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The Power of Machine Start Integration with Steve Marcionetti of CCI — Transcript

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0:00taking a laundry cart out of the store,
0:02going to their truck, putting the oxygen
0:04and acetylene torches in the back of the
0:06laundry basket, rolling the baskets
0:08inside, going up to the the kiosk, which
0:11are all steel, they're like a big safe,
0:12and just slowly cutting away the door um
0:16at the Yeah. Yeah.
0:18>> Um but once you open once you've done
0:20that, put that much heat onto anything,
0:23almost everything inside is incinerated,
0:25including the money,
0:26>> you know. So, I mean,
0:28>> they just burn up the money.
0:29>> I mean, it's gets so hot, you know, you
0:31end up with just this molten lava that
0:33just spills all over everything.
0:46Steve, thanks so much for joining us
0:47today. Um, I know a little bit about
0:50CCI, but tell the viewers uh who maybe
0:53haven't heard of CCI or aren't very
0:55familiar with your product. What is it?
0:57What's the scale? What's the use case?
1:00>> Yeah, uh, Ian, great to be here. Um,
1:02yeah, CCI is a payment systems
1:06manufacturer. Um, my, uh, my family
1:10started it, uh, 20 over 25 years ago
1:13now.
1:14um things have the landscape of that has
1:16changed quite a bit over those 25 years.
1:19But um yeah, we are no we are not new to
1:22this industry. We are not new to the uh
1:25to the payment system space. But
1:26essentially we offer products to either
1:29eliminate the use of coins in a store um
1:32or supplement the use of coins in a
1:35store. And there's a handful of um of
1:38products that we make that will help a
1:40owner go one way or the other. Sometimes
1:42they are done with quarters. Sometimes
1:43they want quarters to be a part of the
1:45mix. And uh you know payment systems
1:48have evolved way past just collecting
1:49payment. They're they now have a lot of
1:51marketing and um other automation
1:54benefits that come kind of come along
1:56with that. But the the root of CCI is
2:00about automating payments.
2:03>> Got it. And how did that how does
2:05someone get into automating payments in
2:07a laundromat? You guys did the family
2:09have a laundromat or Yeah. How did that
2:11happen?
2:12>> Yeah, the I mean the Marcenetti family's
2:15been in the laundromat business way
2:16longer than CCI has been in existence.
2:18Um started with my father um when he got
2:22out of Vietnam in the early '7s was
2:25looking for a job like a lot of young
2:28servicemen looking for a path forward
2:30and had an uncle that was in the laundry
2:32equipment service business and actually
2:35serviced laundromats uh all the way back
2:37then. Um, and that just over the years
2:41kind of um, became something he became
2:44good at and for him it evolved into
2:46store ownership. Um, I think him and my
2:48mom had about eight stores in the
2:50Chicagoland land market at one point.
2:51Um, I was just a baby at that time. It
2:54was certainly before my memory. Um and
2:56then my dad continued down the career
2:58after selling those stores and rolled
3:00into distribution and became a uh a
3:03laundry equipment sales you know
3:06distributor salesperson for many many
3:08years uh and um and actually started a
3:12distributorship uh in 1998. That's
3:14actually how I joined the industry was
3:16through the distribution side of our
3:18business. Um, and then not not long
3:21after getting into the distribution side
3:24of things, um, and selling other payment
3:28systems. I'm not, you know, we are not
3:30the first to invent this in the laundry
3:31space. There were some other products
3:33out there at the time,
3:34>> but my background before getting into
3:36the laundry space was in the technology,
3:39IT space, integrations,
3:41uh, point of sale. Um, and it didn't
3:45take long for me to get exposed to the
3:47products that were on the market at the
3:48time and realized it was a opportunity
3:52to do something better. There were some
3:54there were some key things that I felt
3:56were really missing. Um, and so I
3:59convinced my dad to pony up some seed
4:02money along with another partner of his
4:04who actually happens to own a software
4:06development company that we uh still are
4:08partners with and leverage heavily
4:10today. and CCI was born. Yeah,
4:14>> that's awesome. I'd never really heard
4:16that story before about that. That's
4:17that's pretty cool. And I mean it it
4:19makes sense. You you saw what was out
4:20there.
4:21>> I do think you know today there's been
4:23so much investment in technology in
4:26laundromats even just in the last 5
4:28years, but then when you talk to someone
4:30who's been in the business for 10, 20
4:32years, it was a whole different world
4:35back then. And I'm sure even more so,
4:37you know, when you guys or when you were
4:39first getting into it. They're just like
4:41technology and laundromats just didn't
4:42go in the same sentence back then, but
4:45uh today today they certainly do. So, I
4:48guess um one thing that people might be
4:51wondering at home because they maybe
4:53have heard of maybe they've heard of
4:55your products or maybe they've heard of
4:56some of your competitors. One thing I
4:58always struggle with is when I'm telling
4:59people about they might say, "Oh, I have
5:03CCI." And I will say, "Well, do you have
5:04Fast Card or do you have Laundry Card?"
