Energy Crue

Transparent Collaboration: The Key to Operational Excellence in Oil & Gas

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Alex McDonald explores how strengthening collaboration and transparency between operators and service providers drives real operational efficiencies in oil and gas. This candid conversation reveals why communication breakdowns are costing companies millions and how building trust-based relationships creates value for both sides.

• 40% of operators still choose service providers based on lowest bid despite 73% experiencing cost overruns or quality issues as a result
• Service providers often discover problems only when they lose contracts, highlighting the critical need for ongoing feedback loops
• Different operators prioritize different value drivers—understanding a customer's "why" is more important than pitching on price
• Industry-wide reduction in capital has disrupted the traditional innovation model, creating uncertainty about who should fund R&D
• Transparency platforms like Rig Concierge are emerging to help operators make more informed vendor selections based on real reviews
• Building a culture that welcomes honest communication about failures and successes is essential for continuous improvement
• Moving the industry forward requires personal action rather than waiting for systemic change

Visit crueclub.com to join these collaborative industry conversations or connect with Alex McDonald on LinkedIn to learn more about Rig Concierge, the new operator-led platform that's bringing transparency to service provider selection.


Speaker 1:

and and good morning everybody out there. On this April 17th a couple days before my birthday I'm sure everyone kind of knows that out there and it's 10 o'clock in the morning I'm very excited about this conversation Okay, I'll make sure we're live. Very excited about this conversation we're having today. The fact that we actually get the roundtable topic leader for Crew Club around the table on camera to do this live webinar I'm excited about, I'm geeking out about but yeah, before we begin, let's kind of see who else is out there. We're going to get this kicked off because I think Alex is kind of waiting in the bullpen, ready to come out and start kind of talking about his conversation about actually let me just kind of bring this slide back how he led a conversation about kind of operational efficiencies and actually how to showcase how to have more operational efficiencies with collaboration and transparency between operators and service company. This is the topic. I think that is extremely important as we progress in this industry. How do we have more collaborative, goal-oriented conversations, and I think that's really going to separate not only just the operators but also people on the service side too. If you can dial in to these collaborative conversations and if you are tuning in. Let me know where you're tuning in from, say hello, we'll chime you up there and again we'll take some Q&A after this. But let's begin, let's dive into this right now. I'm going to go through a couple of introductions of what Crew Club is and the benefits of Crew Club, and not only that, but how you can get involved and join these conversations at the table.

Speaker 1:

I believe that personally, that the networking and how people connect in this industry is a little bit broken, and Crew Club is here really to facilitate an environment to really fix that. It's just bring people in. Let's not have any transactional conversations, let's not have any pitches or solicitations. Let's connect on a genuine level, and that's exactly what we're doing over at Crew Club. So, to begin, let me just kind of go briefly through this, for I'm excited. I want to get Alex up to the plate. So before dang it, alex, you're supposed to be hiding. All right, sorry, okay, listen, okay. So real quick. What is Fruit Club? People often ask what Fruit Club is. At the end of the day, fruit Club is an environment that we bring in operators, we bring in service companies and majority of our operators we have about, I would say, 70% of the table are operators and majority of our operators we have about, I would say, 70% of the table are operators and we sit down and we talk about things that are moving this industry forward or things that are holding it back, whether it's technology, whether it's policy, whether it's operational efficiencies and we're going to be diving into what we're talking about today. So that's kind of what Crew Club is. Here's the breakdown Once we started doing these.

Speaker 1:

We've been around for about three and a half years. Once we started doing these operator roundtable discussions in January 2024, we brought in over 354 EMP operators and just this productions really reservoir geology. And, as you can see here, 55% are managers or above. I think it's 29% VPs or above. So how do you get involved as an operator out there? How do you get involved to build your network strategically with other operators out there? Well, head over to crewclubcom, register and start receiving information about the events. And if you're an off-field service company out there looking to actually change the way how you connect with operators and actually be a part of the conversations, versus kind of guessing your way through this environment, reach out to me or head over to crewclubcom to find out more. Space is limited, so you want to be sure to lock it down as it comes while they're available.

