Latest / Auto Collabs / How To Prove To Customers That You Actually Care with Ted Rubin of ActivEngage

Transcript

How To Prove To Customers That You Actually Care with Ted Rubin of ActivEngage · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  This is the time that because Michael Cirillo didn't show up, we roast him. [upbeat music] This is AutoCollabs. Oh.
• 0:16
  [laughs] All right. I didn't know what you were gonna say. You think you no show up, we roast you. Oh, that's a great, that's a great thing. Now, if I can stall just enough to get back to my chat history- Okay...
• 0:29
  from Grok the other day. I don't know if you noticed this, but when, if you have X- [laughs]... and you go, you know where I'm going with this. And you- I'm so ready.
• 0:37
  [laughs] And you go into Grok, there's now a button, 'cause now Grok is right at the bottom of the X feed. You just press the button, and all of a sudden you're in there.
• 0:44
  And I, the other day, happened to open it, I'm like, "Oh, there's a Grok button." Press the Grok button, and I, there's a, like, preset that says, "Roast me." [laughs] I was like, "Yes." Yes. So I did it. I'll take it.
• 0:58
  And it roasted me, and it was pretty fun. Made fun of my profile picture and everything. And then I was like, "Roast Michael Cirillo, host of the Dealer Playbook podcast," and here's what it said.
• 1:08
  [laughs] "Michael C-", I'm gonna, he- my voice for emphasis. I'm reading text. There you go. Your voice for emphasis. Perfect.
• 1:13
  "Michael Cirillo, the self-proclaimed guru of c-", I'll actually read it like Michael, "of car dealership marketing.
• 1:20
  With his podcast, The Dealer Playbook, you've got more episodes than the Eagles have close calls in the playoffs." Whoa.
• 1:27
  [laughs] "You talk a big game about dominating the retail industry, but let's face it, your real playbook seems to be, quote, 'how to milk the same topic for hundreds of episodes.'" [laughs] Ah, that's just yeah.
• 1:43
  I love AI.
• 1:44
  You know, we've had actually a lot of conversations with, uh, the company, uh, that Ted Rubin, uh, founded, our guest on the show today, about, particularly about AI and its use in the industry, particularly in chat.
• 1:59
  Uh, you know, uh, we've had chats with his team. They've been, uh, to, to our events and, um, you know, it is this conversation of like, okay, is it gonna ta- take over?
• 2:08
  Are we gonna have roasts by AI, and it's just gonna absolutely be slaughtering us all the time?
• 2:13
  [laughs] Uh, or, or is there human nuance that is super important to kind of understanding what's going on in the world, business interactions, interpersonal, all that, all that type of stuff.
• 2:23
  Yeah, so looking forward, this is the first ti- you know, we've inter- like you said, interacted so much with the company over the years, but never with Ted.
• 2:29
  So, uh, hope you enjoy this conversation we have with Ted Rubin, CEO and founder of ActiveEngage. [upbeat music] All right. We're super excited for this one. Ted, thanks so much for joining us on AutoCollabs. Yeah.
• 2:43
  He- thanks for having me here. I really appreciate it. I love you guys. There, there's several things I need to just get out of the way- Oh, here we go... right out of the gates. Here we go.
• 2:52
  I, I just have to know, I mean, Europe is one of my favorite places to go and travel. [laughs] So I, I need to hear about, I've heard through the grapevine a, a...
• 3:01
  There's a little birdie chirping saying we need to ask Ted about his recent visit to Europe. Yeah. And so, I mean, the floor is yours, sir. What, what happened? Did- What happened?
• 3:11
  Please, you didn't wake up in the back of a van somewhere, did you? No, no, I didn't wake up in the back of a van. Um, my, my wife is a sommelier, and so she
• 3:22
  knows people all over the world, especially in Europe, who are winemakers and champagne makers and things like that. And so we, we tend to spend a decent amount of time in Italy and France, which is horrible for me.
• 3:34
  Um, and- [laughs] Sounds awful. Sounds terrible for you. Yeah. It was very difficult- [laughs]... uh, but I just fought through it.
