job, but they're just following his lead 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 little bit. So, before all this started, 1996, we're in Sears back when Sears used to be at Sears. You remember that, Anthony? Do you remember the Sears Auto Center was something, man? I miss that place, right? It used to be something. So back then, you get started ASC certified. Tell me a little bit like why does that certification marit? Because I know that coming from the traditional side, we don't have any certifications like that. So, what's an ASE certified technician different between somebody who's just in the shop?

ASE Certifications And Early Career

SPEAKER_01 3:59

So it's changed a little bit over the years. When I was 17 years old, and you know, when I started with Sears, I was still taking tech school, so I was learning stuff doing tires. Really more hands-on, kind of what we've brought in today, but more hands-on learning from some of the older techs while I was in there, and that's what gave me the direction on where I wanted to go. Um, but back then, and you're talking 96, 97, 98, ASEs was the thing. If you got if you had the certifications, much easier to get a job as a technician. Uh dealerships were looking for it. 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 to explain, but the ASCs are written by be by guys behind the counter, not as much as guys in the field. So the answers they're looking for is not what we would typically do in the repair facility. Um, but yeah, I've literally just like most of our guys in our company that come from the shop, they start in the shop spot as a tire tech and just move your way up and learn more as you go. Um and that's where this position has kind of grown now, is where I'm that older guy now that's bringing down any kind of knowledge into the younger group, and hopefully there's it's sticking to them. Um but yeah, I've been through them.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

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 Jason handling some business as an ASC certified technician. You also done roles in and you know, uh Tire Kingdom and Goodyear. So it wasn't just in one spot. You've had the ability to kind of go around and and and really see that what is the difference between those, real quick? Like, what's the difference between like a tire kingdom and a Goodyear and a Sears Auto Center? I mean, is there is there a real big difference?

SPEAKER_01 5:45

It is when it comes to what we do now and what I've seen from the retail side of things to where we're on the RTO side and with the customer service side of it. A lot of those big box stores do not take the customers in mind as much. That I learned very quickly. Um, and most of those places, I didn't work as a technician there. I'd already been put through the position of when I became a sales manager, then I became a service, basically a service manager at that time, ran the shop and so forth. But you you tend to see things a little differently between how they treat their customers, um, how they treat their employees. You know, uh when you're with these big pox companies, you're a number to them. They they there's no personalization with it at all. Um, and that's the one nice thing now growing up through that, kind of being just like a parent. You learn things from your parents, I learned things from past companies, you know, and and we try to not go that route now. So now it's knowing our people. I like to go to my stores and know everybody's name. You know, it's it's it's a good feeling to see that we kind of change that, especially coming here. Um but yeah, I mean it's an experience that you don't you learn from. You know, I'll never take it back. I'm glad I did it. But yeah, it's the biggest thing is customer service and how they treat their employees. You know, business-wise, the business doesn't really change, but having someone over you that you know don't know you at all and and expects you to do stuff and turn out numbers but don't know how to communicate with either. So it's it definitely there's a big difference between that and where we're at now.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Well, you know, I see these changes happening, right? Because right now, R and R Ty Express is over 200 stores, you know. And I talk to me a little bit about 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 company and who are some of the guys that help you get this going? And then who are some of the guys that actually own the business and kind of get you guys from 24 to 26 stores and beyond?

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, so it's Rims USA LC. Um Tony Raffo is obviously was the owner, just recently passed away, which was a big thing, and it was definitely a shock from us. Um, you know, myself being here going on 17 years. Um, Ken Ken Mashburn, Chris Raffo, um, those are our two owners, regionals, yeah, Scott Gregory. Um, district managers play a big part in it too. Uh, John Clark was one of my basically my mentor who brought me into the company 17 years ago. Um, Greg Miller, Reggie Gambrell. I mean, the list goes on and on with the team that we got built here. I mean, it's it's and you met some the other night you guys were up here, you know. I did, I did.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

I had the chance to go up and do some DX3 leadership with them, and man, I went with William 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 in there. You gotta understand you guys gotta understand this. We're going to rims, and as we go in, there is an entire section already dedicated to learning. Like it is a huge, huge area. We're fitting 30 people, and we're probably gonna have to fit some more now that they got some growth. So we gotta worry about that. But you gotta let you guys let you 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, you have the ability to sit everybody down in this classroom setting, but really it's more about the learning and being, you know, one-on-one and kind of just getting that knowledge from point A to point B and a good environment. And it I loved it. I loved it because, and I'm not giving you know shade to anybody, but I've been to places where that's just not as much of a priority as getting the revenue and making it happen. But I believe that part of the success that RIMS has is focusing that dedication on how do I get my guys to learn exactly what we need to do, exactly how they need to do it, so that the customer not only feels better about coming back and spending their revenue every single week, every single month, but then when they pay out or they're done with their transaction to come back later, not only with them or the referrals that they have or just their family members, right? I mean, most of the time, I think there's there's some things that out there say 60, 70% of our business that comes in is from the business we already have, right? So those referrals are coming in and it's and it's really, really important. So, you know, two out of three people are coming back because somebody told them, hey, I had a great, you know, I this this thing happened. It was great. Jason took care of me, or whoever it was took care of me, you know, I used to probably go over there, which I think is a great thing. And I want to get into some of the differences between what you're doing at RR and what you've seen in those big box retailers, because I would have never guessed starting out here, you hit you have some pretty heavy names right here. And then you spend more time out of the last 30 years at R Tire Express with Rims than you did in those big boxes, right? So 17 years out of the 30 years that 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's that's a big change, that's a big difference, and you've done well here. Not only have you come here, but you've succeeded. But we'll get into that right now. But like, you know, so you are the corporate service manager and trainer for RIMS.

