All right, hello and welcome to today's webinar. Our speakers today are Jesse Buckingham from Record360 and Ron Barlett from BJAC and AED Chairman. Before I turn it over to Jesse and Ron, I'd like to let those of you who are live with us know that you may submit questions during the webinar via the Q&A tab at the bottom of the screen. This webinar will also be recorded so that you may watch or rewatch on demand at your convenience. So with that, I will turn it over to Jesse. Thank you, Liz. Welcome everyone to our webinar with Ron Barlett. Very lucky to have you here, Ron, thanks for joining. Today's webinar is titled, How Inspection Management Software is Modernizing the Rental Industry. And so this is going to be a deep dive into how some of the strongest dealers are using inspection software to transform their operations and their customer relationships. As Liz said, feel free to ask questions in the chat as we go. I'll be leading the discussion, but would love to keep folks engaged and we'll incorporate those as we go. Ron probably doesn't need too much introduction with this group. As you all know, he is the current AED Chairman. Ron has been with Bayjack Corporation since 1985, over 24 years, and is now their president. Was at UC Irvine, did his MBA there. So a ton of experience in this space, and I'm very excited to have you on here. I'm going to spend a couple minutes going through a short presentation and a few slides on how inspection management software is transforming the rental industry. And then we're going to dive into a fireside chat with Ron to learn, first of all, how inspection software is impacting Bayjack, and then a more general discussion around running a really strong rental operation. Sorry, I will share my screen here. I'll just confirm, Ron, you're seeing what you're supposed to be seeing, right? I'm seeing it. Absolutely. Very good. That means the audience is as well. Awesome. Inspection software really is about helping rental operators operate with more confidence. We work with several hundred equipment rental operators across the country, and what we hear pretty consistently is that a winning strategy in rental is actually relatively simple when you boil it down. First, you need quality assets. The way that your equipment looks matters more to customers probably than it should, and you need to be able to maintain that quality at reasonable prices. Two is loyal customers, so building long-term relationships with customers. It's always easier and more profitable to be expanding your relationships with existing customers than it is to be acquiring new ones, although, of course, both are important. And third is hiring great talent, particularly in a challenging labor market where you've got shortages of skilled workers, service technicians. It's really important to be able to attract great people to your team, and what we see is that the traditional way that inspections are happening in the industry are hurting rental operators. One, equipment damage hurts your asset quality and, therefore, your brand and the way that you're perceived by customers. Two, you're forced to either fight with customers about damage and threaten the relationship or eat the cost and not raise it, which hurts your margins. And three is having clunky processes or tools that don't work well is frustrating for teams in an environment where it's hard to secure awesome talent. The process of inspections is transforming in the industry. In the old world, things were done with pen and paper or carbon copies or using digital cameras and SD cards with limited searchability. But the new inspection software, it's cloud-based, allows you to take photos and videos, capture e-signatures, presents that all on dashboards where those records are easily accessible and searchable by anyone in your team. And what we're seeing is that that's enabling operators to have higher-quality assets and an improved brand because they're able to pay for and afford the cost of equipment repair, and it incentivizes customers to take good care of the assets. You're able to build relationships focused on trust and accountability. Customers know they will be held accountable for damage, and this allows you to have a non-confrontational conversation if damage does occur. And third, you're putting tools in the hands of your employees that just work, which improves productivity overall. You know, at a high level, there's really three components to it. There's inspect, share, and protect. So a simple and intuitive mobile app that's easy for teams to adopt with standardized processes so that everyone's doing the same thing to make sure that no asset goes out uninspected. Email triggers and access to records to allow them to share with customers or insurers if issues do occur, and then an easy web dashboard that gives you a repository of information that you can access if anything does occur. So I would love to, as a setup there, to jump in and talk to you, Ron. Ron, maybe just for everyone's benefit, before we dive in, you could tell us a little bit about – I'd love to hear about your role within Bayjac, but also a little bit more about your business and operations at Bayjac. So we're headquartered in Southern California, but we have branches in Arizona, Nevada, California, and opening a service center actually in Utah. So we cover quite a bit of the Southwest. We're a little bit different, Jesse, compared to some of the general rental operations. We really specialize in some of the niche markets. So we're doing a lot of demolition rentals, recycling rentals related to trash, green waste, construction debris. We actually have forestry segment, a little bit different than some operations, and then a very large scrap segment. So we're typically renting very heavy equipment, very expensive equipment, and interestingly, equipment that is often prone to damage, because it is being used in high production, high cycle. Demolition, just by definition, means you're demolishing things, and sometimes machines pay the price. So we do about $20 million a year in rentals. So it is a significant part of our business. We move our fleet across 12 different locations, and just, I guess I'm kind of setting the tone already for some of the trials and tribulations that we had as we grew, without embracing some technology to help us along. