Josh Melton on Growing into Service at Easy Lift Door Company - EP.295

0:00So one of the ideas we had back when we were a little bit smaller and had a little bit more room in our warehouse was this idea of almost like a pit crew on a race team, right? The truck would pull into our shop and we'd have a warehouse team ready to go with exactly what they needed for the day and load it up as quickly, as efficiently as possible, and then have them drive out, get a check, and then on the road. sounded great and practice was like, oh, this is awesome. This is going to speed things up. This is going to be really, really good for easy lift. But then when we tried it, it just wasn't working.

0:39We just couldn't get it down, whether it was missed parts, the wrong door. Everybody was so focused on the speed aspect of it that little details were getting missed.

0:53Alex Bridgeman: Josh, thanks for hosting me and having to be on the podcast. How did you get into this? Yeah, like most people in the garage door space, it wasn't my dreams or aspirations to end up in the garage door industry, right? Really happened through family. Kevin, my uncle, took over the business from his dad. EasyLift was started back in 1984. His dad, Mike, started the business, got his big break with one of the builders in the area. And then Kevin came along, took over the business in 2008 and started recruiting me. I was fresh out of college, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I was doing some retail management at the time.

1:33What'd you study? I studied just to get my degree and get out of college. So I have a degree in interdisciplinary studies, graduated from a small private Christian school up in Portland, your neck of the woods. Yep. And yeah, from there graduated, got into retail management. They wanted me to move up to Canada and run a store up there. and at the time Kevin was calling me about coming to work in Sacramento. So I told him I've got no interest in garage doors whatsoever, but he was persistent and said, you know what? I don't want you installing. I want you in the office and I want you to learn the business.

2:09I want you to work side by side with me and learn it from the ground up. So, you know, took my time, reflected on it, decided, you know what, I think this is the best move. That was 18 years ago and started answering the phones, marketing, warehouse, you name it. I was doing it and eventually ended up in my role as president. I believe that was back in 2020. And here we are now in 2026, easy lift door.

2:41Alex Bridgeman: What was most nerve wracking early on in coming into the business? First starting off, not really caring about garage door. Yeah. At that time in 2008, early 2009, I mean, we're still in the recession and coming in, it was a bit nerve wracking to see other employees be let go because we had to downsize. And I'm the new guy that's family sitting in the corner at a desk watching this happen and getting the dirty looks as they leave as to, hey, why did you get hired? and I'm now on my way out. But that was a learning lesson in and of itself, right? Kevin was up against some really difficult decisions to make but had to be made.

3:26And he bet on me to come in and work alongside him. And from that, having just one location here in Sacramento, we've grown to three total, one in the Bay Area and then one in the Reno Market. And so to be a part of that growth has been really special to look back on to see where we were and where we've been and how much further we could go.

3:50Alex Bridgeman: What lessons do you feel like you, Kevin, and the business learned in that 08-09 period? Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest lesson we learned is how much the relationships that his dad and then Kevin had built, especially with builders in the area, mattered. It was a difficult time for them. It was a difficult time for all the trades. And those relationships that were built prior to that kind of carried us through that time. And I got a really good look at that as learning how these new construction, new builders bid their work out, really seeing the ins and outs of that and how much those relationships matter with the purchasing managers and the purchasing agents at these divisions at a local level.

4:39And they did a great job with that. I mean, a few of them still meet up with Mike, a few of them still check in with Kevin to see how he's doing. And so just that idea of relationships and how much they matter was huge through that time.

4:54Alex Bridgeman: What do you feel like has been most notable as a change to your operating ethos since becoming president of the business? Yeah. I mean, when I first started, we had a scheduling room. We didn't even have anything digitally on a computer screen. It was an actual room with foam, yeah, foam corkboards that paper tickets were printed out and thumbtacks to the wall with locations of where that work was going for the day. So that was when I started, you know, fast forward till now, we're using a program called Service Titan, which most in the space are going to know about. And just to see that evolution has been just crazy, right?