Speaker 1:

And just FYI, upcoming tables to join. We only have one spot left, fort Worth, with Ryan Walker. We're going to be talking about energy policy, and then we're headed over to Midland and then we're going to go to Fort Worth for SuperDug, and then we're coming to Houston with Dan Ramada, with Picker and Energy Partners, then Denver with Bill Knox, the VP of Operations at Anschutz, Then we're doing ERTEC1. In Houston we have Kate Huygen. So here's the deal. The schedule always changes, it always gets updated and we have these events through a different location. So you want to be part of TrueClubcom to find out what's happening and I think, without further ado, yeah. So, as you can see, this is what we've done just this year alone Over 90 EMP operators from over, I think, 56, 52 EMP companies. So, as you can see, all these conversations are very different, but there are common themes that emerge from these conversations, and one of these is collaboration. One of these is communication between service companies and operators, and why there's such a gap right now. And not only that where's the benefit in bridging that gap? So, without further ado, I'm going to bring on my buddy, boom, yep, you're on right now.

Speaker 1:

Alex McDonald, who, alex and I actually met. Alex, first off, I think a little background about you, what I dig about you and how we met was really through crew club. I think you reached out and you, what I dig about you and how we met was really through Crew Club. I think you reached out and you said, hey, man, I kind of see these tables, I kind of dig it. So you started attending them, you made some connections from them and then I was excited to ask you to actually lead one and so, without further, I guess without further delay, why don't you kind of say hello real quick and give a little background about yourself and uh, and kind of uh, we'll go into that.

Speaker 1:

And then also everyone out tuning in out there, we have some very exciting news out there. And operators, if you are listening, service companies, if you are listening, um, alex is. He just started a new chapter in his uh, in his life, and we're going to be talking about that here on how he's impacting the industry and it's exciting stuff. I'm excited not just because I've known alex for quite some time, but just the uh, the innovation behind his next chapter in his life. So stay tuned. We'll be announcing that um towards the end of this. So alex, kick it off.

Speaker 2:

Brother, welcome, awesome thank you very much for having me, jdp, and uh, thanks again for letting me lead that discussion on april 3rd. We had a great time chatting that evening. But a bit about myself. My name's Alex McDonald. I've been in the drilling industry for 10 years now, started up in northern Canada as a drilling supervisor, moving into drilling engineering. Then I moved down to West Texas Been in Houston for about seven years now. Are you first?

Speaker 1:

generation oil and gas. Is it what brought you into this industry? I'm always curious about kind of everyone's path in this industry, because it's all so different.

Speaker 2:

That's right. First generation, my family back in Nova Scotia is originally lobster fishermen, so from seven generations of lobster fishermen back in Nova.

Speaker 2:

Scotia. So that's kind of what got me into the industry is, I wanted to kind of lead a life on the water, um, and I wanted to kind of understand how engineering played a role in that, and so I actually started out working offshore as a roughneck offshore in oscoccia back in 2015, and that's kind of what led me into the oil and gas industry and I love it so much that I've been moving out to Calgary and then to Texas and been here ever since.

Speaker 1:

Do you ever miss the offshore days?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I love being on the water as much as drilling on land is fun. You don't really get that same sunset or sunrise that Blade Kid is being on the water, so I absolutely love it out there, but happy to be back on shore. Just drilled a couple wells offshore deep water gulf of Mexico in the last couple of years. While I really enjoyed that, it was time to get back to land.

Speaker 1:

So your experience has been primarily on the drilling side. You've done offshore, you've done engineering side of stuff. I mean everyone can kind of check out his LinkedIn. He's done. He served several, several places, one being Shell, one being Exxon.

Speaker 1:

Till your new chapter in your life we'll be discussing now and this is going to be very important for everyone out there to get in touch with Alex. I think you probably will want to get in touch with Alex. So here you are in the industry. So it's been about 10 years, right, since you've been in the industry and you decided let's talk about this topic that you have right here.

Speaker 1:

What brought you to have this topic? Why do you feel the importance of it? And then kind of dive into the roundtable discussion of what we gather from this. And if you are missing this right now, this will be released as an Energy Crew podcast that you can download, check out wherever you get it from all that fun stuff YouTube, whatever and so this way you kind of follow up with us and stay on top of what's actually happening. I'm not going to ruin the surprise, but anyway, touch base with them and this is going to be understanding. So why did you pick this topic and what do you see the importance of this topic at? Let me bring it up Driving operational efficiencies. Okay, go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, driving operational efficiency, strengthening collaboration, building transparency between operators and service providers. So quite a mouthful there, but ultimately what it chalks up to is really communication. There's a lot of really smart people in this industry solving very complex problems, but some of the most fundamental challenges that we have day-to-day in our operations is just not connecting with each other, not collaborating, not communicating the risks that may be going on in each one of our operations quick.