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, and a really impressive operation that you guys have built, and I think we chatted a little bit last time around just the diversity of verticals that you guys are serving, still in a very focused way, but I love that. Maybe just to kick us off at a high level, from your perspective, I shared some of the things that we hear from customers about what's important in a winning rental strategy, but from your perspective, what do you think are the core elements of a winning rental operation? Jesse, it's funny. I saw the core elements that you brought up there, and some of the comments that you made, and some of the issues that we used to have in terms of customer disputes, no, the machine came out with that damage, no, I didn't do it, not having a quality product. I mean, at the end of the day, for most of our companies, it may say brand X on the side, but it truly says BJAC on the side. Several of the elements you brought up in those slides really resonate with me, both to how sensitive we are to ensuring we send a quality product, how sensitive we are to making it easy for our employees to engage in the things that they're supposed to do, giving them the right tools to make it easy for them, and certainly, when it's all said and done, I mean, just ensuring that there's a great customer experience, not only with rental, but with everything we do. So yeah, I think those three items you've mentioned were spot on. I mean, I think they're very important to your operation, to your rental business. Awesome. How do you think about, you know, technology is obviously an important and an evolving piece of how you deliver on a lot of those factors, and I know inspection software is a component of that, but how do you think about technology, your technology investment strategy more broadly? What are the problems that you look to solve with technology, and when and why do you make those investments? There's obviously a lot of things on the market. You know, I think there's a couple of things. I think in today's day and age, you have to be aggressive about embracing the technology for everything that can be done better than the way you used to do it, and so we're constantly looking at all sorts of technology. I mean, certainly the telematics that you see, we're about to implement GPS tracking on all of our attachments, typically a big problem, you know, in a lot of organizations is keeping track of their attachments. You know, we're looking at, you know, tool software, you know, today's technology is driving a big investment in shop tools, for example, service tools that you need, so kind of keeping track of that huge investment. You know, our sales team uses Salesforce, you know, we're just, we're kind of in the infancy still there, but with Salesforce, you know, those type of CRMs give you a platform typically to develop a, you know, workflow, you know, that really helps organize your whole organization to notify them what all the next steps are. One of the biggest concerns that I have, you know, from the dealer principal level with most of the technology really is the ease of use and really how easy it is to implement it. I think all of us at my level have, you know, approved a initiative, a software technology initiative only to find out, well, you know, our guys don't use it, or it was too hard to implement, or only some of the locations are using it. So I think if they're beyond the cost, usually you can do the math and do the calculation with regard to the cost and do that justification. But I think the big concern always is, is will your staff, will your team use it, number one, and number two, you know, how easy it is to implement, how quick can we get it up and running? Yeah, that's an interesting, so it seems like figuring out whether or not the ROI exists in theory is often relatively clear. You do it on a spreadsheet with a few calculations, and then the piece that's sort of hard to predict in real life, all that matters is how do you translate that and actually execute against that ROI, and then you need to make sure that you've got adoption within your team. It changes, you know, for most people, for most organizations, change is the most, you know, difficult situation they have, you know, hey, we're used to it, we've got our, you know, we got our forms, we got our system, you know, we don't want to change, you know, we don't want to change. I laughed, again, at some of the slides where, you know, trying to find the SD card, you know, we did video, we did the, you know, the camera, we did all that, then we want to go back and find a machine, and we can't remember where we put the SD card or how we labeled the SD card. And then if you're a multi-branch operation, trying to figure out where that, you know, where that SD card exists, so I can get it to that branch to compare it, so again, you know, it triggered quite a bit of laughter in some of those slides that you showed me. Yeah, that's funny, yeah, and I think it's an important point, and we can talk a little bit more about it, but when I think about change management and process management, particularly with technology, there is a balance, I believe, to be struck against how much you are pushing people to do new things, versus how, like, how much are you asking them to improve the way that things work already, and so it is one of the things that we think a lot about is, how do we make sure that we're building software that pushes people to do things differently so that they get different results, but still is largely consistent with the way that things work, so that it means that it's intuitive to adopt, and also already closely mirrors some of the processes that are happening in the business, but just makes those more effective, which it sounds like that's sort of aligned with how you see things. Absolutely. Yeah, I would love to maybe just kick it off, how do you use Record360 in your day-to-day operations? Yeah, so, you know, again, from a high level, machine comes in from RAN, it gets inspected, and so there's a matching outbound, basically, inspection when the machine left, that basically you match those two, and that sort of closes the loop for us, so