5:06and they're like, "Uh,
5:09>> so tell us a little bit about the the
5:10main products that you sell and what
5:13they do and and also the scale of like
5:16how many have you you don't have to say
5:17how many you sold, but
5:18>> Sure.
5:19>> how many employees, how big of a
5:20company, that that kind of a thing."
5:21>> Sure. Yeah. Um, so the product that
5:24started CCI that we the first product we
5:27developed was called Laundry Card, and
5:28we still make the product today. It's
5:30very popular. It's actually going
5:31through a a rebirth of sorts right now
5:34and uh we're very excited about that.
5:36But it's it was the this eliminate coin
5:40concept. That was its number one goal is
5:43to get rid of quarters in the laundromat
5:46and um go to a prepaid uh card, plastic
5:50loyalty card, use a pair of kiosks. We
5:53call them exchangers, but they're
5:55essentially where you go to add cash, uh
5:58put money. At that point, there was no
5:59credit cards. it was just cash to card.
6:01Um and um and just eliminate coins. It
6:05wasn't eliminating cash. That's
6:06something people sometimes get a little
6:08confused by. We're not eliminating cash.
6:10Um we're just eliminating coins and um
6:12with that product. And so that's that's
6:14where it started. Um, and it was, uh, as
6:18I mentioned earlier, the gaps that I
6:21identified early on before we created
6:24CCI were gaps that I think that other
6:27distributors also felt were in the
6:29market. And so, um, we were fortunate
6:32enough to not only build something that
6:33we could use in the Chicagoland market,
6:36but, uh, it didn't take long for the
6:37word to get out that there was something
6:39else available. And so we we introduced
6:41it to other distributors like um ours in
6:44other parts of the country. Um and so we
6:46we were able to start to build a
6:48distribution network that way. Um but CC
6:51at the time it was just me. Um and uh
6:55and and and with help of the of a
6:57development company. Our development
6:58partner did all the software
6:59development. I'm not a developer um of
7:02any sorts. More of a designer of
7:04anything. Um, and then, uh, it probably
7:07got to about 50 installations before I
7:10realized I needed help. I would build
7:12every system. I assembled every kiosk. I
7:15delivered them. I installed them. Uh,
7:17then took the support calls after the
7:19fact. And, you know, it's how bootstrap
7:21companies operate. You guys know that. I
7:23I heard your your podcast and know that,
7:26>> you know, it comes from, you know, you
7:28do what you got to do with what you
7:29have. And that's what we had. So, um,
7:32>> so we did that and then over the years
7:34you you go from one employee turns into
7:36two a few years later and then turns
7:38into three and um and we're up to 34
7:42employees now. Um, yeah. Yeah, it's been
7:45um exciting to kind of watch it grow and
7:48and and now my son has actually joined
7:51the company which is really exciting.
7:53Um,
7:54and uh and so you know it it's just
7:57evolved from there. Um, laundry card is
7:59still again a product that we sell
8:00today. But we did find that around 20110
8:052011 there was some popularity around
8:07more the credit cards were becoming more
8:09and more of a common convenience across
8:12all retail spaces, not just not
8:14laundromats actually, but um everywhere
8:17else. And so there was an obvious uh
8:19trend to wanting to do more of a pay at
8:21the pump type of solution. So rather
8:23than using eliminating coins, maybe put
8:25a card reader on the machine that
8:27allowed you to use your credit card at
8:29that time is just swipe your credit
8:30card. You swipe your credit card and go.
8:32>> Um and so um we took the you know the
8:35the first chunk of our experience and
8:38said what would we do differently if we
8:39were to build a new system? Um, and that
8:42turned into FastCard, um, with the the
8:44the layer that you could keep your
8:46coins, but also accept credit and debit
8:49and loyalty card and a bunch of other
8:52payment options, uh, without eliminating
8:54coin. Um, so Fast Card launched around
8:562012 and very popular product again
8:59today. It's been through many
9:00iterations. Um, you know, and so, so
9:03that's Laundry Card versus Fast Card.
9:06And um you know it's we do have an issue
9:09with um some of the branding of the
9:11products cuz people just know us as CCI
9:12and and actually we've kind of leaned
9:14into that in the last few years and said
9:16yeah it is they do have names but we're
9:18happy if you just say you have a CCI
9:19system we'll figure it out.
9:21>> Right. Right. That's what I'm always
9:22trying to you got CCI. Okay. Yeah.
9:24>> We know Steve. We all know Steve. Now
9:26what which system is it? But I I've
9:29heard a lot recently about Flex Card and
9:32I think that's something that
9:33>> that you guys have kind of leaned into
9:36more recently. Can you explain what that
9:38system does compared to the other two?
