Jim Fitzpatrick: 0:04

This is Driving Solutions exclusively on CBTNews. com. Hey everyone, Jim Fitzpatrick, thanks so much for joining us on another edition of Driving Solutions right here at CBTNews. com. With uncertainty around tariffs, dealerships are doubling down on what has always been a steady profit center, the service department. On today's show, we are taking a look at how recalls, when handled right, can drive both revenue and retention. Joining us now in the studio is Ryan Maher, who is the CEO of Bizzyca r.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 0:37

This is a company I know you've heard a lot about because there's a lot of dealerships that have already signed on and the reviews are stunning. What they can do for your dealership is amazing. That's why we wanted to bring Ryan in here. Get it straight from the horse's mouth. So welcome into the studio.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 0:51

Thanks for having me, Jim. Great to be with you, for sure.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 0:53

So let's kind of jump in here. First and foremost, I want to find out how you came up with the concept. I mean, obviously you're an automobile dealer and you had some pain points there, but I'll let you take it from there. How'd this whole thing get started?

Ryan Maher: 1:06

Yeah. So third generation dealer from the Midwest grew up in the family business and a couple of years ago we were dealing with the kind of the hangover from Takata airbags Okay yeah, super frustrating recall. And the biggest challenge that we had with the recall was where do we find these vehicles and how do we get them in without having to do this really manual process? And on a whim about five years ago I went to AutoTrader and started looking for vehicles on used car lots that had these Takata airbags and, sure as you can believe it, the first VIN that we went out there and found had one of these recalls and we were able to go out there and grab it and that was kind of the birth of Bizzycar.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 1:54

Right, right, wow, that's amazing because there are so many vehicles out there that there's open recalls on that. Any dealer will also tell you that it drives revenue because everybody that comes in, as we know, for a recall item, there's money behind that, right.

Ryan Maher: 2:09

You know you need tires.

Ryan Maher: 2:10

You know you need this right, exactly so you get 70 million cars on the road today with a recall about one out of four vehicles. We recalled 27 million cars last year in the US oh my gosh, huge number. And in our business we like to say use recalls as the hook, yeah, Use them to get the customer in, and if you can reach out to these customers and get them in, a lot of the times they're going to buy something else and that's a great way to increase that fixed ops revenue.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 2:38

And the OEM, under the law, is only required to reach out once right to let them know about the recall. Talk to me about that.

Ryan Maher: 2:44

Yeah, so, and it's interesting, the law is actually changing. It's in flux right now. I'll be in DC next week to talk about that a little bit but right now federal law requires the car manufacturer to send a letter to everybody when that recall gets announced. And what we're doing is we've digitized that solution.

Ryan Maher: 3:04

And the challenge with the manufacturer's approach is, you know, I'm a millennial and if something's coming in the mail, it's 50-50 shot so what we're working on is how do we get in front of the customer and for us it's a text message- yeah 100% TCPA exempt, we're able to reach out to these customers and that's how you really get in front of them.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 3:27

Yeah, there's no question about it. 70 million vehicles on the road right now with open recalls, that's got to be billions of dollars right in work to be done at dealerships.

Ryan Maher: 3:37

It is so about $22 billion of economic impact $22 billion $22 billion just in the US, we do operate in Canada as well, okay, and so there's another. You know a couple billion dollars over there, and you know these recalls are they're 70% gross margin, yeah, so it's a great opportunity to reach out and bring customers in that many haven't been in there in years. That's right. So it's more than just driving profit. We're also able to drive retention, sure, and if you do it right and the experience is good retention, high CSI, good experience now you get these customers back in.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 4:17

And also, I might add, because I'm putting my dealer hat on here trade-ins, because now you've got that customer coming back in at a time that everybody in the auto industry is looking for a good trade-in, or I should say a good used car to sell, because I think we're going to be in the used car business for the foreseeable future here in a very big way. What a great way to also acquire vehicles.

Ryan Maher: 4:32

Right, that's been kind of a stealthy horse for us. We didn't even expect that to happen and you know, large OEM that we work with up in Canada ran a study and it turned out that a huge number of these cars we were bringing in for recalls were actually becoming trades. Wow, and talk about a huge hook. There's no question about it. Yeah, and the ability for us to text these customers without their consent, you know, because we're TCPA exempt game changer, and what a better customer experience. And I get to kick the tires of another car, yeah, fantastic.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 5:13

Wow, no question about it. While your car is here, mr and Mrs Jones, why don't you take a look in the showroom and, as we know that many times that ends up and then driving out in a new car, you know, and saying, kiss the service bill and the old car, goodbye. I?