we know what it looked like when it left, we know what it looked like when it came back, and so that, you know, things are good, and everything matches, normal wear and tear, sort of accepted kind of thing, then we're done, and we go on to getting it ready for the next rental, and restart the process. If there's a problem, of course, those pictures, the video, the notes, are basically relayed to the rental manager, who then looks at it, and then can make the management decision, depending on how long the rental was out, or how much damage, or whatever it is, to go ahead and notify the customer that there's an additional bill forthcoming, so, you know, that's really the main way we use it, it's used by every branch, every technician, every location, and the huge benefit there, really, is that if it were inspected in a Southern California location, and then the rental was completed in an Arizona location, for example, that matching is easy, because it's, you know, it's all in the system, all in the same place. We do, are expanding the use, actually, we are using the Record 360 now for evaluations of trade-ins, and so we've added that. We also, you know, have, when we get a consignment machine that came from maybe another dealer from the manufacturer, we're also using it to inspect that, in fact, we just had a situation this week, where we moved it to, shipped it to another location, to another dealer, and they wanted us to pay for some missing items, and, you know, we had the data, the photo, the video, and everything, exactly how it arrived to us, and obviously saved us about several thousand dollars, but, you know, really eliminated a lot of disputes, so it's integrated completely now, 100% in our business, you know, I would say it's being used 99.9, 95% of the time, and, you know, it's just part of our systems. That's awesome. There's a few areas there that I'd love to double-click on, but maybe just kind of take us back to what life looked like before you implemented Record360, like, what were the sort of processes that you had in place, and what were some of the challenges that you guys were facing that you were looking to solve? You know, we tried, honestly, you know, rewinding way back, you know, each machine on inspection would have a disposable camera with, you know, X amount of pictures, we would label it with a stock number of the machine. Those pictures wouldn't necessarily be developed unless we had a problem. Of course, that causes sort of a library cataloging issue, you know, where is the camera, and, you know, did it get damaged? And then, obviously, moved with digital cameras to, you know, the SD cards, and that sort of thing. We tried video, you know, and for a single location, you can kind of make some of those systems work, where we really began to see the problem as we went branch to branch. And because our equipment is so big, especially, we may move a big machine into the San Francisco Bay Area for a month rental, and then we may move it to Southern California for a month rental. And, you know, it's so expensive that, you know, moving it, you know, is not really, it's justifiable. It's a small part of it. And that was a classic case where the inspection done in North Carolina, in Northern California, wouldn't match what happened in Southern California. And that's really where the problems arose. And, you know, tremendous amount of disputes, a tremendous amount of what I call non-productive discussions with your customer that typically leaves somebody upset, right? We're either upset because we know that the damage occurred there, customers upset that he's paying anything because maybe or maybe he doesn't believe that he did it. So, you know, it was really, I think, that very typical struggle that most of us had when the, you know, ease of technology really was not available to help streamline this. Yeah. Do you have any sense for how much you were losing on damage before you started using Record360? You know, you asked me that, you know, when we talked a few weeks ago and I glanced at the last couple of years, but we've been, I think, using Record360 now for about three years. So I had to dig back a little bit farther. So I got back a little bit farther and we actually track rental damage income and rental damage cost. And today we actually do a little, I'm being honest, we actually do a little bit better in what we charge versus what we spend. So that's obviously great. But we were losing as much as a quarter of a million dollars a year in lost collection of rental damage. And so pretty significant. And I checked a few years, so it was pretty consistent. It was a solid $250,000 to $300,000 a year. Yeah. I mean, that's a substantial sum of money. And awesome that you've actually been able to turn that into a largely a breakeven, maybe a slight sort of profit center, whereas, you know, when you're not able to charge back, I mean, you've got to eat that cost and it just comes straight off your top line. There's a bigger piece to this, though, I think, beyond even the dollars and, you know, looking at at least breakeven. You know, the bigger part of this is the elimination of the customer disputes. I think that, you know, one of the core elements you talked about was the loyalty to, you know, with your customer base and so on. And today, I think the integrity of doing business with BJAC and knowing that the machine came out a certain way, knowing that we have the data, we have the inspection report, and that really at our fingertips, if there's a dispute, we can easily show them the before, we can show them the after, and literally do that in just minutes, seconds, minutes. And I think from an integrity standpoint, customers trust that we know what we're doing, that we take pride in what we do, that when they get the machine, it's going to be correct, and that we do have the history to substantiate what we're saying. And I think aside from the monetary side of things, that's a very important piece to me. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and that's sort of hard to, it's hard to put a direct value on that. You know, I think about that in our customer relationships or in any relationship that it, you know, it ends up being the sum total of all of your interactions. And negative interactions usually have an outsized impact on people's, and it may take you five positive ones to recover from that. And you see sort of some of the best brands in the world really make sure that every interaction is one that is very customer centric, which is not to say that you don't need to charge a customer back, but if you're going to do it, you need to do it from a place of integrity where you can take the heat out of it. And it's interesting, there's that element. We've also seen, I think for service folk and sales reps, just being able to have that proof is such a like value add in terms of peace of mind as well, because nobody wants to get in a fight with someone. And knowing that they're able to actually, you know, have a moment, find records here, you know, we see as being helpful. We actually, customers have told us that they prefer to rent from us because they know we're not going to, you know, we have this dispute or we're not going to try and ding them for things. And you mentioned that you need some positive events sometimes, you know, just kind of straighten that out. But I'll tell you, I think our customers have very long memories, and if they felt like they paid for something that they didn't cause, I'm telling you that, you know, that's that sticks with them a very, very long time. And I would even suggest it's very, very hard to overcome that. And we hear that from our customers, even though we are definitely charging them for damage that has occurred. But they don't put us in that same box, because again, if that's what happened, there's the proof and there's really, there's really no question. Yeah, I mean, it's powerful that you're able to achieve that and you're not eating costs, right? I mean, that is the trade-off that we see people without this software. That is the sort of trade-off, right? It's like eat the cost, but preserve the relationship or charge for them and harm it. There is a sort of a third way when you have, yeah, third party documentation. And you spoke a little bit about sort of the importance of implementation, but maybe just take us through what it was like to buy Record360. What were some of the sort of doubts or fears that you had or apprehensions that you had about moving forward with it and what did that mean? So like anything else, you learn sort of from past mistakes. And so one of the things that we did do during the due diligence of purchasing Record360 is we really sought out quite a few of your references, quite a few of the people that were using Record360. And we actually visited a couple to kind of see a hands-on look. And then we had some phone calls with some others. And I would say overwhelmingly, everybody was very happy that they had used it. They're using it very extensively. They thought integrating it into their business system was easy. And like anything else, we had some branches when we started that implementation concern, some branches that didn't embrace it as quickly as others. But as we kind of put our foot down a little bit more, I mean, it's just so automatic now. It's just that's the tool. It's a tool in their toolbox now. But I would say it was very, very beneficial for us, for you guys helping us connect us to people that were using the system. And that really eased a lot of our fears. You don't always get the luxury of doing that. This is a great industry because a lot of times we don't have to talk to a competitor across the street. We can talk to a competitor in another state. And I think most of us are cognizant of the fact that if we can get more people using the technology, companies like yourself continue to invest and improve and make the system better because of the scale and the input you get. So I would say the due diligence we did with the references really helped us overwhelm any fears that we overcome, any fears that we had. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. And so I'm kind of curious, like on this, you had some locations that adopted it really easily. It sounds like then overcoming that was a combination of there's a bit of putting your foot down. Did you start to see any sort of results in some of the locations that demonstrated the impact that was sort of compelling for other folks? Or was it, when did you start to sort of realize the value of it? I think when we finally had the whole company using it, it was just amazing how, again, all of this dispute issue, arguing, did it go out that way, how it was handled. It was just amazing how that whole segment of disputes and issues, it just disappeared. The other benefit of it was it really raised the bar for some of the brands. And I'm probably hitting a nerve with some other managers that are on this call. It seems like you always have a couple of branches that hit it out of the park, a couple of branches that are sort of mediocre, and you always have a couple of branches you got to kind of kick in the pants. What we saw is it really raised the bar, even at those, what I would call, none of my team's listening, but the underperforming branches, because now they knew there was a track, there was some pictures, there was an inspection, there was a track that was going to be compared to. And the last thing you really wanted is, we don't want that machine to have come out of a rod shop, right? We want to make sure that if it came out of a rod shop, it's not going to get dinged for it. So once everybody was using it, the results and the cultural change, it was like a switch got flipped. I mean, we really saw a big difference across the whole organization in terms of consistent overall quality of the product we were delivering. Yeah. That's awesome. Do you have any advice for folks on change management? Because we like to think that the product is easy to adopt and relatively intuitive, but there is always a people challenge that's involved here. Do you have any advice for folks on how to think and approach that or things that worked effectively that you learned from your experience? I would say there's probably a couple of things. I mean, the first one is we're finding as we look at technologies to really engage a few of the people that would be using the product. So let them test it a little bit and let them become involved. And we selectively pick those people that we