Episode 14 Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to Giant Stories, a podcast inspired by people and brands with meaningful stories to share. I’m John Kiker, your host and president of Medium Giant, a fully integrated creative marketing agency in Dallas and Tulsa. So while the tools we have at our disposal to create and share stories have never been more broad and varied.
The fundamentals of great storytelling remain as transcendent as ever. Despite the headwinds our industry faces, clients and brands will always covet companies that remain steadfast with a steady eye on culture and understanding of the business dynamics at hand, and a commitment to the fundamentals of what makes a great story.
So in the automotive service industry, customers have a wide array of options to decide where to get their car serviced from dealerships to mom and pops, and everything in between, including now mass retailers and even hardware stores. People can buy tires and get services in more ways than ever, but.
Who to trust and how do you choose to make sure you’re getting only what you need in getting the job done right? Well enter tire discounters, a family owned Cincinnati based tire, [00:01:00] an automotive service company on a mission to up in the category and reinstall trust as the cornerstone. Of the customer experience, well helping to lead that charge just happens to be our guest today at Tire Discounters.
Chris and Denise, senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer. Chrissy’s Journey with Tire Discounters has coincided with the company’s expansive growth now with over 200 stores and counting the tire discounters story from its humble beginnings as a single bay garage to now being the country’s eighth largest hire in automotive service company reflects the family owned, do right by the customer and have fun doing it.
Ethos that shows up wherever you see their marketing across their markets. By the way, go to Reddit, just hit tire discounters, store signs, and just, you’ll have a few laughs. And, uh, Chrissy, it actually really shows the personality of the brand, but we’ll get to that in a little bit. And Chrissy is right in the thick of that or of orchestrating all that storytelling.
So, like many Cincy based marketers, Chrissy is a proud 12 year p and g alum, having served in senior roles across brands such as Duracell and categories such as baby care. She also worked at Profeta leading work for confectionary [00:02:00] brands like Airheads and Mentos. She’s a proud alumnus of the University of Cincinnati, a force as a leader, as you’re about to find out here in a moment, and an amazing resource to find the latest and greatest restaurant to try in town.
If you aren’t in the mood for Skyline or Gold Star, which I’m not sure why you wouldn’t be, but neither here nor there, Chrissy, coming to us live from the Tiger Discounters recording studio in downtown Cincinnati. I love it that you’re in the studio because again, we’ll get to that in part of the story of the brand, but so glad to have you with us.
Absolutely. Thanks for having me, John. It’s awesome. So we always start our, uh, in full disclosure to all of our listeners, tire Discounters is a very proud client of Medium, giant, so mm-hmm. I’ll put that out there. But, so we always start this podcast by asking our guests to tell us their story, their journey.
So how did you get to where you are? Well, I guess you kind of covered some of it, uh, in the intro, but, um, for me, um, I started straight outta college, right into Proctor and Gamble. So I had a, uh, phenomenal, um, foundation, um, learning from some of the absolute best marketers, um, ab absolute [00:03:00] best agency partners like yourself and, and your peers at Medium, giant.
Um, over the years now, kind of 25 years of, of marketing later, um, I think I’ve had the opportunity to not only. Start in storytelling, but then also build that as a business woman. So, um, as I expanded across Proc, Proctor and Gamble, and then also came into Tire Discounters, now I’ve had the, um, distinct blessing of adding experience in the operations and IT, and data and analytics and a lot of the other areas that, that bring our stories to life every day with our customers.
I love it. So what was it that got you into marketing in the first place? What drew you in? Um, so I guess for me, um. I just love advertising. You know, I know that’s a, everyone seems to answer the same thing, but, um, growing up, um, I did a lot of theater. Um, a lot of music, um, a lot of kind of performance in that sense.
And, um, so you can appreciate when someone can bring a story to life and do that so beautifully and, and enthrall you and, and, [00:04:00] you know, wrap you in. And then, um, and then when I had the, the beauty of the foundation, both, um, you know, with my. Degree at the University of Cincinnati, obviously, like you said, proud bear cat, so I have to give them the love.