• 3:42
  And, uh, so she had an opportunity to be there and, uh, go to Champagne and be, you know, right at the Champs-Élysées for New Year's, which is like being in Times Square.
• 3:51
  And so we were right at the arch, like 80 yards, and, uh, had dinner at a restaurant and then just walked out kinda onto the street 'cause they had it all blocked off.
• 4:01
  It was sort of a secluded area and stuff like that, and we just, there were about 100 of us that had, you know, an entire street to ourselves.
• 4:08
  And then if you kind of turned the corner, there was 400,000 people that were standing around. [laughs] You're like, "Oh, look at these poor saps that have to do life that way." [laughs] Sip, sip pinky in the air.
• 4:20
  [laughs] So she's a sommelier, you said? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Did you help her study for this, or w- was this already in place when you met? Me? Yeah. No. I don't... Yeah. [laughs] 'Cause that, that's intense.
• 4:33
  Isn't, isn't that one of the hardest certifications that somebody can get? One of the most difficult? Uh, yeah.
• 4:40
  I mean, I think, you know, being a doctor is probably more complicated and stuff like that as far as being certified, but- [laughs] Okay. Fair, fair...
• 4:47
  um, uh, yeah, I mean, she, you know, she's, she used to sell wine, and she, uh, she used to, she did all the training and took the tests and everything like that.
• 4:56
  And so she's kind of, uh, like a mid to high level, uh, sommelier, and, and she's helped set up... She used to work in the industry and set up people's restaurants, what they ordered.
• 5:07
  She used to sell to them, then she was just kind of doing menus and things like that. And- I gotta ask you then. I, uh, they let me get one controversial question in on these things. I mean, how many do you want? Uh-huh.
• 5:19
  I mean, we're three deep at this point. Uh, n- no controversy here. I'm just here to answer your questions. But I'd like, for you- That's all that I'm here for, is just to answer your questions.
• 5:27
  For you as a tech guy- Yeah... you know, with ActiveEngage and everything that you guys do there- Hmm... um, has it ever crossed your mind that AI could replace the recommendations of a sommelier?
• 5:41
  I'll see myself out, guys. I just... [laughs] Has it crossed my mind? It has crossed my mind. The, the issue i- so it's a very subjective thing, right?
• 5:53
  Because each person has a specific taste, and then it depends, everything, everything depends on what you're eating and then, uh, with the flavors and the sensibility of what each winemaker has made and when it was made and what transpired at that particular time, in that particular year.
• 6:10
  It's almost like looking at art, right? So when you look at artOld art or new art, then it usually represents something about the time that it was done. Even if it's an older- Right...
• 6:20
  a painting of an older item, then there's something about it that represents the moment in time- Mm... that it was painted. And so wine is like that. It has to do with, um,
• 6:31
  who was the winemaker at that particular moment, what was important to people, you know, at that particular point in time, um, and, uh, what, what happened with the weather throughout the entire year. Was it a wet year?
• 6:42
  Was it a dry year? Did it have a lot of water at the end? Did it have it in the beginning? You know, other things like that.
• 6:47
  People think of some of these wines and how old they are, and they can get tremendously old, and they're kind of consistently a certain way, some of the really big, like, Burgundies and Bordeauxs and things like that.
• 6:58
  Other things that you just would be surprised to know, such as champagne, which was, uh, uh, which obviously was a wine. It was just basically considered a wine.
• 7:09
  The, the person who kind of turned it into the celebratory thing was the Veuve Clicquot, the Widow Clicquot. That's what that means.
• 7:17
  And, um, and she basically, um, uh, during Napoleon and a lot of the Napoleonic laws, where they were not allowed to sell to Russia, she found kind of a conduit, like a backdoor, to be able to sell to Russia.
• 7:31
  It's not wine. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, uh, a- and that opened up a huge market, but her whole- So a marketer-... way of presenting it was all- A marketer is the reason. He was marketing it. Right. That's, that's it.