believe will be advocates, that will help lead the charge kind of thing. And your organization likely probably has some techno gadget type guys that are very interested in the technology that can lead the way. And a different example, we have a camera system now on all of our vehicles and we became very apprehensive if that was going to be a big brother effect and did it make a lot of sense for us to do that? So we approached a couple of our key drivers and asked them about it. And lo and behold, those two guys, the techno savvy guys had GoPros on their dashes and they wanted to protect themselves. They wanted to protect their job. They wanted to protect themselves from a frivolous situation that wasn't their fault. So here we are debating, does it make sense to apply this technology when the fact of the matter is it was already being used? And so our employees, especially, we discount, I think, our younger generation and we really miss the fact that they live in the technologies that maybe for a lot of us, especially at my level, didn't really grow up around. And I think testing it with some of your advocates in your organization that are willing to embrace the technology, that can see it, is certainly a good way to go to facilitate change. Because peer-to-peer, I mean, you get that peer-to-peer pressure as opposed to management dictating what is supposed to happen, I think is huge. And I think you get acceptance much quicker, much faster. Yeah, that's great. We've seen that across the board is finding those early adopters in the organization that are gonna be sort of willing testers for it and then advocates for it can be a really helpful way to just to get that ball rolling. Absolutely. Yeah, that's awesome. And so you've spoken a lot about some of the benefits that you've seen, but yeah, do you think that the, it sounds like you, do you think the purchase of Record360 was worth it at a high level? Like what, how would you sort of summarize the benefits that it's had on the organization? Yeah, I mean, you know, it's kind of, it's one of those situations where it's like not having Excel I mean, I don't know, it's just so integrated now as part of our operation. And I see people referring to it all the time, you know, that it just, it's just part of the system now. And I don't know, you know, it's funny, you just think about how you used to do it and you're kind of going like, well, I never want to go back there again. I mean, and so it really is, it's just part of our system now. I mean, it's just, you know, kind of take it for granted probably if anything, Jesse. Yeah, that's awesome. Are there any specific stories that stand out in your mind when Record360 saved you guys money on an event? You know, again, there's just, there are probably so many, I mean, you know, customers will try and wiggle out of, they will wiggle out of things if they can, or if they can create doubt, you know, they will. And I mean, there just, there's just so many situations where it could have been very expensive for the company or it could have been a relationship damager that it just never got, you know, never got to that elevation that it was a problem. You know, this last one that just happened, you know, is a small one, but I thought it was funny where, you know, the manufacturer was adamant it didn't come out that way. You know, and this isn't really with the customers with your manufacturer, but just as one that happened a few days ago, I just thought it was very interesting that, you know, here's the inspection when it came in and, you know, those pieces were not there. I mean, there it is, it's coming right off the truck. So, you know, it's, again, it just solves a lot of issues. And, you know, as I said, it's just kind of part of the system now that we probably take it for granted. That's awesome. Ron, I'd love to shift gears a little bit to talk more broadly about the dealership. And I'm curious to maybe start on the sort of the growth side. It sounds like you guys have been very thoughtful about this at Bajac, but what do you see as the big sort of revenue opportunities over the next five years for you guys? You know, we've investing very heavily at the moment, really in our product support department. We think that there's going to be a tremendous amount of technology that continues to be applied to our industry. I think if anything, we probably are a little bit behind some of the things that we see elsewhere in the industry. And so we're investing both human capital and certainly financial capital in product support in terms of embracing the technology and learning some other things that we can do. You know, the complication of the machines is sort of lending itself to your customers wanting more support from us. So a lot, many of our customers, for example, are trying to do some things themselves, but they're really finding, you know, the telematics with the, you know, fault codes and those sorts of things. They don't want to monitor them. They don't want to be bothered with that. They would rather have you do that. So we're really focusing on all things product support to really take advantage of the technology that we have and really, really connect with our customers and provide more services beyond just selling a piece of equipment, just renting a piece of equipment and really helping them manage their equipment. And, you know, I think that the opportunity there really is to really be entrenched in a customer's business and make it very difficult for them, you know, to go elsewhere because you're really an integral part of their operation. Yeah, that's interesting. So sort of taking more of that burden of the servicing in a holistic sense from the customers. I mean, that, you know, that is sort of your area of expertise, right? And so it sort of makes sense that there's this sort of, you know, outsourcing to you guys so they can focus on their core business. You guys do what you do best. And then there's a lot of sort of services and other value added things that you're able to layer on top of that. Absolutely. How do you think about some of the trade-offs between expanding existing relationships or new business? And how do you think about sort of prioritizing that, you know, with your sales folk or for the dealership at