Ryan Maher: 5:25

Just got to get them in the store. Right, that's right, that's all we're trying to do.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 5:28

Yeah, there's no question about it. So in terms of the platform, I mean it's tried and true. I mean you're in how many stores now roughly around the country?

Ryan Maher: 5:36

So just last year alone we added a thousand stores.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 5:39

Oh my gosh, we're adding over a 100 rooftops a month right now to the platform. That is fantastic.

Ryan Maher: 5:43

Congratulations. The thing I'm really excited about is we keep over 90% of them after a year. Yeah, Wow. It means the product is hot and it's sticky. We like that. That's right. So we're quickly adding we're with 19 global car manufacturers. We're down to our last two or three that we don't work with and I think we'll have them by the end of this year.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 6:06

Why wouldn't they go with you? I mean, this only makes them look better, and also their dealers, I would think, be screaming you better get with Bizzyca r to make sure that we can right.

Ryan Maher: 6:12

A hundred percent. The other thing is that the law is changing In January. Instead of just sending out snail mail, now digital communication is becoming part of the law of the land. There's a lot that we're doing to help be part of that solution.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 6:27

Oh, that's great. That's great, the shift towards mobile service in the auto industry. Talk to us about that and how Busy Car helps dealers launch and scale a mobile service program.

Ryan Maher: 6:38

Love it or hate it, mobile service is here to stay it is. As a dealer myself, it's hard to say is it mobile? Is it pencil? Does it work? Are the economics there? In an EV world, I have to have a solution to get to my customer when there's no oil change. What's my loss leader? So the solution is it's mobile. At Service Valet Mobile service has gone through, I think, a tough couple years, but I think now we have it figured out. The key to it is predictable revenue streams and technology. What I mean by that is recalls are the bread and butter for us to get things going. And then, when you can marry it up with a fantastic mobile platform that we've built, it's like Uber or Amazon and because it's so deeply integrated, it makes it so much easier for the dealers to be successful on the platform.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 7:28

Of course yeah, I spoke to one dealer that's got 20 trucks out there on mobile service, which is unbelievable.

Ryan Maher: 7:34

We have some dealers. Our largest dealer has over 40 mobile trucks. We work with many of the publics. We've got some really big customers that are reimagining and I just got back from Detroit last week where I think we're down to our last domestic OEM. That's really going to start getting deep into the mobile space. But yeah, we work with seven OEMs today helping with their mobile solutions.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 7:59

Wow, that's incredible how much of your day is spent on busy car versus running a busy dealership.

Ryan Maher: 8:05

You know, my brother oversees all of our stores. He's a fantastic operator and I pop in from time to time, but our dealer group is a great testing center for us.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 8:17

Yeah, that's awesome. Built by car dealers for car dealers. It seems to always be a winning solution. It is Because sometimes you'll get a product and you're like, do you know what we do in the service center or on the showroom floor? Because it's one thing to have great technology, but it's another to say this is going to work in practice and obviously you guys have already it's tried and true, right, we eat our own dog food.

Ryan Maher: 8:39

And that's the key to us is we're not just a vendor trying to sell you a product. We're a vendor that's trying to solve a pain point. Right, and that's what we do, is we fix pain.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 8:51

Yeah, yeah, I couldn't imagine if you pitched me and I a dealer and you pitch I don't know. It sounds like a no-brainer to me. I mean, is the pitch really that easy, I guess. So if you're putting 100 stores a month on, that's incredible, it's a no-brainer. There are 70 million cars out there. Yeah, exactly.

Ryan Maher: 9:06

And the thing that makes the product work so well is you don't have to click any buttons. Yeah, we just come in, we hook into your DMS, we flip a switch and the car starts showing up. Nice, if you don't want the free revenue, somebody down the street will take it.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 9:20

That's exactly right. Yeah, wow, talk to us about some recent milestones. I know that you guys have had some $15 million growth funding round led by Dealer Tire. What does that mean for Busy Car's future?