Um, but then coming into p and g with strategy, right? So when you marry a beautiful story with a strategic insight with a customer, um, being able to help customers understand what they, what they might. Be able to identify as a solution to their need is just super fulfilling. And then when you pet, uh, I guess kind of pair that in the last decade with a service and product industry with tire discounters, um, being able to deliver that for customers with a great physical experience in the space in addition to the products that we sell, uh, it’s just really rewarding.
Um, so yeah, I just enjoy it so. So many if, if you look around the marketing landscape, you see so many p and g alumni in very senior marketing positions, and they will all go back to say the rigor of spending time within those four [00:05:00] walls and across those brands you foundationally sets you up from a storytelling perspective.
You mentioned a little bit about strategy being pretty foundational for PG. Mm-hmm. But talk about how they developed you as a storyteller. With, with, with brands that were, you know, I mean literally globally known household brands. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, I, um, had the opportunity to be in personal healthcare to start, um, start off my career.
Um, so the Pepto Bismol business, the Metamucil business, and, um, a very unique opportunity to work on the R RX OTC switch. And it was the first switch that p and g had had the opportunity to work on with was pri sec. Hmm. And for. Many of those brands when you’re touching someone in a way where you’re improving their health or you’re allowing them to experience something more fully, um, it can sound.
Super annoying the customers to be too peachy, keen to, you know, have somebody smiling and riding a bike or whatever that looks like. Having real stories come to [00:06:00] life. We had a partnership, um, for instance on the Prilosec business, um, with the World Bunko Association. So we had actually created the first ever.
World Championship for Bunko. So I had, um, the opportunity, that was my, um, first feature on the cover of the Wall Street Journal. I thought I, that would never happen. Um, but it, it actually happened only because of creative storytelling with women gathering drinking. Eating, celebrating, socializing, and not wanting to interrupt that experience.
And then we orchestrated events, um, as well to bring them together and, and ended up with a one hour special on oxygen, uh, telling the story because it was such an engaging story and frankly, hilarious. I mean, the costumes were alone. Were, were well worth the, the event. I can only imagine. I mean, bunk, you know, bunko, more colloquial, known as Drunko, but yes.
Yeah. Yes. That I love that. You know, sometimes you can grease the skids on those good stories. Oh yeah, for sure. Absolutely. [00:07:00] Yeah. Loose lips for sure. Um, right, right. So, so, so talk about, you know, when you stepped into the role with, with tire discounters and you, I. Started to get, um, a level of appreciation for just like what this brand has organically done and become.
Mm-hmm. I think for our listeners, especially those who don’t live either, you know, in the, in the, in the Midwest or the Mid-Atlantic, where, where, where your footprint is, tell everybody about the story because it is so unique in the category. Absolutely. So next year we will be, um, celebrating our 50th, uh, anniversary for tire discounters.
So, um, the way I kind of, the story arc that I always share with everyone is obviously you start from the model T, then you end up with some gas stations, then you end up with a couple of automotive service. Uh, shops in the seventies and on down, down the line. Um, we started about that same timeframe in the seventies.
And, um, chip wood, um, decided whether he was going to, um, open a pizza shop or an automotive service shop. Those were two passions of his at the time. Um, and received a $5,000 loan from his father, bill Wood, [00:08:00] um, who had a huge impact, not only on Chip, but on many, many, um, of the, our, my fellow co, um, colleagues with.
Tire discounters, um, where they started, um, with a one day shop, couldn’t even pull those big old Buicks Lincolns into the bay. Um, they had to do the services outside on the concrete pad, um, and really just started out hustling every competitor. So, um, we obviously have tire discounters. It’s kind of sounds like a bigger name.
Um, as opposed to it being Chips, automotive service, um, we really wanted to make sure that we justified, um, and reinforced the story with customers that we are a quality outfit, um, to work with. And as we expanded, um, not only to the second store, all the way to, you know, obviously 200 plus now, um, we’ve really stayed focused on making sure we’re out hustling, um, we are out, um, performing our competition and then focusing on our points of difference.