Speaker 1:

Do you think that, feeling about, hey guys, we could get better if we started collaborating more, if we communicated more? Are those the conversations actually happening on the operator level? Or is it hey, we just got to find better vendors or better services?

Speaker 2:

I find it was a common trend, especially early on in my career, was if a service provider did not perform, they would just get moved out and a new one get moved in, rather than talking about our problems. I think the industry has kind of shifted over the last couple of years where we really narrow in on. Let's work together as a partnership, kind of moving from service provider to a strategic partnership where you're actually talking about issues that are going on in the industry and working to solve them together, rather than just shuffling service providers time and time again, Because I find we would work together quite effectively and then there'd be a problem and they would shuffle out and bring in a new service provider and you'd be faced with the same problems all over again. So that partnership is super important. I've really seen it pay dividends in my career thus far.

Speaker 1:

So I think one of the most interesting things is, obviously we're going to get into this conversation, but I love how you kicked off this and I want you to actually plug in why you kicked it off. But I think it's very interesting because from these Fruit Club roundtables, I mean this even happened, I think with Colby Klein. You were there at Rainbow Lodge much, where it was Q4 of last year, and I think the operators sitting around the table saying, hey, we no longer base our decision off a low cost, that's kind of bitten us in the ass a little bit. And we're now basing our decision off of X, y and Z. If you want to X, y and Z, go to join crew club tables, find X, y, z. But operators now choosing it because, yeah, things have been.

Speaker 1:

I guess it needs to be a relationship, it needs to be a conversation because service providers whether service providers need to understand and this is what we talked around the table the why of the operators, why, so, whether the service companies are getting replaced, you still need to understand your customers, why, what is the main goal of the customer? So, all right, sorry about that, go on. I don't think that was a random tangent yeah, so, yeah, so okay. So now you guys are talking about no-transcript.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly right, um, and it's one thing to say that, like when we say that we're kind of chasing operational efficiency, um, but what does that really mean? Um, really what operational efficiency is in my mind, is um really the quantification of how effectively are we collaborating and are we actually being transparent with what's going on both in the field and in the office. So it's really trying to build up that level of collaboration. So you're willing to have the hard conversations about what's going wrong, you're willing to look at the data to say what can we do to improve, going forward and then building up that genuine trust between your entire organization and be willing to have that open communication pathway.

Speaker 1:

So let's get this kicked off around the table, because I'm jotting down some notes right now. I think that a lot of people out there that will want to understand like, ok, well, collaboration, transparency, how do we start doing it? How do we start doing this? So I would love to kind of take this on this, on this, on this on the stratosphere we're having now and bring it down to people out there so it actually impact them and help them actually make better decisions and have better conversations with with their customers and their service providers. So this is just kind of notes that I took, um, alex, and if and if you want, we can dive into these or we can go around kind of your perspective of the table because my perspective, obviously, is very different than yours. I'd love to hear yours.

Speaker 1:

These are just kind of key takeaways that I took. Okay, and I guess, why don't you kick this off? You had such a wonderful yeah, you'd walk us through this man. You had such a wonderful way and it was kind of a jaw-dropping realization that you shared around the table about percentages of operators that choose their vendor based on low cost. So why don't you just kind of kick it off on the table and kind of walk us through. Use these key takeaways. Don't use these key takeaways. Let's have a conversation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely so. The stat that I shared that night was 2023 industry survey found that 40% of E&P operators chose service providers primarily based on lowest bid. Obviously, that changes as we go through the roller coaster of the cycles of oil and gas, but 40% of operators still chose lowest bid and 73% of those same respondents acknowledge seeing cost overruns or quality issues as a result of that. So, really, one of the challenges is how do you quantify, when you're looking at two bins side by side, which one is going to get you the desired results? Obviously, what was bid is very easy to quantify in terms of cost, but there's one of other knock-on effects to that. There's reliability issues, there's field service quality, there's material issues that may crop up through the supply chain, and it's really tough for the operator's perspective to actually understand that quickly make the right decision, especially when you're dealing with like 10 different categories when it comes to cementing, casing design, drill string design. There's so many different facets of the industry and making the right decision every single time is exceptional and challenging.

