SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to CCI Drive Time, the podcast for vended laundry distributors. I'm Steve with CCI using your drivetime to cover laundromat trends, payment systems, and practical topics you can use in the field. Today I got something a little bit different. We're going to be doing an inside track episode with uh one of the important people on our team. Today I've got Paul McCary, one of our account managers uh at CCI covering the Eastern Territory. Paul, thank you very much for joining me. Thanks for having me. Like you had a choice, right? Yeah, we have choices, Steve. Everybody has a choice. Well, I I appreciate you uh letting me borrow you on a Friday afternoon. Uh obviously we work with distributors as podcasters for distributors, and I want to make sure that um everyone that you work with or potentially will work with has a sense of who you are and what they can lean on, lean on you, lean on you for. But also just to kind of get a sense of where you're coming from and some of your experiences. I know it's it certainly expands certainly past your time with us here at CCI, but um why don't you give me uh let's start with how long have you been with us?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

So I was thinking that before you uh set this call, and I think it's six years now. I think I came in the end of 2020, it was right before COVID. So I know that I flew out to Chicago, uh you hired me, I did some training, and then COVID hit. So I think it was perfect time to start a new job. 2020 and 2021, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Yeah, that yeah, I remember that. Um what I what I remember is um how we probably talked about all these really exciting things we were about to do, and then we had all of the fallout that comes from uh that came from from from COVID, and certainly you were a trooper and stuck it out with us through that, and and we're you've you've really got to see the company kind of evolve out of that through these years. So um you've got you've gotten to see quite a bit. Um give me give us a sense of like you know what's your typical day look like.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yeah, so typically um I'm supporting the East Coast for our distributors on the East Coast. Um so a lot of it is email, a lot of it is leads, but primarily dealing with the sales guys that you know are working for our distributors. Um and they'll typically reach out, you know, if they're working on typically it's a live deal, you know. What what uh you know which product should I use here, you know, what what readers should we do? What you know, that kind of thing. So it's uh it's typically for, like I said, a live kind of a deal that they're working on.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

So right, right. Um yeah, I think you know what what I'm trying to get across with making sure that our folks understand where um where they can lean on uh you um and our other account manager is to lean on you when they need information, when they need to know what's new, what's going on, uh, how are things being accomplished, but um, you know, which device, you know, I think is what you were alluding to. We have multiple solutions, and it can be tough to to know where to where to go. Like what what's the solution? So um let's let's sneak back a little bit in your background. So kind of how did you get into the let's I know your background, but to share it for those, you you're you've not always been in the laundromat space of things, but how did you get into the card payment system business and talk about when too?

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah, so I kind of fell into it. I think it was 2008 actually. I worked for a very large uh credit card processing company, Heartland Payment Systems. Um, and I was a uh service manager, uh regional manager for them. Um I had done some credit card sales, which I don't know if you're familiar with that. It's a very tough door-to-door, uh, not something that I was very good at because I'm more of a of a uh relationship guy than I am from like a one-time hit. So um I moved into their service. I was a service manager, so basically a support for the sales team. And then they uh they ended up purchasing this small company in uh Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was called Debatech, and they were in the payments system, the laundry payments specifically, um, similar to what we do with readers on machines. And uh I kind of fell into it. It's kind of funny, actually. The biggest customer was Matt Gray. This will go back in time. And I'm from Massachusetts, so I'm literally like 15 minutes from the Mac Gray office. So I don't know if I was hired for my expertise or my location. Or your location, but uh but I'll leave it at that. So and then I was really hired to do, we really did um, as you know, as uh it was route laundry, specifically for route laundry. Um nothing to do with with stores or or uh big brick and mortar places, but primarily just kind of route laundry. So that's where I cut my teeth after the credit card processing world.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