• 7:40
  I mean- I, I like how Ted, I like how Ted is like, "No, I don't know. I'm, it's way over my pay grade." [laughs] And then he just gives us a dissertation- Gave us a, the, a beautiful history lesson... on why.
• 7:49
  It was a, it was very artistic. It was very- And, and ironically, some parallels to the car business, like to the car-buying journey and how many different- Oh, my gosh. Yeah...
• 7:56
  touch points there are and considerations and nuances. And I mean- And what's important to who, when, and why, culturally speaking. Y- yeah. Absolutely. Was it a wet year- No, I mean-... or was it a dry year? I mean, y-
• 8:07
  shifting to the car business with what you're doing with Active Engage, um,
• 8:13
  what are some of the things that you're thinking about, especially with the emergence of, you know, um, programmatic and, um, you know, ar- artificial intelligences and- Right...
• 8:23
  language models and things of that nature as it pertains to digital retail, the path to purchase, the various touch points and nuances that are in a car shopper's path to purchase? What, what are your thoughts?
• 8:35
  I mean, I think that AI, you know, is having, is starting to have a big impact and will long term have a huge impact, you know, on the entire industry about the way things get done.
• 8:45
  I, I think that, you know, we use it a lot for aggregation of data, and we use it for presenting information to our agents so that we can find information more quickly. Uh, we use it for reporting.
• 8:57
  Um, and, you know, I think there's a lot of places actually in the dealership where it can be used really, really well to, um, you know, identify, you know, a doc sheet maybe for guys who don't really understand how to look at one, uh, [laughs] you know, if you're running, new to running dealerships.
• 9:13
  Uh, I think that, uh, especially for accounting and a lot of other areas, certainly in our area, you know, we use it to monitor conversations to be able to bring up data for the agent and, uh, bring pertinent information very specifically to the forefront so that they can communicate about what's going on or know specials or know details about the dealership and other things like that.
• 9:35
  I, I don't think it's really the place that you want to... I, I mean, I know that there's been, uh, uh, some dealers or, or some companies who are kind of pushing to move the front end of the conversation to AI.
• 9:46
  That's not... I, I don't think that's a wise move at this particular moment. And it's not that you shouldn't use AI.
• 9:53
  I think you should, but I don't think it should be talking to the customer, 'cause, I mean, I, you know, I'm an old-school automotive guy. This will be, like, my 25th NADA and- Yeah...
• 10:02
  buying cars back in- I don't know, like, when I was looking at your LinkedIn profile, I didn't wanna be the one to, to, like, bring, bring the mood down. [laughs] But according to your profile- Yeah...
• 10:13
  you started in automotive in the '90s. [laughs] Yeah, early '90s. Yeah. '90- I was at 93. Well, '96 is the first thing on your profile. Oh, it goes further. '93. Yeah, further back. Yeah.
• 10:24
  So it makes sense- Well, you can see it. I think it shows. I think you can see- You sh- mine shows more here. Really? But, but 25- Mm... 25 NADAs. 25 NADAs. Um, look, I mean- Including time with, like- [laughs]...
• 10:37
  groups. Like, I think it's important, like, whenever someone- Yeah... works for an industry tech partner, like you had an extensive run, like, with AutoNation, like hands in the dirt, like with dealers- Yeah...
• 10:47
  on the front lines- Yeah, absolutely. I mean-... as a part of the internal system of a dealer group. Yeah. Listen, I, I mean, I was in the stores.
• 10:54
  I, I started- I actually had another company that was an inventory maintenance company, uh, in the early, earlier in the '90s, and I ended up working for... I, I got to be very lucky, okay?
• 11:07
  [laughs] So when I sold that company, I ended up working for, uh, Ron Moresteve at the headquarter group, headquarter. He was just making it a group. It was actually just a store at that time.
• 11:18
  And I g- started, you know, basically in get ready, managing those guys. And throughout my career, I've, I've been in parts. I was parts manager, uh, director of parts and service.