Speaker 1:

So, number one I think there's such a great conversation we're having right now. Number one I think that service providers number one need to understand. It's not just service, low cost or anything like that. I weighted to this. Think about if you're using an Android. Right, you love Android, you love Android, you love Androids. And you have 15 other cell phone companies out there. You're going in there pitching low price, best service and all that stuff that really doesn't resonate with the operator, right, that doesn't resonate with the customer.

Speaker 1:

So you really need to understand why Alex is using the Android. What problems do you have with it that you don't wish you have? And it really is one of those things that if you're getting a flood of 15 companies, of 15 vendors, saying, hey, get us, buy us, buy us, buy us. That is a very challenging thing. What I would assume for an operator to differentiate what's smoke, what's mirrors, what's factual, what's a good reputation. So how do, I guess, traditionally, do operators go about this is exciting without giving too much cat out of the bag? How do traditionally, operators go about when it's not the price, when it's the reputation, when it's oh, we have a comment here. So how do operators go about currently or previously to gather that information, not the low cost number or anything like that. To understand the reputation of the people.

Speaker 2:

How does that happen? Yeah, so it kind of depends on the category you're talking about. But effectively, what you have to do is decide what's important to you and if it's quality in one aspect, or is it cost, could be a one major component. Is it just speed and efficiency? Is that what you're chasing? One thing that came up that evening was how different operators are chasing different value drivers as well. I find all too often that service providers come into an operator shop to talk about selling a service of some sort, but they don't really understand what's the problem that I'm having If you're trying to sell me something on something that I don't really understand. What's the problem that I'm having If you're trying to sell me something on something that I don't really understand what that problem is? So really just trying to understand like, what are your value drivers from your either your personal value drivers or the corporate value drivers it's going to help us solve a problem.

Speaker 1:

It was fascinating, man, like it was, it was like you had, we so at our events. Obviously you have different size or different. You know structured operators, you have private equity backed, you have independent, small major, super majors. That kind of took me by surprise. Alex was having every single person at the table say, hey, hey, this might work for your company, but we actually base our decision off of this. We based our, and they were small minute, but you talk about driving the change or driving the decision, those little things, and at the end of the day, it was all understanding your customers why, why are they, what is their approach and what is the main goal. And you're not going to get that without these conversations.

Speaker 2:

That's precisely right. That's why I love crew cups so much and that's why I keep coming back is there's so many different perspectives from the service provider side, from the operator small, medium, large operators kind of had different mindsets. So it's nice to throw a challenge in the room, have like those deep technical discussions about uh, how are we driving this industry forward? And when everyone's able to contribute, you really end up with a fantastic product at the end of the night.

Speaker 1:

So we have a question from linkedin user. I wish this transfer to who's actually asking this question. I apologize, it just says LinkedIn user, but it says how to systematically drive transparency and open communication as the basis for effective collaboration. What metrics are there to measure success? Man, that's kind of what we talked around about the table too.

Speaker 1:

I think one person around the table who's an operator said we, as an operator, we provide the KPIs or the metrics to our vendors and actually some of them put them in competition. They kind of rank them right. So my question is does that drive transparency? Does that drive collaboration? I think when they start doing, I think when operators start doing that I think you confirm or call me full of shit, whatever but I think what they say at first, like at first, there's not a lot of trust in that right, there's a lot of like you're scrutinizing me under a microscope, you're looking at my team's performance. That makes me hesitant to whatever. But I think once the why is communicated and understood from the operators, from the service companies, that becomes a lot more accepted. Right. That's where those trust, those trust bites, start to happen throughout the operator to the service companies.

Speaker 2:

So I guess, looking at this question, I mean, what are you seeing here? Good question To really have transparency and open communication. You can't just throw the data out there and hope for the best. You really need to have culture within your company that's willing to talk about both when we're succeeding and when we're failing. You need to clearly define what those feedback loops are going to look like. You need to have management bought in. You need to have office management bought in, the field management bought in so that we're willing to talk about yes, we struggled through that last case, that last seven-inch job. Let to talk about, yes, we struggled through that last case, that last seven-inch shot. Let's talk about what we can do to improve next time rather than playing the game. Just putting the data out there by itself is not enough. You really need everyone bought in with this culture change to really push the battery forward.

