Welcome to Retail Checks and Balances, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the bustling world of commerce and culinary delights to help you grow your business and win. Join us as we explore the fascinating stories, trends, and challenges that shape the retail and hospitality industry, from cozy corner cafes to sprawling shopping malls and everything in between. And now, here's your host, Kevin Spencer.

Welcome again to Retail Checks and Balances. Today I'm with my great friend, Jason Bayliss, president of Great Lakes Data Systems all the way out in Detroit, Michigan. And we're going to talk about the buzzword AI, but he's going to put a different spin on it. He's going to talk about it from a support and whatever intelligence perspective. So Jason, welcome back to the show. Tell us all about that.

Kevin Spencer 

Thank you, Kevin. Good to be back. Fucking A. So yeah, so we were touching in Miami at your conference on the AI aspect. We all know AI is out there, right? That's the buzzword, the two letters, right? I mean, remember at RSP, I showed you that booth. They didn't even know how to promote it. They just had an A and an I cut out, right? That leads us back to what we were talking about at your conference, right? And there's a lot of customers that are thinking, well, what can I do? Let me get this. Can I get this to do that? Can I get this? Everybody's looking at it from the perspective of it's a program or it's a robot or it's an actual something, right? However, AI is only as good as what you feed it, right? So we know AI is like the universe. It's a big black hole. There's so much that you can do, right? And that's kind of what's scaring people right now of actually implementing it. So what I did here is The universe is filled with stars and planets, right? So all I did was capture one of them, right? I'm gonna start small with it. And the functionality of what I'm using it as, think of it as a tool. You're gonna, if I ask you something, you with your knowledge can reply with it, right? That's essentially how a human interaction works. So artificial intelligence, that's what the buzzword is, right? So, what I'm doing and creating for service and support is using our web of GLDS.net more of an interactive tool. Right. So, when you go there. You'll be able to place your service calls there, right? Versus the old way of just calling in, right? How does somebody really know what's happening when you just call in? It's just a one-on, one-off, right? You end up answering the same calls throughout the year if you look at it four or five times, because that's really all you have, right? So now you're going to go in there, you're going to place a service call. You're going to, you got a pin pad issue on lane one. Now. What I'm doing is I fed everything into how to answer these questions, right? The same knowledge that your staff, that my staff, that we were fed to of how we learn the software. I just feed it to the CHM report, you know, files. Did the same thing with the Toshiba check, right? And what that's doing now, so when customers are going to place calls, you're going to get basically immediate answers back of what to do and look at. Then with that, now I'm going to organize everything, all your calls. When you want to go back, hey, you got a new manager, how do I put in something? Well, the AI will be able to regenerate. You can type in you know, kind of like a knowledge base of your old tickets. And then the AI will come back and be like, here, here's what you do. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Right. So I'm looking at it as two folded, because not only is the AI going to help Great Lakes service the clients, but the same platform that I'm utilizing, they will be able to utilize to better serve their own stores and environments based on all of the tickets that they've ever asked and the things, so they're going to be able to have quick access and control of anything they've ever asked Great Lakes, right? So now my idea is with the AI is I'm going to give even more full control back to the store, right? Because all your service and support will be there at any time you need it. You can always generate more, right? So like, let's say you wanted to, you have questions on the feedback that comes back, then I have a number that you can call, right? And get even more in-depth behind that from the artificial intelligence. But all along, it's geared to support. Right? So, I streamlined the universe into the one planet, and I'm going to start there, and I'm going to see, well, how many stars and how many planets can I align with this feature? Right? But if I don't start somewhere, you're going to go down the rabbit hole of all the things you can and can't do, and you'll never implement anything. It's really that definition kind of like insanity, really, you keep going, it's like, well, what am I gonna do here? Well, I can do this, I can do that, right? And as you and I both know, we have some very technical friends in this industry that haven't done it, because of the vast universe of knowing, well, it could do that. That's, that's the difference. I stopped saying, and realize, well, it can do this, and then it can do that, then it can do well, wait a second, you keep doing that. It's a never ending rabbit hole because it can just keep going. So I always ask my customers who want this, they see this, they see that. Hey, it's not about what technology is going to do for you. What are you going to do with the technology I give you? Right. So now. That's how I'm. I'm like stopping this drive of AI's got to do that for their business. I'm going to give you AI for your business. But I'm going to direct it to exactly what you need for your business.

Jason Baylis

That strategy is awesome. And I mean, I love that. the passion that you put behind it, because you actually, as you said, using AI as a tool. Everybody talked about AI, and the first thing they talk about is what ChatGTP does. And that's not what true AI is. It's just an example of it, as you said.

But even with that, to get anything out of ChatGPT, you have to give it something. Exactly.

Exactly. And that's a good point. But what I want you to explain to me, and I'm just, you're just sparking plugs. The plugs are sparking in my engine. Is it based on the interaction between the customer and your solution? Is it also going to learn from those experiences with those customers and build a dialogue or database going forward?