• 11:28
  You know, I've been on the sales side, general sales manager. Uh, you know, I worked for AutoNation.
• 11:34
  I got to work for some of the, I got to work for these guys who were unbelievably savvy, and because I worked directly for those guys, they would sit and pontificate things, you know, just [laughs] as I was kind of growing up in the business.
• 11:47
  And I, I worked for Rick Case and Rita Case. I worked for Phil Smith. Oh, great people. I worked for Ron Moresteve. And then I was part of this initial team, um,
• 11:58
  that was, uh, uh, put together by AutoNation to define how, um, vehicles were gonna be sold over the internet back, you know, in '99 and 2000.
• 12:10
  And, you know, we all kind of figured that out and then sold a billion dollars worth of vehicles. And then people looked at us and were like, "Hey, how, how did that happen?" You can do that?
• 12:19
  And we all kind of went off and... [laughs] Yeah. You can do that?So, so- So, hope y'all-... like it's obvious you've had all the experiences.
• 12:28
  And I think, you know, one of the disconnects that happens when a tech partner says, "Hey, this tech could help you," right? Mm-hmm.
• 12:35
  I think the first unspoken question, well, I th- I think we probably know in a lot of dealers that would actually say it out loud- Mm-hmm... but what do you know about selling cars, right? Right.
• 12:45
  And, and, and you've been there and you've done it, and so throughout your journey you've just done all these things, you've had all these positions, and you become a part of what Active Engaged is doing.
• 12:55
  And a lot of times I think that when people make those decisions it's because there's something about the DNA of the company- Mm-hmm... that is attractional to them. Mm-hmm.
• 13:03
  So what is it about the DNA of Active Engaged that was attractional to you, and how would you, like, position it? Yeah.
• 13:10
  I think that, you know, from the beginning when we came up with the idea to start the company for Active Engaged, the goal was to
• 13:21
  not exactly take over, we wanted to augment the impact, you know, for the sales people at the store to be able to be more effective and more efficient in their dealings with the customer, right? And so
• 13:36
  dealers themselves, you know, there's a lot of training that goes into it, and there's the pros programs, and there's all these other things that, uh, dealers, and sales people, and sales managers do to kind of become more effective at interacting with the customer.
• 13:48
  And as I was, you know, starting to go talk about before, ever since I've been in any business, and I was in some other businesses even before that, uh, even before being in the automotive industry, when you're selling,
• 13:59
  you're selling yourself first. Mm-hmm. You know, it's all about the personal interaction, and who you are, and whether they trust you, and then that transfers over to the product.
• 14:09
  Uh, you know, there's lots of products, and you can buy that product anywhere. Mm-hmm. If you're buying a Toyota there's a dozen dealerships, you know, within 30, 40 miles that they could buy the car from.
• 14:18
  It's really about who's gonna service the customer the way that they wanna be serviced, talk to them the way that they wanna be talked to. Do they believe in you? Do they trust you? So that's relationship building.
• 14:28
  Mm-hmm. Right? And so when we design the company from the ground up we were saying, like, how can we impact it so sales people can be more efficient and more impactful?
• 14:37
  Can we get the customer the initial communication so that instead of just getting a lead, you know, we don't care a lot about leads here. We care... We do care about leads. It's not fair to say we don't. Mm-hmm.
• 14:47
  But we wanna make sure we're supplying a customer who's highly motivated to wanna buy from you, from the company that we're representing.
• 14:53
  If we're representing Autotrader, or KBB, or if we're re- representing the dealership themselves or a dealer group, then we wanna make sure the customer understands that, that there's a relationship there, there's empathy, there's someone who cares about what's going on.
• 15:08
  We're gonna talk to you to try to build trust and to motivate you to wanna buy there. And the way that we do that is by making sure that you have the information. We're giving you information.
• 15:17
  You're asking a question, we're not going, "Here's another question." You're asking a question, we're giving you information.
• 15:22
  And we wanna make sure that you understand, and we'll talk about the sales process at the store, and we'll make sure that you know what's coming next.
