The Future of Laundromats: AI Innovations with Rick Rome

Jordan Berry [00:00:00]:
Hey. Hey. What’s up, guys? It’s Jordan with the Laundromat Resource Podcast. This is show one ninety six, and I’m pumped you’re here today because today, we’re getting futuristic here. And it’s not that we’re actually getting futuristic. It’s that the future is now. And we’ve got former guest, awesome personality, in this industry, Rig Roam, on the show to talk about the future of laundromats. We’re talking AI and how AI is revolutionizing things for our non traditionally non tech savvy industry that we have here.

Jordan Berry [00:00:36]:
Guess what? We’re not gonna be non tech savvy for long. Listen. Awesome, awesome conversation where you’re gonna get a chance to hear a little bit more about how AI is impacting our industry, where, Rick and I think that we’re heading going forward, and how you can jump on that bandwagon now. And I want to just say this right up front. We’re actually gonna be Rick and I are gonna jump on a live sort of q and a slash demonstration, if you wanna see how some of this AI stuff’s working in reality. We’re gonna do a q and a slash a discussion on all of this, on Thursday, June 12, I believe. Yeah. Thursday, June 12.

Jordan Berry [00:01:17]:
That’s ’20 ’20 ‘5, if you’re listening to this way in the future. Thursday, June 12. I have a link to that if you wanna make sure you’re on board with that, down in the description or in the show notes page, which is at lawnmowerresource.com/show190six. Or you can also check out the events page, lawnmowerresource.com/events, and it should be over there as well. So make sure you don’t miss out on that one. That is going to be an insane, incredible discussion. And I hoping and I’m thinking that it’s going to get your creative juices flowing and get us all thinking where we heading as an industry and how is that specifically going to impact your business to put more money in your pockets, help you achieve your goals? Alright. No more further ado.

Jordan Berry [00:02:02]:
Okay. We got to get into it with Rick here. Super fun episode. We always have a good time together, but also, very informative. So let’s jump in with Rick. And don’t forget, June 12, we’re doing our Q and A, slash discussion, around AI and laundromat. So make sure you join us for that. Mark your calendar now.

Jordan Berry [00:02:25]:
Get over there and get the links and all that for it. Alright. Alright. Let’s jump into it.

Jordan Berry [00:02:30]:
A man who needs no introduction, but listen, we gotta introduce you anyways. But, hey, real quick. Before you tell us a little bit about you and how great you are, I know that’s like, your favorite thing to do is tell us all how great you are. Just kidding. You are great. But, little known fact that a lot of people don’t know is that you and I actually had our own podcast, Laundry Shop Talk, for, like, a long time there for a while. So there’s there’s still episodes of that Laundry Shop Talk floating around out there. I think you can probably find

Rick Rome [00:03:04]:
on the Internet. I’ve been told about that, man. That’s that’s who we were just just cranking these shows out and helping everybody out and giving feedback and ideas. It was yeah. That was awesome. We would we’d Yeah. A lot of shows.

Jordan Berry [00:03:16]:
It was a lot of fun. A lot of shows. I know. That was awesome.

Rick Rome [00:03:19]:
Bites back together. Bands

Jordan Berry [00:03:20]:
back together. The band’s it’s been too long, man. I’ve missed you. I’m glad you’re here. Okay. So tell us a little bit about you and maybe, like, some things about you in this industry, how you got in the industry. Do a quick overview of that.

Jordan Berry [00:03:34]:
Sure. Sure.

Rick Rome [00:03:36]:
Well, I started this space in 02/2010, and, I had one of the largest, self serve and, drop off laundry service. This was pre pre pre pickup and delivery. And, what I didn’t like about my business at the time was that it was it’s kind of an annuity. Annuities are nice. Don’t get me wrong. But it was the only way you can really grow is through, incremental growth, AKA raising your prices, which is good too. But you also want a healthy balance of incremental growth and organic growth, AKA new customers. Living in living you know, being that my laundry is in Brooklyn, not a lot of space left to build there.

Rick Rome [00:04:21]:
So, you know, it was kind of, like I said, an annuity. I had moved to an area of Brooklyn that was got got rezoned for development, residential development, and they started building sky you know, you know, multistory apartment buildings all over the place. I figured, hell, I start here every day. I finish here every day. Some luxury buildings. I said, yeah. I’m just gonna drive by and and and ask the doorman, you know, here’s my car. Here’s some bags.

Rick Rome [00:04:51]:
Somebody has an order. Call me. I’ll come and grab it. That was with my Honda CR V. I would I would do that. And, fast forward about probably took about three years, but fast forward to today to make it, seem like a whopper. 23 trucks processed close to 20 to 25,000 a day in laundry. I have over a hundred thousand residential customers.

Rick Rome [00:05:19]:
I have, thousands upon thousands of what I call local customers, none or what I call mini institutions, you know, nurse, hair salons, gyms, doctors’ offices, Airbnb folks, things like that. And, I worked because of because I grew in New York being such a great hub for multinational corporations, I grew what I call what I call now the wash club laundry network, which allows anybody to it’s free to join and be on the network, which allows me to, give out free business, while servicing my my bigger clients, you know, whether that be Bank of America or Amazon or, Rumble Fitness, boxing, house salons, you know, all sorts of stuff, which has been fantastic. And and the growth has been amazing. I’ve I’ve I I’m blessed. I’m lucky. I I always say I have a horseshoe in my ass. I’m just, you know, I just hustle, and that’s what I do. And, you know, I’m trying to help everybody help everybody reach and ascertain the same levels that I have, which is always doable.