Exactly, yeah. So you give it a starting base, right? And then each customer, as they interact more, right, it'll build up its database of knowledge for each individual customer, right? So you look at it as a global catalog, right? That each individual customer will break down and literally have their own agent working for them directly on just what they're doing. Right? You won't have some of the things that you and I have experienced where we have to, we'll call a group and we'll have to tell them where they need to go to support. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So This is going to give each and every Great Lakes customer their own custom experience with their own AI agent, right? So it'll be working and building around. So it'll say like, if you come back and say, oh, I got another pin pad issue, right? It'll go back and say, well, we had pin pad issue on lane one back on so-and-so, right? So it starts to learn your habits and your tickets. So that's how it can continuously support you, right? And it's not going to be like a vast Google knowledge base where now I got to churn all this data. from thousands of different areas, it's all gonna be directed towards what you're doing. So it's really cool that it can grab those pieces, right? So if customer A is only doing coupons, right? And then customer B is on a hosted environment, right? Well, those are two separate knowledge bases that they're working off of. They don't have to go through each other. So it's like a smart box in a sense. But what I did like about it is how it was going to continue to cater itself to each individual customer instead of a global round point. That was one of the things that I had to make sure that this wasn't going to do because it can't just be a generic encyclopedia, so to say.

So yes, I mean, I like that because each customer gets their own individual experience using the solution. So it's not going to be the same bland layout that's there.

Exactly right. Two different people can call in for the same thing or put in the same thing, but the agent will go through the history of those clients to respond in a more customized manner.

That makes sense, because the procedure will be different between those two customers. They might do things this way, and the other one might do this way.

Some guys are powered USB, some guys are RS-232, right? So all of these connections are, listen, this, for my staff, is no different than me telling a store owner that you're only gonna do your item file once, right? It may take you a while. You're organizing it the way you want it. It's it's it's everything that you need. Right. All the information you need. And you're only going to do it once. You know, and after that, you'll start to see the benefits of everything. So. It's a lot of work feeding it, but once you get there, it's cool. Yeah. Yeah. And then I separated it. Right. So I got like some people doing the software. I got some people doing the hardware. Right. and, you know, kind of just separate it and I split, you know, share the wealth, so to say. I don't inundate. Now, the way I sold it to the staff of doing it is basically water. I'm creating water cooler time for you guys. Right. That's what I'm doing. I don't want everybody here running around with chickens with their head cut off. I want you guys to come in here on a Monday and talk about what happened over the weekend and not worry about, oh, I got to get going. Exactly. But when you do that, I still got to service people. I couldn't do this 10 years ago, but I can now. I'm a big proponent on evolution. You're only going to survive by evolving, right? I'm a big Pearl Jam fan, and the music they put out today is not the same they put out in their first album. But there's a reason these guys are around for 30 years, OK? Because you evolve to stay relevant with the times. So I looked at this when you were back at my house a few months ago, and I told you what I was going to do. I'm gonna jump in, right? Because somebody has to do it. And in our business, it's like the NFL, it's a copycat league, right? So, and sure enough, soon as that word got out, you know, next thing you know, I'm talking to people about it, right? I told you how I hit that, one of our friends with that, and they were like, uh. You know, I wasn't just sitting on my hands, you know.

So what's the expression you use a lot? You're not waiting for the paint to dry.

Exactly right. Like, I don't know what people, you know, so.

Have you, have you, have you had any individual success that you would like to highlight? So like, have you tested this on a particular customer or have you tested this internally and got that positive feedback that you, you, you need from staff or customer, whatever the case is?

So I have a couple, um, Yeah, I have a couple of layouts that I would go and I would go to customers with. Here's how it's going to be customer facing from your desktop. Here's how it's going to be from your phone. And they're like, well, wait a minute. Now you've got phone ability to write. Also, it's like, oh, I forgot to place that service call before I left. Right. You don't have to wait till tomorrow. Right. Get on your phone. Do it. And then I start showing people, now here's the thing that really got some of the customers. We all do a maintenance program, we know that, right? I do mine in thirds. I got software, hardware, how much you use me, right? I've noticed this throughout the years. Cassie will come to and she'll tell me how many calls I got at each location, right? And that's how I'm deriving that portion of the maintenance. But I went to all these, I went to probably about 20 different customers talking about this. And they had some pushbacks, this and that. Oh, I kind of like calling. I said, yeah, but how about this? Every year we do this maintenance, right? I tell you how many calls you do. You're really just taking me at my word, aren't you? There's no recourse for you to see how many calls you do. So we go and we talk about, Why? It's the cost is what it costs. I go through stuff and but now you get to actually see how much you're using and you want to. The maintenance can be flexible, right? I've always told you guys this. I like that, right? So hey. You see that it's a little high this year. Well, there's all your calls. There's your volume. Now you know what to do for next year, right? What I can do with this. is most people aren't gonna probably take this approach, well, you're taking money out of your own pocket, right? But it's not always about today. Exactly. Because tomorrow will come, it's inevitable, right? So if I give the customer the ability to manage their money, right? And know what's a good working program as an independent, what kind of a better partner do you need than somebody who's actually looking out for you too? I'm going to give you a tool that you can monitor how much. We're the point of sale guys. You can't do anything without me, right? My stuff's not working, you can't sell. Exactly. But I don't want to be the dealer that takes advantage of that kind of stuff, right? And I want to show them kind of like what you said. I got customers that will buy from me, whether I'm here or if I went to and did this out of my garage. Right? Because it's that relationship you have. Right? So I want Great Lakes clients to know that they have a trusted partner that's always looking out for them. Right? Here I am. I'm going to produce this new program. I got customers of 20 some years from the old Great Lakes. Right? That have told me, you know what, Jason? I didn't have to spend this much before. But I'll tell you what, I also didn't get this much. So as an independent, you need a partner that you can trust and know that they got your back, right? There's so many of these, I call them shoe salesmen out there, right? Because they don't care about anything, right? They're just looking for their next dollar and they're not trying to help somebody. That's why when you go to my website, when you go to the GLDS.net, what's it say? Making a difference for those who make a difference, right? That's what we're here for. So when I start telling people about that, then they're like, okay, right? This isn't just a new tool for you, right? It's a new tool for everyone, right? So it's like, I'm going to make you change how you're used to doing it, but I'm going to show you that you might actually be able to save some money with me.