So in. 1997. So obviously fast forwarding [00:09:00] a few years, um, chip, um, really was, um, competing and doing very well with, uh, within the Cincinnati market, also in the Dayton market and in the Columbus market in the, in the state of Ohio. Uh, but was looking for an opportunity to really prove to customers that he.
That he was caring for them, that he really wanted to maximize the value of their tire purchase. And so he went out and purchased alignment machines and started providing a free alignment with a set of four tires. And what’s really interesting as a, um, more technically on that front is that when you purchase a set of four tires inside the fine print of that warranty, you have to maintain your car in alignment, otherwise avoids the warranty.
And so for him, he felt like it was very few people know that the Absolutely, yeah. Can’t believe the average, average. Joe isn’t reading the fine lines, obviously, of the warranty. Um, but that is something that was really important to him to make sure that individuals were not losing value [00:10:00] with something that he provided, whether it be a service, a product, things along those lines.
So, um, so we became known as the home of the Free Alignment, um, and have been obviously for many decades now. Um, we have since added a lot of other freebies, free rotation. Free. Um, balancing. We do road force balancing. We now have added a free oil change with a set of four tires, a variety of different other services, um, so that we can continue to reinforce with customers that we are in it for the long haul.
We know this is a complicated category and it’s important to make sure that. We are not just providing a set of wiper blades today or an oil change tomorrow, but we are your partner, um, to be able to keep your car safe on the road. And that’s something I think, unique to a family owned and operated environment.
I think that’s something that’s unique, um, to an ownership, um, structure and, um, patriarch of our legacy that we all live that. We’re making the hard [00:11:00] choices. Right. He POed up the dollars for the very expensive alignment rack. Right, right. And, and because it was the right thing to do. So we have, we have a mantra, we have an ethos as an organization that we live out in what we do every day in addition to our communication, obviously.
Um, as we partner, uh, partner with. With you at Medium Giant is how do we continue to bring that story forward so that we are not compared with the likes of the Walmarts of the world or, um, a lot of the other competitors that that may just strictly. Be delivering a price solution. Mm-hmm. But they’re not a partner in ensuring that you are safe.
Um, we are in a transportation space. We keep EMS trucks on the road in the same way we keep a, you know, Honda Civic on the road that has a car seat in the backseat. And so we take that in incredibly seriously. And, um, and it goes all the way back, um, to those early stories of, uh, of chip with, uh, with his $5,000 loan from his dad.
I love it. Yeah, so, [00:12:00] so how do you, because when it comes to how do you express the story, you could take a serious tone. You could even take a very soft. Bordering on cheesy tone, but Right. That’s, but that’s not, that’s not us. Yeah. No, no. That is not the route that you’ve taken. So, so, so talk about this great sort of semi self-effacing sense of, um, healthy I reverence that you guys have No, that’s perfect.
Have, have owned, well, um, probably, um, about five or 10 years in, um, the. Exclusive advertising that Tire Discounters had been doing was Yellow Pages. Obviously, if we all remember, um, whether we’re using it as a, um, as a booster seat or whether we were using it for its core purpose. Um, being able to have full page ads, half page ads, things along those lines.
It was a little bit more, um, promotion, um, centric early on. Um. That wasn’t Chip’s personality. That wasn’t, um, frankly, um, Chris and Janet, his brother and sister that came into the business, or Jamie Ward, are now CEO, um, who [00:13:00] also started in the business in the early days as well. Um, there was so much realness, um, to how our organization and how we chose to staff our business, um, that just the smell of the place was very different.
The best example that I can provide as well is that, um, I think, um, early on when we had our first changeable copy sign, um, that we, that you mentioned earlier, um, and that’s the kind of marquee, um, we call it our changeable copy signs, but they’re kind of a marquee. Some people use that terminology as well.
Um. Chip went to Chris and said, Hey Chris, will you, um, change the sign out there? You know, just come up with something. Well, Chris put up on the sign, boss said to change sign. And the calls the store received people pulling in and driving in because they thought it was hilarious. Um, was a very different tenor and it was a lightning, um, bolt for chip because.