5:42From paper to digital to iPads coming into play. That's been really neat to be a part of. So that was one of the easy ones to see right from the start is like, this has got to change. I mean, I knew enough in the retail management side, they were light years ahead of this already and so even in 0809 like he was like parting wonders

6:03Alex Bridgeman: with the paper and pen process yeah like what was at that time what was the alternative to use was there something that was actually useful software wise in 2010 or yeah i mean right around that time it it really started to change right a lot of the the conventions or the shows we were going to there were kind of startups in the trade space that were looking to partner with garage door companies hvac plumbing you name it and so we were able to make a connection with one called door pack the time and i'm not even sure if they're still around if they are that's great they were great for that time of our business and so that was one of the things i noticed right away coming in was hey we've got to change this because paper tickets handwritten notes checking guys in the next morning you know them coming in with there it is there it is door pack still around good for you guys yep but that needed to change and so we took that on we're able to partner with door pack and they were a good program for us at the size we were and scale you know and that really started to change everything right because you start to look at the modernization of what we were trying to do as a business, as a team.

7:20And so from there, we went to looking at does having our own fleet of trucks make sense? Because at the time, everybody had their own personal truck that they were working out of. And so that was a big change and shift in philosophy of what we were doing, how we ordered. It was very much call in your orders to these manufacturers. A lot of them weren't working off computer systems or programs that we could log into and place our orders. So that changed quickly right around that time. So, you know, felt like it was definitely an interesting time to get started, but also a good time because you could see where it was, but where it was heading.

8:04And honestly, where it still has room to go into, I feel like we're still bit behind other industries and our technology and how we think about things so i'm excited for the next five to ten years especially with ai coming into play how that's going to work you know i think we're definitely protected it'll be interesting to see if there's ever an ai robot that's programmed to install garage doors it wouldn't surprise me but it's been a journey for sure just to see where we've been and where we're headed on the tech side in particular yeah

8:37Alex Bridgeman: that would be interesting to see how many trucks do you have across right now across all three we're running 35 trucks 35 trucks yeah i'm curious because we had dustin winter on the podcast recently who runs a metro garage in minneapolis he's got about a i think a similar number of truck he has a full-time guy on staff who just focuses on maintaining he's a mechanic like yes on their trucks and eventually it made sense for them to just hire someone to fix vehicles and be the fleet servicer for their trucks versus continuing to just send them to the local shops that sometimes were busy or couldn't get you on time or raise prices and everything else.

9:18Totally, yeah. I see that as an eventual next step for us as we continue to grow. I mean, that makes a lot of sense to bring that in-house and have somebody service and maintain those vehicles for the team. Great solution to that problem as you grow.

9:33Alex Bridgeman: Do you try to keep a consistent fleet type brand or model? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we like the Toyota Tundras, the Nissan Frontier works for us as well. But if we had a choice, it's usually that Tundra. It's a good size for a lot of our guys and still get the rack on there and be able to reach those higher heights that these garage doors get stacked to. But those have been good for us. And then just also with a fleet, right? that branding out on the road right we try to wrap them we have specific wraps for our service trucks compared to our new construction trucks new construction trucks are mainly just logo and you know the basic information for on the service side right that matters a little bit more of just what's out on the road and showing up to these homeowners homes they want to see a professional you know uniformed look from truck to tech showing up right yeah did it make sense to eventually wrap the construction ones or install ones?

10:31Yeah, I mean, I think since they're out on the road, you know, it makes a lot of sense to have that same look. I think that's something we're looking at as we continue to grow out and understand both sides of our business now, right? The new construction and the home service side, they're very different. And the home service side for us is a newer venture within the last two years, right? We've always done the service work, right? We've got over 40 years of Easy Lift garage door stickers and the thousands and thousands of homes that we've installed. So we always did the work, but it was never a priority.

11:07New construction took so much of our time. And so in the last two years, we've been able to really put a focus on growing the service side of our business and been able to bring in Kevin's son, Elisha, to our team. So again, the next generation in here in the garage door space, once you're in, you never get out. And so Elisha's locked in, but he's doing a great job growing that side of our business and, you know, really looking at it as its own arm, right? It operates much differently. New construction is all about schedule, logistics, volume. The home service side is customer service. showing up to help grandma when she's stuck in her garage and trying to get to her church event.