Big Box Retail Versus RTO Service

SPEAKER_01 10:37

That was something new. This is a brand new position. Um, I've kind of been doing it before the position was made 100%. Um, when I was managing the store, um, I was doing a lot of traveling, uh, which obviously stressed my assistant managers and stuff out, but I had it was a good good prep course for them. You know, they kind of knew what to look for. Um but at first, when I first primarily did it, I was basically just training on balancing alignments, our typical day in, day out stuff. As it's grown now, it's we've put service managers into play, which is the first in in our and at least our franchise. I don't know what the other ones are doing, but we basically have uh system managers, managers, and now service managers who completely run the shop, uh shop flow, selling the product to the customer, explaining everything to the customer. Um and it's kind of an i if you want if you're asking what's kind of the difference between the retail and this, this is the part that retail actually is a good thing. This is that management side that we never got into that retail's had forever. But the difference is in our our motto, you know, to serve not just service, you know, and and we try to bend over backwards for our customers. Uh, we try to do everything we can, and that's if the biggest thing from coming from the retail side is like I said earlier, the customer service part of it. Just like his employees being a number, those customers are a number to them. Here it's not. Here we take it personal. You know, we we try to do anything we can to take care of the customer. Um you know, a big thing a lot of people don't look at anymore is you know, we could treat a customer 100% good, they're likely to tell you tell one or two people. You treat a customer bad, they're gonna tell 20 to 30 people. And it's something people still don't realize, you know, and and and our retention and and our referral programs and the amount of customers that bring their families. I couldn't tell you. Obviously, being here 17 years, you could get an idea, but I remember I have customers that had their kids coming in when they were little kids at one time to where they're grown adults now, and they're coming to get stuff from us. That's you're making me feel aged right now, man. You're making me feel aged right now. I mean, but but that's that's what makes it that's what it's so satisfying about the position is to be able to see these customers come back, seeing their family members come in, and the constant just flow of it just returning back and forth. Um, you know, we a lot of these customers, if not all of them, are considered family. I mean, we see them on such a large 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 where that relationship comes into play. Absolutely. Um but yeah, this this position is is gonna be definitely something well needed, and it's gonna be a big part of the future because it's just another step to take care of it.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Absolutely. I mean, I love the idea because sometimes, you know, you have to you have to well they well, they hate to say it, but you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, right? Sometimes you just gotta do something new. You've got to get outside of your four walls and say, how do I make this better? And you've got to trailblaze that. I got a question though, you got assistant managers and GMs, which is something that might be pretty normal depending on who you got. Now, the shop manager being something different, is there a level that you get to before you get a shop manager, or is this a permanent position you say, hey, there's gonna be a shop manager no matter how our revenues or how our customers are.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

So so originally we had talked about it was gonna be a revenue or certain customer count. Um, once we put it into play and we see how well it changed a lot of our outlooks on things and how it well it worked, we've now turned that corner where now it's gonna be fresh. Like Hickory, which is opening in two weeks, brand new store, service manager already in play. Um, Johnson City, the next store, will have a service manager in play. And we're trying to fill them up, which I think we have currently. We just hired another one, I believe Thursday. So I believe 17 of our 24 stores now 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, and everybody gripes about it at first, you know, that the expense-wise, but you know, once again, it's not always about the expense. It's it's about being able to take care of the customers, what it comes down to.

RTO Revolution Book Giveaway

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Hi, I'm Pete Shao. You may know me from the RTO Show podcast, but today I'm doing something a little bit different. Apro and Wow Brands have launched a special project to bring the story of our industry to life like never before. They've asked me to sit down with some of the true legends of Rent to Own, capturing their stories, their impact, and their vision for the future. And now I get to share those conversations with you straight from the legends themselves. All of this leads to something groundbreaking, though. A new book, The Rent to Own Revolution, a definitive history of advocacy and consumer access, written by APRO CEO Charles Knitterman and Wild Brand CEO Brian Kraft. The book explores the grassroots of RTO, the advocacy that has defined it, and the future that we're building together. Here's where you come. We're giving away free copies once the book is released. Just head over to RTorevolution.com and sign up for a chance to receive a copy in early 2026. Don't miss the chance to be among the first to hold this piece of RTO history. That's rtoorevolution.com. Check it out and become a part of RTO History. Depending on when this comes out, it might actually not be two weeks from the date of this release. When is the date that that store will 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 wait to see it. That's gonna be another store to visit. You know, as you're going through, how long do you think it's gonna take to get those between the 17 stores and the 24 stores that you have left, right? The six stores that are left. What is the transition period of getting a shop manager in those? And then how long do you when I guess it's a two-part question? When you put somebody in, right, at in that shop manager position, how long do you give them to get acclimated before you say, okay, now we're gonna start judging the numbers between when we have a fully functional service manager and when we didn't, so that we can compare is this, you know, and not that it's not something you don't want to do, but like where is the payoff on this and and are you doing what you need to do?

Building Service Managers In Every Store

SPEAKER_01 16:37

So so the one nice thing, and that's part of the reason I'm in the spot I'm in now, is when we get these new service managers, I go there and and and spend usually the first three or four days with them when they start. That way they get on the right track, understand how we're doing things. Um and like we talked before, hands-on is my biggest thing. I could show everybody videos all day long and tell them what to do. Hands-on is where it is when it comes to to getting people prepped and getting things ready. I don't, you know, within a week or two, because the people we're bringing in, we refer, we'd rather, I'm sorry, get somebody, one of our techs that has been with us for a long term time to promote them into that position because they already know how we work and what we do, inspection-wise, and looking over vehicles. But we don't have that, it's not always a hundred percent thing that's gonna happen. So when we're bringing people in, most of those people have some sort of experience in automotive. If it's the retail side of it, um, if it was a mechanic at one time that wants to get into management, because I'd rather have somebody that doesn't bring over a whole bunch of bad habits, anyways. I'd rather be able to treat them and take care of them from day one and get them on the right track. Um so I mean, time limit, it's hard because I I I don't judge anybody on time because I know sometimes you gotta get the respect of your technicians. There's there's a lot of stuff that comes into play. Um personally, I'd probably say within 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 involved in doing step by step with everything. So I would say within the first month after that, they should be good on what they're what they know to do and what forecast-wise, what we want them to do.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Gotcha, gotcha. So now that you're in that, and it at what point, because uh you did a lot in the prior life of before getting into RR and RTO and stuff like that, as you got into the RTO side of and started working for R uh at Rams, like what made you decide, you know what, I've I've done a little bit of everything on this side. I want to do a leadership role on this side. What what poised you and the people around you to say, Jason is the guy, that's the guy? I mean, I I've met you, so I kind of know a little bit. But for you know, somebody who's listening 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 who are putting these shop managers, and that does give me an idea that I have somewhere to go. What made you decide? I'm in the shop, I want to go to leadership, and and what advantages do you think that they need to start learning now to make them ready for that change?