Rick Rome [00:06:34]:
High tide raises all boats. I’m I’m a believer in this.

Jordan Berry [00:06:39]:
Yeah. And and if, listen, you’ve gotta go back. If you’ve not done this yet, you’ve gotta go back and listen to the first time Rick was on the show and hear the full story. And I just wanna I just wanna clarify because I think maybe some people think maybe they heard wrong. But did you say that you do 20 to 25,000 pounds a day of pickup and delivery? I do. Day. I do. A day.

Jordan Berry [00:07:03]:
I think there’s a lot of people listening that would give their left arm to do that much in a month. So impressive, dude. And, again, like, go back. We go into a lot of detail on that in some of the past interviews. And if you can dig up those laundry shop top, episodes, there’s a bunch of good stuff on there too. But listen, I mean, like, one of the things I love about you, number one, is, like, I I see you and I hear you giving business to people all the time, like, helping other owners out, you know, with your knowledge and your wisdom, but literally giving them business from some of the clients like you mentioned, which I think is awesome, by the way. I don’t see anybody else ever doing that.

Rick Rome [00:07:42]:
Millions of dollars in some cases for some people. Yeah. So No no doubt. You know, I I there’s a there’s a laundry in in Florida, company I’ve been working with for years. I’ve I just looked. I’ve given them over $3,000,000 of of revenue. Now that’s not all profit, of course. That’s up to them on how they pay their people and what they do.

Rick Rome [00:08:05]:
But $3,000,000 of unfound business that they never ever ever woulda had, and I’m proud of that. I’m very proud of that. I I it it it it it changes people’s lives, frankly, and and it’s great. And I and that’s what that’s not why we’re in business, to improve on our lives, make life better. Right? So Yeah. So I I

Jordan Berry [00:08:24]:
just wanted to point that out because, number one, thank you for doing what you do for the industry. A lot of different ways is not the only thing that you do to contribute. So thank you for all that. But listen, Rick’s a guy you gotta you gotta know. You wanna know him. So make sure you reach out to Rick and and, and get to know him. Please. Okay.

Jordan Berry [00:08:40]:
The other theme that, I think is true of you and, you know, what blew me away was, like, a lot of the different you know, you’re like, oh, you know, I’m just lucky and all this stuff. Well, no. Go back and listen to that first one. You know that you’re not lucky. You know what you’re doing and you’re hustling over there, and you’ve learned a lot. But one of the themes of you, I think, is that you’re kind of on the cutting edge of a lot of this industry. Like, some of the marketing stuff we talked about still sticks with me today. I still refer people to that talk when we were talking about marketing, on that episode.

Jordan Berry [00:09:15]:
You know, obviously, like, the pickup and delivery stuff, you were on the cutting edge of that. And not only that, but you blew it up and you’re still kinda on the cutting edge. And, you know, now I mean, listen, the world’s changing. Our industry is changing faster than ever. And, again, here I you’re here right now because we’re gonna talk about some more cutting edge stuff with AI and laundromat. So, dude, how do you stay on the cutting edge? That’s what I wanna know.

Rick Rome [00:09:40]:
Well, you know, first of all, thank you for all the very nice words. And and, hey, Brian Wallace. I told you pickup and delivery would be a big success. So, anyway, with that being said, I just constantly look for better ways to optimize, in this case, my business originally. Right? So, you know, I feel like what’s good for the goose is good for the gander at the end of the day. I I certainly don’t know everything, but I do know enough that if you put that together and you can maybe learn a couple other valuable insights from some other people or yourself, frankly, right, that works for you and how you operate your business, then you’re gonna have a winning ticket all day, all night. That’s how I view it. So what what I what I royally and and, you know, hey, I’m raising my hand right now.

Rick Rome [00:10:27]:
I royally screwed up, when it came to customer service back in the day. Okay? Royally screwed it up. I I I laughed at at at, Yelp. I didn’t give a crap about Google reviews. None of that. I was like, pss. Well, it would no. Well, I’m raising my hand.

Rick Rome [00:10:47]:
I was 100% wrong. Dead wrong. Okay? And so for honestly, for the last four years, I have been trying to reverse my stupidity. Okay? Not always great at it. Sometimes slower moving, so on and so forth. But nonetheless, I have now been able to reverse the course. I’ll never be five stars. I I I think I’m at just below a four star.

Rick Rome [00:11:18]:
You know, I’ve asked for referrals or recommendation, you know, all those things. I’m doing all the things. But what I’ve learned now in today’s society is those things are nice, but what customers care the most about are speed. Right? Speed, convenience, service. So when you have someone who you’re paying hourly, yes, you could get a diamond in the rough, but like you, I have turnover. I’ll be honest with you. I’m actually pretty low. I I I’m very good with my staff, in my opinion.