11:57She needs you there right away, and she needs somebody that she can trust.

12:01Alex Bridgeman: Yep, she's not a GC. She's a very different personality. Very, very different personality. So it's been fun, and it's been energizing. Honestly, coming out of COVID, I didn't know if this was going to be the right space for me moving forward. That took a lot out of me as it did a lot of others throughout the construction space and bringing Elisha onto the team and, you know, taking on this home service initiative inside EZLift has been energizing and just a breath of fresh air to be excited about, you know, where we're headed as a team and a group. What has been some of the biggest learning curves in that transition to being more of a service business over time?

12:43Yeah, again, they're very different, right? And so I think training for one, training on the construction side is fairly straightforward, right? You learn the technical side of what it is to install a garage door and opener, you know, make sure it's running smoothly and have a good relationship with the superintendent on each job side, right? Make sure those remotes are delivered, they're happy, door got installed, on to the next one. Service side, much different, and the skills needed rely heavily on customer service. The ability to talk to a customer, to make them feel comfortable with you inside their home, working on the largest moving part on their house that not a lot of people think of until it breaks.

13:35And when it breaks, it's the biggest thing that happened in your day, whether your car's stuck in the garage or a number of other reasons, right? A lot of people use that as their front door now. It's just in and out of the garage multiple times in a day. And so that customer service piece is massive. And so really trying to do our due diligence on understanding the customer service side of the space, learning from others has been huge, making connections with others that have done it well, learning what we can from them, and then learning what we can learn from other industries. I mean, just think about the fast food space, right?

14:17Whatever Chick-fil-A is doing and In-N-Out are doing, they've got it. They've got it dialed in. And so, you know, trying to learn what we can from them and implement it into what we're doing here at Easy Lift has been fun to learn and understand. So definitely the training piece has been kind of a new space for us there.

14:37Alex Bridgeman: So being in garage doors for 18 years, when you go through the In-N-Out line, what are you noticing that, you know, I would probably miss? Yeah, I mean, I think it's the efficiency, right? I mean, I think prior to In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A, every order was being taken at the box or the window. They've got employees out there with an iPad running down the line to take your order car by car by car, just that efficiency, right? And so what can you learn from that in the garage door space? Well, to me, the efficiency and loading up for the day, right? If your warehouse isn't organized in a way that makes sense, and you've got guys taking multiple steps in the morning to load up a truck that maybe is taking them 40 to 45 minutes, well, can we cut that down to 15 to 20 minutes, right?

15:28So that efficiency model, definitely pick up on that as I'm looking at other spaces.

15:33Alex Bridgeman: Yeah, you like talking to Alex. Yeah. He's got it down. I'm very excited to talk to them. Michelle and I lived in Boise for a couple months at one point. And while we were there, they opened the first In-N-Out in Boise. Yeah. And it actually went viral for a few days because it was in this large shopping mall. And they used multiple parking lots as staging lots. Cars funneling into the drive-thru and they had a drone fly over and everyone made fun of it. But what was amazing was when we got there, if you stood in line, it was like 30, 40 minutes. We were fine. Sure. But we would talk to them as they because there's people that are standing around helping you like if you want to get a t-shirt while you're waiting in line.

16:12Alex Bridgeman: That's the thing. And it turns out there's this team in that whose entire job for the couple months prior and after opening a new location is their entire job is just making sure new locations open smoothly. Yeah. So beforehand, they will focus on working with the city on traffic, getting sure the sign works, the lighting and fryers, like everything's functioning. All the people are hired and they're trained. And then once it is open, making sure line and traffic management are going well, that t-shirts are for sale in the right way, you know, for initial, like, couple weeks of ordering and, like, you know, getting new people brought in.

16:50Alex Bridgeman: It's all working and functioning. You know, bathrooms are getting cleaned. And then they go off to the next one. Their entire job is just like this SWAT team that just hops around to every new location, starting up. And I noticed the thought, that was such a unique level of specialization that not only do I specialize in running it in and out, but just the opening of them, of a new location. I thought that was so unique. And I still think about that all the time. What is the specific roles you train that you're designed to make sure this very delicate process, make sure it just goes well? Well, I think there's so much value in actually seeing it live and in action, right?