You realize often people are [00:14:00] coming in with a flat tire. They’re coming in with, I need breaks. And that’s not a, that’s not a glamorous, sexy purchase, right? Right. It often is a grudge purchase or it’s a need. Um, and so you’re not necessarily celebrating it, or it’s not always the most rewarding experience in some cases, and in our experience, when we.
When we have folks coming in, chuckling, walking in the door because of something they saw, um, or something they heard on the radio as we evolved, um, to other mediums over time, um, we have intentionally, um, had a very raw realness in our communications so that the takeaway from customers. Is that this is not a company, a corporation.
This is a, this is a group of people, a group of humans, a group of highly capable experts in the automotive service space. So, we’ll, sometimes we’ll make nerdy jokes about breaks and about fluids and, and tire treads and, and the like as well. Um, but sometimes we’re just. Joking around about politics, frankly, or we’ll joke around about, um, various [00:15:00] different topics.
Sometimes, you know, we stay away from the touchy areas or some books, but, um, but we’ll joke, we’ll joke around about a lot of different things and just have fun with it. And that’s, like you said, Reddit is, uh, um, almost a book. Um, it’s a treasure trip. Itemizing. Yeah. All of the fun signs that we’ve had over the years.
Um. One of the other fun signs that as you talk about stories, that is one of my favorites for the changeable copy sign. Um, quite a few years ago, maybe five, eight years ago now, um, Kim Kardashian, if you remember was but Na ga Naked on the internet and slathered in baby Oil and um, broke the internet.
Right, right. Well, we put up a changeable copy sign that says, Kim, that’s not how you use oil. Oh my God. And it blew up that we ended up with all these hilarious. Creative responses, um, from customers where they’re just engaging with us in a different way. It’s still, it still shows that we have a sense of humor.
Maybe you might wanna just come in and hang with us, and if you need, uh, a basic service, then [00:16:00] you don’t expect that it’s gonna be so grudgey. Um, yeah. I always try to tell people who, who, you know, haven’t been in a market where you guys have a presence. You know, the, the, the famous restaurant here in Texas, Royo, who has an amazing array of signs, like they have volumes of like their best hits.
They’ll like, they’re the royo of car service. Yeah. It’s amazing. Yeah. How they, how they come up with all their theming, but Right. What. What I love about it though is, is that it, you know, it’s a, it’s a fun way to engage. It’s like genuinely the personality of the company. It’s not being performative, but when it comes in, talk about that, how, how that, that ethos translates to when somebody gets into the store.
Because the story of tire discounters is really. What happens when you get to the store and absolutely the fundamental beliefs of, of driving a positive, memorable experience. So talk about how, how that sort of dovetails into what somebody gets in the store. Yeah. Well, and some of it’s a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy because when, when you have a very clear public tone, [00:17:00] um, that is very approachable, very real, um, very fun, frankly, um, and humorous.
It tends to attract the right people, right? Mm-hmm. You know, so from a, from an employment perspective and the types of individuals that seek out careers at higher discounters versus maybe some of our competitors or other industry sectors, um, they’re looking for a place where, you know, if you’re gonna spend 8, 10, 12 hours a day, depending on a long day change in tires or fix, fix and flats, it’s really important that you feel like you are in your.
Your space, you are with your people. And so what we have found is, is that it, it kind of provides a little bit of a lens for the type of folks that, that it recruits. And then when you come onto the counter, I mean, frankly, um, we’re laughing all the time. All the time, which is awesome. And it can tend, tend to diffuse as well.
Sometimes the stressors. So, you know, if um, one of my daughters is stuck, you know, at [00:18:00] school and I get a flat and I can’t get to go pick her up on time, I’m harried. Right. You know, so when I’m walking into the shop, having somebody who can greet you in a very real human way, both empathetic as well as um, maybe help.