And that's the important thing, right? People want to save money, right?

Yeah. I mean, we're, I look at this, we're in the grocery business, right? We know all about credit cards and the points and the double points and all this other stuff that you can do out there, right? Our industry is still the only industry that people are trying to save money. That's why we have coupons. Correct. It's just how it works. You got 50 bucks. Yeah. Do I want to feed the family for tonight or do I want to feed the family for a week? Right. So I found that there's not enough people like us to help the small guys. Right. So true. So here I am. Yeah. I'm going to implement a new tool. It's going to be this, you know, Clients gonna be able to pay sooner, faster. Cashflow comes in as a business a lot faster and quicker. People tend to, I also saw this too. Guys are like, I mean, businesses aren't writing as many checks, right? They're writing checks once a week now. They used to write checks every day. Right. So it'll be like, yeah, this is they get it. Oh, yeah. We write checks here. You don't get it. OK, I get it. Right. Just go out online. You can, you know, part of this is you could set this up. ACH, your bank account, put your credit card in and get your get your points, whatever. Right. But when I institute this, then it's like I'm asking for something. So what am I going to give them? Well, I'm going to give you the ability to manage your account with Great Lakes. Right now, you guys just take me for my word. Great that we got a great relationship and that you trust me. But now just think about how much more you're going to trust me when you see that I haven't been screwing you for years.

They're going to blast off to an amazing customer experience with Great Lakes Data Systems.

That's what it's all about, right? We have to, as an independent, we have to capture fractions of pennies and They need to get people, right? We have to support them, right? So I took the time out and said, look, what do you guys wanna do as a company? You wanna continue to get more keys, right? Or do you wanna sharpen your tools and make the ones that we got even better, right? We got a lot of dirty cars out there, let's go wash them, make them look pretty.

You got to, you can't forget those older cars.

No, no. That's how we got here. We didn't have those old cars. We couldn't go sell new cars.

And I see there's an underlying thing here that you spoke of is it's you let customers make save money. Then they can use what they save to do something that they want to do. It could be expand their store, which will impact you, of course. Or I don't know, extra two lanes because their customers, their customer is growing customer. Yeah. Customers that come, you know?

Yeah. Same thing. Like I just had that, you know, he realized that, Oh, I don't need to sell the workstation. You know, I could use it. It's like, yeah, I'm going to swap off some scans to workstations. Right. Give you the best setup and solution. Right. Um, that's what I'm finding out is when we do this kind of stuff, Kevin, they're going to buy from you. Right. That's the entity. They want that. I mean, you can give them chutes and ladders for all that matters, right? But if you tell them it's going to work, they're in. Exactly.

And they know you're going to make it work. They know you're not a bullshitter.

That's it, right? So now you've got this repertoire with these clients, right? Now they, I mean, they're trusting me with their businesses, right? I mean, I'm not gonna do something I can't do, right? So now it's a sense of pride of like what I can do for these families, right? And as you've been privy to some, like, I mean, I'm doing side business with some of these guys, I'm doing, I'm invited to weddings and all kinds of events, right? That's not just because I do their point of sale.

No, that's because of the relationship. They trust you.

Exactly right. They trust me with their business. And now that's what I get up. And that's what gets me up in the morning to do, you know, every day, what we can do. That's why I'm so excited. That's why I was telling you about this. I'm like, yeah, you got to look, you know, take a look because I mean, you either are the, you know, the front runner or the follow.

Correct. You know, well, Jason, this has been awesome. I mean, as always, I enjoy your talks.

I mean, I love talking with you, too, my friend.

I'm sure a lot of people are going to be impressed by what's coming. And, you know, I'm happy to share this experience with you.

I'm excited, too. And I appreciate you taking the time to let me hop on here and pitch my thing to you and let you guys know what I'm doing. You've been a great friend and a great partner, and I love doing this stuff with you.

Any fucking time, dude.

You got it, my man. Ciao.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts, so we'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Until next time, friends.