Speaker 1:

Do you see the need for collaboration conversation or the need for collaborating between operating service companies start, or I guess, the importance starting at different levels, Like from the field. This is more important than I guess the engineer this will probably be important to them in two months. Senior management they're probably going to understand why this is important in six months. So it's not like a one thing fits all, Everyone has the same mindset. Suddenly, I think it's a gradual shift one thing fits all, Everyone has the same mindset. Suddenly, I think it's a gradual shift.

Speaker 2:

It is gradual, absolutely, I can tell you. In my career we rolled out this performance transparency journey where we talked about putting the data in front of the entire field staff so they could visualize exactly how they're doing. On that last full section they just drilled, their last drilling run versus what the target should be and like, frankly, it did not go well in the first couple months, like it took a long time to build up that trust and really understand like why are we talking about this? We never used to do it this way before. And then effectively slowly getting everyone on board bringing management on board, bring the field on board and then effectively slowly getting everyone on board, bringing management on board, bringing the field on board and then, once you're on that cultural change, together you can drive the business forward very rapidly.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right, and so a couple of key things that I have here, and obviously we can open it up to you as well and also anyone out there that wants to dive in and ask a question right now. This also. I thought this was interesting too, because this isn't just from your topic around the table, but right now, the conversations about technology, right, innovation, where is that coming from? With reduced capital, with workforce reduction, with service companies' margins kind of getting hit, jeff Krimble just mentioned I saw his short reel yesterday about service companies getting hard.

Speaker 1:

So historically, it was my understanding that technology innovation came from the service side. However, right now, because of the lack of capital, because all this stuff, these collaborative conversations, need to happen at square one. Is that a safe statement to make, that they need to really happen? This is not one of those things where, if I'm a service company, I can think, oh well, alex is going through this, I think he might want this. This is one of those things that, if you are investing money in R&D or in technology, you got to have these conversations before you actually put a pen to the paper.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. You need to partner with your operator to understand what is their pain point before you invest your R&D capital into something that's not going to generate a return for either the service provider or the operator. What we're seeing, especially in a low oil price environment like we're at today, is where service providers will come in and undercut each other on the lowest bid, and when you do that, you're effectively driving down your profit margin for these service providers. Profit margin goes down. That means there's less and less investment into research and development to actually keep moving industries forward. So really, how do you differentiate yourself and kind of warrant that higher profit margin which will enable us to keep moving the ball forward? I think that's kind of the debate we've been having at several group club events recently. It's like who is supposed to front the bill? Is it the operator? Is it the service provider? Who is the responsibility? Is it for innovation anymore?

Speaker 1:

That's something we feel struggle with today, but I think that's the most. I think it's a beautiful part of these conversations is like whether it's AI, whether it's collaboration, whether it's these partnerships, we don't know, but we're figuring it out together, like we don't have the answer, but we have an idea of the direction we need to take together. That's precisely right. So what other key takeaways do you have? Because I kind of want to go over to the action items that everyone that's listening in right now, in the future, can take away. And then I want to get into your exciting new chapter in your development and how you are improving these collaborative conversations between the operator and the service provider, which I'm excited to dive into. So any other kind of key things that kind of brought you back, kind of took, that kind of made you kind of like perk up at the table whenever we're kind of having these roundtable conversations from your event.

Speaker 2:

I think one thing that wasn't really apparent to me was one of the service providers spoke up during the session and talked about how they frequently, like they find out that there's a problem when they lose a contract find out that there's a problem when they lose a contract. Generally they're approached by the operator saying yeah, we're going to go in another direction, and they don't really have that understanding of what went wrong. They weren't brought in to have a discussion about challenges they're having in the field until it's too late. So, even if you think that your contracts are going well, still establish that communication. Don't assume that just because you're not actually hearing any feedback that everything's going smoothly, because I can guarantee you that there probably are some challenges and having that open communication, even when things are going well, is super important, not only to get contracts, but also maintain those contracts and continue to grow, become a strategic partner with an author.