17:30Because a lot of what we do here, you can explain it, and you can put it in an email, or you can take whatever approach. And in your mind, you're like, oh, this makes total sense. They're going to get it, and it's going to go perfect. Well, it actually didn't, and here we are, and we're trying to fix it and work through it. But when you actually get out there and physically show them how a truck should be loaded, or how we want the warehouse set up, and explain the reasons behind it, it just lands so much better. So that idea that In-N-Out is, you know, the special team that comes in and this is the way we run it in and out.

18:07And if you run it this way, it works. No questions asked. Here we go. And then all these new employees come into that system. They physically see it happening day to day, hour by hour. And then that's all they know moving forward. They don't know anything else, but this is how In-N-Out operates. And so that's another thing, you know, trying to glean from what these other companies are doing well is that exact model here, right? Show it, show it in action because anybody that we bring in new only knows it from that forward. Now, one of the issues with that is everybody before, right? Because we've got employees that have been here 10, 15, 20 years, which is amazing.

18:51So thankful for that. It means we're doing something right too. But they've seen us do the good, bad, and the ugly, right? And so they know when it was paper tickets. They know when it's been service tightened. They've seen it all. And there's a bit of a learning curve there of like, well, we're used to doing it this way. and now they want us to do it this way. I don't know if I buy that quite yet, right? And so you got to prove it, but also be open to feedback because that feedback from those employees, those team members that have put in the time year after year here are so important, right?

19:31And so really taking what they have to say to heart and being open to the criticism, the, I don't get this, I don't think this is a great idea. Really hearing them out, right? Trying to understand where they're coming from. And so I think there's a lot of value in that too, of being open to what your employees are seeing in their day-to-day. Because their day-to-day is so much different than mine, right? And so their perspective and feedback is extremely valuable.

20:00Alex Bridgeman: What are some things that you implemented that, like, oh, wait, maybe that's not the greatest idea or like that flopped or it didn't work out? Yeah, yeah. So one of the ideas we had back when we were a little bit smaller and had a little bit more room in our warehouse was this idea of almost like a pit crew on a race team, right? the truck would pull into our shop and we'd have a warehouse team ready to go with exactly what they needed for the day and load it up as quickly as efficiently as possible and then have them drive out get a check and then on the road sounded great and practice was like oh this is awesome this is going to speed things up this is going to be really really good for easy lift but then when we tried it, it just wasn't working.

20:48We just couldn't get it down, whether it was missed parts, the wrong door. Everybody was so focused on the speed aspect of it that little details were getting missed. And so we've been able to adjust that from the original idea to what works for us now. But definitely that was one of those ideas where you're like, oh, I just solved it. Here it is. they've been missing this forever. This is going to change EZ Lift from here on forward. And yeah, that did not work. So how do you modify it? What's the version of that today? Yeah. So the version of that today is the guys arrive in the morning, all their work is already uploaded onto their iPad through Service Titan.

21:31And so they've got an idea of what they need to load up on the new construction side for the day. And so they're partnered with one of our warehouse employees. Everything's organized by manufacturer size series model right on down the line. They know where those areas of the warehouse are. They're able to load up with help on their truck. And then once they're loaded up, they get what we call a load check before they leave to where they have a second set of eyes to make sure that nothing's missed from the style of door going out to maybe the window insert that's needed for that garage door. Maybe it's a strut.

22:10Maybe it's the spring. Somebody just double check their work because anytime you got to deliver something on the job site, it's a loss, right? So you want to make sure they're leaving with everything they need for the day and that it's 100 % accurate. So it's a modification of that original idea of the pit stop, pit crew coming in and doing that quick load to where now we've got it down to a really good system to where they're in and out and, you know, 15 to 20 minutes on the road onto those job sites to get to where they need to get.