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah. Well, personally for me, it was it was about going back again, making us feel old, but about 20 years 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 a restaurant, 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. Always very straight on with that. And, you know, at the time, my manager, when I was still doing turning wrenches, he seen me connecting with customers. When customers would come back behind the bays and start asking questions about their car, he seen how I interacted with them. And uh he really didn't give me much of a choice. He said, you know what, we're taking you out of the shop, we're putting you up at the sales counter. So that was my introduction into sales. So that was that was about how I learned that. You're gonna get promotion, whether you like it or not. So, but you know, it it fell into place. You know, I'm I'm a talkative person. Uh, you know, I I enjoy helping people. I love training, I love teaching people, you know, and even in a sales point, you're teaching, you're you're you're teaching a customer in all reality. When you come to them and you're explaining issues that are done or issues that are going on with their vehicle and stuff like that, um, the education part is huge, even when it comes down to tires. Uh, the simplest time educating a tire a customer about a DOT number, making un have having them understand the date codes and stuff on DOTs and the conditions of their tires, what causes it. It's still that same teaching aspect. It's not just sales. Um, but that's that's where that started. And you know, when I when I originally came to RIMS, I came in as a technician. Um, I was basically burnt out of management at the time working for retail. I took six months off, went up in the mountains, kind of stayed away from everything, and decided, you know, now's time to look for something. And and RR at the time was looking for a tire tech. And uh started there, say the least, lasted about two months, and then went into sales again. Account management, assistant manager, and management. Now here, you know, it's it's when you got it sometimes, you got it, and it just said you can't run from it. It's it's gonna catch you. I mean, it's just one of those things.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

That's when he grew the beard. He went into the mountains and grew the beard and it never left. That's he was he was just foraging for food, and that's what happened. No, it's awesome. The baby face, man, the baby face back in the day. Right? I you know, I need to grow a beard too. I'm getting a little older. So let me ask you a question. So, like when you're in the big box and you see all this, and then then you see an ad for something like RNR, you see a tire tech, you want to make a cool, you know, transition. How much of that experience do you pull with you? Like, uh, you know, either I see rims right now, and training seems to be such a huge aspect of the ability to be uh profitable and be able, you know, really to expand, which is really huge, uh especially nowadays, because there's some businesses that are just going through it, and you guys are doing very, very well. How much of what you learn and then those experiences How much did that come with you so that you can, you know, kind of help this situation? Or was it like these guys are doing it just all wrong? Rems is a completely different situation. Or what, you know, was that was there 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 as is what I am now when it comes to that, when it comes to my my job and and everything. Um, the good with the bad. You just tend to end up trimming off the bad stuff and you try to put it forward. And and when we're out there hiring people, you know, truthfully, I think the automotive side of it is the hardest part to get managers to come over to something different because they don't realize it. Kind of a little bit off subject, but when a retail manager, they pay extremely high salaries, but they own you. When I was a manager, I missed a lot of my son's life because I would literally go into work in the morning when he was sleeping and I wouldn't come back until at night when he was in bed. And I was working 70, 75 hours a week, vice money, good money, and all that, but you don't realize that. And even now to this day, to try to get some of those guys to come over to us and explaining the benefits, you know, having the family time, uh, the the balancing of family and work, it's always sometimes just too much driven by that money, and it's hard to break that, you know. 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 what gets a lot of people is they realize there there's a chance for more. Um, that you're not just stuck in a particular position, you know, and that back end, though those 30 years of experience and and understanding what it's like on the other side, you know, I I love what I do now. Even when I came in RTO, I had no clue. I didn't know what it was. It was all new to me. To me, it was just another shop job. It was me getting back in the shop, you know, and then as I learned it, once again, mentors, people teaching you, and and just learning everything, and you you love it. And then, especially when you work with the group that we do, the the care they give you towards their family and and and showing the respect to that level is huge. And that's the biggest thing I say, Brent, is trying to explain from the retail side to this side the difference in that, you know, and that's it's a big thing, it's a big part of life now.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

When did it hit you? When you came over to Rent Own and 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 RTO transaction is a different transaction than the retail transaction or what you really got yourself into?

Moving From Wrenches To Leadership

SPEAKER_01 24:19

When I became an account manager, that was that was that was it don't matter how nice I am or how good I am on the phone, boy. That is where you you learn the deep side of RTO on the account manager side. And then you know what's funny is when I was running the stores, anytime my account manager, they know they knew not to come to me with any kind of questions about accounts because they knew what the answer was going to be. Give them what they want, just take care of it. Um, but it was a good because that taught my account manager the proper way to run the account side of it. But yeah, that was that was where the RTO really got me, was when I went into the account department. And uh it definitely takes a special person to be an account manager. 100%. That is that's a whole different side. But that's that's where it hit me hard. That's where I got ran into the brick 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 hard because sometimes, you know, like you said, you don't have that bench and you have to hire and you make these things. And one of the things that I've always noticed is that if a GM comes into the role, it doesn't matter how much sales experience, doesn't matter how much floor experience does, matter how much they've done inventory-wise and they get a shipment, if you haven't done account management, you will fail. And it's because they don't understand the business, right? So it's like, you want to be a GM? Great. You're gonna sit in accounts for three months. You have to learn it from beginning to end. You have to be able to open a route, 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 other things, but like if you can't open and close a route and really understand where your customers are coming from, really have those deep conversations. If you're not on the road knocking on doors and just really having that one-on-one relationship, if you can't build that, you really just can't be a GM. Because it's not that we're trying to keep it from you, but you might need we need to put that little time frame off until you really get it, because it's it is different. RTO is a completely different transaction. So I gotta ask, because you're doing all this, you go, you get the beard, and you know, you're up in the mountains. Well, then what when you saw that 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 the RTO side, or was it just hey, this is a tire technician, I'm gonna go do that, and then you got it later.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