Speaker 1:

It's like, it's like any relationship I mean your, your marriage you could think things are going great, you know, for so long. Next thing you know, it's like well, this is like, oh, when did this all happen? So having these communications, whether it's business, whether it's personal, whether it's professional, it's so crucial to uh to constantly, I guess, stay in touch and have these conversations. So that was. I remember that. That was very uh shocking to me, cause I can remember my career. I've had a couple of situations where, man, I thought everything was going great and, uh, this kind of out of the blue, but it wasn't. It was it was, it was, it was, it was a building of momentum thing.

Speaker 1:

So some action items that this is what I think that people out there can kind of, that are viewing uh, can take away, is kind of what you just talked about Communicate early and communicate often. Obviously, you don't want to keep on pinging them all the stuff, but if you're having strategic, collaborative intent, intention, full conversations, continue them. Another action item I have is think like a partner, not a vendor. Stop going in there and pitching convincing. They might not even have a problem, they might love their Android, they might get annoyed that you're coming to their office trying to sell them another phone because they don't have a problem. So understand you're a solution provider, not a vendor pitching low cost, right. And then the other thing I have is validate, pre-invade. Understand that we just talked about this. Understand what the customer wants. What's their why, where are they going for, before you start trying to put a square into a circle hole right and then build internal alignment first. So those are my action items takeaways. And then what do you have for anyone? If not, we'll keep going.

Speaker 1:

I think you summed it up well all right, okay, and obviously there's just testimonies. Listen, everyone, if you want to get part of these tables and this, okay, great testimonies from some great people out here, alex, we gotta get you get a testimony here too. But hey, at the end of the day, networking is broken. Uh, this gives you conversations, uh, a seat at the table, part of the conversations at these conferences. You're always being spoken to, but hey, listen, let's get into some more of some interesting stuff right now, alex. So, alex, when you want, why don't you give us kind of an update and what you're doing, why you're doing it and what goal you're going for with your new chapter?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks, jp. Um, so I guess, been in the industry for about 10 years now. Um, started as a roughneck, been in the industry for about 10 years now. Started as a roughneck, worked in the field for a couple of years and I've been in the office for the last six or so years and really started to see that collaboration and transparency really is a struggle from all aspects of the industry. So I've always been very passionate on how do we collaborate more effectively, how do we talk about how we move the industry forward.

Speaker 2:

So I sought out to build instead of, I guess, complaining about some of these challenges. I wanted to be more solution oriented and one critical theme that kind of came out of their discussion was that operators and service providers both need like a centralized collaborative place to build that trust, to find who is the best service provider fit for that job. So that's exactly why I built Reconcierge, which is an operator-led platform that empowers a more transparent oil field. Reconcierge streamlines vendor selection process by showcasing real-world success stories, understanding the full product offerings that service providers have to show, and surface potential red flags before they become a costly problem. In a climate today where attention is scarce and every dollar counts. Rig concierge ensures that service providers who prioritize collaboration and quality stand out, while operators gain clarity on true value instead of settling for that lowest bid.

Speaker 1:

All right. So, hey, listen man. So, at the end of the day, what you successfully have done, what you successfully and obviously everyone out there please let me actually put this in the chat. Uh, check out, rig concierge. I like saying that because it makes you sound fancy. Um, here is the chat. Boom, let me put it here and then show, check it out.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so pretty much, alex, this. The whole goal of this and correct me if I'm wrong is, yes, efficiencies, cloud bridge, but at the end of the day, this is a great platform to get real reviews from, and I love this idea because it really is like a, a yelp, a google review, uh, for service providers, for vendors, because I personally believe, alex, that we're in a hyper connected, yet disconnected world. I mean, that's kind of why I disconnected world. That's why I do all my seminars on communication, on networking, how to build it. At the end of the day, where do companies get their information? Where can they actually understand whether they're going to a new location or a new basin or something like that? Where can they actually understand the service providers and all that stuff? What you successfully did, what you did, was you created, you stepped out on your own. Now you started Reconcierge to be a pretty much an operator reviewed a service provider. I guess whatever phone book, whatever reviewed by operators.