Ryan Maher: 9:30

We're super excited about that. Dealer Tire has been a fantastic partner for us. So $30 million race to date at this point Last fall, the Dealer Tire partnership and Dealer Tire massive player in the space. They're in over 50% of the dealer network nationwide so they've really helped us, not just from a capital perspective but from a strategic perspective, being able to accelerate some of our growth and help us with things that as a small company, being able to accelerate some of our growth and help us with things that, as a small company, we don't do a lot of enterprise relationships they are fantastic.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 10:04

Yeah, that's great, that's really good for us, and they know firsthand that if you're bringing these cars back in, it's a perfect marriage to their products and services, right? I mean it goes hand in hand.

Ryan Maher: 10:13

Sell more tires sell more aftermarket. That's really what we're focused on is use the recall as the hook, and then there's so much more you can do with that customer. It's about building that relationship, and some of the customers we bring in haven't been in in years and that's a way to reintroduce yourself to that customer.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 10:32

And it's a great experience for them. No question about it no-transcript about car sales.

Ryan Maher: 11:07

You're missing the boat. Right, you got to be focused on fixed and here it is again. You know we have tariffs, we have disruption, uncertainty. It's stressful, that's right. So, getting back to our basics, there isn't a dealer I talk to. I was at a huge 20 group meeting yesterday and every dealer in that room is talking about the fundamentals, the basics, fixed ops, and so we're really zeroing in on that. If there's a way to bring customers in and not just the easy stuff, not the express service, not the oil changes, but good, high paying CP, your operation, your dealership, not just highly profitable, but keep everything else running while we work through these uncertain times. That's right. That's what we're trying to do is we're trying to make it easier for dealers. We want to bring you cars, book you appointments and have it run in the background.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 11:55

Yeah, that's fantastic and, as I said, all dealers are now focused on all of these other profit centers in the dealership and it will be interesting to see what happens with the tariff situation. Any predictions on that topic?

Ryan Maher: 12:08

You know I was following what happened in New York Auto Week this week. I think we've got some good support. It's good to see Senator Moreno and all that come together, but I think at this point we just need to pick a course and stick to it, and I think bringing the temperature down in the room will really help, especially as we get into the busy summer selling season. We need to. We'd like to have a good summer so we can have a strong year?

Jim Fitzpatrick: 12:36

Sure, I spoke to one economist from the Presidio Group and he said that you know, if you look at the last few years, 2022 was the strongest year profitability wise for dealers. And he reminded me that that was at a 13 million SAR, and he said so I wouldn't panic. Yet you know, can the dealer, can dealers, do very well with four or five million less sales, and that's about how many vehicles we're talking about. That would have a 25% tariff on them. So he felt as though it's a little bit different situation, because not every consumer is getting checks from the government and we've got higher interest rates. But he felt as though it's not. Even if the worst case scenario and these tariffs stay, it's not going to be a terrible situation for dealers. As a dealer, would you agree with that?

Ryan Maher: 13:21

I think in the short term he's absolutely correct. You're going to have higher gross on those cars. There's a supply and demand equilibrium that's going to get hit. Long term, though, it's hurting UIO and that's something we've got to think about. I mean, we crush 12 million cars a year in the US. Most people don't know that. So there is supply that's leaking, that's right, and if we don't replenish it, these cars they break Of course, and if we don't replenish it, these cars they break and we've got to stay on top of that so short term.

Ryan Maher: 13:50

I think we can work through it. Long term.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 13:53

We've got to get back to normalcy, and this is coming at a time that we're coming off of an incredible March and for many dealers that I talk to, we had a great March. Yeah, it seems to be flowing somewhat into April. From some of the dealers that I talked to, I'm not sure. Are you experiencing pretty good?

Ryan Maher: 14:09

January and February were a little soft.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 14:11

Yeah.

Ryan Maher: 14:11

I think everybody was breathing a little easier. You know a lot of OEMs. Fiscal year ends happen, so there are some incentives there to make it happen. But I would really really like to see us come into a strong Memorial Day weekend in June. We want to nail June and have a strong summer Right Now.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 14:29

It could be that through June where we go through the 2 million cars 3 million cars that are sitting on lots right now, right, yeah, by the time we get to right. And then what happens?

Ryan Maher: 14:39

And then what happens? Then what are we going to do?

Jim Fitzpatrick: 14:40

That's where the rubber meets the road right there.

Ryan Maher: 14:41

Do you have a prediction?

Jim Fitzpatrick: 14:52

No, right there, you have a prediction. No, I don't have a prediction. I have spoken to so many analysts about this that my head is spinning right now. I think that we're going to see a new ball game come June 1 to June 15th, where dealers are now ordering cars, assuming that the tariffs stay in place as they are today. Right yeah.