That's what it was. It was it was just a tire technician spot. Um and and once again, this is the mindset of me, I was burnt out of retail, and that's what it'd do to you. I mean, it literally burnt burnt me down to nothing. Um and then coming in and just wanting to get back in the shop because that's where I came from. That was my life. It's I didn't care about the money. Um, you know, I I famously tell everybody I started here with this company at$8.50 an hour. That was that was where I started at, you know, and then and worked my way up. But you know, when when that ad comes out, and I think that goes for a lot of the techs now. When they see the ad, they don't know what the back end of the company is. Um now I do explain it to them. I tell them that when we get involved, when they come in for interviews, I do tell them that you know I was never told that, I just knew it was a tire spot. Um but yeah, the ads wise are just presenting just as another service shop. Um and and talking about the furniture side of it and stuff, and and that's that was the hardest thing. I think with what we do, the best combination we could have is one of those old school RTO guys and a tech guy working together as either assistant manager 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 from the RTO side of in the furniture side, but you have no clue about the automotive side.

unknown 27:52

Right.

The Brick Wall Of Accounts

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Same aspect. If you don't know automotive, you ain't gonna, you're not gonna succeed, you're gonna fail. So it kind of goes hand in hand with it. Um, and something I don't think we talked about at one time, but I don't I don't know if any of the other franchises have it, but you know, we have an MIT program, a manager and training program to where to where we bring other people in, and they before they get into the management side, either assistant manager or manager, they go through shop training, account training, sales admin. So it's not a just instant promotion, you're getting in here. We put you, you go through the ringer, you you're going out in the shop with me for three weeks. You're gonna learn just as much work as they do out there with the tire guys, you're gonna be doing it. You're gonna learn it. Anthony, you can change some tires, 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 one of those things. But you know, that's it. That's where, like you said, the training is key to to success anymore. You have to understand it. Um and giving everybody all the tools 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 can tell. When you're talking about the technical side, when I say the technical side on the car side, more let me phrase it that way. You know, we're talking about the automotive car side. What is the difference for some of the people who are listening who don't know what RR Tire Express does versus a Sears or versus a Tire Kingdom? What is the difference? When you come into an RR Tire Express, what can you expect versus going to one of those other retailers? And then why does that make it easier, better, and and more efficient for a rent-owned customer?

SPEAKER_01 29:27

The the biggest difference you're gonna see is the customer service side. Once again, going back to what we originally talked about. Um, the packages we give all our customers, the the the lifetime rotation, balancing, flat repairs, life of the tire alignments, none of the big box stores, 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 our package that we do. Um, the year of roadside assistance. I mean, that there's there's so many things that we just include. And the biggest thing is every time you come in our store, you're gonna get a smile, you're gonna be represented. I mean, it's just it's it's hard to explain until you see it yourself. And you know, if if we could have everybody walk into a store with a regular plane shirt and see how they're treated at one of our stores compared to going to one of these big box stores and walking in being ignored, you know, hey, how are you doing today? Right when you walk in, just that's the difference, and that's where the key part of it is. Um once again, it doesn't always come to the money, you know, the price-wise stuff that service is what's going to keep our customers, uh, no matter what we do. It it's that's the key part, and that's the difference. That's the difference.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Well, that's absolutely I love the idea because you really how do you set yourself apart? What's the customers? The customer, you you ask the customer, and if they're giving enough five-star reviews, that's my difference. Yep. But so what does a tire express mean 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 big difference between what we do here at R Tire Express versus a full service. So where where does it stop with the Tire Express versus a full service where they can almost get everything done?

What RR Tire Express Actually Does

SPEAKER_01 31:05

And you know, and that's kind of where the stores are going now. Now, obviously, before it was just wheels and tires. Now we've gotten into passenger tires, now we get into lift. I mean, that's that the service side of it, yes, but there's there's things that we're not going to do. We're not doing fluid changes, we're not doing engine rebuilds, we're not doing tune-ups, stuff like that. But the biggest service intervals are your tires, your rotations, your alignments have to get done. And with us now up in some of our services to where we're doing the brake repair, front end repair, uh the lift kits, lowering kits, all the extra stuff is because those customers is a constant, they always are gonna need this service. The tune-ups, you're gonna see somebody once every 70,000 miles for a tune-up. You know, oil changes, yeah, a little bit more consistent, but there's a lot of um hazardous material stuff, and there's a lot more to come into play in that, which we just as much as I say we like to do it, it's a lot, and I don't think we'll get to that point yet, at least not right now. Um, but yeah, the biggest thing is is we're gonna take care of the biggest thing you're on the road with. You the tires, as much as people don't realize that tire is the most important part of your car. That tire goes bad while you're driving it down the road at 70 miles an hour, it could be a huge thing. You know, it's a lot of stuff that can happen. An engine goes bad, you're gonna stop. You know, it's this is to keep you and your family safe. We're doing everything you need to be safe, and it's we're always gonna be there for you. You know, it's it's service with a smile, it costs everything is just it's it's to take care of once again. I know I said it, taking care of the customer and giving them that option where they're not having to bounce back and forth to all these different places to get things done. Um, and truthfully, that's where I think this became the biggest thing is I was in my position as a manager to have to tell my customer to go to another location, another store or a competitor to get something done because we couldn't do it for them. So backtracking that that's probably the biggest thing. I don't want to have to send people other different places. I want to be able to take care of 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 issues they got, we're taking care of all that instead of sending them a million different places. And and that's kind of what set everything apart, and that's where the growth and and everything's coming from is that. So, yeah, I mean it's hard to different. We may want to do more in the future, but where we're at right now, it's it's starting to get to that point to where it's the one-stop shop. We're taking care of our customers, we're not sending them to different places, we're not having to worry about them going somewhere and having issues. We're we're getting everything taken care of on the spot. And then our safety program that we do inspection-wise and making sure that the cars are safe for the customer is huge. I promise you that's more than anybody else is doing. Maybe a dealership might be doing a little bit better, but yeah, we we do a very good job at it.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