9:40>> Yeah, Flex is actually uh a variant of
9:44Fast Card. So um it really can be
9:47bundled in with Fast Card. Um when we
9:50first launched the idea, we actually
9:52actually called it Fast Card Flex. And
9:55the idea behind it was that you could
9:58basically have all the functionality
10:00people liked about FastCard, but you
10:02didn't have to accept coin because
10:03FastCard was was designed to be a work
10:06with coin solution, right? And so when
10:10we started emptied out those coin
10:12vaults, you know why you might not want
10:15that.
10:16>> Exactly. And so we and so we decided,
10:19well, people want the fast card product,
10:21but they don't want the coins to be part
10:23of the equation. And so we branded it
10:25fast card flex. Um but then people got
10:28really confused. Again, this goes back
10:29to this communication of all these
10:31product names. So the the word fast card
10:34just confused people. They thought, "Oh,
10:36that's with coins though, right?" And
10:37I'm like, "No, this is a version." So we
10:39just dropped the fast card part of it
10:41and we just call it flex now. And and
10:43actually we've expanded to call Flex RF
10:45because it uses a uh RFID based loyalty
10:48card. But it's it's a contactless um uh
10:52uh card system uh loyalty card system
10:55forries. Um because it came from the
10:58roots of fastcard, it can support coins
11:00if someone wants to do coin and loyalty
11:02card, but generally the implementation
11:04is no coins. Um and um and so it's
11:09essentially it's a version of fastcard.
11:12>> That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. No,
11:13that makes a lot of sense. I appreciate
11:15you explaining all three products to me
11:17like that because I'm I'm you know I've
11:19talked to a lot of people that have had
11:21all all the different products but I've
11:23never really truly understood them as
11:25well as as you just described them. So
11:27that's great. And um we have you know we
11:31started in 2016 right so I remember even
11:34in those very early days we had a lot of
11:36customers with laundry card and that's
11:38been a
11:39>> uh a system and a a product that we've
11:43really had um positive feedback from uh
11:46you know our customers that have it they
11:48because you just ask them oh well how do
11:50you like it you know what I mean and
11:52most people
11:53>> uh tend to really enjoy that product and
11:56we have some people with fast cardart as
11:58Well, but I think we did a survey and I
11:59think our our laundry card users were
12:02quite a few more laundry card users than
12:04we have of the the fast card. Um, and I
12:07think that that makes sense when you
12:09really have tried all the different card
12:12systems
12:13to really kind of funnel them into a
12:16kiosk where they load the card. There's
12:18a lot of reason that makes sense for the
12:21float,
12:22>> for the trans the processing fees,
12:25right? There's a whole whole thing you
12:26could get into about why that that
12:30structure does make a lot of sense for a
12:32lot of people and um so okay well um our
12:37system works with your system.
12:39>> Mhm. I know the advantages, but I would
12:41love to hear from you when people are
12:44like, "Well, do you work with wash dry
12:46fold poss?" How do you answer that? What
12:48what what in your mind is kind of the
12:51the reason that that our two companies
12:53have worked together and have built this
12:55bridge between the two?
12:57>> Yeah.
12:59So, if I was to back up even further,
13:01probably even before you guys um came to
13:04the market, we had a point of sale
13:06system. Uh CCI actually made a point of
13:09sales system and it was I made is a
13:12loose term. We were basically rebranding
13:15something. Yeah. We sold one and and we
13:17kind of customized it a little bit to
13:19kind of tailor to the laundry space. Um
13:22and and branded it, you know, as a CCI
13:25point of sale system. Um and we sold it
13:28for a number of years. Um and it did
13:31okay. I mean the you know I think when
13:33you guys entered the space there was way
13:35more energy around the idea of of
13:38automating that. So maybe we were a
13:39little uh a little early but but it
13:42didn't take long for me to realize that
13:44a point of sales system is a different
13:46animal than a self-service
13:49payment system which has been our focus
13:52you know since day one. and the the
13:54level of of customer support um uh is
13:59just different, you know, and um it also
14:03was really tough to get technical
14:05support people. They had a lot they
14:07already had to know a ton when it came
14:09to the self-service side of things, but
14:11then to add a whole layer of point of
14:13sale um imple you know all the nuances
14:16of running a self a full service
14:18business. So we we decided to to end
14:21that and and I think even before you
14:23guys joined we basically were out of
14:25that that business um at that point and
14:28it made more sense to me to to lean into
14:31the companies that were already kind of
14:33focusing on that. So you know there's
14:36what's the term you know uh you don't
14:37want to be a master of uh you know an
14:40expert at at everything. You can only
14:42>> jack of all trades, master of none.