Helpful or um, humorous. Um, all of those types of approaches are how we train our staff. You connect with people as people first, um, not just like, just as customers, if that makes sense. And then, um, we have policies like our 101 little things and a variety of different ways that, um, that we make sure. That, that our, um, customers understand how seriously we take their safety, um, as well as their time.
So, you know, you’ll go into a tire discounters and pretty rarely, unless somebody you know is, is overcoming a, an illness or something, you will rarely find a seat or a bar stool, um, for any of our employees because. They’re hustling, right? They’re, they’re making sure that they’re moving, [00:19:00] um, at the speed that our customers need us to move, um, to be able to meet their needs because they need to be somewhere.
Um, and that’s one, one small, 100, one little thing, um, that we do to make sure that we are. Signaling, um, that we respect their time, um, that we understand, um, that what they’re looking for in this experience is, is something we would want. Right? Would that, would we do this for our mom? Would we do this for our daughter?
Would we do this for our brother? Um, if it doesn’t meet that simple criteria, then we are not working hard enough yet, or we are not being empathetic enough to their needs. Um, that’s kind of the overarching guideline. Love it. Mm-hmm. So, as. Marketing for Tire discounters started to expand beyond Yellow Pages, even beyond the changeable copy signs.
Obviously radio was a real cornerstone for you guys, and you’re, you’re sitting in, uh, the, the, the in-house recording studio because Absolutely. Yeah. You never know when a new opportunity is gonna come up and you gotta record something on the fly. But talk about, yeah. [00:20:00] Storytelling through Radio four tire discounters and the equity.
You’ve built a lot of equity in Cincinnati, but over time we have to make sure, like how do we think about that? How that equity starts to pay off in new markets? Mm-hmm. So talk about the, how radio has evolved for you guys. Yeah. Um, I would say, um, kind of, it all happened in different times as it was built upon, but we have three core components of our equity in the audio space.
One is in our jingle. Um, that’s, uh, obviously it was a little bit more common in the eighties, a couple of other eras. Um, but, um, we were no exception. So, um, the tire discounters jingle, um, is one that. Often in any one of our markets, even outside of this insane market, especially as we’ve expanded to Nashville and into Atlanta and, and Indianapolis and you name it.
Um. We hear children singing the tire discounters jingle when they drive past our store. So we have earworm audio equity, if that makes sense there. Yeah. Um, we also have storytelling equity, so we [00:21:00] have, um, over the years, um, had some pretty longstanding partnerships in the radio space. Obviously it’s much more fragmented now than it was, um, 40 years ago when it started.
Uh, but. It was a little more like a short form novella, um, where it would be 62nd, in some case, two minute spots, um, where it was an you don’t hear too many two minute spots anymore. Right, right. You know, and it’s an entire short form story. Right. And we, we created characters like Jebediah, wood chip’s, great-great-grandfather who, um, you know, aligned horseshoes on a horse, you know, and passed it down to, to chip.
And so there were a lot of backstories, um, a lot of fun characters. So, um, Mike, um, on the Counter has, is a pretty well known character, um, that, um, I either. The Phantom interacts with, or members of the wood family or other, um, customers in our, in our work. Um, and the, the primary focus was to [00:22:00] entertain so much that people didn’t even realize they were listening, um, to a radio or to a radio commercial.
That way they kind of by accident realized we had a promotion going on that weekend for Memorial Day, or they by accident, um, realize that they were recalling that we’re the home of the free alignment. Um, something distinct and unique and different, um, versus our competition or, or any other industry. So let’s talk about your competition.
I’m gonna call out one that again, people who don’t know tire discounters are probably saying well. Wait a minute, because there’s a, there’s a competitor with the exact opposite, um, sequence of, of the words, and so, right. Talk about your guys’. I mean, obviously, um, in your ca uh, strong competitor mm-hmm.
Huge, huge national footprint. How do you, how do you, um. Navigate that, I guess for lack of a better ’cause. I think that’s a really interesting marketing question. It’s interesting for a lot of storytellers out there. Right, right. Well, and, and obviously, um, discount Tire, [00:23:00] obviously who you’re referring to, um, started further in the West.