And I and I recall actually how we got introduced when we were looking for somebody was actually from a route customer, I believe, uh in the in the north midwest who recommended uh we connect with you. Uh so it was from that route business that we actually found you, although we did not do much in the route business at the time. Um and so yeah, it's a small world. Um so when you made the transition over, I think you know, originally when you started, we it was really the intent was to get into more multi-housing, but I think we we may have realized that we needed to expand your role beyond just multi-housing, not too long into that. So I guess there wasn't much that surprised you on the multi-housing space, but certainly when you started to do more on the vended laundry side, you know, or the store side as you call it, you know, what would what would you say, what kind of surprised you the most?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Well, it was just learning that side of the business. I mean, I remember when I started in the route business, and I took, you know, a couple of my buddies would say, But how exciting can the laundry business be? I was like, dude, I don't know what to tell you, but it's pretty, it's pretty exciting. It started out and I was like, there's a lot to learn here. Uh and then when I when I expanded in my role with you guys and started, you know, dealing more with the with the storefronts and the big commercial uh industry, it's a totally different uh learning curve, right? There's different things that you have to do, the stores do differently. There's a lot more moving parts in a store than there are in you know a somebody just going down to the laundry room in their apartment building to do their laundry. So um it was good. I learned uh I learned a lot. It's something I continue to still learn every day. You guys have certainly influenced that. You own stores, so you help us along that way, and I think it just positions us uh, you know, in a good way to help store owners because uh we're in it for that. We're in it for the store owners, I think.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Sure, sure. Uh a little bit of fun. What do you like to do outside of uh selling payment systems? I know you love doing that more than anything, but if you aren't selling payment systems, what do you like to do?

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Uh so we have a new grand oil, she's not new anymore. She's two, so she's she takes up a lot of our time. We uh moved to Central Mass just before she was born. We built a new house out here. We had been in our exist our previous house for almost 40 years, so we never really moved. So we actually upsized instead of downsized, so um that keeps us busy. We went from a small 15,000 square foot lot, we have three and a half acres now, so that keeps uh my wife and I busy. But my true passion outside of work is actually golf. I love to play golf.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

So yeah. There may have been a uh uh uh a person or two that told me how good you were at golf, or that maybe that was not it good something you should put on your resume.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

That is probably not something I should put on my resume. I remember when I started back in the in the route business, and one of my bigger customers back then invited me to his golf course, and uh we played and I birdied the first hole, and he said you play way. You play way too much golf, and uh you need to start selling some more payment systems. So But yeah, that's that's my true passion, I guess. If I was to do it over again, maybe do something on the do something in the in the golf industry.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

So I I think looking back at myself, I I I have played golf. I am sure there's a million people in the same position. I wish I had learned, I shouldn't say I learned, but I I wish I had I had done it more because I see the value in it now. I think it earlier on in my career I just it didn't stick, you know, real well, but uh I envy those who are good at it. So good for you. That's great. Um let's bring it back a little bit to the distributors. Um, you know, I I think you know you've had enough time dealing with enough different folks at this point. Um what do you think are the most common things that distributors come to you for now? And it's kind of a two-part question. I want to know what they come for you now, and then I think we'll talk about like what what maybe they should be coming to you for. If it maybe it's the same, but I'm guessing there may be some differences there.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yeah, so I think that they come to us primarily with just questions on like what's changing. I think our industry changes rapidly. I think every day, every week we have, you know, there's something new, there's an enhancement to our product, or this, you know, we're doing something different. And the beauty of it is once they have, once the customer has the product, is we're able to you know provide those upgrades for them. So I think that's what's changed a lot with the distributors over the last, I would say, since I've been here six years, because the you know it the industry changes, right? It's no longer swipe, it's you know, it's EMV, it's tap, it's you know, it's all these different things that are changing. So I think that's what that's what they come to us most for. I like them to lean on us for that, just because they have you know, their primary goal is to sell machines, right? They're not they're not looking to sell the ancillary products. So um that's where I think they they lean on us the most. Um they're also changing. You know, they got new people coming in all the time. There's new salespeople starting. So one of the things that I put out there that I like to do um is drive-alongs, right? So ride along with some of the salespeople and just um you know, go visit some customers, could be CCI customers, could be another card system customer, or it could be just somebody who's looking to, you know, put in a uh alternative payment system. So that's what I would hope that they would lean on us for.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Yeah, I agree. Um, I think if anything, I hope that people get out of you know this message is that we're there to help them, not help them with this product. We realize there's so many other things they gotta learn. It's the whole idea around this podcast is this idea of lean on us to help you with this layer of it. It doesn't have to be a burden. Let it let it be easy for once. Let somebody help you with this piece. We need them because they are the direct contact with the store owners in most of these cases. Um, but let us be kind of your wingman, you know, when it comes to this layer of it. Um where do you see distributors struggling the most when it comes to understanding payment systems?