14:43>> Jack there you go. Thank you. Jack of
14:44all trades, master of none. And I think
14:46I I came to that realization a few years
14:48into that project and and realized that
14:50there were people were doing a better
14:52job of this and unless I was going to,
14:54you know, just completely uproot
14:56everything that I knew and go another
14:57direction. And we had barely tapped
14:59into, I think, the opportunities that
15:00existed in the self-service side. So
15:02why, you know, why, you know, I got a
15:04lot of gray hair already. I didn't need
15:06any more gray hair to get into it any
15:08further. So you know, you guys had come
15:09on. There were um um and and there was a
15:12lot of interest there. So
15:14>> it just made more sense to build a way
15:16to have the point of sales systems tie
15:19into the laundry card system at the
15:21time. Um and so we had kind of an early
15:24uh integration available that has
15:26expanded quite a bit more recently. Um
15:29but that was kind of the the the start
15:31of it is just realized that we it
15:33doesn't make sense necessarily to have
15:35everything go through the same company.
15:37Um you guys are experts at point of sale
15:39and everything you know revolving around
15:41that. we feel like we're the experts on
15:43the self-service side. There's no reason
15:44we can't work together. You know, that's
15:46kind of what started it.
15:48>> I agree 100% on what you're saying. And,
15:51you know, when we, of course, from the
15:54point of sale side of things, people ask
15:56you, well, what what card system do you
15:58use and what do you recommend? And
15:59there's always that conversation of
16:01should we get into this self-serve side
16:03of things? And then it's like, well,
16:06Steve's got 34 employees doing it and
16:09he's done it for 20 years. Do I think we
16:11can do it better than Steve and his
16:13team? No. Like we're already very very
16:18busy with the point of sale. And we do
16:20new features on our point of sale system
16:22like every week, right? There's a new
16:24update, there's a new report.
16:26>> We pushed a big one today. I mean,
16:27that's it's always being improved.
16:30And to not only keep all the customers
16:34happy and service all the customers but
16:35also to add all the things they want, it
16:38takes a tremendous amount of focus and
16:41we even um I think even more than the
16:44cart systems people would ask us for
16:46websites and we even sold websites for a
16:48while and I know some of our competitors
16:49do that
16:50>> as well or they pay someone to do it is
16:52really what is happening there. Um, you
16:55know, I remember we used to sell a
16:56website for like three grand and then it
16:59was something for hosting and then um I
17:02ran into a company that just does
17:04websites for Launch Mat Suds Digital and
17:06and I you know paid them three grand to
17:09do my website. They did it better than
17:12our websites. And I was like, "Okay,
17:13we're not doing websites anymore."
17:14Because like, why why try and compete
17:17with someone who
17:18>> that's all they think about? You know,
17:20when I'm
17:22>> trying to get to bed and I can't get to
17:23bed, I'm thinking about laundromat point
17:25of sale. You know what I mean? I'm not
17:26thinking about laundromat websites or
17:29self-s served card systems. I'm thinking
17:30about how do we make our product better
17:32and and our processes better and our
17:34redundancies better and and all that.
17:37So, um, one thing you mentioned that I
17:40wanted to kind of dive into a little
17:42bit, there really is, and I I've
17:45explained this probably a thousand times
17:48before, so we we'll see how I do this
17:50time, but there's really two levels of
17:52integration
17:54with a point of sale system and a self-s
17:56serve card system. And when I say
17:58there's two levels of integrations, I'm
17:59not just talking about or two companies
18:01together. I'm talking about the broader
18:02industry. All card systems, all point of
18:05sale systems,
18:06>> level one integration or what we would
18:09call a payment integration that's been
18:12around for quite some time,
18:14>> right?
18:14>> Um, and that is if somebody loads their
18:17money onto that card. So, they go to the
18:19kiosk, they put money on, and it doesn't
18:21have to be Launch Card, it could be
18:22other systems as well. Just and it
18:24doesn't have to be our point system,
18:26could be other systems as well. But if
18:27you have that payment integration, what
18:29that means is when somebody runs out of
18:31soap or they need to buy something at
18:34the register, right? They've got to go
18:37and here's my laundry card and okay,
18:39great. Here's your soap and I can just
18:41charge the account balance on the
18:44laundry card. So, I can accept laundry
18:46card as a payment. And that's that's the
18:48um integration that has been around for
18:51a long time. the integration that we
18:53built with you guys recently and that we
18:55were so excited about because most of
18:58the people just think when they hear
18:59integration they think oh that means I
19:01must be able to start the machines from
19:04the point of sale system right
19:07>> and until recently that was not the case
19:09that was an integration that nobody had
19:11and um you know we we've built it now
19:14with most of the providers um but you
19:17were pretty early on in that process and
19:20um it works with most of your systems
19:23out there. Can you get a little bit into
19:25the nuance of the ones because we might
19:27have some listeners that maybe have one
19:28of your systems from 20 years ago or
19:30something like that? What
19:31>> what do you need to have that on the
19:33CCIS side of things? What do you need to
19:35have that ability to just start the
19:37machine on on our point of sale system
19:39for example?