22:41Alex Bridgeman: Nice. Well, I had a second set of eyes. Yeah, it matters for sure. And I mean, sure enough, they're catching things, right? Guys, again, that have been here 20 plus years, right? You're loading up, you get sidetracked in a conversation with, you know, one of your teammates and you grab the wrong thing. It happens, right? So if we can catch that and cut down on those mistakes, it makes a huge difference. And are most trucks laid out in the same way? So if they're looking to make sure you have rollers, they look in the same place in the truck, regardless what truck it is? Yeah, yeah. So our new construction trucks are set up a little bit differently.

23:15Everything they take out for the day is gone by the time they come the next morning. Now they have some additional parts on their trucks if something breaks on site. Some of the more frequently used items on a new construction job site, they're going to have those. But for the most part, that truck's empty when they come in the next morning. On the service side, those trucks are stocked with specific items that are needed for those types of jobs. And those trucks, like you said, are, okay, this is the space where the springs go. Here's our rollers. It's laid out to where it makes sense for that side of our business.

23:51Gotcha.

23:51Alex Bridgeman: And then in thinking about like vehicles, do you find that the, because construction, you know exactly what you're installing that day, exactly what parts there are, there's no excess. Right. So you don't need as much weight. Your vehicle is probably more efficient. Whereas thinking about a service van or service vehicle, you don't know what the issue is. You need to stock up a whole bunch of stuff. There's an HVAC friend who's done a couple podcasts talking about Ford Mavericks. in his HVAC business. Okay. And they only stock it with diagnostic like equipment and all that stuff. But that's mostly because for every job they go to, they almost always need to go back to the shop because every home has slightly different size piping or tubing or the sink is different or the toilets are different, whatever.

24:43Alex Bridgeman: And so you need enough. You just need enough to figure out what's going on and then you have to go back and get your stuff. So the Ford Maverick works. But with garage doors And I was talking to someone at breakfast this morning about this. Like there's a, there's enough standardization that it's kind of worth having everything on one vehicle. I'm trying to get a sense for like where, where our owner's philosophy is like running a service vehicle to balance, not having to go back to the shop as often while also being somewhat efficient as possible. Yeah, I mean, I think there's your standard stock that are kept on the trucks that can handle a majority of any service call we get from a broken spring to, and my door's stuck, it won't open.

25:26For the most part, we can carry that on a truck, no questions asked. We're going to have something to figure out that problem. our CSRs do a great job of trying to diagnose the problem over the phone as well so if there is something special that one of our techs may need that they don't carry on their truck every day they can take it that morning and have it ready for that specific job but our goal is to show up one time take care of the job the first time do it right and have everything that's needed for it But yeah, there's definitely standardization of the parts and pieces that are needed. And since we're, you know, newer to this home service space, one of the things, you know, that we're exploring in discovery phase right now is, you know, just the benefits of a pickup truck versus a van, right?

26:17You know, we see a lot of vans out on the road as service vehicles and there's a lot of great reasons for it. And so we're looking at, you know, pros and cons of each. And I think that'll be another step in our evolution as we grow that side of our business out is, you know, trucks versus vans. What's the initial pros cons list look like? Yeah, I mean, the pros is right. It's honestly a moving billboard, right? You've got a lot more space to - It's a sale. Yeah, just showcase your brand, your branding. It looks impressive when it shows up at a customer's house. Space and security, right? All those parts are saved inside of a van as opposed to your truck work boxes and inside the cab.

27:00Alex Bridgeman: less cluttered too from the outside. There's nothing generally. There's some stuff over the top, but not all the parts aren't exposed. Right, right. So, you know, those are some of the pros. Some of the cons, right? On a truck, you've got that rack. Let's say one of our service techs has more than one door install for the day. Well, he can load up two to three, you know, sometimes four garage doors on a rack. For a van, you lose a little bit of that, right? Right. I've seen some where they can get panels and sections inside of a van, usually on a single size door. Right. It's a little, yeah, a little tighter space, you know, so that would be one of the cons on our list, at least as to why, you know, we'd stick with trucks.