• 15:29
  And, you know, we wanna make sure that you've gotten the information that you came on to get. And I think that's where a lot of people miss.
• 15:36
  They forget that, you know, selling is about selling you, and if they don't buy into who you are, then they're not gonna buy anything from you. And if... And everybody knows that but they for- somehow forget that online.
• 15:49
  Because otherwise you would just have... You would walk into a store and there would be kiosk, kiosk, kiosk, kiosk. Right. No sales people and- That's the... Right, but that's not what people want.
• 15:56
  And I think, you know, like, like every entrepreneur, and it's very obvious you are just one of those, you know, it'll never stop serial entrepreneurs that, you know, we constantly think like, "There's a better way.
• 16:08
  There's a problem for this." Right. And coming from JM&A, right, and starting Active Engaged there was a thing. Yeah. There's a better way.
• 16:13
  And you brought up, um, Michael, I don't know if you've ever heard this 'cause Michael's early career was, like, Canada auto, you know? Right. And then... But, um, maybe- The frozen tundra. The frozen tundra.
• 16:23
  [laughs] But, like- Hey, I'm part Canadian. That's okay. I always say that. Oh. Oh. [laughs] And, and, and, um, the, the adage was sell yourself, sell the house, sell the car. Right. Right? Yeah.
• 16:35
  [laughs] People need to like you, and then they need to understand why this business is great, and now this is the product that the business sells. That's it.
• 16:43
  I mean, and it's so, it's so much more important that you build that trust and that you build the relationship with the customer now because there are things that you really need the trust, right?
• 16:54
  I mean, it's harder to get. Yeah. It's harder to believe in the things that you're being told, and there's a lot of scary stuff out there- We trust less than we ever have... and there's a lot of impactful people. Right?
• 17:04
  Is it fair to say, do you both think? I agree. It's fair to say that, like, when I come up on a net new relationship or buying a product- Mm-hmm...
• 17:10
  from a net new company my trust is probably starts off lower than it would have like 20 years ago.
• 17:16
  So- I think the thing that's, that's also strange about this too, I think where it kinda tweaks the dealers where they're not sure how it works is, so if you ask a customer, and w- and we see this all the time.
• 17:25
  So if you just ask a customer, "What's your name and email?" Mm. Well, that's not hard to get, right? So anybody can get that. You can just ask and they'll tell you. It's what will...
• 17:36
  Will they respond to the phone call now when you call them? Will they respond to the email when you email them? Probably not, 'cause there's not any trust if that's all that you did. Mm-hmm.
• 17:44
  You know, you have to build some sort of feeling that there is... You're on the same side and that you're trying to get to the end of either a transaction, or a conversation, or whatever it is
• 17:57
  that, you know, something transactionally in the conversation that's happening so that the customer feels like, "That was good. I would, I would talk to that person again."
• 18:06
  But if all you do is go online and you're measuring, that's why I said it before, if all you're doing is measuring just lead, anybody can just, "Yeah. Hey, you know, I... Can you tell me please, do you have this car?
• 18:15
  Do you, you know, would you like it or not? Uh, do you... How much is it?" And you go, "Well, what's your name and number?" Well, you're gonna get it.
• 18:22
  And, and then you might go, and, like, we've seen other companies where they just go, "Okay, thanks. I'll have someone contact you." And that customer's never talking to you.
• 18:29
  They didn't get anything that they asked for.No. You, you brought this up earlier. Y- you know, like, why, why, you know, how come all of a sudden it changes online?
• 18:37
  And I love this talk track about, you know, stop focusing on the leads, start focusing on building relationships. As an agency guy myself, I think I, I can envision 75-year-old Michael with PTSD over the word lead.
• 18:51
  [laughs] 'Cause it's like, you know, and, and I think the three of us could agree, to your point, Ted, that the difference- Yeah...
• 18:58
  between an okay lead and a great lead is often how it's handled and how the relationship is formed. Sure.
• 19:06
  You, you go on a cruise, there's a cruise director and there's event coordinators that are making sure that at every turn you're having the best experience, that your trust in that, that cruise line- Mm...