19:41>> Yeah, so the the more advanced
19:43integration uh you know we branded it uh
19:46wash dryfold Prolink. This is a way to
19:49say it's a you know it's a it's a much
19:50more in um advanced integration between
19:55point of sale and CCI and today it's
19:59only available on our fastcard platform.
20:02So that would be fast card and flex and
20:04so flex and fastcard both have access to
20:07this um new uh API set you know an API
20:11is just a way for you and I to talk to
20:12each other our two systems to kind of
20:14work together. Um, yeah. And so it was
20:17really just again leaning in harder. I
20:20mean, obviously we we all have
20:21competitors that are doing different
20:23things. And since I don't want to build
20:25a point of sales system and you don't
20:26want to build a payment system, then we
20:28should make the two systems work as
20:31seamlessly together as they should so
20:33that our mutual customers can pick the
20:35best payment system and they can pick
20:37the best point of sale system and feel
20:39comfortable that they do what they
20:40should together. And that's really where
20:43where Prolink um came from. And it and
20:46it was a kind of again revisiting the
20:48way that we were dealing with um who
20:51could start the machines and how are we
20:53going to keep track of it. How are we
20:54going to make sure things are safe and
20:55how are we going to make sure that we do
20:57all the things that people don't realize
20:59we have to do today and make sure that
21:01if wash fold wants to start the machine
21:04that we also keep them protected and all
21:06the things that go along with making
21:07sure machines start the right time, the
21:09right way. the all the mechanisms that
21:11go in there all in place. So, so that
21:14was kind of the the birth. You guys
21:15dived right in uh when we exposed the
21:17the documentation and expose the API. Um
21:20we certainly have um uh plans to bring
21:24the same thing to Laundry Card. Um it's
21:27probably a little further out. We're in
21:28a I mentioned it's going through a
21:30rebirth right now. Laundry Card's going
21:31through. Um there's there's some real
21:33technical things that are different
21:35between Laundry Card and Fast Card that
21:36make it a little more challenging and
21:38that's what those are things we're we're
21:40kind of changing with Laundry Card right
21:41now. So um so once the next iteration of
21:44Laundry Card launches a little bit later
21:46this year, it'll open up the door to be
21:48able to bring the Prolink feature over
21:50to the Laundry Card product as well.
21:53>> I think a lot of our customers are going
21:54to be excited about that because we have
21:55a lot of diehard Laundry Card is what
21:57they use.
21:58is what they
22:00>> want that Prolink functionality or the
22:02you know the machine start functionality
22:04on their card system. So that's even
22:08news to me. So that's really exciting
22:09that you guys are going to do that. I
22:10think a lot of people are going to
22:12>> like that. And what we've seen with the
22:15machine start integrations that people
22:16like is you can kind of like you were
22:19saying make sure that they start the
22:20right machines for the right reasons.
22:22you can kind of keep track of like they
22:24don't just have a a card with an
22:26unlimited balance. They can actually
22:29say, "Okay, I need to start a machine."
22:31Okay, but for which order? And it's
22:33actually tying the machine starts to the
22:35orders. And then of course on the back
22:38end, all of our our system will give you
22:39a bunch of reporting on the ratios of
22:41>> okay, they did, you know, $1,000 worth
22:44of wash dry fold. They should have
22:45started $350 worth of machines, that
22:48kind of thing. Mhm.
22:49>> And so I think that's why um this this
22:54more like you call the pro the pro
22:57integration or this second level,
22:59however you want to call it, the new
23:00integration I think
23:01>> um has been pretty well received from
23:04from the industry broadly and
23:06>> people like it makes them feel better
23:08and you know it is you can just keep
23:10track of your machine starts a lot
23:12easier um in that way. So I've got a fun
23:15question coming up for you.
23:18I'm trying to ask this to everyone. What
23:20is the craziest thing
23:22>> you have ever seen? And and you've been
23:24doing this a lot longer than I have. So,
23:26I want to hear the number one most nutso
23:28thing that just really stuck with you
23:30>> that you're just like, I can't believe
23:32that. Like, who would have thought?
23:35>> Yeah. There I you know, you you kind of
23:37you prepped me with that question, so I
23:38had to think about it a little bit. And
23:40and the good news, uh the good good the
23:42good news is is that um
23:46good news or bad news? I ask you any way
23:48you want to take is that there hasn't
23:49been anything terribly crazy, you know,
23:51that's happened, but I can go one or two
23:52directions with it. There's there's like
23:54a positive thing that I've seen and then
23:56then there's like more negative type
23:58things that I've seen that I would be
23:59considered to be crazy. Sure. Sure. I
24:01mean, I I think the negative one is is
24:04more along the lines of what many people
24:06have experienced um at one point of the
24:08which is, you know, the vandalism that
24:10goes into some of these stores. I you
24:12know, stoers have camera systems. I
24:14remember you and u Brian talking about,
24:16you know, a breakin that you guys had at
24:18some point. Um kind of few.
