Automotive Repair News Today

Braxton Critcher [00:00:00]:
All right, welcome in Automotive Repair News today, the podcast. Excited that you're here. I'm Braxton, and Lauren Langston is the new COO of TechMetric. So if you are a TechMetric user or not, you know of TechMetric, super popular shop marketing software in the industry. And so Lauren, she has some big, big shoes to fill or take over.

Lauren Langston [00:00:29]:
I do, indeed I do.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:31]:
Yeah. So this is kind of like an introduction to you for me and. And those who are. Who are here with us. So who is Lauren Langston?

Lauren Langston [00:00:43]:
I love it. What a. What an introduction. Braxton, thanks so much for having me on today.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:48]:
You're welcome. You're welcome. Glad. Glad to do it.

Lauren Langston [00:00:51]:
Awesome. I'll give you a little bit of my background. I've spent really my entire career in software partnering with founders to help them bring their vision to life. I first did that earlier in my career as an investor where I worked with founders who had a vision for what a startup could look like in the future, ultimately investing money in those businesses. And then later on in my career, I moved over to the operating side of businesses, as we call it, in the tech industry. And I've been CEO of two technology companies since. And now, as you said, I'm the new president and CEO at TechMetric. I've been here for a month now.

Lauren Langston [00:01:34]:
It's been a great week. I've been learning a lot.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:38]:
So you're not coming from an automotive background, a tech.

Lauren Langston [00:01:42]:
I am not. I am not, no. So my background is software through and through. I've always spent my career in software that's focused on specific industries. And so we can generally sort the software sphere, if you will, into two categories. Software focus on specific functions, and serving many different industries is part of that function. I'd say QuickBooks for our auto repair shop owners. That's a great example of horizontal software that serves a specific function, but many, many industries.

Lauren Langston [00:02:16]:
And so for me, I've always focused on the opposite. I've always focused on what the tech community calls vertical SaaS, which is really software built for a specific industry. And I'm a big believer in the promise of vertical SaaS. I'm a big believer that if you decide to focus on one industry, building the best technology to ultimately understand that customer and best serve them, that you can build far better technology than if you dabble in a lot of different industries.

Braxton Critcher [00:02:44]:
For example, what other industries have you been involved in?

Lauren Langston [00:02:48]:
Yeah, so on the investing side, quite a bit, I've focused on, gosh, probably 20. 20 different. 20 different industries, but I spent the past 10 years focused on vertical SaaS for the professional services industry. So really any type of work that's delivered in a fee for service nature. So it services firms, marketing agencies, business consulting firms, everything in between. And one of the things that I've come to appreciate, I knew this very much so on the investing side, and I've especially appreciated this as an operator, is that whenever you go into a new industry, there are going to be unique things that matter most to the buyers in that industry, whether it's levers or workflows or dynamics that ultimately drive greater customer satisfaction, more revenue for those businesses, or help them ultimately be more productive. And so in my joining tech metric, I've definitely spent, spent a lot of time studying that so far and I'm, I'm just at the surface of it.

Braxton Critcher [00:03:56]:
So what's your perspective of the automotive industry so far?

Lauren Langston [00:04:02]:
I'd say one of the things in particular that was surprising to me but perhaps should not have been, is that there's this lack of trust between consumers and auto repair shops. One of the stats I was appreciating lately is that 80% of drivers allegedly don't trust their local auto repair shop. And the fact that stat has worsened pretty significantly, about 20% over the past the past five years. And you know, I think at the surface, shop owners should think about this as a bit of a compliment, right? The only reason why that distrust exists in the first place is because there's really, you know, information asymmetry, if you will, between what a shop, its technicians, its service writers know so well, that deep expertise and then what the general consumer doesn't understand. And so while, you know, there's a bit of a compliment at the surface level from that distrust because again, it goes back to this level of expertise, at the end of the day, that really hurts the auto repair shop as it relates to delivering things like greater satisfaction for customers, ultimately more revenue and then driving productivity as well. So anyways, that's a, that's an early take on one of the trends in auto repair that I found, I found a little surprising.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:28]:
I'd be curious. So you probably would be a pretty good person to ask this with your experience in other industries. So that is well known. I mean that it's the customers don't trust auto repairs jobs and it's been that way for a long time. You're right, it is getting worse. But I feel like, especially in today's times, that nobody really trusts anybody though. And so I wonder what, like that's Gotta be fairly consistent. Right.