So if somebody goes into like if somebody goes into account management, because you know, I agree with you 100%, that's where the rubber meets the road. That's when you start learning RTO 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 account management position, or is it key that they learn account management 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 this on, take this off, and what you have to do before you can go into account management. Or is there, do you have a program where you're like, hey, we can kind of teach both at the same 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 or three weeks to learn everything that comes of that. A regular account manager, not so much, other than the scheduling side and understand the repetition of when the customers come in. Now, personally, once again, kind of something to touch back on. I would rather have somebody 100% green and teach them and train them the right way. Um, have we had account managers from other companies come in? 100%, yes, it happens. But you being in the business and knowing sometimes habits come with those, and it's not habits that we wanted, are are locations. That's not how we treat customers. And knowing accounts, accounts can get rough. And that's exactly why I said I hit a brick wall, because I'm not that rough guy. I'm not the one to sit here and throw the dabs over the phone. You know, I'm I want to take care of you, but you know, but truthfully, I I if if I had somebody that just wanted to get a job and wants to learn, and I explained to them what that particular position includes or details, and they said they want to take a chance at it, I'd 100% give them a chance. Because, like I said, we could teach them and train them from day one on the way we want to take care of our customers and how we want the accounts are handled. Um, I've been through a lot. I've seen a lot of guys come in from the furniture side, I've seen a lot of guys come in for different companies, and everybody has a different way of doing things, you know. And and what's weird is you wouldn't think that would be. You would think everybody has the same basic steps when it comes to the collections and accounts, but that's not that's far from it. Um but yeah, I could take literally we could take anybody and I could train for any position in that store just because of how we do our training program, how we we scrub you down. It's almost like being in the Marine Corps or an army. We break you down and we build you back up. And you know, it's it's it's about the easiest way I could explain it. But yeah, I mean anybody could do the job. We just with the way we have the processes and the procedures we have and play with our training and the hands-on abilities, it's I could put anybody in there and do it.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

So now that you're in this new position, you have the ability to kind of see everybody, talk to everybody, train everybody. How many uh how many weeks are you on the road a year? How much are you traveling? You getting those frequent flyer and Hilton points?

SPEAKER_01 36:48

What's going on? Yeah, I mean, the last, the last uh, my wife ain't happy about it, but you know, the last uh I better have to be a little bit of a few the last month and a half, I've been gone pretty much about a month of it. So it's but it's it's it's it's what 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 I said, coming from the retail side, not having anybody do that to myself, you know, no one knew me. You know, the training programs I was in when I was going through it was not like that. It was not the hands-on, it was here looking a book or do a pre-test and then take the test and learn it. Um being able to go and and help these guys knowing they have families, you know, they have kids, everything is is is is makes me very happy and proud of what I'm doing. Um it's just gonna keep getting better. You know, the the the more experience we bring into these stores, even if it's not just on the service side of it from sales, accounts, because I could put any point I want in there and help somebody, you know, but it's it's yeah, on the road a lot, but it's worth it 100%. Um, I wouldn't like to be doing anything different than I'm doing right now because it's it's what I'm still feeling.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

Listen, I got a I got a question. Would you be in a different spot right now if in your early years somebody like you would have been able to step in and said, Don't worry about reading the book, let me show you, let me do some hands-on, let me get behind you, and really this is how it gets done away from the pages of the book and the videos on the screen. Would you be in a different position right now if you had a you 30 years ago?

One Stop Repairs And Safety Focus

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Probably, because you know, I wouldn't have I I would have learned real quick where the responsibility could be from a certain from the training side of things, because you know, I don't know direction-wise, because that's a tough one to say exactly where I'd gone. Maybe I would have been in management a lot faster. You know, I would have probably been in the management a little bit quicker at that point, you know. But the the one nice thing I say, I've only had a couple I've had enough jobs that I could count on one hand through my life. I've not I'm not a jumper on things and stuff like that. Um, if anything, it would have sped me up into management. I maybe wouldn't have been turning wrenches for a couple less years. Um but you know, I wish there was another me back in the day, you know. You know, and actually talking to Ken yesterday, he he made a thing. He said, uh, always uh how'd he put it? Surround yourself with people smarter than you is what he said. And you know, I and you think of that and you're like, well, I don't want well, no, I mean you're right. How it comes across because you're always having someone that has a little bit more knowledge is just gonna teach you. And and me learning something new every day, I'm down for. That's that's 100% what I would I like to do. But uh yeah, he made that comment. And it took a little while at first 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 than me, they're gonna take my job, but they're gonna educate me more. And you know, that's that's the biggest thing. I wish I yeah, I wish we could go back and have somebody that was more hands on. I wish that would have been the way the field was back in the day. It's just it wasn't, you know, it's just one of those things that's coming around now.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Yeah. Well, you know, I can always tell you, one of the mentors that I have was would always say this to me. We probably have three or four conversations a week, and every once in a while I I would hear this uh, you know, show me their five closest friends or colleagues, and I'll paint you a picture. It don't have to, I don't have to see that person. I'll just paint you a picture. And it's like, I really need to figure out if they're painting the Mona Lisa or if they're painting uh my daughter's school picture, you know, she showed me. I love you, baby. But you know, just it's just one of those things, like it it really does make a difference, and who you surround yourself with is going to determine how far you go because that knowledge and and you're bouncing things off of them and they're bouncing things off of you, and you being able to learn from somebody's experience or knowledge, or hey, I got knocked down. This is probably not a direction you want to go. How do you learn from this? And you know, I take that. So talking about that, walk us through your role. You have a day-to-day role. Walk us through like a week of what 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 lot earlier than some of the managers do. You know, I'm uh on the road early, get there. Usually it's a lot of the service reports, which I showed you some of that. You know, I keep track of um how the stores are doing on their service, um, month to date, year to date, so forth. Um, updating any kind of procedures we're doing. Um, you know, we're we're using some new programs that a lot of people never used in the automotive 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 the shop. That's where it is. I mean, it's going through brake procedures, the safety procedures, um, proper balancing techniques, alignments. I mean, it's almost like being a tech again, but now I ain't getting dirty. Now I get to watch people get dirty. But it's it's still, you know, that the hands-on part, like I said, I could give anybody a book and do it, but sitting there and explain it to them step by step, and then have them do it again and again, the repetitiveness is what gets it in our head. This is how we're gonna do it. Um, and be able to do that and know for a fact that when I leave that store, um the guys or gals are certified, they're gonna get a pay increase because now they're certified on what they're doing, and now they can go full at it and start giving that um service to the customer. Um, and it's just it's satisfying to have that feeling that you've made a difference in somebody's life when it comes to that. Um then reports and more stuff. I mean, it's a constant, it's a go-around, man. It's and then the next day, wherever store it's at, is is it's it's a constant same on and same on. Um, a lot of phone calls, which I have no problem with. FaceTime, I'm really good at. Um I've had texts, I've had DMs call me with issues, you know, just to be able to get on FaceTime and help them walking through them and get them fixed. But it it's it's constant and it's busy all the time. Um well, like I said, wouldn't have it any other way. That's what I signed up for. Um you're in it now, baby. You're in it now. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