27:42Now, obviously, the solution to that is you have a mix of both. A lot of the calls we're going to aren't necessarily a change-out, as we would call it, to where they're taking their old door out, putting a new one in on the first visit. But it could turn into that. And if it does turn into that, we can logistically inside schedule one of her trucks to take that door out and install and take care of that customer that way.

28:11Alex Bridgeman: Yeah, that makes sense. I'm a big aviation geek and so I like following airlines we all know like the Southwest Airlines like everything is a 737 forever ever everyone's trained for that we have all the parts for it but a lot of other airlines like most of the airlines have all kinds of aircraft for different routes and different equipment some routes are thinner than others but you still want to service them others you could put it you know a bunch of A320s all day long I'm sure there's plenty of capacity so like there's a there's still value in having, because much standardization is like great and there's benefits to it, but there's still value in having like the specific equipment for this job or this type of service or this location that there's value there.

28:54Alex Bridgeman: Definitely value. Yeah. Because you were historically construction focused, does that mean that marketing is a fairly new muscle or was there marketing along the way? Yeah. I mean, there was, there was marketing, but it was very minimal, right? I mean, we did, you know, some fun things with the local news station of, you know, the ugliest garage door contest, right? Or viewers would send in pictures of their garage door to the local morning show, right? Nice. And then we got to choose the ugliest garage door in Sacramento. And then they did a spot on site at the homeowner's house when we changed it out and put a new one in.

29:31Like that was really fun, right? Alex literally did that. and we talked about it on our podcast.

29:35Alex Bridgeman: Okay. So again, there you go. I feel like talking to him. It works, yeah. So that was a fun one. But in terms of a marketing strategy or plan, we didn't have much, right? So it's newer in that sense. And I've really learned a lot over the past year and a half, two years, just with Elisha's been able to bring to the table with his knowledge. And then we've partnered with an outside marketing firm that's kind of helped us with our social media and some of our marketing efforts in that space. On the Google side, it's been a bit of a journey for us to get approved through that. I don't know if that's a similar story that you've heard, but for a business that's been around for 40 years, it's like pulling teeth to get Google to recognize you.

30:21So that's been a challenging one that we've been working through, but we're almost to the finish line on that. And so yeah, I would say in the last year and a half to two years, our idea of what a marketing plan or strategy is, has completely changed and has been fun to see that put into practice.

30:41Alex Bridgeman: There's horror stories of people, owners sitting there like, why is the phone not ringing? And they go to Google themselves and they're not there. And like, oh, shit. Yeah. Yeah. This is a problem. We need to fix this. And so, yeah, that's been definitely one of the biggest challenges for us in that space right now. Yeah, that's a big one. Have you played around or followed anyone who's looking at how AI is affecting searching for a business or a service provider? I just recently saw like a reel on Instagram about that. Is it Ryan out of Atlanta? It might have. Aaron, he's done, he's talked a lot about it at Torsion Talk, his podcast.

31:24Alex Bridgeman: Okay. He's talked a lot about how AI is affecting how consumers find garage door eyes. is yeah it's very interesting i mean it was a quick clip but it got me thinking like oh yeah that is something that eventually we're going to need to address because i can see how you would just go to your ai model of choice and say hey who's the best garage door company in the sacramento area give me the top three options and then okay here you go top three right and how do you end up in that client's results, right? So yeah, I don't know really anything about it, but I think that's the next level. I mean, that's the next thing Rob and I are, that's like chat.

32:09Alex Bridgeman: There's like, how does that affect how you write a website, right? How you organize your marketing and maybe even how you ask for reviews. Like there's a value to recency, like having the latest review be from like yesterday oh yeah like this week to show that your business is like an ongoing thing right i would assume ai is reading your reviews to figure out okay they haven't had a review in like four months like they may or may not be there anymore all right don't know what's going on but hey this guy was this person posted a review yesterday yeah great experience yesterday yeah no that's very interesting what are some of the growing pains in having multiple locations especially in different state.