Rick Rome [00:11:50]:
But generally speaking, when you pay people hourly, the the the it’s hard to keep people. And when you have to retrain people every three, six, nine months on the basics, And the basics are how to use the POS, how do you do a pickup order, how do you do a drop off order, how do you even start the machines, how do you stop the machines, what are the machines cost. Right? I mean, cleaning the place, you know, saying hi to the customers when they walk in, cleaning the bathroom, so on. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. So what I try to do now or actually, not try. What I’m actually doing now is I am reducing the, stress levels of my staff, of my hourly employee staff. And I have a longer duration of of hiring, meaning people work longer for me because I’m making it I’m making their life better at work. Okay? And I agree that you pay someone to work ten hours, they should work ten hours, and they shouldn’t complain and so on and so forth.

Rick Rome [00:12:50]:
But, guys, that’s just not the reality. People need breaks. People quit because they get, browbeat by some angry customer over 25¢, so on and so forth. So what I’ve done is I’ve included, and built out a company called the Savants, which is what we call our AI employee. The female is Bella, and the male is Jack. And it’s been nothing short of amazing. I mean and it’s only gonna get better. And so I used to spend about $6,000 a month.

Rick Rome [00:13:27]:
I told you I wasn’t screwing around when I was trying to improve on my customer service, and I have now cut that in half. And because I’m in pickup and delivery, predominantly, there’s a lot of complex questions that come about. But Bella, has done a phenomenal job answering those questions, and we’re using technology. So in short, a % of phone calls are all answered, 92 plus percent are are resolved without human interaction. I could text, email. I could it speaks 20 different languages, and it only cost me about 30¢ an hour. Okay? So if if you don’t think that that’s not worth it, paying someone $15, 20 dollars, whatever it is an hour, let’s just use 20 because it’s generally what it is around the country plus social charges and all those other things. If you don’t think that that $20 an hour person doesn’t deserve call an assistant, whatever you wanna call it, or your business doesn’t, you don’t think your business needs it, or it’s a it’s an abundance abundant waste of of money, I think you’re absolutely crazy.

Rick Rome [00:14:43]:
You’re not spending your time focused on what you really need to focus on, which is growing your business, improving your customer relations because your best customers are your existing customer. Hands down. Don’t need new ones if you got great if you got great ones because they’ll spend more because you’re offering more and they trust you, and you build that level of trust. So when you raise your machine prices, they’re happy to pay it because the place is cleaner all the time. When you walk in, they say hello to you. It feels like you’re at Cheers. Right? Hey, Norm. How are you doing? Right? It’s Mhmm.

Rick Rome [00:15:14]:
It’s it’s it’s like that. So AI has been phenomenal, and the improvements that are continuously coming and it’s machine learning, lights out. Lights out.

Jordan Berry [00:15:25]:
Dude. Okay. So, I mean, just a lot a lot to unpack there. So, are so you’re using AI with your stuff right now. Is that right?

Rick Rome [00:15:33]:
I use it now, and I’ve also, incorporated with curbside’s POS pickup and delivery. In fact, Jordan, if you’re an existing customer and you’re on the curbside platform and you call in for an order, the human doesn’t have to touch anything. Bella will take it all, place it into their POS, you know, their their pickup and delivery system, and let’s just say it was for tomorrow. Tomorrow you wake up, order’s there. No human interaction. You can cancel the order. You could she could she could change the delivery to pickup time, delivery date, whatever. It’s amazing.

Rick Rome [00:16:09]:
Absolutely amazing.

Jordan Berry [00:16:12]:
I mean, legit, it really is amazing. It it’s amazing. And, you know, I know we, I’ve I’ve been on a couple calls, you know, with these AI assistants. Yeah. And you you showed a recording, actually, to me right before we we hopped on this and of an a real interaction. And at the end, I forget exactly what the customer said, but the customer said, wow, that was amazing or that was incredible or something like that at the end, like, on the actual call. And it was. It was crazy.

Jordan Berry [00:16:43]:
Yeah.

Rick Rome [00:16:43]:
The voice is real. Right? A lot of the voices are real. I mean, everyone has to understand. Your washing machines are these amazing pieces of equipment. Right? They’re super cool technology. They can spin forwards, backwards. They could take a credit card. They could take a card reader.

Rick Rome [00:16:58]:
They can dispense the soap, so on and so forth. All that great stuff. Right? Well, we all know that your washing machines or drives for that matter, just equipment in general, your car, as much as we want it to work a % of the time, they do not work 100% of the time. And quite honestly, AI is no different in that regard, meaning, oh, well, how come it didn’t transfer the call when the person said this, or how come, it wasn’t able to answer that question? Well, there’s a number of variables that could cause that. Maybe the information that you gave, it was void of that information, so it said, I don’t know. Right? Or maybe, just maybe, you can lose connection like you do on your cell phone sometimes, and what do you do? You hang up and you try again. I know that’s annoying, but, yes, it can happen. But we’re like I said, % of the calls are answered, 92 plus percent are are answered without, any human interaction solved, I should say.

Rick Rome [00:17:53]:
And if you’re a self serve only laundry, it’s, like, 96%. I mean, it’s incredible. Not having to answer the phone, and we’re working we’re gonna be able to work. I’ll let a little secret out. We are gonna we are working behind the scenes with other, well, I call them card reader companies, you know, like a, you know, like a CCI or ESD or Laundry Boss or whomever, where if the customer calls up and says, hey. I put $5 on the card. It didn’t give me my $5 or it’s I I it took the $5 off my card, but it didn’t start the washer or the dryer or whatever it is. Right? They could call.