So, what factors go into, let's say, you know, and we can keep it weekly, but what factors 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 when it's in sales, you can say, hey, they're lacking in sales. Hey, there, you know, we have a customer complaint. We need to be over there. But what do you have that determines, hey, this is where I'm gonna be the next week and this is why?

Hiring For Attitude And Communication

SPEAKER_01 43:15

So a lot of it, the new hire process, you know, if we get a service manager in, I already know that that's gonna be one of the not that's that's one of the spots we're going to. Um, that's gonna be a little bit more in detail when it comes to the service manager. Um, going through the Shop Monkey. Same thing with the certifications, because in order to be a service manager, you have to be certified just like the techs. So they're gonna come in and they're gonna go out there, 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 that service manager's gonna be able to train and make sure they're getting it done properly. The techs, they have to be in a position for a certain amount of time before we certify them. They got to prove a little bit of what they're doing. Um, we have a couple different tiers. We have L1, uh, which is gonna be our basic tire tech, doing rotate, bounce. Balances and tires. L2s is a capable, same as the L1, but it's capable of doing alignments on their own. Uh complete front and rear without having to be watched over. L3s, additional to the L2s, is brake certified. Then we have L4s, which is lift kit certified, where they could do the front end working lift kits. And we've now got it to an L5, which is everything. Plus, on top of that, if they choose to get an ASC certification, we give them additional. I've actually done pre-tests with AAC. I've gone through about 250, 300 questions and produced a little pretest for all of our guys to go through to prep them for that also. Um, because the ASC tests haven't changed much from when I took them. If anything, they've gotten a little bit more difficult when it comes to that because you have to be really on the technical side. Um, but a lot of it just depends on the placement and where they're at. And then when I do them, I tend to try to knock out two or three stores in the area I'm at. I don't want to, because we large we cover such a large area. I just can't be traveling to Tennessee and then all the way back to the coast and savanna. You know, I kind of got to group the stores where I'm gonna be at, where the where the where I'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.

WoW Brands Sponsor Message

SPEAKER_02 45:13

Hey everyone, it's Pete Chao here from the RTO Show Podcast, and I want to tell you about a company that's making a real difference in the rent-to-owned space. WoW brands. I've seen firsthand how they approach marketing. And let me tell you, it's not just about ads. WoW brands build complete digital ecosystems designed specifically for the rent-to-owned industry. Their e-commerce and lead generation strategies are built to bring qualified leads. And did I mention that they are actively working with the rent-town industry while also being members of April and Trib? Listen, these folks are passionate problem solvers. They don't just slap something together, they design, build, and scale the kind of digital retail tools your business needs. Your customers actually want. So if you're serious about growing, reach out to WoWBrands at WoWBrands.com. I trust them, and I think you will too. You know, you said something there. 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 to a level five right now. I need to, you know, spend more time. But so who trains the trainer as you're going through this? I know that they don't do things that they did, you know, 30 years ago. Things have elevated, they get better, tires get better, compounds get better, you know, techniques get better, wheels are different, right? Wheels were way different now than they were back then. They're all pretty much aluminum now, and you know, not cars now. They don't have hubcaps anymore. I mean, I don't know. There might be one that has them, but I mean everybody has you know the solid rim now, they're getting a little bit larger, you know, average is now 17 inch, 18 inch. You know, I think my car's got like 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 a trainer? Who takes care of you, and how often do you do that so that you can pass that down to your guys and say, you know, because they're gonna they're gonna want to know. I mean, obviously, my main corporate trainer has got to be on the level. He's got to be, you know, certified in just about everything that he's gonna teach me. How do you get that? And how long does that last before you have to redo it?