Ryan Maher: 15:02

I hope you're right. And again, if there is going to be a change, let's pick a course and stick to it.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 15:09

I agree, I agree. Whatever that is, let's yeah, because these changes coming out of the White House, it's difficult for dealers to plan.

Ryan Maher: 15:15

Long term. I think there's a lot of good that's happening right now. Yeah, sure, but we've got to get there.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 15:22

That's right. That's right. Talk to us about some of the.

Ryan Maher: 15:33

You've got some really top performing dealers on the program, well-known dealers that are just racking up some dollars and some hours on this, talk to us about that. Yeah, so we work in. You know, 40 of the 50 largest groups in the US, some of our best dealers. You know the Tasca group, pac group down in Texas. I mean some of these stores are making six figures a month in recall work and then the upsells that come with it, of course.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 15:53

How do you even put a number on that? Or the car sales alone? Yeah, the trade-in that comes with it.

Ryan Maher: 15:58

There's a lot of benefits, sure. Where their success is really measured for us is how many units are we bringing back that you haven't seen in the last few years, and if we can translate that into upsells buying more cars. I was with a group of dealers yesterday, in a 20 group, and it's just reminding them One of the things I've had to learn as a vendor the dark side of this different, articulating value, Showing the dealer hey, this is what we've done for you this month and we've got to keep that simple.

Ryan Maher: 16:33

Dealers have dashboards. There's stuff all over the place that they can look at and showing, communicating, articulating that value. And we've got some great success stories and we're putting them on our website. We're going to do a better job of that in the next few months.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 16:48

I was going to say for the dealers that are watching, they're going to go to your website to check out those success stories. Yeah, but at the end of the day, this, as I said in the beginning, as a dealer myself, a former dealer this seems to be a no-brainer for me to pick up this kind of business to your point, customers that you haven't seen in the service drive maybe for years, and to be bringing them in in this, especially right now when every single dollar, every single customer counts. This is a phenomenal program.

Ryan Maher: 17:17

The other thing that we look at is in a software-driven world, you have to learn the new tools. You buy a piece of software. You've got to teach. You buy a piece of software. You got to teach, you got to train, you got to process. In an AI-driven world, we're selling you outcomes. So I always tell this to dealers If you're buying busy car, you're not buying software, you're buying money.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 17:38

You pay a dollar and I'm going to give you $5 back, $8 back.

Ryan Maher: 17:43

That's our promise. We guarantee the product and if you can do that and your team can then go focus on the other things they need to focus on. Let us handle the recalls. Let us handle the recall management, and it's not just the recalls that we're reaching out to. There are stores that I walk into on a daily basis where the recall you know, a customer's coming in for an oil change and the customer doesn't even know they have a recall, oh my gosh. And they decline it. And the service drive drives me crazy. Oh wow, that should happen. 0% of the time there's dealers. We go to 50, 60% of the time. That's crazy. It's a huge number, it's called a missed recall opportunity.

Ryan Maher: 18:21

It should never occur. We're working with a lot of OEMs on driving that down to zero. Some of the Japanese are really, really good at this but there are stores we walk into on a daily basis. That is absolutely crazy. That should never happen. And we've been able to. We have another product we've brought to market that has eliminated that altogether. Oh, that's fantastic.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 18:39

Yeah, wow, that is incredible, because how many times a customer comes in and says my car was just in there? Why am I getting the recall it?

Ryan Maher: 18:46

frustrates them, it hurts CSI and they feel guilty. If my wife came in, she was expecting an oil change and they say oh, ms Maher, you have two more hours. You've got to stick in the store. She's like I've got to go pick up the kids, I don't have time to do this. She feels guilty, she's driving around in an unsafe car, and so what we're able to do is we reach out to her in advance. We're able to get us to make sure the parts are there.

Ryan Maher: 19:09

We're connecting all the dots Right and then putting it together in a simple platform Right? Nobody has to do it.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 19:15

That's fantastic. So do you coordinate that with the BDC center that sets the appointment, or walk me through that. We're doing it on their behalf.

Ryan Maher: 19:23

So the way, in simplistic terms, we're reaching out to the customer Right. They communicate over text message. They don't have to click anything.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 19:30

With you, with you guys, with us, with the AI. Okay, yeah.