Speaker 2:

That is correct. I find all too often you're having challenges at the office and you're trying to figure out what's my next motor provider that I should be testing out, what's the next drill bit that we should try in this basin, and it's really tough to find information. You can kind of navigate some service providers' webpages and some of them are related. Well, some of them are not. So really just trying to level the playing field, have a standard methodology for how do you find tools, how do you find the best, highest rated service providers in your region, and then this will help promote service providers that are really crushing it out there and providing a high quality of service. So really want to let them stand out and operators are able to successfully work with the best service providers in the industry.

Speaker 1:

Well, hats off to you. I just thought that there's over 110 service providers already that have signed up for the Reconcierge site. Is that true?

Speaker 1:

Yeah that's right. Well, good for you, good for you. I'm excited to kind of see this grow and obviously provide some, and that's the thing I mean. At the end of the day, we always say this industry, your reputation, you have your name, and this really is a way to kind of validate that, to kind of I think.

Speaker 1:

I think it's a great way to provide more trust because, at the end of the day, in this day and age, if you're going to a restaurant, you're checking reviews. If it's not hitting a certain amount of stars, you're not going there. And the same ways, and what's weird to me, alex, is we don't, as service providers or as people, whenever we get in our professional role, we don't utilize or we don't think about our own purchasing, our own purchasing behaviors in our personal life. You know, checking reviews. Now you have that right, understand the problem, don't want to be pitched to, but yet we go out and pitch. This is a great way to have that trust built and honestly have some good, have some honest feedback from operators who have utilized service company before.

Speaker 2:

That's completely right. If you're have ever had issues in your home, you always look up on Google Maps to see which is the top rated HVAC company or plumbing company in the business, and they kind of live and breathe by their reviews and they want to provide that high quality service to continue to get the pipeline of new customers coming in the door. Why does that not exist in oil and gas?

Speaker 1:

So my question is this Number one who is this for? Obviously, you've already answered that, but I have to ask these questions to make it stick. Number one who's this for?

Speaker 2:

This is for both. The key target audience is drilling supervisors and drilling engineers searching for new tools to implement in their well-designed Operators see benefit, as it's a free, private review platform that they're able to voice their concerns or kind of promote good service providers and they're able to effectively create that feedback loop between operators and service providers. Service providers are also able to come in and add all their product offerings into the service so that you can implement all the product specification sheets, any promotional videos. So you're really connecting the dots between the product designers that are actually creating this new technology directly to the people that are purchasing it, which is typically a drilling supervisor on a well site somewhere or a drilling engineer sitting in an office. So it's a two-sided marketplace.

Speaker 1:

So, again, this is something that, again, if you're an engineer out there working an operator that you've utilized some vendors that you're happy with or, honestly, might have not been a good experience with, this is a safe place for them to kind of review it right, and I like this. So let me ask you a question Are there going to be any trolls on? Ask you a question are there many trolls on this and how are they? How are there gonna be no trolls, like on x or something like that, when it comes to reviewing uh service?

Speaker 2:

yeah, we have a pretty thorough uh validation process to ensure that it's only operators that are signing up uh that are actually able to promote, to review on this platform. Um, you're only able to utilize your corporate email address. There's a validation protocol that ensures that that's kind of maintained throughout your time on rig concierge and you're basically posting your name and your company right side by side with that review. It is real operators that are vetted to actually get on the platform and real servers providers that are able to promote their offerings.

Speaker 1:

Man, what a cool idea. Man, I love this. I mean, obviously I dig the colors. I think I use one of these colors for Krugler man, I love the logo, I love the goal of this and I guess, at the end of the day, is what is the main goal of red concierge? I mean, you've already spoken to it, but I like it again.

Speaker 2:

I guess, solidify it really just simplifying the uh, the, the way we do business in the oil and gas industry. Um, it's so complicated to find which vendors are good, in which basins, which technologies are available, um, and really cut through all the noise of um kind of artificial sales pitches and get the root of how do we drill more cost-effective wells, faster wells, more productive wells, and do that with a lot more simplicity?

Speaker 1:

I have a question. Let's say I'm hanging out in Midland and you're in Houston or Oklahoma city or something like that, and I see you review uh, whatever, uh through club mugs, right, Is there a way that I can say man Alex utilizes an Oklahoma city, I'm in Midland, I'm going to give him a call and see what his experience was as a way to kind of further the connections, further the conversations through it, through a reconcierge.