Um, yeah, we obviously started in Cincinnati market. Um, we have, um, been in similar markets, um, now obviously as we’re all expanding and, and serving customers. Um. Yes, that’s a perfect example of where our story becomes really, really important. Um, because we are family owned and operated, because our proposition is very different.
We do all factory scheduled maintenance services. Um, discount tires a fantastic, um, business. Um, but they do. Tires, um, and a couple of related services. Um, so it is a little bit more challenging for our customers in our areas that are used to our service, where they’re used to being able to go to one location and it’s a one stop shop.
Um, we also, um, have out the door with more, uh, which is a program that we’ve had for, um, again, 40 plus years as a part of innovating. Innovating to make sure that we are meeting the needs of the customer where we. We do all inclusive packages so that way you’re not getting nickel and [00:24:00] dimmed with all the extra things that you need.
Um, we provide all inclusive, everything’s included pricing. Um, when someone calls in and that allows for them to understand what does this mean for me? If I have TPMS sensors, what does this mean for me? If I need a valve core replacement, or things they may not know they even should ask about, right?
Mm-hmm. Um, packaging that together, showing our expertise in the automotive space and being able to provide that. Those are some of the differences that sometimes, um, the simplicity of our name doesn’t necessarily always communicate. But I think it’s, it’s sort of within that concept of out the door with more and all of the different stories that that can come out of that, about like making people realize.
What you need to have done in order to be in, um, in, uh, to, to be, uh, not in, in a violation of your warranty or in order to, um, include all these different services that people don’t know they need. That if you might get offered at a, at a competitor that are [00:25:00] just gonna be add on, add on, add-on, talk about.
Mm-hmm. I, I think that that’s a really rich space for, for storytelling because I think it’s. It’s a, it’s a way to, to jab at your competition without being super overt about any specific competitor. Right. And what makes you guys unique in how, how you believe those customer experiences should, should evolve.
Right. And, and honestly, you know, we are, we’re not doing it from a competitive. Perspective, we’re doing it based off of what’s right for customers. Right? Right. And so often, you know, other types of, um, programs, so you can pull up to the first bay, um, of any one of our tire discounters businesses and um, someone will come up and fill up all of your tires.
You don’t have to get out. It could be pouring rain and zero cost always. Every day. Um, you don’t have to juggle the quarters at the gas station or that type of thing. So, you know, there’s that program. There’s a, if you spend $25 with us in any one given year, you get a free tow for that entire year. So you don’t need roadside assistance with someone else.
So you [00:26:00] could come in for one oil change a year, um, and perpetually you would have our roadside assistance program. Um, those are the types of things that they kind of seem to maybe fall under the radar, um, where it isn’t always intuitive when you’re looking at a tire discounters brand name, uh, how much value, how much absurd value, frankly, um, with.
All of the various different packages and programs, um, that we have for services like brakes or like steering and suspension, um, also our quality products. Um, we have had, um, Chris Wood, who is our um, uh, kind of head of, um, procurement for many, many years. Um, he’s, uh, Chip’s brother. Um, and obviously there are two peas in a pod.
He had. Absolute set the ground framework for making sure that we were sourcing the absolute best tires, the absolute best quality parts, um, for our services to make sure that, um, we were doing it as a business to make sure that there was no reason a customer would ever need to come back to us because there was an issue.
Um, we [00:27:00] wanted to make sure that they were having an incredible experience that was simple and clear, um, and one that they wanted to come back, um, because it was so easy. For sure. So I wanna talk for a second about, um, the role of technology, both in storytelling, but also with your company because there’s actually really nice correlation.
One of the things that I think surprised us as an agency when we were starting to, to work with your business was just the, the breadth of testing and learning and the breadth of innovation that’s happening within the service experience. But how that’s starting to also translate and move over into the marketing and the customer interaction.
