RR 309: The Shop of the Future – Are You Prepared? Vision 2018 Town Hall

The Shop of the Future: Are You Prepared?

Have you thought about how you will do business in the future? Well the mission of this panel was to stretch the boundaries and serve up plenty of thoughts, concepts and changes coming that you need to be fundamentally be prepared for.

So happy to be able to present this audio recording from Vision 2018. With me are shop owners, Summer Gurerro from Affinity Automotive Services, Inc in Wichita, KS, Keith Williamson owner of Williamson’s Repair and Tire in Bondurant, IA, Trainer and Mobile Technician Eric Ziegler form EZ Diagnostics, Chris Chesney the Senior Director, Customer Training at the Carquest Technical Institute and Donny Seyfer the Executive Officer of NASTF, the National Automotive Service Task Force and co-owner of Seyfer Automotive in Wheatridge, CO.

Many great thoughts that will help shape your future. There are many important action steps discussed that need your support and engagement. Listen carefully for those cues.

RR 305: Derek Kaufman – Joran Thompson – Living in a APP World

Chicago. No Car. No Problem.

Joran Thompson lives in Chicago and hasn’t owned a car for years. She does fine commuting to work, buying fresh groceries and dry goods. Her dry cleaning gets done, perfectly and on-time, and her latest IKEA purchase gets constructed. When she needs medicine, pizza or to wait in a line for a restaurant on a Saturday Night she just uses her smartphone. There’s an APP for all of her needs.

The story for aftermarket professionals is that all the miles Joran is not driving are being done by the services she contracts. Transportation as a Service will rack up the miles to support all the Joran Thompson’s who don’t own vehicles. Someone will need to maintain and repair those vehicles. It’s time to make those connections.

RR 288: Jorge Antico from eAutoClub.com

Customer Transaction Data is a Powerful Resource for Organic Growth

With a business and computer science education, Jorge Antico identified the aftermarkets need for transactional service-data aggregation. In essence, a family-owned vehicle fleet service management system.

The data that sits on your server contains a treasure of information that can be served up in just the right way. With the right AI software for natural language predictive CRM, you can do a lot with your information. Antico shares the power of growing your business using the data you already own.

This episode will provide much insight, from a tech perspective. There are many strong thinking moments here that will energize your systems and marketing talents and inspire you to grow your business.

RR 279: Wheat Ridge High School STEM Program – Auto Shop on Steroids

Where did high school auto shop class go? Into the STEM program at Wheat Ridge High School.

A college-level program at the high school level is challenging 80 students to learn design, manufacturing, marketing, media, electrical, welding, fabrication with a competitive will to win as a collective team.

An exciting a refreshing look at how just one high school STEM program is making a difference that could one day engage students to join the automotive industry. This group has won the challenge twice in the last three years.

They are also working on a two-person NASA Mars vehicle that must fold up into a 5x5x5 foot space.

RR 275: Chris Chesney – Sr. Director Customer Training – Carquest Technical Institute

Are You Committed to Be A Lifetime Learner In The Automotive Aftermarket? Learn Why It Must Be Your Most Important Goal.

Chris Chesney is the Senior Director, Customer Training at the CARQUEST Technical Institute and explains that our great aftermarket has its best days ahead, however, the challenge is going to take many people, teams and organizations working together to formulate solutions as we prepare for the largest wave of technology and consolidation we’ve ever seen.

Chris explains that all successful technicians and shop owners know …. that you must be committed to being a lifelong learner. If not … you’re in the wrong profession.

RR 247: Derek Kaufman – Partner at Schwartz Advisers – What Does the Future with Autonomous Cars Look Like?

What does the future with Autonomous Cars Look Like?

Derek Kaufman a Managing Partner at Schwartz Advisors is thinking large about the future of the auto care industry and the acceptance of TaaS (Transportation as a Service) with ride sharing and ultimately vehicle ownership.

Vehicle ownership will have a big impact on our industry and it will have a big impact on the miles driven with the remaining vehicles in the car parc.

Derek is challenging a report that says there will be only 44 million vehicles that will handle the 6 trillion Vehicle Miles Traveled in 2030 in the car parc vs 270 million we have today. He is accepting the technical evolution with AV’s, however, he is questioning the numbers from the report and applied some of his own math to figure out what our future may look like. Will these vehicles be able to handle the miles we drive today for work and pleasure? What about convenience. What about our work trucks? Listen to his view on our future.