Rick Rome [00:18:35]:
Bella will go through the back end and be able to put that credit back on their card. No human interaction. And we can even limit it to say, oh, if it’s if this person is abusing this, one time is acceptable. Two times, we kinda like, woah. Three times, we don’t do it. We have to call the manager, so we’ll forward the call of the manager. Or we could say, if they ask for more than $8, you have to forward the call to the manager. He can do all of it.

Jordan Berry [00:19:03]:
Well, I’m having I’m having flashbacks from when I bought my first laundromat. Right? And I lived about forty minutes away from it. It’s coin only, at the time and having flashbacks of, like, coin getting jammed or something and me having to hop in my car and drive forty minutes to go unjam a coin while the customer waited for me to get there. It just like a horrible experience for them and for me. Right? Like the the idea that now we have the capability or or very soon, we have the capability of, number one, taking orders for pickup and delivery without ever having a a human having to talk.

Rick Rome [00:19:39]:
That’s absolutely right now.

Jordan Berry [00:19:40]:
That’s now.

Rick Rome [00:19:41]:
Absolutely right now.

Jordan Berry [00:19:42]:
And coming soon to be able to say, oh, man. Like, something happened with your money. Let’s fix it. Like, without any human interaction and happening happening instantly is and like you said, you know, it reminded me I had a I had a basketball coach, in high school, and he would always say, like, you know, it’s not it’s not the big tall teams that we should be afraid of. It’s the fast teams. Right? It’s the fast is what is really that’s what’s speed Speed kills. Right? And and to be able to resolve customers’ issues like that without even having to take time out of your day to do it is insane that we can do that.

Rick Rome [00:20:23]:
Nick Nick Gomez reported to me because he uses it in his laundromat, his self serve business is up 19%. The place is cleaner. His staff is out out on the floor more often talking to customers. Okay? It’s building a a a a a more harmonious environment for whether you’re the old lady or the young gun or whatever it is, coming in there and using the space, it’s making people stickier. Stickier means they’re spending more time. Spending more time means they’re spending more money. Okay? And that’s just on his self-service. Pickup and delivery is up as well.

Rick Rome [00:21:04]:
I mean, he is he had a story because there was some storm. And everywhere in the Upper Peninsula, there was a monster storm, and all the, first responders needed needed laundry because they’re gonna be there for a week or however long, five days. After hours, nobody was open. Place was, like, thirty, forty minutes away. There was, you know, a ton of laundry between him and them. Bella answered the phone after hours, did everything, set it all up. Nick came in the next morning, went and did the, did the work. Last, I think, it was five days or four days.

Rick Rome [00:21:37]:
He sent me the the the screenshot. $2,580 in sales.

Jordan Berry [00:21:44]:
Mhmm.

Rick Rome [00:21:46]:
That’s just one time. You know, 72% of customers who call up a place that do not answer move on to the next place. So it it to me, it’s crazy. You’re gonna you’re gonna lose, what’s what’s a what’s the lifetime value of a self self serve customer? I don’t know. $1,200, 13 hundred bucks, something in that range. And you’re gonna you’re gonna tell me that if you were not if you were to miss one phone call a day like that, you do the math. Heck, imagine if it was one phone call like that a month. That’s 30 that’s $3,636,000 dollars.

Rick Rome [00:22:28]:
It’s a lot of money. This thing only costs $2,400 a year. It’s nothing. So, you know, all these things are there, and I I hope all us laundry guys and girls understand the value of time because it only takes, you know, one one one missed call or one captured call to make it make it worth it in spades. And I could tell you that about my, you know, that if you go find the, the old podcast, you’ll find out a story about how I the dance studio went out of business, and I built this commercial space that I was subletting to the dance studio. And I spent, I think it was, like, a hundred and $50 on some used equipment and work. And for nine months or no. Six months, it sat dead as a doornail.

Rick Rome [00:23:16]:
And boy, was I stupid. I was like, oh, that’s the worst investment I ever made. And all the whole time, I’m out knocking on doors and passing out flyers and kissing babies and doing anything I can to get commercial business. And six months of go f yourselves. And finally finally, I got one call from NYU. Next day, I got another no. Sorry. From Columbia first.

Rick Rome [00:23:38]:
Next day, I got it from NYU. And the third day, I got it from Bliss, which was which was at the the w hotel chains and asked me on the fifth day what my attitude was about building that commercial stack. Best investment ever? That’s that’s that’s fair. So, you you

Jordan Berry [00:23:56]:
know, it’s Go from being an idiot to a genius real fast.

Rick Rome [00:23:59]:
Oh, man. He’s a sweet exactly. So, you know, it takes time, guys. And and and the more irons you have in the fire to make sales or to procure those sales, the better. And so if you think that you don’t get phone calls or I don’t get any phone calls, I I don’t my phone doesn’t ring. Again, does your phone always ring when your friend sends you a text or they call you, said, hey. I called you. Where were you? And say, oh, it didn’t ring here.