Braxton Critcher [00:06:03]:
Wouldn't most customers not trust said industry? Isn't that. Wouldn't that be a common thing right now?

Lauren Langston [00:06:11]:
I think technology has lent itself to a lot more transparency that goes beyond whoever is ultimately selling you a product. Like, if you were to look at healthcare, for example, perhaps there's stronger trust that consumers have with their medical professionals. Not necessarily because of the medical professional, but maybe because of regulation, for example. Or you went into the real estate industry because it's a less technical industry. I feel like I could ultimately get my real estate license before I could figure out how to fix a car, for example. Because it's a less technical industry, it ultimately lends itself to a far greater degree of information symmetry. And so I think a lot of it has to do more with the technology landscape, what technology can ultimately provide in terms of equal access to information between buyers and consumers. And that just simply won't be the case when you're ultimately fixing something as technical as a car.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:15]:
So you think the other industries have more trust than what automotive would be?

Lauren Langston [00:07:23]:
Yeah, and I think technology lends itself to that.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:25]:
Okay, because, I mean, I. I'm with you. I think that the automotive repair industry, by the way, I've only been in the industry for about a year, so I'm still kind of at that point where we'll learn together.

Lauren Langston [00:07:36]:
Growing.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:37]:
We're kind of kindred spirits here. But I mean, I. You mentioned healthcare. You meant like you mentioned, I think, about insurance. To me, I don't think a lot of people trust insurance all that much. They're. They're agents, they work with. I mean, maybe there are some.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:50]:
But I feel like a lot of people don't generally. Health care is another one. People, like, it's funny, every time I talk to somebody that is pregnant, they're like, well, we can't have this baby at the local hospital. We got to go 30 minutes outside of town because we don't trust the local hospital. And. But. But if you go to that town, people don't trust their local hospital, so they might go to the one that the other people left. Like, I don't know.

Braxton Critcher [00:08:15]:
I feel like trust is. Especially today with social media, and sometimes information can diminish trust because there's almost too much information. And so you start to think, okay, well, what could be. Like, what. What can this company be trying to hide from me in some way? I don't know.

Lauren Langston [00:08:40]:
But, yeah, like, you get access to some information and therefore you have this assumption that there's probably more behind the curtain, so to speak. Absolutely.

Braxton Critcher [00:08:49]:
But that's interesting that, you know, that's, that's your, that's your perspective right now. And I'd be curious to see, like, what do you think TechMetric, a shop management software, can do to help with that?

Lauren Langston [00:09:07]:
Yeah. So when we think about systems of record or systems of engagement.

Braxton Critcher [00:09:13]:
Right.

Lauren Langston [00:09:13]:
I'm talking about technology more broadly. Right. If you have operational technology, if you have technology that does a great job of working with customers, I think there's an opportunity to share more information with our customers, customer in a way that ultimately builds trust. And so the SMS on the operational side is of course part of what those workflows ultimately offer. Things like doing a comprehensive DVI for the customer and explaining the work that does and does not need to be prioritized today. Or we have a fintech toolkit where we're ultimately able to offer financing to our customers, customer as well, such that they're not necessarily on the hook for the upfront payment out of the gate. I do think there's an opportunity, if you use strong operational software that's really a system of record, if you will, and then strong tools around customer engagement to ultimately simply share more information with customers in a way that gets them far more, far more comfortable with the purchases that they're making.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:18]:
Yeah. Okay. So it's just tech metric in the industry is to me, from my experience, a very trusted shop management software. It seems like most people really enjoy the software. So you've been there for like 30 days. What's your pulse? And why is that? Why, why is TechMetric? I guess when you think about all the shop management softwares, it seems like every time I get into a conversation with shop owners about ones they've tried, ones they've used, TechMetric seems to always sort of. There's a couple other ones too. But TechMetric is definitely to me a leader in the ones that stand out that people really seem to enjoy.