24:20>> Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, that's
24:22something that we just deal with as a
24:23business owner. There's obviously
24:24things, but what I was shocked by was
24:27getting, you know, video CCT camera
24:29video of the breakin and the entire
24:32event and just the level of commitment
24:35that uh that they put in. I mean,
24:37really, literally going into the store,
24:39taking a laundry cart out of the store,
24:40going to their truck, putting the oxygen
24:43and acetylene torches in the back of the
24:45laundry basket, rolling the baskets
24:47inside, going up to the the kiosk, which
24:49are all steel, they're like a big safe,
24:51and just slowly cutting away the door um
24:55at the Yeah. And you can see cuz there's
24:58a camera on the inside of the office
25:00which the kiosk's back into and which is
25:03closed and sealed, but you can see the
25:04little gaps where where sparks are
25:07basically flying out of it. And you
25:09know, obviously they eventually got the
25:11thing open. I mean, you there's not much
25:13anybody can do about cutting through a
25:14with a plasma torch or a settling torch.
25:17Um, but once you open once you've done
25:19that, put that much heat onto anything
25:22almost everything inside is incinerated,
25:24including the money, you know. So, I
25:26mean,
25:26>> they should burn up the money.
25:28>> I mean, it's gets so hot, you know, you
25:30end up with just this molten lava that
25:32just spills all over everything and, you
25:35know, it causes way more damage than is
25:36actually stolen out of the machine and
25:38then all the downtime and the recovery
25:40efforts and then dealing with insurance
25:42and all of that. But,
25:43>> if you're
25:45a thief and you're listening to this,
25:46>> Yeah.
25:47>> every laundromat that gets broken into
25:49>> thousands of dollars worth of damage,
25:51>> they never get a dime. you know, they
25:54never get any money.
25:56>> And man, do they mess stuff up. They
25:59really mess it up.
26:00>> Yeah, it's really nuts. Really nuts. And
26:02then on the more positive side, Yeah. I
26:04mean, it's just, you know, it's just the
26:06things we deal with. Um the more on the
26:08more positive side, it's probably more
26:09from a marketing perspective. I'm always
26:11amazed and shocked and just
26:14>> um at how how creative people are um in
26:18their marketing efforts. And this is a
26:19few years ago before Fast Card um where
26:22a store owner down in um in the Florida
26:25market um had this idea and he was sold
26:29on doing it and I wasn't so sure but he
26:31was sold on the idea that he was you
26:34know he had it was a big store and just
26:37like a lot of traditionally laid out
26:38stores there's big banks of of rows and
26:41you know being in the business you know
26:43that the machines closest to the dryers
26:46are the ones that get used the most. I
26:47mean it's just the That's just the, you
26:49know, human nature. Yeah. The proximity
26:52to the dryers. Those are the machines
26:53that get loaded first, which means you
26:54have kind of an imbalance of wear and
26:56tear on the center machines, you know,
26:59on the row. And so he had this idea of
27:02doing what we called a red dot special.
27:03And he just literally went and had these
27:05big red circle labels made and stuck
27:09them on all of the center machines and
27:11all of his rows. And then he priced
27:14those to be different on certain days of
27:17the week. So weekends everything was the
27:18same cuz it was a full packed house
27:20anyway. But in instead of doing
27:22something like where you would lower the
27:23price of the whole store like on a
27:25Tuesday night or a Wednesday when you're
27:26just trying to maybe attract a little,
27:29you know, attract some of the weekend
27:30business into the midweek. He would just
27:32he would do that, but he would he would
27:34only do it on these red dot machines to
27:37help offset some of the wear and tear.
27:39You know what I mean? So if you were
27:41coming in on a Tuesday or a Wednesday,
27:43great. you're going to get the little
27:44bit lower price, but we want you to use
27:46the ones in the middle. And he was very
27:48successful at doing it. I thought it
27:50was, you know, there was a not not that
27:51it was crazy, but I thought that was
27:53really unique, you know, and again,
27:55>> he was rotating his tires.
27:57>> Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what he was
27:58doing. And um you know, and again, I
28:01haven't seen a lot of that since then.
28:03there's a little extra management
28:04involved in making sure that when you
28:06change the price of the the non- red dot
28:08machines that you got to make sure you
28:10change the red dot machines as well or
28:11you could have some there's some
28:12discrepancies in there but um but you
28:14know it's just the creat creativity that
28:16I've seen people do. I've seen put them
28:18card readers and all kinds of different
28:19kinds of equipment that's not laundry
28:21equipment, pool tables, video games, you
28:23know, all kinds of different vending
28:25stuff. Uh door access. There's just all
28:27kinds of creative things that people um
28:29will think of to put a you know dog
28:31wash. Now, we got people put them on dog
28:33washes and uh you know, vacuums uh that
28:36they have outside their store to vacuum
28:38out your car and never never the
28:40intention of any of these devices, but
28:42people aren't deterred. They're very
28:43creative and and so that's that's
28:46exciting to see and it's fun to watch.