Rick Rome [00:24:23]:
I mean, it’s just ludicrous. It’s it’s it’s just the best use of in my book, honestly, best use of money from a customer service perspective. I mean, you get $24.07 service. $3.65, no smoke breaks, no vacation, no nothing. And and if you got just one call, you you miss one call a month, or now you’re capturing that one call extra a month, it pays for itself and then some. So Yeah. It’s just no it’s it’s it’s it’s totally makes sense to me, and I would Yeah. Love to hear anyone tell me different.

Jordan Berry [00:25:02]:
Yeah. Well and here’s here’s the thing too is, like, this I mean, I’ve been saying this for a while. I’m not the only one. Lots of people are saying this right now, but this industry is changing faster than it’s ever changed before, at least probably ever before. I think that’s a pretty safe statement. So changing faster than ever before.

Rick Rome [00:25:20]:
I agree.

Jordan Berry [00:25:20]:
And, you know, when I think back to when, you know, way back, like, up to, like, three or four years ago when the industry really hadn’t changed much at all for decades. Right? And yet we still had have and had these zombie mats. Right? And I think about, like, what caused these mats to go like that. Right? So number one, it’s just bad management. But number two, it’s not reinvesting in your business, and it’s not, it’s not keeping up. Right? It used to be a badge of honor, And some people, it still is to have machines that are thirty, forty years old. I kept my machines going. I didn’t, you know, buy new stuff.

Jordan Berry [00:25:57]:
Meanwhile, the people who are killing it in this industry are, you know, I think of, like, Brandon Understahl. He he replaces the machines every, like, eight years. Right? And

Rick Rome [00:26:07]:
so things

Jordan Berry [00:26:09]:
are changing now. So if I think about tomorrow’s zombie match, guess who tomorrow’s zombie match is gonna be? It’s gonna be the people who aren’t utilizing and who aren’t learning and incorporating these tools into their businesses to provide top tier service and to provide, themselves the time to be able to grow, you know, grow their businesses. Like you said, like the time our time has value and we need to be spending on the highest value stuff. Right? So I I you know, all those things I think you’re saying are absolutely true. And in addition to that, we’ve got to be saying on top of these changes, we got to at least be trying out these tools, seeing how we can incorporate them. See if they don’t work, they don’t work. Like, throw it away. Try it for a few months.

Jordan Berry [00:26:54]:
And if it’s, like, not working for you for whatever reason, get rid of it. But we can’t sit still anymore, I guess, is my point is we can’t just sit back and let the people come to us because we got people like you and a lot of other, top operators out there who are going after it right now, who are making investments in their business, who are, you know, pushing to grow, who are utilizing new technologies, and and new, you know, like, AI stuff, all the all the stuff. Right?

Rick Rome [00:27:27]:
Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:27:27]:
And if your plan is just kinda sit back and and not use this stuff, like, you’re just gonna get left behind. Yeah. Like you said. And I’m I’m surprised that the the stat 72% that don’t call back, I would expect it to be higher, than that. But guess who’s gonna get that business? It’s it’s you. Yeah. Right?

Rick Rome [00:27:47]:
Right. Because because I guarantee you, I’m gonna answer the phone. Like, why do they call you? Well, one, obviously, because they want service of some sort. I get it. But because they know when they call this place, they’re gonna get an answer. And the reason why they’re calling is because they have a question. And if their question isn’t resolved, they’re gonna keep calling somewhere until they get the question resolved. And, generally, whoever resolves that question is going to get the business.

Rick Rome [00:28:15]:
I know this firsthand. I know you guys do too. I mean, when you get a commercial town or or even a residential potential or residential customer calling in, if you’re not on top of it right away, they’re moving on. It’s not like someone does three weeks of research about which laundromat to use. Right? They they certainly do not do that. So the question is is, why why don’t you answer the phones, or why aren’t you allowing, or allowing your staff to only answer five out of 10 phone calls? Oh, I’m so busy. I couldn’t get to it. I was with a customer.

Rick Rome [00:28:57]:
Okay. Those are I’m not gonna say those aren’t valid excuses, but that means you need help. Now you may say as the owner, like, oh, please. They can do both. Well, look at what you get when they try and do both. Unfortunately, some people just aren’t capable of doing that. And more importantly, unfortunately, our industry does not allow us to pay people who might be the chances of hiring someone who is capable of doing that that amount of money to do it. So you have to work within your you know, the parameters, the cards you’re dealt.

Rick Rome [00:29:27]:
And this is just a no leap and brainer. I mean, I have a friend who spends $600 a month for, about six hours a day of phone coverage. I called it one time. I’m not gonna say who because he’ll probably get mad at me, but it took that guy twelve minutes to answer these same questions that I asked asked Bella, who answered it in a minute and a half. And the guy got the the price of blankets wrong. He got the price of the machines wrong. He got, like, you know, 30% of the questions wrong. So what good is that, man? And then what? You’re gonna fire him? Fine.

Rick Rome [00:30:10]:
And then you gotta retrain somebody again? The beauty about AI and our AI for laundromats on on ours is it’s machine learning. So the more it gets used, the smarter it gets. It gets smarter and smarter and smarter. I mean, here’s a perfect example. You call up and say, hey. I’m in town. I need to wash my clothes. I wanna do it myself.