Lauren Langston [00:11:09]:
Yeah. Yeah. First of all, I'm so happy that that's been your read. I'd say that was a part of my thesis, if you will, before I joined techmetric. And in many respects I've started to see that thesis ultimately be. Be proven true. So I got to meet our founder and CEO Sunil Patel a few quarters ago, and one of the things that really drew me to techmetric was how customer centric of a company Sunil had built. There's a lot of companies that are built with sales or profitability as the number one priority for Sunil, as he as he started this business and ultimately made his way along the journey of building the company, customers were always at the center of how he and the team made decisions.

Lauren Langston [00:12:06]:
Whether it was the next product that they were going to launch, however they were going to enhance a feature and the commitments they made, they made to customers as part of the sales promise. And really just this overall idea of how does TechMetric live up to the promise of, of its brand generally and what, what shop owners, technicians and service raters need to ultimately grow their businesses. So I think that's a big reason why that is. I mean a lot of, a lot of success for businesses early on really has to do with the ethos of the founder and what they think is most important. I think another component is Sunil comes out of the industry. So he was a shop owner first. And when you look at vertical SaaS companies, industry software companies that have really made a mark on the industries they're serving, their CEOs, their founders generally came out of the industry, experienced these problems firsthand and all the pain that went around with it, and then envisioned ultimately a better way, a better way to operate. So that's what Sunil did.

Lauren Langston [00:13:11]:
And I think that's a large reason why TechMetric has had so much success in the industry.

Braxton Critcher [00:13:18]:
So let's talk detractors because I mean, and truthfully I don't know many now I like I said most people would love wildly support TechMetric and you know, I think some, I know of one shop owner that wants to try TechMetric hasn't really ever tried it. For some reason he's hesitant. I'm not sure why there but. So in your 30 days, have you had meetings? What are some of the things that people do say that they'd like TechMetric to try differently or what are some of the detractors comments about the software? Like I'm curious because I honestly I really have heard wild good reviews but I mean every company has tractors, so what do they say about techmetric and what are your thoughts about changing some of that stuff?

Lauren Langston [00:14:19]:
Yeah, absolutely. I find with techmetric, and I would say this is true of any operational software generally that is going to make a big impact on one's business. So I find with techmetric that our shop owners appreciate the fact that change is hard. I mean generally when you're purchasing technology, you're not purchasing it for that heck of using the product. You're not purchasing technology because it's cool to use technology. You're purchasing technology because you want a result in your business. And to get that result, that comes with a lot of other changes as well. You probably have a strategy in mind, a structure for that strategy.

Lauren Langston [00:14:59]:
You got to think about how people tie together with processes that sit on top of your technology. And so anytime any business owner makes a technology change, it comes with a lot of other change that ultimately needs to be managed. And so you take one step backward to take 10 steps forward. But you know, business, business owners are right to be, I would say, not thoughtful, but hesitant perhaps, or not hesitant but thoughtful about when they're making technology decisions. Is it the right time for their business? That's absolutely true. I'd say the good thing is TechMetric has done this 10,000 times over. And so we continue to optimize. How do we take that change management process that a shop needs to go through? How do we make it bite sized? So shop owners, for every step in the change process they're making, they're ultimately getting a new result in their business for it.

Lauren Langston [00:15:57]:
And it's something that we're going to continue to focus on.

Braxton Critcher [00:16:00]:
So take me, take me into your first week. So Sunil is one of the smartest guys in the industry.

Lauren Langston [00:16:11]:
Couldn't agree with you more.

Braxton Critcher [00:16:13]:
Who cares deeply about his company and the people that he serves. Talked to him several times about that. And if he hears anything negative about TechMetric, he immediately is like, oh, well, what we got to do to change this, we got to make this better. And I think that's, I think that's why he is so successful and I think that's why TechMetric is so successful, because Sunil is that way, he's hands on and cares about it. So take me into that first, you know, week of you. You, you said you met Sunil a couple of quarters before you came on.

Lauren Langston [00:16:44]:
Yeah, yeah.

Braxton Critcher [00:16:45]:
But at the time you probably weren't thinking, I'm going to work for this guy at some point. And so, you know, take me into the, into the meetings with Sunil. And your first experience with the job?