Training Tiers And Certification Path

SPEAKER_01 47:08

So, same aspect as what we talked about earlier, having the smart people around you. You know, I I learn every day there's technicians that know things that I may not know. Um, the processes from when I was doing them hasn't changed. The technology has. So the the practices we go along with, we're just making safer for the consumer. We're just making them safer for the shop, less responsibility falls on them. Um, but like I said, there's there's little things that I learned too on an everyday basis. There, there's a new new thing that I have to learn myself. Um, I do take my own ASCs, I keep myself up on an ASC certification. Um, I don't do all of them anymore. Um, I I primarily stick to the suspension brakes, and now they have a service uh consultant ASC, believe it or not, that a service manager, which I'm thinking about, uh might be our next step is get our guys certified, ASC certified in the service side of it. Um, the only way really to learn more is if we got into the more technology technol technicology or technology side of things when it comes to the more electric cars and stuff like that, which a lot of it now, especially with the electric cars and stuff, the the rear parking assist on the brake services and stuff, that's all new to me, but it's opening up a book or getting on a computer and and looking it up and learning it. And the repetitiveness of doing that is where it just sticks to you. Now, if I could give me another person that's similar to what I do, it'd obviously make life easier. Um but we got to find somebody that's willing to do it because once again, you know, being away from home, then the all that comes into play. Not everybody wants to do that. Um but I self-teach a lot. There's always gonna be some kind of new documentation, there's something to learn from it. But the biggest thing is the the process hasn't really changed. So it's not really learning that other than some shortcuts on things to make it go a little faster, make it a little easier. Um but every day is a new learn. I mean, it's it's just there's always gonna be something new to catch, something to learn, and it's just one of those things you I have to sometimes you gotta look in the mirror and go, okay, I need to do this myself. I can't wait for somebody to bring it. Um but that's where it comes down, 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 26 stores, and eventually I know that you guys are gonna get more. Is there gonna be a time where, like, Jason, you can't handle all the stores by yourself, or you're gonna be out 52 weeks a year? You know, where does that divide line where they come in and say, Jason, you're gonna have to train somebody to kind of do what you do and maybe take over 10, 13 stores so you can split it in half and have some time at home? Because that is important, you know, and especially you know, some of the guys that when I went to uh North Carolina and I saw them, they you know, they're very family oriented, very smart guys, and they understand how it is to have a home life just like it is to be you know dead on with your business. Is there is there a part of you guys 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're actually very concerned about that, you know, and that's and just like you said, it is a family business, it is family oriented. Our our business and life, family life is a is a good mix. Um, the problem is with it, is for how important this position is, the safety-wise for the customers. We don't want to just have anybody go into it, someone's gotta be prepared for it and willing to do it also. Um, with the amount of stores we had, we had to make the decision a little faster than I think they wanted to. Um but just on the safety side of it, it's it's so huge. And like I said, it's it's gotta be the right people. We can't just have someone going around and pointing to telling somebody to do something, but not actually getting into that part with them, the hands-on situation to make sure it's getting done properly. Because anybody could do that, you know. Um, the one the one thing I could say with pride is you know, with this business, the biggest safety thing is like we talked about, is the tires and wheel side of it. Um we started this in January. Um and the one thing I'm saying, I'm happy to say we're almost into the fourth month and no wheel-off situations, no customer damage, nothing. Great. I mean, it's it's practically been eliminated, knocking on the wood, you know, but that's it's you got they always say, Can I make a carbon copy of myself? 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 copy yourself 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 concern of theirs, and they still check up on me. They make sure I'm and that's that's what I love about this is you know, the owners, management will always check on you to make sure you're okay. And you know, that's that's the biggest thing. That, you know, are you okay? You spend enough time, is this going good? You need anything? It's a constant question because they want to make sure we're happy and we're doing, you know, obviously doing our jobs, but we got to get the right person and eventually it will. We'll we'll find somebody and then and we'll split it up or whatever we got to do to make it a little bit easier across the board. Um, but we're not just gonna throw anybody in that position. It's just like a manager, we're not just gonna throw anybody in a manager's position and run a store and expect to take care of the customers and the business at the same time. We gotta have the right, right combination. 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 and the 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, 300 days, not yesterday. So that's I love that. I love how that is. But going back just a hair, as somebody comes in, right? They might not have the RTO experience, like you did. You didn't have that RTO experience, you didn't know what it was like. What are some of the the could you know, if somebody comes in, what attributes do you think benefit them going into this technical road in the in the shop or as an RTO person and the tire and wheel side and the RR side, what do you think, you know, coming into the business, what is something that they could already have or have worked on or have experience in 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 hire somebody, obviously from the service side, it's the technical knowledge. Um, and not all technology is good because how they were trained at one particular place isn't always the best. They could say they know everything and then come to us, and it's a complete opposite. Um truthfully, when it's front counter, even accounts, anything like that, I look at the personality, you know. And that's a key part of it. The personality with what the customers see day in and day out and what they hear over the phone is a big key, you know, um the ability to communicate with people properly. It's it's not always about the skill base, especially on the front side of it. Shops a little different, but on the front side of it, when it comes to sales, account managers, the communication, personality, all plays a big part 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 better chance of training that guy that comes in fresh with a good attitude, good communication skills, and a hell of a personality against a guy that's a hard and 20-year vet in the business 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 no way. So it's it's one of those flip questions. Server-side, 100%, you got to have a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 54:20

We we have one of those situations, and we used to call it, you know, when somebody came in and we were doing interviews, we would try to do the interviews on one or two days a week because you know you could spread them out for forever and ever and ever, right? And uh one of the things that we used to say to the GMs was if you get them green, make them lean. You know what I mean? Like they can come in and just streamline it and they don't have all these pre predisposed, you know, ideas of what they should be doing or the cursors of, 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 want to read this right because I wrote this down and I wanted to make sure that I asked you the right way. How do you balance speed, quality, and safety in a high volume environment, such as rims under RR Tire Express?

SPEAKER_01 55:02

So, what it comes down to is Jason. I just want you to know I'm trying to stump you, man.

SPEAKER_02 55:06

I'm trying to throw you some hard questions. I'm trying to throw a couple of hard questions in here.

Shop Flow Speed Quality Safety

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 have stores now. You got Knoxville and Chattanooga that are 1700, 1600 customer stores. Um the speed and stuff it's the procedures and policies. I mean, the the these guys are so in tune with how we do things, and especially from the safety aspect. You know, we talk about speed and safety. You know, Shop Monkey, which is a big part that we came about about two and a half years ago and 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 customer while the guys are still working on it. It's all flow. I mean, I guess that's the best way of talking about it when it comes to the shop, is especially with the service manager position. They're they're they're looking at the tickets that are hanging, they're figuring out what is going to be priority, what's not priority, what could be put off because it's a customer drop-off. You know, that's where all this technical side with shop monkey comes into play now because now it's digital. Now we got a big TV, a 52-inch TV on the shop that is color-coded by what is waiting, what the service is. The guys see it and they can prep themselves as they're working through the day on what needs to be done. And then you got the service manager in there coordinating it. He's the general, he's the one that's making everything move in the right direction. And then obviously the safety procedures. 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 to answer 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 sight and uh you know having a shop manager in there and saying this, this, and this.