32:55Alex Bridgeman: You got Reno and - Yeah. I mean, they all bring their unique challenges, right? The first one for us was the Bay Area. And for us, it was an opportunity with a large builder that needed some support. We felt like we could provide that support. And so we signed up for that opportunity without even having a physical location in the Bay Area to start. That's how it works. That's how it works, right? So we made it work through Sacramento a lot of hotel stays for our guys a lot of meals out but they were troopers man they made it happen and so we got our feet wet we were like you know what this is going to work for us we found a physical space down there that we could warehouse and store product we have a manager now that runs that location but just trying to understand how to make your way into a market especially in a builder from a builder's perspective and be successful right because i feel like in the builder space they either have their trade partners that they trust and if you're new to that space they don't know you from dan and a van as you put it earlier right and so that was a learning opportunity for us is to understand how that process works.

34:18And so that was definitely a challenge from the beginning with our Bay Area location. Now for Reno being in another state, that brought its own challenges, right? Licensing, insurance, everything that went into that. But we were able to navigate that with some help from a friend in Nevada that could walk us through it. We found our physical space there and were able to replicate what we did in the Bay and here in Sacramento with that same model on the new construction side. So each market has its own unique personality. The Bay Area is very different than Reno and Sacramento is unique to both of them as well.

35:01And so understanding that too, how the builders work and what the homeowners want, Bay Area, much more tech forward, right? So they're looking for the camera on their garage door opener. They're looking for the camera on their keypad to where maybe your customers in Sacramento and Reno, that's not as important to them. So it's been interesting to see how that plays out as well.

35:25Alex Bridgeman: What's been like the set of reactions for cameras on openers? Yeah, I mean, I think overall, especially for the younger generation of homeowners has been, this is great. I can check in anytime I want, especially with some of the other features like Amazon key delivery and some of the big box retailers that can deliver inside a garage. they get it. Older generations a little more hesitant to it I don't need a camera on my opener it's worked just fine for the last 30 years it does the job, I'm good right? So yeah there's some unique set of perspectives on the tech side of the garage door openers right now We've got a new house in Wilsonville and it has I don't know if it has the camera but I know it has wifi enablement Yeah.

36:21Alex Bridgeman: Which I think you can connect to Amazon and open it up. I'm curious to try at some point and figure that out. I like the idea of being able to have packages get dropped in inside the garage. We do have to lock the garage door, the actual door to the house and the man door. So we're here to figure that out. But there's nuances to it. Yeah, definitely. I know for me on my personal home, I use the app to open and close it. When I get home, I don't even have a remote, right? So I'm using the app and it's got the camera. I can see when my kids are coming and going, they're playing out front. You can check in on them if you're inside or in the backyard barbecuing.

37:01So some nice, neat little features that have come along in the last few years.

37:06Alex Bridgeman: Are you rolling out the service side across all three locations? Or are you starting in one, figure it out, and then roll out to others? Yeah, very good. Very good question. So the initial idea was to roll it out in Sacramento, fine tune it, get it to where we want it, and then take it to our other two locations, right? So we've slowly started to do that in Fremont at our Bay Area location. Reno will follow. And so the idea behind that was, hey, let's test it. Let's beat it up here in Sacramento, figure out what works, what doesn't before we go out to our other locations. And then with that, if there's opportunities to expand outside of those areas, whether Southern California or other markets, then we'll have that model, easy list model of what a service business looks like.

37:56Gotcha, gotcha.

37:58Alex Bridgeman: What have been some of the hiccups in the rollout that you've been running into? Yeah, I think the hiccups in the rollout would be the leadership structure of the home service team, right? Because when you're starting up small, it's just a couple people. But as you grow out that team and you have multiple techs in that department, you now need some type of quality control or field manager over that team while still having somebody look at the bigger ideas and bigger direction of that team. service team and where we want to take it right and so understanding that has been a bit of a challenge but we've been able to navigate it fairly well with the experience we have on the new construction side of understanding what it takes to be a good manager over a team of installing techs right so we've been able to borrow some of those things from it but tweak it to where it fits the service space.