Lauren Langston [00:16:56]:
Yeah, absolutely. So my first week at techmetric was fantastic. I joined the week that we had our company kickoff. And so we flew in our team from all over the world and we talked about what are the priorities for the year ahead. We talked about what did we accomplish last year, what are some of the ways that we were able to live up to the mission of techmetric on behalf of our founders. So it was a pretty intense first week meeting, you know, team that's, you know, 200 going to 300 some strong, but it Was, it was a great first week. And yeah, I was able to see Sunil and the rest of the leadership team in action. Was able to meet a handful of customers as part of our company kickoff as well.

Lauren Langston [00:17:45]:
So, yeah, fantastic week, fantastic week. Overall.

Braxton Critcher [00:17:48]:
How nervous were you?

Lauren Langston [00:17:51]:
I think it was more like excited nerves. I was very curious. Right. Because, you know, just as you have said that you've heard so many good things about TechMetric in the industry. When I first started learning about TechMetric, I was listening to podcasts like yours, for example, and you're reading as much industry information as I could. And I kept hearing Tech Metric used in a way that was synonymous with the sms. Like if you want to understand your business, you got to go into your Tech Metric and understand X, Y and Z. It really felt to me like techmetric was really gaining traction as really becoming the de facto platform to help shop owners run their businesses best.

Lauren Langston [00:18:38]:
And anyways, I've really found that, really found that to ultimately be true.

Braxton Critcher [00:18:45]:
The name of the company is escaping me, but there is a ad campaign that I've seen several times on TV the past month and a half or so. It's a bourbon company. They're like, back in the 50s, maybe, you know what I'm talking about. Back in the 50s, our bourbon was really light. We won an award, in fact, so we scrapped it. We started over and basically the messaging behind the ad was we're not settling for good. We don't win awards and say, yay, let's just keep doing what we're doing. We're always striving to get better.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:24]:
And I think that is the companies, the shop owners, the people in general that consistently aren't satisfied with the good. They, they want great and they always seek change and improvement. Those are the people that are successful.

Lauren Langston [00:19:43]:
Yeah.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:44]:
So what, what, what is happening behind the scenes at techmetric that is happening like that? Because technology, to me, knowing that seeing techmetric success, I know there's not satisfaction behind the scenes. So you're only a month in. I know there's things that obviously you don't know, but what's happening at Tech Metric in those meetings that, you know, list, these are the things we really want to try that may be kind of out of the box that most industries that are doing well may not want you to try, but we're going to try it anyway.

Lauren Langston [00:20:19]:
Yeah, absolutely. No, I couldn't agree with you more. Founders, CEOs are never satisfied with the status quo and that's why they ultimately take these really low probability Ideas. I mean, keep in mind that it's only a fraction of 1% of startup ideas that get funding or actually, you know, grow into these successful businesses. That's why they're really able to move the needle on the status quo. And that same level of thinking really continues to apply as they continue to grow these businesses. And I would say, yeah, that's exactly the mindset of the techmetric company today, this idea of continuous innovation. One of the things that we've been talking about is thinking about every effort going on in our business through the lens of customer results.

Lauren Langston [00:21:10]:
So I mentioned earlier that TechMetric is a customer centric business. Everything that TechMetric has done up to this point is built with the customer in mind. One of the things that Sunil and I are prioritizing is how do we take that customer centricity to the next level and not just focus on the customer, but focus on the results that they're seeking in their business. I mean, it goes back to what we were talking about earlier. People don't purchase software to use it, they purchase software to use it to get a result in their business. And so we obviously know the industry, we know the KPIs that matter most to shop owners, technicians, to service writers. But how do we make sure that if things like customer satisfaction, revenue generation, increases in productivity, if Those are the KPIs that matter most to our shop owner customers, how do we make sure that every feature we're building, every product we're releasing, how we ultimately engage with customers as part of them making a big technology decision about their business and really the entirety of the customer journey behind, beyond the point that they make the first sale, how do we do all of that through the lens of customer results? So I think you're going to be hearing more about customer results from techmetric here pretty soon now.