As well. Yes, absolutely. Um, yes, we’ve, we’ve innovated an ab tested galore, um, over the years. Um, it’s nice to have organizationally an ethos of, um. Being willing to try anything, um, whether it’s at an individual store, and sometimes it’ll work and sometimes it won’t. Right. And we get ideas from every single person in our business, whether [00:28:00] it’s a tire technician at a location, a general manager, or someone centrally, um, within our home offices.
Um, we have, um, innovation, um, in, for instance, TDEV. Obviously is one of our Yeah. Talk about that. Concepts in the Cincinnati market, um, where we are providing additional services than what is even at a normal, traditional tire discounters. Um, where we can optimize a battery, we can replace a full, um, EV or plugin battery.
Um, there’s a lot of opportunity, um, to make sure that we can meet our customer’s needs where it’s a very confusing space, um, for customers, um, today. So those are, that’s a good example of technology even in a vehicle that then begs a need for services and, um, service offerings. Yeah. Tell everybody about that particular story.
’cause I think it’s a great way of. You know, it, it’s almost like, do I need a new tire? Do I have to repair a tire? It’s like, well, okay, if I need a new ev, I mean, you’re talking or a, a a, a new battery. I mean, you’re talking many, many, many thousands of [00:29:00] dollars to have to repair something. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
So, so, so talk about the alternative that you guys provide for, you know, 300 and change or whatever that price is right now. Mm-hmm. Yep. So, um, so the average vehicle, so if you purchase straight off the line, um, a standard plugin, um, electric vehicle, average vehicle, that battery will last around seven, eight years on average.
Obviously it varies, um, for usage and things along those lines, but if you need to replace the full battery pack, um, that can range anywhere from $8,000 to $20,000 to replace the battery. Well, at that point, you’re almost replacing the whole car, right? When you think about it from a valuation perspective.
Um. For us, we really looked at opportunities to understand if we could service the battery both safely for our employees as well as, um, provide that service for our customers. So like you mentioned, um, for, um, 2 99 or $300, obviously as a service, um, we will optimize and rebalance. So the way to think about, um.
A, uh, plugin battery is, it, um, [00:30:00] is kind of equivalent to thinking about a bunch of AA batteries all duct taped together. Not really, obviously much more sophisticated than that, but it’s the easiest, uh, easiest analogy, um, you can rebalance, um, so that you can replace singular cells. Um, to be able to optimize and get your range back to normal levels.
And that is a, um, wonderful service that yes, we needed to, um, add, um, additional, um, certifications and exposure for many of our technicians that obviously work at the um, TDV store. Um, but expanding it to level one, level three or level two and level three, um, servicing, which includes. Up to full battery pack replace if we need to.
Um, allows for customers to be able to come to a shop where there are experts for hybrid and plug-in vehicles. Often individuals are bringing their vehicles into a shop where they are predominantly combustion engine, um, mechanics. And they may be dabbling [00:31:00] a little in those spaces, but. But frankly, one of the things that we take very seriously is that when you are working on a primary, um, battery for a plugin vehicle that’s high voltage, right?
So it’s more akin to high voltage, um, servicers of power lines as you think about that. So the servicing and the training. Um, is really critical to make sure that, um, we expanded those services to meet the customer’s needs really safely. Um, and we are incredibly proud, like you said, that that team is incredible and we’re excited to expand that concept.
Um, outside of the, um, the kind of the first store that we have here in Cincinnati, I. Love it. Yeah. Well, an amazing story with tire discounters. I wanna ask a couple questions just sort of getting, getting a little bit more macro. So you’ve been in, in the marketing field for, for a long time and um, you know, I think stories, like I said, storytelling now is more fragmented and multi multilayered than it’s ever been.
But talk about the stories, the kinds of stories that you’re seeing out there that are really resonating with [00:32:00] you. Um, I guess it’s, I’m so focused in the automotive sector, so I’ll use those examples. Right now, what we find most interesting are the, the real everyday stories that are happening in our stores.
So, um, we constantly are cycling that through. Um, it. It might seem in a simple community management space. Mm-hmm. Um, but for us, that’s where we’re finding all of the nuggets of our stories, um, where customers are telling us what it means to them, um, to be able to get them where they need to go or what it means to them when they’re terrified.