38:58I think another challenge or hiccup in the rollout would be the pricing structure, like what we work under, right? Whether it's commission or a base pay rate hourly, we spent a lot of time on that, trying to gather as much information as we could from others and landed on a model that works for us in the stage we're in now. I think there's still room for adjustments and fine-tuning as we learn more. But that's definitely been one of those challenging areas that is much different compared to the new construction side.

39:34Alex Bridgeman: What feels like the right balance for commission and base pay at this point? Yeah, I think right now the right balance is an hourly rate that sustains a tech if they have a bad day out in the field. I still know that they're going to be taken care of and can make a living on the wage they're being given. And then the commission is just built in on top of that to where it gives them incentive to go out and have these conversations with homeowners, the customers, on educating them what they may not know about the garage door space. Our goal is definitely not to be the company that goes out there and tries to walk out of that garage with an absurd number for a spring change or telling them they need everything replaced on their garage door when they really don't.

40:28Honesty and integrity is really important to us here at Easy Lift, and so that's going to run through our home service arm that our techs are doing the right thing by the homeowner. They're bringing them information on an inspection report that tells them, hey, all these systems are working how they should, but I did notice that you know, ABC, their openers, 15 years old, it's working great, but we are, you know, running a special on belt openers right now. You know, it's up to you. I've got it with me. If not, no problem. Right. Just giving them options and letting them choose at the end of the day.

41:03It's never forced. It's a, here's what we have to offer. If you're interested, great. And I can do it today. But if not, you have our number. We've got your information. Call us back when you're ready and we'll take care of you.

41:15Alex Bridgeman: Yeah, and so much of it is just explaining what all these parts do. And like what a nicer one means, right? It means it's quieter or it connects to your phone or your car. Like, so as you drive up within 50 feet, it opens. So this is like, I think we just don't think about our garage doors that much. No, definitely not. And if we're the expert going into that, we want to provide that knowledge to the customer to where we're educating them with our visit there, right? Just like you said, if we can make that garage door open quieter and they have a bedroom above that garage and let's say it's your newborn baby's room and you're leaving early for work, yeah, you want a quiet garage door.

41:55Sleep's important. Yeah, get that sleep, right? So that's us coming in, bringing value to the customer, and then learning something new that maybe they never thought about.

42:07Alex Bridgeman: You mentioned succession planning is another part of what you're thinking about with Kevin. Talk through kind of what that looks like today and what are the next couple of years like for? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think with the succession planning, you know, Kevin's experience with his dad was very different than how it's working now. Right. When it's your dad handing it to your son, you know, it's kind of like that handshake agreement of like, all right, here you go, son. This is now yours. Take good care of it. You know, and we'll figure out the details as we go. Right. Well, in today's world, it doesn't necessarily work like that.

42:43and it needs to be thought out, right? You need to bring in a team around you of advisors that can walk you through that process. We've been blessed enough to have a great group around us, whether it's through relationships and connections that we built through the years or just referrals from others of, hey, this person knows this really well about setting up a buyout structure and what that looks like and how long it takes. And there's so many ways that you can do it. it's finding the one that fits what you want out of it the best. Kevin's been vital to this business for years. He's been a mentor to me.

43:24Again, him being my uncle and this being a family business, there's something to say about legacy, being able to pass it on to the next generation, see it succeed and to see it grow and eventually be able to pass it on to Elisha, his son coming into the business, a fourth generation that can take it to an even higher level, right? Like that's what we want for it. And so it's been really fun to see how that process works. We're still, you know, learning as we go, learning new things every day about it. But the important thing is to surround yourself with others that have been through it, that can kind of look out for everybody's best interest, right?

44:04Because at the end of the day, we all want the same thing. We want EasyLift to succeed. We want EasyLift to be something that lasts through the years and the generations and be and continue to be a great company that people want to work for. I love it.

44:20Alex Bridgeman: Josh, thank you for coming on the podcast. Yeah. I've had a ton of fun. Thank you for the invite again. This has been great. And yeah, excited to hear how this turns out. Likewise. Yes.

44:33Alex Bridgeman: Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Think Like an Owner. If you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review and telling a friend to help more folks find Think Like an Owner. For full episode transcripts in our weekly newsletter, please visit our website at tlaopodcast.com.