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Um I think they struggle the most again back to the changing in the you know of the of the landscape and what you know it's changing rapidly, and payment systems are changing rapidly. Um our back ends are changing rapidly. And I think I think we had talked about this a little earlier too on a call. I think we struggle a little bit where we don't ask enough curiosity questions as to you know what does the store owner want, right? And I think people think card systems and they think, oh, I'm going, you know, cashless. It's not a cashless solution, it's a coinless solution, basically. Or you can you know take coin as well, but you know, it's a um yeah, uh, you know, you're not necessarily getting rid of a the cash, it's just instead of collecting quarters, now you're collecting fives, tens, and twenties, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah, so often I think people get really lost in the idea of uh that a card system means the cash is eliminated, and that's so much that's so not true. Um it certainly doesn't have to be, we could certainly go that route, I think. Um, but that's not the common practice, right? I mean that's not the common solution. Cash is almost always a part of the solution in some manner. Um yeah, that's that's that's well put. Um what do you think makes a good relationship between us and a distributor? What do you think is there? Distributors that are the most successful maybe with payment systems, there's our attributes that they uh possess.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yeah, I think the biggest thing that we do very well, I think, and you've done a good job of hammering this home, is that our service, I think our service is top-notch. I mean, it we have I think it's up to 12, 11 or 12, something like that, full-time service people now. Um and that that I think is the biggest thing. Uh, you know, card system, anybody can start a machine with a card, right? It's what happens after the transaction. Um, we have our own struggles. I'm not gonna say we don't have issues that happen, or pop up on a day, but um, you know, one of the biggest things that I get back from the distributors that we do a lot of business with is you know, we answer the phone. So even if it's a Saturday or a Sunday, they call and you know, we uh we just answer the phone. So um I think that's one of the biggest uh areas that we we strive or or we exceed the expectation of helping the distributor. So and if they're calling us on a Saturday or Sunday, it's not you know to say happy birthday, right? So something's going on.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

So so you know, you mentioned um that one of the things that you you're involved in a lot is new people, you know, distributors have a new hire, and um you know, so do you have any advice for let's say a new person that just started maybe with a distributor, maybe new the industry, because obviously they're gonna have to learn something about payment systems or they're gonna be introduced to it, they're gonna be asked about it. You have any advice for a new salesperson at a distributor?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Yeah, I would say my best advice I could give would be to listen more. And um and I would say don't make stuff up, right? If you don't know the answer, it's okay to say I don't know the answer and then you know go find it. But I think anybody that's coming into a new sales job or you know, they want to sell, right? You want to sell, you want to sell. Um, but one of the things that I've done my whole career is I try to I try not to be transactional. I try to be more um, you know, on the relationship side because at the end of the day, it's the same thing, right? People buy from people they know, like, and trust, right? So that would be my biggest advice.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

I think that ties in nicely, and that's maybe advice for life. Do more listening, right? I think we could all probably do a little better job listening. But I think the relationship part is um is key because of the support layer that you talked that you mentioned too. It's you know, when you have a relationship with someone, then you feel like there's somebody you can lean on when you need something, because things don't always go perfect. Um, they go better, they go they go well more often than they don't, but when they don't, you want to make sure that you've got somebody that you can lean on that can make sure you're gonna get connected to the right people, and uh yeah, that's good advice. Um anything that's happening recently, any recent questions that you're getting that maybe is things that we should uh we should throw out there and clear up new topics, new ideas?