28:49Yeah, I I do feel like I spend like I
28:52don't know maybe 10% of my time that I
28:55talk to laundromat owners. I'm just
28:56trying to talk them out of something
28:57just totally bonkers that I know won't
29:00work that is just like they're totally
29:02reinventing the wheel. That idea you
29:03told me is actually pretty good. I
29:05actually like that one. But but I've
29:06heard some really bad ones. And it's not
29:09that like
29:11>> it's not that it's not smart or that
29:13it's like oh, you know, I'm not trying
29:14to insult them in any way. It's just
29:16that yeah, I've I've seen laundromat
29:19owners do that and there's a reason why
29:20laundromat owners don't do that because
29:22it always, you know, there's a there's
29:24some negative thing, you know, but um
29:26that's a really good story. I actually
29:28>> had something similar that Brian and I
29:30were talking about. So,
29:32>> you've got the the value ad centers,
29:34right?
29:35>> And the value ad center closest to the
29:38machines gets the most use,
29:40>> but then they run out, right? they run
29:42out of space or if it's a bill breaker,
29:44the bill breaker runs out of bills first
29:47or whatever it is. And so, um, you know,
29:51if you look into like all the
29:52psychological subliminal marketing, like
29:54they've done experiments of like if you
29:57have like a blue photo that's like
29:59soothing over one value ad center and
30:03then if you had like a red photo that's
30:04maybe like more disturbing, people are
30:07going to prefer the blue one. And so I
30:08thought about like posting just art that
30:11is just like subliminally like kind of,
30:14you know, or do you just do you just put
30:16like a green sticker on there? Like why
30:17is that green sticker on there? I don't
30:19know, but it's there. That one doesn't
30:21have the green sticker, so the one with
30:23the green sticker.
30:24>> Do you know what I'm saying? Like just
30:25trying to
30:26>> That would be interesting. I' I'd love
30:28to hear the results of that experiment.
30:29That is uh it would be very interesting
30:31mind uh uh mind. It' be very interesting
30:34psychology if you guys are successful at
30:36that. I want to know this.
30:38>> Yes. As soon as I can figure out exactly
30:39what the experiment is, if it's a
30:41sticker, if it's artwork,
30:43>> I thought, you know, I take a lot of
30:44photos of birds and so I thought I'll
30:45put like a really good photo of a bird
30:48over the one we want you to use and then
30:49the one that like
30:50>> gets overused, we'll do like a hawk or
30:52something that's less appealing to
30:54people. And
30:55>> I don't know, we'll see. But it's it's
30:56essentially the same thing of trying to
30:58get into the psychology of people. But
31:00um but using the discounting is is very
31:02interesting. So that's that's a that's a
31:04great one.
31:04>> All right. So, uh, I think we kind of
31:07covered what, um, you know, well, I
31:10guess I think what's most exciting about
31:12the CCI product roadmap to me is this
31:15laundry card integration coming up.
31:17That's super exciting. Is that kind of
31:19what you're most focused on right now,
31:20too, is this laundry card rebuild on on
31:22kind of your product roadmap in the next
31:24few years?
31:25>> Yeah, hopefully not a few years. It's
31:27actually something we've been working on
31:28for a few years already. So, we're
31:29coming hopefully kind of to the tail end
31:31of it. So, you know, the the intention
31:32is to get it out this year. Um, and it
31:35comes in a couple different layers. One
31:36is there's there's new hardware. So,
31:38there's, you know, hardware is is is
31:40challenging. You know, you got to really
31:42commit hard when you go to tooling and
31:44design and um, you know, we make all of
31:47our own hardware, which is really
31:48unique. We don't buy hardware from, you
31:50know, third parties and then
31:51>> I didn't know that.
31:52>> Tweak it. Yeah. We still make everything
31:55local to us uh, in the just within 20
31:57minutes is all manufactured locally. I
31:59mean, we truly a made in USA branded
32:02product. I mean it's
32:03>> that's the Chicago area, right?
32:05>> Yeah.
32:05>> Is that where you're at?
32:06>> Yeah. Yep. Yep. And um and so the
32:09laundry card system is getting a new
32:10kiosk. So the payment center and we call
32:12them exchangers. It's the next
32:14generation of that and um and which will
32:17have a just a really more um a really
32:20expansive um and involved user
32:23experience that I'm really excited. We
32:25kind of had a demo of it at the clean
32:27show this year to give people kind of a
32:28sense of where things are headed. And
32:30then the other layer of that is, you
32:32know, is the AI component of it where
32:34it'll have an AI agent uh that
32:36essentially runs in it that can answer
32:38and deal with questions live right on
32:40the kiosk through natural voice and uh
32:43and language that way. So you'll be able
32:45to walk up to the kiosk and talk to it
32:47and it'll answer all of the questions
32:49that you would normally get and uh
32:51actually do stuff with your account that
32:53um that you would normally expect the
32:54manager to do. Um, and so we're we're
32:57working on ways to have that be have the
33:00right guard rails and have the right
33:02guidelines so that um, the store owner
33:04can kind of dial in what they're
33:05comfortable with and what they're not.