Changing a tire on the side of an interstate and people are flying by at 80 miles per per hour, um, and they’re in their pumps trying to change a tire. Um, I would say. The types of stories we hear on a regular basis of what does transportation mean, uh, for them in their lives, and what does it mean when we help them, um, safely and consistently, um, [00:33:00] you know, deli or deliver that experience.
Okay, love it. Um. What would you say? Um, so thinking about the, thinking about the automotive category, uh, in the years ahead, obviously ev a lot more automated features and things like this, but from a, from a marketing and a storytelling perspective, I think what’s interesting about tire discounters that is that, as I said in my intro, like there, there are fundamentals that are fairly.
Um, you know, that, that are, are steadfast and, and really don’t, don’t go away. So what makes you most bullish about tire discounters moving forward in such a highly competitive, um, fragmented market and a highly evolving market as well? Oh, absolutely. Um, well, I know it might sound kind of kitschy, but um, a lot of times we always say it’s our people and that’s what helps.
I really think that’s what’s most true about tire discounts. ’cause we approach the industry differently. We approach the work differently and we have a really, really high risk profile. So when you have that potential and you’re [00:34:00] willing, um, to go big or go home, so to speak, um, I’m very, very bullish. Um, I also think, um, there’s so much technology and innovation happening right now that will allow, um, for individuals to, um, shop differently and shop mm-hmm.
Even more robustly in the category. Um, simple things like the latest Apple update in the camera, where now, um, you can take a picture and, um, maybe it’ll tell you where to purchase those wheels. Right, right in front of you. And right now that exists in the spaces that are contained within apps like Pinterest and things along those lines.
But when it starts to become very ubiquitous in your everyday life, those utility elements, um, become a little bit easier. Um, so I’m really, really excited to see how services will change and we’ll continue to expand on those service vectors. Um, but I’m also excited for how we can make this easier.
Automotive service is just hard. You know, people don’t get as excited [00:35:00] about going in and sitting and waiting for an oil change or something along those lines. Being able to provide solutions that make that experience more valuable, easier, simpler, quicker, all those different, um, types of benefits, um, that’s why I’m feeling quite bullish, uh, about our success.
Well, and I think the, the, the magic for you for, for, for tire discounters is gonna be how do you not lose that sense of. Irreverence, fun engagement. Yep. Um, through increasingly digital, less human channels, right? Like how do you maintain your humanity through those channels? And so. How you show up on the website, how, you know, um, a chatbot comes across in a, in a less robotic way.
In a more like, okay, this is authentic. Like this sounds like somebody from the company is, is really interact with me, I think is gonna be where you guys can win. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it’s also being choiceful, right? Yeah. Because, um, you know, like you use the example in chatbots that, you know, we’re, we’re not going there until.
Who knows when that would ever be [00:36:00] until after we know it’s replicating the human. Um, you know, it might be a assisting or, um, making sure that all relevant information is present. Um, but that experience of making sure that we’ve got the human touch present, um, and that that’s fueling. All those prompts and, and all, all the, like, that’s, that’s where we’re being really intentional.
And obviously your team’s been incredible partners, um, as we identify ways to actually use that to drive controls, right? Yeah. To make sure we preserve our tone despite the scale, um, of what we wanna continue to, um, maintain with regards to growth rates. I think that’s, that’s a, just a really exciting space to be, uh, where it can be even richer and bring, um, even greater depth.
Um, to our story and our tone, um, but then do it in a way where it just still is just as human as it was. Same one. Exactly. Yeah. Training the algorithm is, has been a lot of fun, that’s for sure. Yeah. Agreed, agreed. Well, Chrisy, thank you so much for this, for, for spending time. It’s an amazing story for this brand.
We’re [00:37:00] super excited for, um, you sharing your story and perspective on storytelling and, uh, this has been a lot of fun. So appreciate your timely. Absolutely. Thank you, John. Yeah, thanks Chris. All right. He is gonna check the download and then.
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