Rick Rome [00:30:30]:
Where are you located? Bella says, you know, I’m at 123 Main Street. We’re open from 10AM to 10PM. Whatever. Great. Thank you. Within thirty seconds, Bella will send a text to Jordan as for this example and say, hey, Jordan. It was nice talking to you. Thought it’d be easier, to remind you our address is you know, here’s our ad here’s a summary of what we discussed.

Rick Rome [00:30:51]:
Our address is at 123 Main Street. Oh, by the way, click on this link, and it it’s our Google Maps, and you could get directions that way also. So now it’s now it’s not even acting as a customer service. It’s actually being a salesperson. Right? Mhmm. It it’s it’s it’s it’s con reconfirming. Now that is fucking service, bro. In the launch of space, that’s huge, and it’s only gonna get better.

Jordan Berry [00:31:15]:
Yeah. I don’t know. Well, here’s what’s funny is that I’ve I’ve done well over a thousand consulting call. I’ll probably approach in 1,500 consulting calls now. Right? One complaint I get over and over and over is when people are trying to buy a laundromat, they’re trying to find them. It’s a tough market to find laundromats right now. So, you know, they’re trying all kinds of different things, right? Including calling laundromats and trying to get ahold of somebody over there to see if they’re interested in selling. Sure.

Jordan Berry [00:31:48]:
Over and over and over, I hear people don’t answer their phone. I don’t call anymore because people don’t answer their phones anymore. Right? Like, it’s it’s it’s like an epidemic in our industry. I’m sure other industries do, although I don’t know, man. Like, I think our industry uniquely and and it probably comes down to it has not been that cost effective until now to be able to have somebody who could do that and do that well. And even then, nobody was texting a Google map link after the

Rick Rome [00:32:18]:
call. Jordan, a bot. So, you know, these guys out there, you know, millionaire or mine cast guy, Dave Menz, whatever his name is, show is called. Excuse me. I know Dave’s name, but I don’t know the name of the show. And, it’s a bot. It’s not intuitive. It’s, hello.

Rick Rome [00:32:35]:
I am a robot. How, yes, I can move my head left, and I can move it right. I mean, it’s just it’s not intuitive. And I would I would love to share, you know, two, three samples for you to just hear. We do one one in Spanish. You could do one about pickup and delivery. And whatever it is, I I’ll I would love to share three of them and just you can hear the difference you can just hear the difference between a static, monotone, response versus ours, who are constantly evolving and getting better and talking like a human. Okay? It’s just crazy.

Rick Rome [00:33:17]:
I mean, was that something you wanna you’d like to hear?

Jordan Berry [00:33:20]:
Absolutely, dude. Yeah, absolutely. Because I mean, I think it’s hard to appreciate it unless you’ve heard it. You know what I mean? Like, it’s it’s hard to fathom, like, how crazy it is to just have like a normal conversation, with it’s like you’re talking to another person. And in fact, I think probably a lot of people, if if it didn’t say it was an AI bot, I think that probably a lot of people would just assume they were talking to another person most of the time. It’s it’s crazy.

Rick Rome [00:33:51]:
We do have calls, Jordan, where people go at the end. It’s like, by the way, are you a human or a robot? People literally have said this. And it’s it’s really, really cool. And it’s more importantly, it’s very workable, very functional, and incredibly affordable. So, you know, there’s different levels. Some people just want them to answer phone. Okay. That’s gonna be price a.

Rick Rome [00:34:19]:
Right? And then some people I mean, ours can text and email back and forth with the customer. In fact, if the customer has a question and and Bella doesn’t know the answer, Bella can say, please hold on. Text the owner or the manager, whoever you have instructed, and ask, hey. Does the 90 pound washing machine cost more? Are there any upcharges on the 90 pound washing machine, you know, for example? And and and that’s what they’ll text, and the and the owner would text back no. Bella basically would copy and paste that and text it back to the customer who called and said, hey, Jordan. Just following up on your question about are there any extras on the 90 pound washing machine? I spoke to my manager, and the answer is no. It’s $9 for the 90 or whatever, you know, whatever the price is. I mean, you’re you’re you’re Crazy.

Rick Rome [00:35:14]:
You’re creating you’re systematically creating order flow for yourself, which means your machines get more optimization. They get utilized, guys. Right? That’s what you want. We are mini factories, and the more they spin, the more you make. You know? And what’s coming down the future potentially if we want to do? I could tell you when that machine or that machine or any of the machines are being used, when aren’t they being used, and say, hey. Would you like to send a text message out to these people and say we’re having a $2 wash between three and 7PM tonight? Right? Because making $2 or $3 a wash on a machine is better than making zero because your cost is, let’s say, a dollar or whatever it is. Right? It’s about optimizing your your equipment and and turn, you know, turn those machines back on, trading places. Right? Mhmm.

Rick Rome [00:36:08]:
That’s what this is all about, and it’s just it’s just incredible. It’s just incredible. My dream and I I and anyone who knows me, I left the self serve business a long time ago. But my dream is to own a truly 100% automated laundromat, self serve only. I’ll own the building, I hope, one day. I’ll put in a laundromat. I’ll have smoke detectors for smoke, video for this, bathroom doors lock, time locks, all that good stuff, marketing, text, all through the like, everything. Totally top notch, sophisticated, where I could just go from behind the scene, and it goes out to all the customers and drive revenue that way.