33:07Uh, in this, you know, nobody everybody
33:09who owns a laundry, you guys certainly,
33:11you know, love getting that phone call
33:13when you're having dinner with your
33:14family at 6:00 on Sunday because because
33:17someone wants 50 cents refunded back to
33:19their card, you know, um, for something
33:21that they just cannot wait for. And um
33:24you know the idea was why can't why
33:26can't the system just do that for you
33:28and do it under the same guidelines that
33:30you would do and that's the whole idea
33:32is you know having AI somewhat replicate
33:35you a little bit at least some of the
33:36thoughts um about how you would deal
33:38with the situation and there's no reason
33:40with the technologies available today
33:41that can't happen. So that's that's a
33:43big big part of it. And then and then
33:45again we will be able the the new
33:47platform will be much more supportive of
33:49like the wash dry link functionality
33:52that we we talked about.
33:54>> I think that's huge. I think that's
33:56really an interesting thing. And you
33:59know there is like this um component of
34:02I feel like any any company that is in
34:06the public space or that is beholden to
34:10any kind of um investor or outside
34:13investor. I feel like they've been kind
34:15of forced to shove AI in places that it
34:19doesn't necessarily belong. But I feel
34:21like the way you think about your
34:22company and and probably the way we
34:25think about ours more as well would be
34:27like, well, we're going to own we've
34:29owned this company for quite some time.
34:31We will likely own it for quite some
34:33time still. There's no reason to try and
34:36push AI where it doesn't belong.
34:38>> And that kind of gives you a chance to
34:40step back and say, well, where would it
34:42actually belong? Where would it actually
34:45be helpful? And we've actually done some
34:48of the same implementation that you've
34:49talked about here as far as um you know
34:53if you have a problem with the point of
34:55sale system that's just like a real
34:56basic like how do I add a coupon? I I
34:58forget. They told me in training, but I
35:00don't know what. And so you go on our
35:01support page and you ask the AI, how do
35:03I add a coupon instant step by step with
35:05the screenshots and all that?
35:07>> And that's a place where like that kind
35:10of customer service layer where it
35:12actually does make sense in a
35:14laundromat, right? Um I know there was a
35:19not to get into uh industry gossip, but
35:21I think this is confirmed, so I think we
35:23can talk about it. Did you hear about
35:24the um the AI company that went out just
35:27recently like Laundry AI or something
35:29like that? It was the um
35:30>> Yeah.
35:31>> Yeah. I guess they you know they tried
35:33to push a certain AI narrative and it
35:37turns out there was not a lot of demand
35:38and there is a lot of expense and so I
35:41do think I guess my point is that's an
35:44advantage of um running a company for
35:47the customers and not for everyone else
35:51is that you can better implement uh
35:53technologies that come along to actually
35:55help people instead of like how are we
35:57going to change the game here and it's
35:59like well maybe you don't need to change
36:00the Maybe you just need to prevent those
36:03those calls at night when you're trying
36:05to have your dinner. Like maybe you just
36:06need to
36:07>> just make what's there just a little bit
36:09better and a little bit easier for
36:10everyone. So
36:11>> that's really good. Um so how do
36:14customers or listeners of this uh
36:16podcast, how do they find out more about
36:18their products? How do they get the
36:20quote on their laundromat? What and why
36:23and how?
36:24>> Yeah, I I mean it's very simple. Uh
36:26laundrycard.com is probably the easiest
36:29way to get a hold of us. all the contact
36:30forms there. Um, all of our numbers. If
36:33you prefer phone, I I would start at
36:35laundrycard.com. We're on all the social
36:36channels, Card Concepts, um, CCI or Card
36:40Concepts, one of the two. You'll find us
36:42on uh, you know, LinkedIn, Facebook, all
36:44of the We're on Tik Tok, Instagram, all
36:47of the YouTube, all of those things. So,
36:49there's lots of good information there.
36:51But, but I believe in and and people,
36:53too. So, we have a great sales team. We
36:55have three people on our sales team a
36:57all aside from myself. So, give us a
37:00call and uh we'll be happy to guide you
37:02towards what we think is uh a good fit
37:04for your for your business and uh you
37:07know, that's what we're here to do every
37:08day.
37:09>> Excellent. Thanks so much, Steve. I
37:11really appreciate you joining us today.
37:13And uh as you heard, go to laundry uh is
37:16it launderard.com?
37:18>> Yeah.
37:18>> Yeah, go to laundry.com. Easy. Check it
37:20out. Thanks, guys.
37:22>> Thanks, Ian.

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