large? Well, I mean, we're sensitive to both. I mean, we really look at, first of all, you know, how do you increase, you know, the activity, the interaction with your customers? I like to use sort of this 12-touch rule. And I feel like if you want to ensure your customer is a stable VJAC customer, we need to figure out how to touch them 12 times. And I define a touch beyond just a sales call. You know, are we doing training? Are they buying parts from us on a regular basis? Are they attending our training classes that we have? And so, you know, you want to ensure that your customer base is stable, that the risk of loss is very low because it doesn't do you a lot of good to add quite a few customers, but it's like a train. You know, if you're adding cars to the train, but some of the cars are falling off, that doesn't do you good either. But I'm also very cognizant about our sales staff being aggressive to add new customers because things do change. I mean, a customer retires, a customer is consolidated with another customer. And so that's very critical. We have found in the last few years because of the reputation that we've built, we do a tremendous amount of referral business now. And I think as a company, when you reach that level that a tremendous part of your new business is referral business, it's sort of validation that the things that you're doing are being well-respected with your customer base such that they're willing to refer you to new business. So, you know, I look at them both, you know, very cognizant about the stability of the current customer base, how we can provide more services, similar to what we do with engaging, you know, kind of an advocate in our own organization with some ideas that we have. A lot of times we'll take a new product that we're, you know, maybe not super familiar with and we'll take it to one of our key customers and let them pick it apart and get good feedback from them. So, you know, we're trying to engage the customer, especially our key customers in a lot of different ways. And I think just that innovation and involvement has given us a lot of mileage, you know, to build those interactions and those relationships. Yeah, there's a few things there that I loved and I sort of, that really resonated with me. One is around the idea that providing an excellent experience to your customers. One, you know, you're obviously then able to expand it, but two, it ends up actually driving new business because the most powerful form of growth is a really strong reference or referral from customers. And we sort of think about that a lot as well. Like, you know, expanding our customer base is obviously important, but one of the most important vehicles for that is provide an awesome service that causes people to want to talk about you. And then you get this sort of flywheel turning in that way. And it sounds like actually it's a very sort of similar philosophy that you both are very important. We find it's hard to grow without sort of really making sure that you're doing an awesome job. How do you think about, like, structuring your organization? We spoke a little bit about this. You obviously serve a few different end markets. How did that come about and how have you structured your organization to support that strategy? So we were, you know, very focused in Southern California pre-2007, 2008 on the home building market. And after the things that happened in the recession, we refocused the business strategically thinking that we wanted to expand the geography and we wanted to look at what our infrastructure would support. And for most dealerships, it's got a diesel engine, hydraulic pump, regardless of what the product is, we typically can support it. We're trained to do that. And that led us into a mission of, you know, looking at what other segments that, you know, use those products, but maybe weren't the traditional, what we see when we drive down the street in terms of site development or road construction and so on. And that led us on a mission to find those products, find those manufacturers, and then partner with who we thought were the best. And so that led us into that segmentation. And interestingly, we found a lot of these businesses to be underserviced. They weren't your core earth moving company, let's say. We also found that they typically had longer duty cycles. So they use the machines more. So in trash and forestry and scrap recycling, really not limited by the curfews that might be on a job site, for example. So we really, you know, sort of by accident, kind of found ourselves in some very exciting niche markets that really allowed us to grow and to, you know, it's been a little bit less competitive. You don't have many players in that space. And, you know, it's been, it's really been enjoyable to see all the things that you can do. I mean, if you've never been in the forest and watched trees being harvested and all the equipment, the mechanized equipment that it takes, you know, to do that, you know, that's kind of a fun, exciting business to see what happens there. So, yeah, it, you know, it was really a strategic decision to diversify, which we all talk, I think, about diversifying, but sometimes it's hard to do that. And then really having some early successes that just caused us to expand. At what level of the organization were you engaging in that discovery of those markets? Like, so for dealerships that are looking, you know, because I think this is gonna resonate for folks, how did that process, was that sort of, was that you or, you know, senior executives really going and discovering those opportunities, or was it license that was given to the sales folk who then discovered it, and then you sort of built process and systematized it, or how should people actually think about that process of finding new segments to serve? You know, there's a handful of us that, you know, that are at the upper management level, that, you know, we kind of brainstorm, we would brainstorm some ideas and some different segments, and then, you know, well, I'm gonna explore this, I'm gonna explore that, I'll explore this manufacturer, but I would probably tell you, Jesse, and I think our staff would tell you that, you know, I get around the equipment, and I just have a lot of passion, a lot