Rick Rome [00:36:56]:
Like, it’s just it’s coming, guys. It’s so coming. And it is I mean Tier.

Jordan Berry [00:37:03]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, and that’s I’ve been eyeballing the same thing. Just, you know, a store full of robots, basically like automating everything, optimizing everything, you know, and and what AI is allowing us to do now is things that, you know, we we haven’t been able to do really, you know, like texting directions to your, you know, your customers after a call, a a link to directions, right, and texting or or, analyzing, you know, your usage data and figuring out when a good promotion period is and even what that promotion should be, etcetera, etcetera. There’s a whole lot that can be done here that we haven’t even started scratching the surface of.

Rick Rome [00:37:47]:
In 1,500 consulting, meetings that you’ve had Mhmm. Has any of your people said you, oh, yeah. My staff, after every phone call, they text the person a summary of what was discussed. No. Right. Does anyone ever say, oh, my employee sent me a summary after each phone call of what what who call their phone number, what the issue was, and whether it was solved or not? No. Instantly.

Jordan Berry [00:38:14]:
However, I will say that they get an AI summary of what we discussed in our consulting calls, and it’s linked to the time stamps on the videos. And it has action steps for everybody. All that. Right? Like, I’m utilizing it, my business, in a lot of different ways. Like, we need to be and it seems I I get it. Like, I don’t want to, like, get too crazier because it can be a little hard to conceptualize. Like, we’re a very, like, you know, tangible business, right? Like, we use dumb machines, and like, that’s what we’ve done forever. Right? So it could be a little hard to conceptualize.

Jordan Berry [00:38:51]:
How does AI fit into, you know, our our dumb business. Right? Like, are you

Rick Rome [00:38:57]:
closed on Christmas? Are you closed on Christmas? Oh, shit. I forgot to tell everybody we’re closed on Christmas. Text Bella. Bella, anyone make sure you anyone calls. We’re closed on Christmas. We open up after after January 2. Done. That quick.

Rick Rome [00:39:15]:
That quick. Right? Yeah. Yeah. It’s just it allows you to do more with less. It helps those who do help you do more. Right? I mean, that’s another thing Nick said. He says his pounds per hour are up because your your employees are happier. They’re not running to the phone to get browbeat by some jerk about, the fact that they put $3 on the card, and they forgot to tell the attendant when they left.

Rick Rome [00:39:43]:
But now they want $3 back on their card or or or whatever it is. Right? I mean and then your chances, like, wait. I signed up to get beat up over $3. This is I don’t I could do this job, and then go to Home Depot or I can go to wherever and and not have to deal with this type of abuse.

Jordan Berry [00:39:58]:
Yeah.

Rick Rome [00:39:59]:
Right?

Jordan Berry [00:40:01]:
So thank you. Yeah. And here’s here’s what I’m excited about. Right? It’s like, we we just talked about all this stuff. Right? And as I’m saying, like, I think for a lot of us, it’s hard to conceptualize, or we can kind of conceptualize sort of surface y type, stuff that we can do with AI. I mean, I

Rick Rome [00:40:18]:
think you’ve thrown out. We’re not rosy from the Jetsons yet. Yeah. Not yet. Yet. We’re not cooking food. Okay? We’re not driving your we’re almost driving your car, but not quite yet. Right? I mean, is Elon Musk an an idiot because he said two years, three, heck, four years ago, we’re gonna be autonomous cars? No.

Rick Rome [00:40:37]:
He’s far from an idiot. I mean Yeah. That’s a different question. But, nonetheless, the point is is he’s not. And the and and the answer is isn’t he’s working towards it. And, yes, we do have some autonomous cars. This is true. Are they 100? No.

Rick Rome [00:40:51]:
Just like our washing machines, just like anything that’s mechanical, there’s always something that can can gum up this situation some way, somehow, sometimes worse than others. But, nonetheless, majority of the time, it works. And not only does it work, it helps optimize and grow your business in this case and from a customer service perspective. Right? I mean, there is no if, ands, or doubts about it. So if you wanna miss phone calls because you think saving $200 is worth it versus the $1,200 you’re gonna lose out on, and let’s just say that’s once a month, I don’t know. You do the math. I’d rather spend 200 every month to get 1,200 back in sales. Right? I I mean well, actually, 200 times make that $2,400 a year to get 36,000 in sales.

Rick Rome [00:41:40]:
If I was you know, Warren Buffett’s made a career doing that type of return.

Jordan Berry [00:41:44]:
Mhmm.

Rick Rome [00:41:45]:
Guys, work Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:41:46]:
It’s pretty

Jordan Berry [00:41:47]:
good one too.

Rick Rome [00:41:48]:
Not Well,

Jordan Berry [00:41:48]:
I’m excited about it because listen. We’re, you know, we’re also gonna be, you know, we’re gonna be chatting about this live, with anybody who wants to come join us and doing some demonstrations maybe, like, you know, answering questions and and specifically about how people can utilize it in their specific laundromats. We’ll talk about that. So and it’ll be interactive. Right? And so people can come

Rick Rome [00:42:14]:
with their questions. At The Clean Store, I’ll be I will be at the curbside booth because we’ve integrated with their software, showing this off to existing and or potential new users for curbside because this is a must. The same way a POS system got it. Remember? Do you remember people saying, should I get a POS system or should I not get a POS system? And I would just be like, are you crazy? Can you imagine not having a POS system in your in your in your place of business nowadays?