Speaker 2:

That's correct. We have two different methodologies. We have a public review network which is public within the operator space, so only operators are able to see the reviews across the board. So you're able to contribute in the public setting which is the reconcierge operator network. Or there's the private review network which you can kind of consult your team or just to your company if you want to keep your reviews to yourself. So you really have the option. If you want to contribute to the public domain, which I really encourage, I think we should be collaborating across company to company more often. You have the opportunity to put your review out there in that public domain and by all means it can reach out to you and kind of chat more about your experience. And by all means it can reach out to you and kind of chat more about your experience.

Speaker 1:

Dude. I love it, man. The fact that you just recently I would say semi-recently, over the past couple of weeks launched Rig Concierge, which is an operator-led service provider reviewing Think about it Yelp or, think about it, google reviews for service providers. The fact you launched this and you have over 110 service providers on there yet I'm seeing reviews as well. Man, I'm excited for you. I'm excited for the impact that this potentially could have.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm kind of dumbfounded with the amount of outreach from the service provider community and the operator community people that are interested in learning more about it. I've had over 100 folks reach out to me just this past week, so I'm kind of filtering through them, trying to get to everyone. So if you haven't heard from me yet, I'll be following up with you shortly.

Speaker 1:

Love that, all right. So, alex, let me ask you a question how can people find you? How can people find Ray Concierge? And what is a final, final takeaway from your roundtable and a plug for crew club? So, number one, how can people find you?

Speaker 2:

You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm super active on there, so by all means, reach out to me, send me a message and I'll be sure to get back to you very quickly. In terms of crew club, really advocate at the end of the night to really focus on, instead of accepting the status quo. Focus on how we can move the industry forward, whether that's an archaic process that we have internally or a lack of willingness to collaborate across companies. Just think about, like, how do we move the industry forward as a whole? And to take a personal action in the next couple months, figuring out what can I do personally, rather than wait for the industry to change.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that, man, I love that. It's all about setting your own attention, it's all about having these conversations and I truly believe. Obviously, you believe too, that this industry is going to be moved forward. And listen, technology's out there, ai is out there, I get that, but for me, this industry is going to be moving forward through human intelligence, human conversation, because we had one in Oklahoma City where Brandon Conner was leading one about Simops and he's like listen, at the end of the day, you need people's ideas. You need these conversations to think of an idea outside the box for Simops, for Trimofrac, for this, for that, for whatever. So these conversations are crucial in driving the industry forward. What you're doing, the platform you have and actually the platform I have I'm digging it, man I think it's great to have these candid, transparent conversations around the table, because that's right, that's how you improve.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and I advocate for everyone to reach out and attend one of the Crew Club events. I did so a couple years ago and I think I've attended everyone in Houston thus far. I really enjoyed the discussions. It got a lot of value out of it.

Speaker 1:

I don't know, I'm dragging over. You might have missed one due to the newborn of, uh, your child, but that's a very acceptable excuse.

Speaker 2:

That is a good point all right y'all.

Speaker 1:

Hey, alex, I want to thank you man. I'm excited to stay in touch with you and see the success. I can see I'm glitching over here, which is kind of cool, but I'm excited for you man. I'm looking forward to obviously seeing the progress of Red Concierge Again. You can check that out here. It's on the screen. Check it out. It's going to be whether you check it out now. You're going to be checking it. Lot of things in this industry. So, hey, I appreciate you taking the time this morning. Alex, I hope you have a great Easter weekend, safe Easter weekend. Everyone out there have a great, safe Easter weekend. If you missed some of this, you can find it out. I'm going to put this out on Energy Crew podcast. You can check that on YouTube and Spotify and if you're interested in joining the table at Crew Club, head over to crewclubcom. That's C R U E clubcom. Be part of the conversations, be part of the collaborative conversations. And hey, Alex, you have a great day. Brother, I'll talk to you a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Thank you very much.

Speaker 1:

Is there anything else you want to leave? Am I, am I cutting off soon? Anything, I'm not asking or bringing up.

Speaker 2:

That's perfect. Thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 1:

All right, brother, hope everyone has a great safe. And remember, keep the conversations going All right, always ask, always figure out what the why is, and you're a problem solver. You're not there to pitch, not there to convince, not there to lowball, you're really there to understand their why. All right, y'all, y'all be good out there. Remember, collaborate healthy conversations, connect on a genuine level and remember be kind. All right, y'all be good, thank you.