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Um I think you know, some of it's with the machines that are changing, you know, the interfaces are changing with the machines, they're you know not giving us so much access to things that you used to be, you know, have access to, so those things are changing. Um so I think it's important for us to to uh keep the distributors informed as best we can on that. Um and then I would also say too that at least for me on the on the main distributors that I handle with on the East is you also need to have a relationship not necessarily just with the salespeople, but also the you know operations manager or you know the book you know accounting people. I mean, I think we have a really good open platform, but um, you know, we have uh distributors that have top-notch install you know, install maintenance people that actually probably know the product better than we do, and you know, to be able to tap into distributors that I know with existing, you know, another distributor on the other part of the you know the country then that's having this issue, and you know you can reach out to somebody and they'll say, Oh yeah, do this, do this, do this. And so I think it's important that we have a strong relationship with the entire organization. Um I think that's getting a little bit more difficult now as these you know uh companies get bought or you know get into these bigger organizations. But um, you know, we as you know, it's a family-run business. Your family's been doing it, and uh, and we like that piece of the business, and it's fun to get with uh operators and distributors that are kind of in the same playing field. Having similar experiences.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Know what the uh experiences are. Yeah, no, I think uh you you hit something right on, you hit the nail on the head with the changes to equipment, and I'd say that's an it there are so many, and it's great the innovation that is happening across all the manufacturers is is fantastic from a retail perspective. You've got all these touchscreen controls that allow the retail customer to make all these cycle options, which ultimately mean the store owner has a the ability to make more money, right? They can upsell cycles, you can get add-ons to your cycles, soap injection, chemical injection, all of these different things. And I think what um is under understood is that that all has to work with the payment system. It all has to tie together. And so something that we spend a lot of time on uh from a development spectrum, from an development perspective is ensuring that we are compatible with all the functionality as it comes out on the machines because it's not just oh great, the machine can do it, just expect everything to work. Uh I wish that was the case, but not so much. Um, but yeah, lean on us to help you understand what controls are capable of what functionality, where the uh where the limitations might be if there are any, where the strengths are between controls. Uh I think that's it's a great way to lean back on us.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Um I think another thing too that we focus a lot on is the user interface, right? Because I mean I have a a saying that I've been saying for since I've been doing this for 30 years, right? Just want to wash my clothes. So um at the end of the day, this has to make sense to the consumer or the customer that's standing in front of that washing machine trying to you know start it. They don't yeah, they're not putting a lot of thought into the you know the soap injection or what the machine can do, or and you know, they don't really care, but um the user interface I think is huge, and I think we have a very good uh user interface for the customers as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

So yeah, you you you've said that many times throughout the years, and I I I have my own saying, which is we can't get in their way of doing laundry, or we failed, right? If if we've made it hard for them to actually do laundry, then there's there's a problem. Uh good, good, good, good. All right, a couple of quick quick questions. And this sometimes is hard as like picking a child. Your favorite CCI, your favorite CCI product. Laundry card. Laundry card.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Wireless laundry card.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Wireless laundry card. Good. Um what do you think is the most underrated feature? Uh on laundry card or just in general? In general.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Could be because laundry card doesn't have um I would say on the on the owner side would be the back end of the laundry card as far as the functionality that that's really built into that. And then on the front end would be um, you know, the prize package, I think. I got a nice deal out of that this year for the prize package. That nobody, frankly, nobody does that in the industry. It's a small thing, but yeah, nobody's doing that. So um I think that would be the two features that I would say are are uh right up there at the top of my list. Coffee or energy drinks? Celsius energy drinks, but I don't drink them anymore because my wife says there's too much caffeine, so I just have Starbucks coffee. I don't know what to do. You're back to coffee. Back to coffee.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Well, that's great. You know what? Uh you know, I think this is a great way for us to kind of introduce you. For those who have not had a chance to meet you, I think if if I can say so, you anyone listening to this is invited to reach out to Paul directly. Um uh, you know, Paul, why don't you share your email and your uh do you do you know your direct line? I do. I'm looking right up. It's actually I don't use it that much.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

My cell phone and get yelled at apart. But uh my email is paul.mccary at laundrycard.com, and my direct line is 331-215-8121.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Well, great. Paul, thank you for sharing a little bit with us, sharing a little bit of your background. Um look forward to having you do more podcast work. We'll talk about other additional product uh you know topics, I think, that are maybe industry related, but let's start by getting everyone introduced to our team. Thanks so much. You have a great day. Thanks, you too.