Jordan Berry [00:42:44]:
Yeah. It’s crazy.

Rick Rome [00:42:45]:
When it when it first came into this industry, 75% of the people in the laundry didn’t have a website. That was

Jordan Berry [00:42:55]:
The number’s so crazy high, by the way.

Rick Rome [00:42:57]:
Yeah. That was in 2010, for god’s sakes. Like, hello. What is wrong with you folks? You’re missing out on so much money. It’s ridiculous. Why do you want all the headache and little money? Get all the money and big headaches.

Jordan Berry [00:43:17]:
Awesome. Well, make sure you come and join us on our q and a, and then also make sure you go meet Rick. Like I said in the very beginning, like, Rick’s a guy you just gotta know. He’s got a lot going on. He’s doing a lot of good stuff for this industry, and he’s just a good dude to know just in general too. You know, especially if you can if you can dish it out at him when he dishes out at you, you gotta be able to, like, one to him a little bit. If I’m

Rick Rome [00:43:40]:
not making funny, that means I don’t like you.

Jordan Berry [00:43:42]:
That’s right. That’s right. But, no, check him out at the at the curbside, booth at The Clean Show, which is coming up in August. Also and like I said, join us, for for that q and a. And and also, listen, this AI thing, you might be already sold, you know, still join us anyways on the q and a and and the booth and all that. You might already be sold. We’ve got a link down below, if you’re on YouTube, in the description, or, or in the show notes page. If you’re listening to the audio of the podcast, we got a link for you to go and and, get a demo of this AI thing.

Jordan Berry [00:44:19]:
Go talk to somebody about how, it actually works and how it can help your business, and go check it out, some more. Because like I said, this industry is changing faster than ever. The people who are tomorrow’s zombie mats are the ones who are not keeping up with the times. You know, it’s it’s it’s bare minimum now. You gotta keep your store clean and safe, and you gotta, like, keep your pricing good. That’s bare minimum. It’s not gonna cut it in the long term. You’ve got to adapt with the changes in this industry, and they’re happening right now, and they’re happening all around us.

Jordan Berry [00:44:49]:
And, so go go check that link out and, and check out some AI for your laundromat.

Rick Rome [00:44:55]:
Hey. Hey. Can I give one one fun fact

Jordan Berry [00:44:58]:
Yeah? That

Rick Rome [00:44:59]:
I bet nobody knows?

Jordan Berry [00:45:00]:
Yeah.

Rick Rome [00:45:03]:
Prior to Jordan Barry getting into laundry space, he did he did ministry work, and he also did stunt doubling. And if anyone has ever seen Con Air, right there. That guy right there. He Edgar Poe or whatever the guy’s name was in the movie, that’s him. He was a stunt double in Con Air for, what’s what’s the long haired guy his name is?

Jordan Berry [00:45:27]:
Cameron Paul? Cage? Yes. Nicolas Cage.

Rick Rome [00:45:30]:
Yeah. Nicolas Cage. Nicolas Cage is stunt double. Fun fact.

Jordan Berry [00:45:35]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve done a lot of, abs stunt doubling also just for my abs. I’m the I’m the ab model.

Rick Rome [00:45:43]:
Yeah. Hand model. Right?

Jordan Berry [00:45:45]:
Yeah. Awesome. Rick, as always, man, tons of good stuff and a lot of fun. We always have a good time doing these things. I appreciate

Jordan Berry [00:45:52]:
you coming on. And, check out AI for laundromats.

Rick Rome [00:45:56]:
In a live show? And,

Jordan Berry [00:45:57]:
and

Jordan Berry [00:45:57]:
then let’s do that live show. That’ll I mean, listen. If there’s anything that could possibly be more fun than doing this with you, it’s doing this live and in person with you. So

Rick Rome [00:46:08]:
Fantastic. In

Jordan Berry [00:46:09]:
fact, we should do one in person together in the same room at The Clean Show. That would be a lot of fun.

Rick Rome [00:46:14]:
Done. Book it, Dano. I’m in. We’ll have a blast. We’ll have a good time. We’ll give out some giveaways. We’ll have fun doing it. I think that’s a great idea.

Jordan Berry [00:46:23]:
I love it. Sweet man. Appreciate it.

Rick Rome [00:46:25]:
Thank you. Talk to you soon. Alright.

Jordan Berry [00:46:28]:
Alright. Hope you loved that with Rick. I know that you did. I did as well. And I hope you’re getting super excited about where this industry is heading and equally excited about June 12 where we have our live q and a slash discussion slash maybe demonstration. I don’t know. All kinds of fun stuff. Having a guaranteed money back guarantee that you’re gonna have a good time over there.

Jordan Berry [00:46:50]:
So make sure you join us June 12. And, listen, until then, take something, put it into action, maybe go play around, chat GPT, or call one of these, phone bots and see how you might implement it into your business. Something. Put something into action this week, and we’ll see you again next week. Peace.