• 19:16
  and in your experiences is increasing. We, I, I often think in conjunction with what you do- Mm-hmm...
• 19:24
  what would happen, how quickly we would abandon this lead concept and s- if, if we changed our paradigm to say, "I'm not a BDC, I'm not a chat rep. I am a- Mm... customer experience coordinator." Right.
• 19:37
  "I am here to make sure," like a, like a wedding planner almost. "I am here to make sure that at every turn you are going, 'Whoa, they thought of everything.'" Right. "They answered all of my questions."
• 19:48
  Um, to your point, I just think that, that this is such a, a big thing, especially this year and beyond, to underscore in this conversation that we gotta stop talking about leads, 'cause any one of us on this call right now could throw money at Facebook ads and you're gonna be bombarded with leads.
• 20:07
  Mm-hmm. Right. Right? Absolutely.
• 20:11
  Those interactions of people that are actually genuinely interested who came to you from a variety of factors, who are ask- asking questions of interest, and your hand-- to your point where you left off saying, oh, and then you handle them with, "What's your name and address?
• 20:26
  What's your phone number?" Mm. You know, you send out a canned text message- Right... a canned email message. Mm-hmm.
• 20:31
  And y- then you s- we sit here and lament about why nobody's responding, and the, the simple answer is because the internet has teleported many of us to an alternate reality where stupidity is okay.
• 20:44
  [laughs] Like, I just, [laughs] I don't have a, you know, I'm always just- [laughs] "What do I do with my hands?" Yeah. Would you do it in real life? No? Then definitely- Don't do it... don't do it online. Right.
• 20:57
  Definitely don't do it online. Well, I- [laughs] I think that's, yeah, I think you're definitely right.
• 21:01
  I mean, listen, you know, just back to looking back to the DNA, and I'm gonna answer all your questions just in a very random order, I guess. Do it. But the, [laughs]
• 21:10
  the, the goal for us, you know, the way we built the company, as I was say- starting to say or trying to say and I just forgot about it, is, is effectively, you know, we wanna be able to...
• 21:21
  You know, we're gonna supply leads to the, to the dealer for sure. But we don't want to just increase the number of leads.
• 21:26
  That's sort of formulaic because, you know, we're added onto a website, so you're gonna get, possibly get more. But I wanna increase the number of sales that each salesperson is producing without increasing the effort.
• 21:39
  Mm.
• 21:40
  See, that's the problem with just supplying leads, is you're supplying all this stuff to salespeople, and they're like, "Oh, God, you know, I'll just go through these," or, "I don't wanna look at these," or, "This is what I'm gonna..."
• 21:49
  And it's just too much. Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, certainly if you take 1,000 leads, then you'll sell the volume of cars that you wanna be able to sell. The goal is, can I sell that same volume
• 22:00
  and do it in the work week that I'm capable of working? Can I sell that same volume without f- having to stay here for 80 hours a week or 90 hours a week to be able to sell it?
• 22:10
  So our goal is to matriculate these customers so that they're very desirous of wanting to buy from you. Why? Because they built a relationship, so now they're connected to you. They've built it with a human being.
• 22:25
  You know, if you're on the phone with a computer, then do you care if you're like, "Oh, he's halfway through a statement, I'm just gonna hang up"? It's a computer. I don't care.
• 22:33
  If it's a person, you're not gonna do that. You're gonna be talking to someone in the middle of them saying something. They're like, "Yeah, no." [laughs] Doesn't happen. So true.
• 22:40
  [laughs] You know, I mean, that's the reality of the situation. I, I think that it's important for people to realize the impact of talking to a human being. It is huge. It is a huge thing to talk to a human being.
• 22:54
  If we had white hankies, we'd be waving them right now.
• 22:56
  [laughs] And so it's so meaningful, and it makes the customer much more tied to the dealership, much more, uh, desirous of pursuing the relationship because they've invested time in it.