Ryan Maher: 19:32

They don't have to do anything. Okay, they schedule right into the DMS. Okay, we're checking parts availability, bay availability, technician availability, all of it. Nobody in the BDC has to do anything. The parts manager doesn't have to do anything. The service advisor doesn't have to do anything. That's incredible. It's automagical.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 19:49

Yes, it is automagical, which is an AI-driven word. Right, we like that. You went to chat for that one. Wow, that really is incredible. And of course, you're increasing RO, count upsell revenue, as we talked about, and then customer satisfaction, as you know, it's huge. You go to pick up a-.

Ryan Maher: 20:07

Csi is the name of the game it is, and our goal here is it's customers for life, right In the words of Carl Sewell. So we want to bring customers back that haven't been there for a long time and then make them sticky, and if you can do things like offer mobile repair. You know, mr Fitzpatrick, your vehicle has a recall. Could we service it in your driveway?

Jim Fitzpatrick: 20:29

Oh goodness, that's great, I'm in the studio today I can do it while you're here.

Ryan Maher: 20:33

That's right, and that's really where this whole process is coming together. We build products at Busy Car that solve pain. We are the calamine lotion for the itch, and what we're trying to do is make it easier for dealers to do the other, more complicated stuff. Let us solve recalls.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 20:50

Let us solve mobile, you go do the other stuff. Wow, I would imagine that some dealers that are watching and I've said this before that if you have five stores, if you have 10 stores out there, why not give Ryan a few of them, right? Do you ever get that when a guy says, oh I'll put you in three or four of my stores, let's see how you perform? I mean, that's a real no-brainer. And then once you go to him with the numbers and go, there you go. I mean, you know, here's 60 days, let's go, let's do the whole, let's do the whole group.

Ryan Maher: 21:17

You've got to sing for your supper, right.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 21:19

That's right.

Ryan Maher: 21:21

So we'll start with the public groups. That's a great example. You'll start with three, four, five stores, sure, and then six months later we go back and we say, hey, we've lowered your missed opportunity rate 35%, 40%. Wow, now this goes into every store. That's right. I don't want to overcook it, but this is a product that should just exist in the industry. It should be something that every store has. We shouldn't be talking about recalls, we shouldn't be talking about missed opportunities, it should just be solved. And so, over the next few years, we'd love to be 10, 12, 14,000 stores and help make this go away.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 21:57

Yeah, for sure. Talk to us about the vision for the future. The platform you know how does it evolve from here. I know you're probably always working on different programs for it to make it better, but any new innovations on the roadmap?

Ryan Maher: 22:10

We have some really exciting stuff we're going to be releasing at the end of this year, so you know, stay tuned, We'll be back.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 22:16

Stay tuned to CPT News. That's right.

Ryan Maher: 22:18

More unfolding coverage we you know Dealer Tire led the round. There were other folks that were a part of that, Okay, and we'll be announcing here later in the year what that looked like, but there's some really exciting stuff we can do with. Recalls that I think we're just getting started on Wow and being able to pair up again. This all goes back to data data. Being able to pair this up will really um really enhance the product.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 22:44

I would imagine, too, we need to talk about this. But the used cars that everyone's going out and going to be buying here every dealer is trying to do everything they can to get used cars. All of the used cars coming in are probably on your list to go. Oh yeah, those cars have a recall on them.

Ryan Maher: 22:58

We check for that and you know if you're, if if you're looking to buy used cars and they have recalls, you know you're going to get that revenue source. That's right.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 23:06

Well, that's fantastic. Ryan Maher, CEO of Busy Car, is a busy guy too. I mean you got a lot going on and congratulations on all your success thus far. These are the kinds of solutions that we want to be bringing you dealers out there. You ask us to bring you any innovations and great ideas. This would probably win the best idea at a 20-group meeting. You go guess what I got in my service department. But no, seriously, congratulations. I think you built an incredible program.

Ryan Maher: 23:33

Thank you.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 23:34

And thanks so much for coming into the studio to tell our audience all about it. Any last words to leave with the dealers.

Ryan Maher: 23:41

No, we're really excited with the growth and we appreciate we're starting to go out and share a little more vocally with what we're doing and it's been an exciting journey and we look forward to continuing it.

Jim Fitzpatrick: 23:51

Great, great, awesome. We're going to put all the information on the screen here as to how to get a hold of Ryan and his team. If you do not do that and you cry about your fixed ops income, do not call me, because this is a no-brainer. So, ryan, thank you so much for coming in. Really appreciate it. Thanks, jim.

Ryan Maher: 24:10

Thanks for watching Driving Solutions exclusively on CPTNewscom.