Braxton Critcher [00:22:29]:
So obviously this is more of a high level Sunil question. A high level question for you in a year. But so I love the fact that companies who like TechMetric that focus on the customer. I think it is important to do that. Obviously those are your paying customers. You want to try and make them happy. But at the same time you can't always be a yes man. Like every suggestion can't always be, oh, we can make that happen.

Braxton Critcher [00:23:05]:
So, because I mean, obviously if that happens, things get clunky, there's conflicting ideas. What, in your perspective, what's the, the give and take with like that is great and you definitely lead with that and do and should, but there's also got to be times where there's suggestions that might sound good, but on the surface, but the more you dig into it and that's probably not a good idea and we can't go that direction. So where's the line? And have that, have you, have you had conversations like that so far at techmetric?

Lauren Langston [00:23:38]:
Yeah. So one thing I would say as a, as a preface to how answer your question is customer centricity is good for business long term. It's not always good for business in the short term, but as long as incentives are aligned, when people are building businesses to ultimately build for the long term, customer centricity ultimately pays off. It's what ultimately generates revenue. It's what makes a business profitable as well. And I think our shop owners would very much so agree with that. You know, you got to focus, focus on customer success for the long term. What I would say though, when you're ultimately debating about an idea about yeah, this would be good for this specific customer, but not for the business or the customers long term, it really comes down to that.

Lauren Langston [00:24:25]:
Are we focusing on something over the short term or over the long term? And I think that's where being really clear and transparent about expectations comes into play. We have a customer or a prospect, I should say somebody who wants to become a customer in the future who feels like they need a feature that is an in tech metric to run their business. We need to be open with them about, will this be on our roadmap? Yes or no? We should first have a conversation about do they need that feature to generate a result in their business. If the answer is yes and we're not ultimately the provider that's going to be able to do that, we should have an open conversation about that. Part of building great software is knowing who you're for and who you are not. And that sometimes means telling somebody who thinks they might want to be a customer of yours that there actually might be a better solution for you that's not techmetric.

Braxton Critcher [00:25:23]:
And I think that's good. I just.

Lauren Langston [00:25:26]:
Honesty is generally a good policy. Yes.

Braxton Critcher [00:25:28]:
Yeah, I mean I, I think sometimes I, and I've been guilty of this. You so often want to be able to say yes, to be able to take on a new customer, whatever, that you wind up saying yes when, when it's going to end up causing you harm in the future because it just wasn't the right relationship. Being able to have that conversation and say this just doesn't make sense for us or you. Here's other options. Go try another software. I think being able to say that shows a level of maturity that a lot of people don't reach. And for a shop owner, thinking about new shop management systems also gives you legitimacy around who you are to say I can trust that person. Because if they truly believe that this is not the right fit, they're going to tell me.

Braxton Critcher [00:26:26]:
They're not going to say, oh no, really, you should use us just because they, it's, it's, that's more of a number system than relationship. And I think that's really good to have that mindset.

Lauren Langston [00:26:38]:
Yeah. One thing I would say though is we spend tens of millions of dollars every year on our r efforts to continue to build out the techmetric platform. And so for features that ultimately drive again, results for our customers, those are going to be the things that are on our roadmap. For things that are going to be, I'd say more indirectly tied to business results or not tied to business results at all. Those are some of the things that you're going to see TechMetric pursuing less of. So I would say, generally speaking I believe that techmetric is a great fit for most slash nearly all. I would say auto, auto repair shops, whether it's a single shop, multi shop, all the way up through mid market and enterprise. But yeah, there are definitely going to be prospects that we come across where they're ultimately trying to achieve something in their business that's going to be different than TechMetric.

Lauren Langston [00:27:38]:
And yeah, that, that's where it's important to be transparent.

Braxton Critcher [00:27:41]:
Yeah. What excites you the most about your new role?

Lauren Langston [00:27:47]:
Where do I start? So given the fact that the auto industry represents what, like a $1 trillion in GDP and that auto repair is probably, you know, like fairly sizable chunk of that when we look at the size of the total addressable market, there are so many opportunities for tech metric, whether it's extending our product to new feature areas, starting to think about new markets that benefit from our technology, or simply doubling down on what we're already doing today. I think the fact that we have such a large market lends itself to a really exciting opportunity set. I say that cuts both ways because whenever there's a large opportunity set, you of course have to be really thoughtful as an operator about making sure that you stay focused and that as you make big bets, you're really going all in on those bets. So they ultimately, they ultimately pay off. So yeah, I would say the thing I'm most excited about is probably the thing that's scariest too is the fact that the Opportunity set is just so massive.