• 23:10
  Remember all these things from when you were first starting to sell cars? [laughs] Yeah. Now they've invested time. They've invested interest. You know, they can do their research, you know, beforehand.
• 23:21
  And, and in fact, if all you're doing is producing, you know, relative information, do you have this? Does it have this information? Does it have these things? You know, they don't need you. That's not why they chat.
• 23:31
  People don't chat because they're looking for the information. People are chatting to test you. Right. People are chatting- Ah... to see how you're gonna respond. That's a great point. That is a great point.
• 23:39
  That's what they're doing. 'Cause if you think they're chatting to get information, what, you think you're the only source for information? I can just go onto Google and go, "Does this vehicle have these options?" Right.
• 23:48
  I can find it faster. They're, they're saying, "Do I like this person?" Right? That's what it is. Oh. That's what it is. How does this dealership operate?
• 23:55
  Do they care about their customers, or are we just a number, and are we just somebody who's out there, and am I gonna be handled that way?
• 24:03
  I wanna know that when I go into a dealership, I'm not gonna spend five and a half hours waiting to get into F&I. I wanna know that they're gonna be nice to me.
• 24:10
  I wanna know that they're gonna give me service, and if I have a problem, then I can take my car. But that's what they're doing. Going online to be able to actually chat, that's what they're doing.
• 24:21
  If you think it's something else, it's not. It's even more so that way than it is with email. It's more impact because now it's real time. You don't have time to kinda- Email's not a conversation...
• 24:31
  think about what's going on. A chat is a conversation. Yeah. Email's like- A chat's a conversation... email is you're writing lettersRight?
• 24:37
  Chatting, having a conversation It's just like, it's just like this conversation. Like, I like you guys even more now, even though we're just sort of meeting for the first time- Right... than I did before.
• 24:46
  And I watched all your stuff 'cause I'm talking to you, there's interaction. I feel like, hey, these guys are nice. They're gonna treat me well, and everything's good. No one said anything really wonky.
• 24:53
  You like all the stuff about the wine and everything. I feel good. [laughs] I feel good about things. But, I mean, that's because of this conversation. Mm-hmm. You know?
• 25:01
  It's not because I had, you know, a list or a prompter and it was just, you know, answer this question, answer this question, answer this question, which means I'm not inter- I have no connection to that- Yeah, we'd be asleep- Yeah, at all...
• 25:11
  by then if that's how we ran the show. Right. We'll get to your prepared text in a minute. No. [laughs] Yeah. Right, right.
• 25:17
  Well, I mean, and, and it's really great to see that through founding Active Engage and keeping these kind of as first principles, right- Mm-hmm...
• 25:26
  like overlaying the tech, you're able to affect that feeling at scale- Yeah... for dealers and consumers. Awesome. I think it's a great look for the industry to have- Mm...
• 25:35
  any consumer that shops at any dealership walk away from a conversation, a chat conversation, feeling like they care about me. I think we all win- Yeah... when that happens. That, I'm, I'm not gonna forget that.
• 25:46
  That is, for me, that's, like, gonna be the thing stuck in my mind. When a consumer- Mm-hmm... asks you, you know- Mm-hmm...
• 25:52
  a detailed question, a detail about a car, what they're actually asking themselves is, "Do I like this person?" And if you respond- Yeah... and the response is like, don't respond with the information only.
• 26:03
  Respond because you want that person to know that you care about them. That's right. And, and I mean, also, you know, everybody really...
• 26:12
  You know, another thing that I used to even say to my own salespeople when I was, uh, when I had them, you know, when I was running them in the stores and stuff like that is, you know, people really peop- everybody wants to be on the other side of the velvet rope, right?
• 26:25
  Mm-hmm. Everybody wants to be on the red carpet, on the other side of the velvet rope, in the VIP room, not just because it's special, but they know everything that's on the other side. I'm gonna get treated super well.
• 26:35
  I'm gonna get all the things that I want. I'm gonna, you know, see other people that are gonna pay attention. That- Mm-hmm... who doesn't want that?