of excitement, I love learning as much as I possibly can, so, you know, a lot of it, you know, you go down a path, sometimes it's a dead end, but a lot of it has to do with just, you know, the intrigue and, you know, does it fit our system, does our infrastructure, can we support it? But I would probably say I was, I have been leading the charge, we have something in the works right now, I can't, I'm not gonna share with you just yet, but we're about to add on another product that on the surface looks like, how does that fit in? But synergistically, it actually fits in, as you do the diligence fits in really well, but, you know, I think I have a passion for growth, not so much to grow the company beyond its capabilities, but to continue to keep the company exciting, to continue to keep the company fresh, to create opportunities, you know, for our employees, you know, and maybe just the challenge that I think we can do it better than the way it's being currently done, and that results in growth, but it's not really a mission to grow, it's more of a mission to kind of bolt on these pieces that really make a lot of sense for us. Yeah, no, I love that, and it honestly resonates with me as well, I mean, I think one of the things that I get the most energy from is speaking with folks like yourself and learning about our customers, the problems that they face, and then the opportunities that we see to be able to build software to solve some of those problems, so I share that excitement, obviously a slightly different flavor. I also loved what you said about this idea of, you know, finding niche markets where you can become like a dominant player in, so finding those areas where, you know, there's a need that isn't being met, I think can just be so powerful because then you can, you know, really win share, become a really dominant player, and those markets can end up being bigger than maybe you initially anticipated, but in some ways it's often easier to become a dominant player in a small niche than it is to get a small sliver of some big pie, even though on paper it may seem easier, in practice it's harder because there's just a lot, there's a lot more there to contend with. Absolutely, absolutely. What do you think, shifting gears from growth to process a little bit, I'd love to hear, like, what are the core processes that a dealership needs to be very good at, and how do you generally think about process improvement? You know, obviously there are a lot of moving pieces, and this is, you know, this is a pretty core piece of it, but maybe take us through how you think about that and how you think about improving process. No, Jesse, I look at the company, you know, I look at our company not so much as an equipment company, as I look at us as a customer service company, and I think if you start all of your core processes looking from the customer side of things, how the decision you make is gonna benefit the customer, I think that's where it has to start. We see too many people, too many organizations, too many people we do business with, whether it's our bank, whether it's our manufacturer, whoever it happens to be, that makes changes that maybe helps their operation, but really doesn't help me, you know, doesn't help the end user. And I think it's very important to keep that, you know, in focus. You know, I learned something, you know, not too long ago, I think it was from Adam Grant, one of his talks I was listening to, and one of the things he suggested is with your teams, if you're in service, parts, whatever, whatever company you're with, take, do a brainstorming session on how to fail the company. If we were to tank this company tomorrow, how would we tank it? You know, we would stop delivering on time, we'd stop answering our phones, we'd send out terrible, you know, whatever it happens to be in that department, and then take all of those and then rewind and go, God, we're kind of doing a little of that, aren't we? You know, and I thought, I think that's a great exercise for managers and management teams to really look at so that they can really keep dismantling and reassembling their processes to make sure that they're resulting in not only growth, improvements in customer satisfaction, but to really make sure that they're on the right path. So I'm constantly, you know, we get accused sometimes, I think some of our staff would accuse it, you know, we seem to change a lot, but again, it's like a race car. I mean, I wanna get that one little extra iota 10th of a mile per hour out of it because that's what it's gonna take to win the race. So, but I think that the main thing is to start from a customer service focus and let that be your driving force. Yeah, no, I love that framing. And at some level it sounds obvious and it is also incredibly hard to do and it's where a lot of organizations fall down. I love that framing. We've sort of, we've done similar exercises where you go through thinking about, you know, what would a, what does good customer service look like? What would 2X good customer service look like? What would, you know, five stars? What would 10 stars? What would the 15 stars? And some of them start to get absurd, but then you actually sort of realize that a lot of those things are maybe closer in reach than you would think. So, yeah, I love that. I love that sort of exercise. And I think the other piece that resonated for me was this idea of continual change and improvement and that it's better to have an organization that is, a change fatigue is a real thing, but introducing a culture where things will always change so that change becomes the expectation rather than something that is disruptive because, you know, we sort of think about this idea of like, it never ends, right? This is a process. It's a journey and a process of continual improvement. And there's never gonna be a day that any of us arrive, either personally or in our businesses where things are, you know, done. Correct. I'd love to speak about finances. You know, at some level, this is equipment, dealerships, rental. This is, you know, you're buying, you're selling, you're renting, that financing and like the core KPIs end up mattering a lot. What are the core financial metrics or core KPIs that you think dealers should be focused on? You