Braxton Critcher [00:29:06]:
Last thing kind of on my mind, AI. So where are you at on AI? What are the pros, what are the cons? How is TechMetric using AI and how do you see AI fitting in to TechMetric in the future?

Lauren Langston [00:29:26]:
Yeah, yeah, great question. Top of mind for everyone. So obviously AI was more of a buzzword about 18 months ago and as we started to chatgpts of the world really make a mark, it's now become front and center to how technology companies are thinking about building out their platforms for us. We're not excited about AI for the sake of AI. We are excited for AI for how it can be applied to our technology. At the end of the day, again, it all goes back to can our technology drive results for our customers? And if there's a way that we can ultimately harness AI to do just that, it's a great means to achieving that end. AI for our product can be applied to ultimately automating a lot of mundane, low order tasks that service writers, technicians, shop owners just simply don't want to burden their time with. The exciting part though is it also can be applied to some pretty high order tasks as well.

Lauren Langston [00:30:32]:
Things like understanding what's going on in your business, why things are happening in your business and then ultimately what to do about it.

Braxton Critcher [00:30:39]:
Helping you crunch numbers.

Lauren Langston [00:30:41]:
Absolutely, yeah. But it's not even just crunching numbers, it's coming up with, you know, what's the go forward strategy based on some of the information that we have access to today. So there's a lot of exciting ways to apply AI technology to the auto repair business. And I think we're going to be seeing some exciting things on the horizon from techmetric here in the next year.

Braxton Critcher [00:31:06]:
Well, I look down at my watch and we've been going for a half hour, Lauren. It's crazy. We have indeed. Yeah. Time's kind of flown here, so this has been really great. Enjoy. I'm actually just gotta say a little stunned at your terminology. You've already picked up on some of the lingo.

Braxton Critcher [00:31:31]:
You just a moment ago used a sentence in which you said service writers, techmetric or I can't even say it right. Technicians, let me educate. It took me a little while to get there, so I'm thoroughly impressed. I'm thoroughly impressed.

Lauren Langston [00:31:46]:
I appreciate it, I appreciate it. I still have so much to learn at the end of the day, people like yourselves and others in the industry, you're the industry expert. I'm here to figure out, how do we build? How do we build the best technology for this industry, bringing my background in software. So that's ultimately the goal.

Braxton Critcher [00:32:06]:
You. Are you going to any industry events in this year?

Lauren Langston [00:32:11]:
Figuring out the calendar, but, yes, I expect to be there.

Braxton Critcher [00:32:15]:
Okay. I know, obviously, the one that's coming up in a couple of weeks in Kansas City, Vision, is that on the calendar?

Lauren Langston [00:32:22]:
I will not be there now.

Braxton Critcher [00:32:25]:
Shame.

Lauren Langston [00:32:26]:
Yeah. What are. What are the. What are the largest events that you'll be at this year?

Braxton Critcher [00:32:31]:
Well, I'll be at Vision. I know I'll be in Raleigh, at asta, and I. I think I'll also be at SEMA Apex in. In November in Vegas.

Lauren Langston [00:32:44]:
I know I'll be at SEMA Apex. That's not my.

Braxton Critcher [00:32:47]:
Yeah, it's kind of like a requirement. If you work in the industry, you kind of got to be at that one. Yeah, I think. I mean, obviously there's some other ones, like tools in Pennsylvania, but I don't think I'm going to that one. But. Yeah, there's just plenty of other ones that I'm sure you'll go to.

Lauren Langston [00:33:03]:
Yeah. Yeah. At some point, I would say the big one. The big ones are getting added to my calendar, so. Hoping to cross paths with you in person here pretty soon.

Braxton Critcher [00:33:12]:
Yeah. Well, thanks, Lauren Braxton.

Lauren Langston [00:33:16]:
Thanks for having me.