• 26:41
  So when the, the ability to offer that is just as simple as having a live person talk to them, having someone pay attention to the conversation, making sure that you're responsive, that you're getting back to them right away, that you're answering their que- I mean, it isn't that hard to give someone that kind of VIP solution and do it in a very, you know, with the humanity that you have.
• 27:04
  And again, I think that, you know, I, I, I wanna make sure that, that anybody who's hearing this from me, this isn't discounting or taking anything away from AI.
• 27:13
  I think AI is necessary to give a lot of the superlative responses that we're able to give. Mm-hmm. I just don't think that people wanna talk to a computer. That's all.
• 27:25
  [laughs] I, I can't think of a better way to end this conversation. Ted, it has been a blast having this conversation. We learned a little bit about wine.
• 27:32
  You've, you've got me thinking about things in a more philosophical way about communication.
• 27:36
  Um, and as always, your heart to serve the industry and make it better, make it more human is just shining through bright and clear. Ted, thank you so much for giving some of your time today on Auto Collabs. Yeah.
• 27:47
  I really appreciate you guys. It's been a really fun time. Thanks so much. [upbeat music] So it's so funny we talk about the nuance of human interaction and how AI has a problem with nuance. It tries to force feed it.
• 28:01
  And when Ted's talking about, Michael asked him, "Do you think," you know, his, Ted's wife is a sommelier, "Do you think AI will replace a sommelier?" And he just went into extreme detail on the nuance needed to do
• 28:16
  pairings, complex pairings. And I think- Oh... that's just the same with humans.
• 28:20
  Like, it's a nuanced, complex pairing on what they're saying and all the other signals they're throwing and what they actually are trying to get to.
• 28:28
  Well, and I think as humanity and, and when you liken it to, like, a somm verse, like, a salesperson, right?
• 28:35
  I think we appreciate well-timed opinion and nuance that, like, kind of sees the interpersonal connection- Mm-hmm... of everything, right? Mm-hmm.
• 28:47
  Like, a wine pairing with a good steak or, you know, understanding exactly what's going on with the taste nuance of this wine. Like, there's an opinionated state to that.
• 28:58
  The greater you graduate in, like, things like being a somm, uh, you, you know, there's definitely more alignment along those things. But- He says somm like everyone knows it's a sommelier. Yeah. Uh. He's fancy.
• 29:09
  It's a sommelier. He's Nashville. Yeah, yeah. He is fancy. Uh, yeah.
• 29:11
  But, you know, that's the, I think that's the nuance that we get the opportunity to provide, um, kind of clearing the way for the menial things, the, the tasks ma- master stuff that AI can help us accomplish, and then you layer in this, like, unique nuance and, and we actually, we have to go back at that point to really, really going deeper on the soft skills of interpersonal relationship and communication, and that's where, whether it be chat or in the showroom or wherever it is, like, your soft skills as an industry employee have to be even greater the more AI is introduced because it is the differentiator.
• 29:49
  Without a doubt.
• 29:49
  When Ted's in there, uh, talking about the impact, like the DNA of the company and how the impact of talking to the human, a human, is actually far greater than we give it credit for, but we're gonna appreciate it more and more- Yep...
• 30:02
  the more we have to interact with AI. Well, we hope... We got to talk to some humans today out there. That's the great thing about podcasts. That's huge. Only humans listen to podcasts. [laughs] That's right.
• 30:12
  And, but, but not only humans do it. We're, we're two humans here, other two humans in the interview. Ted, we have five humans. [laughs] Five collective humans. I'm running out of counts. Lots of humans on this show.
• 30:23
  Listen, that's why we do things, so we can connect things in a meaningful way because we believe thriving humans are at the center of a thriving industry. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today.
• 30:33
  On behalf of Kyle Mountsier, the roasted Michael Cirillo, and myself, thanks for joining us today on Auto Collabs.
• 30:41
  Sign up for our free and fun-to-read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
• 30:54
  If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 31:01
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Are we recording? Are we rolling yet?
• 31:20
  Not yet.