know, it's funny, our CFO is a CPA and she, by trade, just dissects everything. So, you know, we look at a lot of different numbers. I mean, very typical ones that, you know, the utilization, dollar utilization, return on investment. You know, we're looking at a lot of those very traditional ones, but we also use an outside service. And the ones that, again, resonate with me the most, that I look at the most, is I really look at customer growth. I look at, you know, new customers we're bringing on. And we're really focused on that stability factor today, really looking at what's the, you know, how stable is that customer with us? And then we really have two other measurements, you know, at risk and then greatly at risk. And so a lot of that has to do with, you know, how many touches, how much interaction, how much activity are they doing with us? And if we've seen a customer that's done a lot of activity and we start to see that fall off, that moves that person into this at risk. And those are the ones we're, you know, again, simultaneously focusing on stability, but as well as those customers that are at risk. Because it's, you know, we spend, dealerships spend a tremendous amount of money, demonstrations, you know, doing things, trying to engage the customer, and then to lose them is a metric that, you know, none of us want to face. So, you know, it's important to look at utilization. It's important to look at asset management. It's important to look at those core metrics, but I think you have to go beyond that. And you really have to do a deep dive into this, you know, customer retention, stability, the number of touches, because the reality of it is, if you've got a stable customer base and you're adding customers to the train, and you are, you know, increasing those touches, which typically means more revenue, the reality of it is those metrics are going to be fine. Right. And an organization, they're fine. I mean, we're proving profitability, we're improving. I mean, we continue to improve those, yet that's not what I'm focusing on. Now, I do have some managers, that's their responsibility, but treat that customer base like that's really the gold. And I think you'll find that these other, your other KPIs would be less concerning. Yeah. I mean, it's a very powerful framing. I mean, I think you said, even when you sort of think about process, like start with the customer, and then it makes sense as an extension of that, when you think about your core KPIs, start with the customer, the health of your relationships, and then the rest follows, which I think is right, and it sounds like it's true for you guys. The other thing I love there is just the level of attentiveness to what is the status of each of your customers, because you can talk about customer health at a high level, but having, you know, a prescriptive classification of where they're at, what does it look like to be healthy? And then what do you do to intervene if things start going yellow? Because, you know, things don't really go from green to red typically, right? There is, it's usually there's a yellow zone. Once they're bright red, it can be hard to sort of, you know, say, but intervening. I love that. It's actually, it's very similar to the process that we have in place in our business as well. So there's some interesting parallels that are quite different products. Ron, we're coming up on time here, and I want to invite folks in the panel to feel free to post any final questions that you all have, and then we'll try and get those answered. But Ron, I'd love to hear, what are some of the trends in rental that are giving you sort of the most excitement or the most curiosity over the next three to five years? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we're seeing, you know, we continue to see a continuous amount of growth in rental. You know, rental solves important, becomes important solution for customers, especially when they have interim needs. And so it's allowing customers to grow. You know, we're seeing that regional customers may become a new area. They bring a few core products, then they rent the rest. You know, there's a lot of opportunity and niche market type equipment to rent. So, you know, back to that diversification strategy. I mean, I think there's some good opportunities there. You know, I think there's just a tremendous, continued to be a tremendous amount of runway in rental. And so we're constantly excited about that. And we're looking to add, you know, products that maybe traditionally weren't rented. So that's, you know, that's certainly a great opportunity. You know, some of the concerns that we do have, you know, the technology sometimes being applied to the equipment really maybe doesn't lend itself to a quick start. You know, I mean, when you go rent a car, you don't want to read the operator's manual to get going. And, you know, some of the technology is being applied so heavily on the equipment. There's so many buttons, bells and whistles, you know, that maybe it makes it difficult for the operator to get started on because he's not familiar with it. So, you know, that's a challenge. You hate to have to send out a representative on every rental to help hoax them through. So that's a concern. But I would say most of us probably recognize, you know, the rental is a great opportunity. It's a great way to expose your products. It's a great way to start dating a customer before you marry them. You know, and I just think, you know, there's remains a tremendous amount of opportunity with that. And I think some of the technology that we have in terms of telematics, in terms of GPS locating, and some of the things that we can do, just continue to enhance, you know, enhance the experience with the customers. That's awesome. Ron, thank you so much for joining us today. This is a great discussion and I hope everyone in the audience found it valuable. I certainly really enjoyed it and really appreciate you making the time. Well, Jesse, thanks for the invitation and I've enjoyed getting to know you. So very good. Thank you so much. Thank you for being an awesome customer. Thank you. Bye-bye.

webinar

inspection management software

rental industry

asset quality

customer relationships

integration

benefits

trust

productivity