SPEAKER_01 56:59

And that's where it comes into play. And you know, that's what sometimes makes the difference from a 500, 600 counts customer store to the 11, 15, 1700 customer count store is the ability to have that shop because if if a customer comes in and is sitting in our store for two and a half hours to get a set of tires, they're not gonna come back. I'm sorry, it's just not gonna happen. So that's where the shop flow and everything comes into play from the front counter to the back when it comes to closing an agreement. Everything is just a constant well-oiled machine on how it works. Is there hiccups? Yeah, there's always gonna be speed bumps. That happens, but as long as we handle it the right way and fix it, you know. But the flow chart policy procedure and how just overall the well-oiled machine. I mean, I that's that's really the easiest way of saying it. It's just we put everything into play 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, number one, 1100 customers, and they have stories that great guys. If that if you saw three customers a day, seven days a week, it would still take you an entire 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 progress with it. Uh, I will say, and I'm not getting paid by Shop Monkey to say this, but you know, Shop Monkey being integrated with some of the AI and kind of being able to help take that load off on times that we're not there, you know, after hours or early morning really does seem to help play that role in getting somebody into the store and getting them taken care of as soon as possible. So it's just, you know, it's watching AI get integrated and still being able to take care of the customer with that friendly smile as they walk in, take care of them quickly and get them out safely without having anything go on, you know, still having that thing like, hey, nothing happened, uh, nobody wheels fall off, no tire blew out for you know 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 with whatever positions to train, learn, get certified, and get them going as soon as possible. Jason, you've like really been able to kind of highlight some of the things that are going on at RIMS that makes you guys one of the best franchisees that RR has. I'm not gonna say the best because I don't want anybody to get mad at me, but you guys are doing an amazing job out there. And if you want to learn, you might want to learn from Jason. He's doing a great job. Coming into the end, I want to I want to shoot some small questions at you and just get how you feel about these things. Uh, real quick, what changes are you seeing in the tire and wheel segment right now that you know are 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 think people getting a little smarter now and and or not, I don't want to say smarter, but self-conscious about money-wise, the wheel and tire business has slowed down a little bit and it's now going kind of geared towards the passenger side. Um, I really don't see any changes other than the AI that's bringing some of the technology that's coming along. Um, even as simple as going out to 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 is is is growing and is going to keep getting bigger and bigger.

EVs AI And Bluetooth TPMS

SPEAKER_02 1:00:02

Wow. I love that. Is there anything coming down the pipeline that you guys, as far as dealers, should be looking out for? Something new that's coming down, or maybe something that's you should watch out for as far as you know, you don't want to get involved in that. And it is it electric cars? And I know that's a whole different ball game there because I know they weigh more, they wear the tire differently, they have different tires because of the weight, the way they stop, the way they go. Like, what is you know, what is something coming down the pipeline that you see that will cause us to shift our pivot a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:30

You know, truthfully, the the the electric car is the e-cars are going to be a big part of it. But if once again, the knowledge, if you know how to do them, if you're trained right the way to work on them, you'll never have a problem with them. Um, a lot of it is is lift points on those cars. Yeah, the tires are different, some of them have uh sound deafening foam in them. I mean, there's a lot of different things that come into play. Um, but the knowledge of knowing what to look for, the knowledge of working on the cars, that's really what it comes down to. If you if you're sending one of those cars into a store that has no clue what they're doing, it's gonna cost the store.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:02

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

SPEAKER_01 1:01:23

Not different lifts. You have lift pads. There's special pads that, yeah, they have special pads that actually you could buy them aftermarkets. Some of them come with them for that situation if they get broken down on the side of the road. But what it is, it goes, there's a spot in the frame that is a certain size, and then they have a pad that pops into it. It's got a rubber seal, so it's like popping it into place. Then you can put your jack under and pick it up from those particular positions.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

That eliminates your racks from hitting any kind of batteries. But once again, if you don't have someone that knows that and they just go to pick them up, now you're talking a$30,000,$40,000 damage repair on breaking one of the e-batteries.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

Just so you guys know, Jason is selling his position right now. If you don't have somebody who knows, let me tell you, you gotta get a guy from North Carolina who's gonna tell you and again make it happen. I love it. Um, how do you how do you see service expectations evolving in the RTO industry?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:14

Exactly. You know, the route that a lot of our franchises are starting to go now with the service side of 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 with this franchise, we never had live stock. You know, uh we started carrying livestock, you know, we alignments was the thing that the RTO on in any tire business when it comes to RTO never even thought about. Um being able to do the alignments for the customers eliminates one more problem. Um, then we went to the suspension repairs, the brake repairs. I mean, everything is just one of those things that just constantly goes and goes. And and who knows in three or four years, there's probably something else that we're gonna end up learning, which the only thing I can say closest that I know 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 a wrench in a lot of different things because it's a whole whole different program, but that's that's gonna be the next up and coming thing. Well, thanks, Jason.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:14

Now I have something to look up on Google when I get off this looking up Bluetooth TPMS sensors. Oh, yeah. Listen, Jason, it's been amazing to have you on the show. You you are a breath of fresh air, and we do a lot of traditional side, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing, guys, but I love learning about things that I don't know about and talking to people that I really haven't had the chance to sit down with. You've done an amazing job. I'm gonna tell you if you guys want to reach out to Jason and ask any Venom questions that he has, listen, between Jordans and Venoms, he's got all the I'm just looking at all the you know, you stuff that you have behind him.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:43

I can't see the Jordans in my picture. I guess they're back there hiding in the corner.

Final Questions And Closing

SPEAKER_02 1:03:46

Yeah, they're back there on the left over there. But I'm gonna tell you guys what. If you guys have any questions for Jason Chewy or anything for the show, reach out Pete at the RTO Showpodcast.com. Email me, let's talk. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube where you're gonna see this. Jason, thank you so much for being on the show. It's been great to talk to you and see all the stuff that you have going on back there. Guys, I'm gonna tell you, please don't forget to subscribe, hit that button so that you get a notification every time that we put out a new show. And I'm gonna tell you guys, as always, go buy some swag on the website and get your collections low to get your sales high. Have a great one.