Josh Melton on Growing into Service at Easy Lift Door Company – EP.295

(00:00:00) – Intro
(00:00:53) – Getting into the garage door business
(00:02:42) – Joining during the 2008 recession
(00:03:50) – Lessons from the recession
(00:04:54) – Modernizing operations as president
(00:05:04) – From paper tickets to digital systems
(00:08:37) – Building a company truck fleet
(00:10:44) – Expanding into home service work
(00:12:36) – Customer service training challenges
(00:14:38) – Learning from In-N-Out’s efficiency model
(00:20:00) – The failed pit crew experiment
(00:26:32) – Service truck design: pickups versus vans
(00:28:56) – Building a marketing strategy
(00:30:59) – AI and the future of local search
(00:32:48) – Growing pains across multiple locations
(00:42:07) – Succession planning across generations
(00:44:19) – Closing

Josh Melton: So one of the ideas we had back when we were a little bit smaller and had a little bit more room in our warehouse was this idea of almost like a pit crew on a race team, right? The truck would pull into our shop, and we’d have a warehouse team ready to go with exactly what they needed for the day and load it up as quickly, as efficiently as possible, and then have them drive out, get a check, and then on the road.

Sounded great in practice. I was like, “Oh, this is awesome. This is gonna speed things up. This is gonna be really, really good for Easy Lift.” But then when we tried it, it just wasn’t working. We just couldn’t get it down, whether it was missed parts, the wrong door. Everybody was so focused on the speed aspect of it that little details were getting missed.

Alex Bridgeman: Josh, thanks for hosting me and having, uh, to be on the podcast. How did you get into this?

Josh Melton: Yeah. Like most people in the, the garage door space, it wasn’t my dreams or aspirations to end up in the garage door industry, right? Really happened through family. Kevin, my uncle, took over the business from his dad.

EasyLift was started back in 1984. His dad, Mike, started the business, got his big break with one of the builders in the area, and then Kevin came along, took over the business in 2008 and started recruiting me. I was fresh out of college, trying to figure out what I was gonna do. I was doing some retail management at the time.

What’d you study? I studied just to get my degree and get out of college. Right. So I have a degree in interdisciplinary studies. Graduated from a s- small private Christian school up in Portland, your neck of the woods. Yep. And yeah, from there, graduated, got into retail management. They wanted me to move up to Canada and run a store up there.

And at the time, Kevin was calling me about coming to work in Sacramento. So I told him, “I’ve got no interest in garage doors whatsoever.” But he was persistent and said, “You know what? I don’t want you installing, I want you in the office, and I want you to learn the business. I want you to work side by side with me and learn it from the ground up.”

So, you know, took my time, reflected on it, decided, you know what? I think this is the best move. That was 18 years ago, and started answering the phones, marketing, warehouse, you name it, I was doing it. And eventually ended up in my role as president. I believe that was back in 2020. And here we are now in 2026, EasyLift Door.

Alex Bridgeman: What was most nerve-wracking early on in coming into the business? First starting off not really caring about garage doors. Yeah.

Josh Melton: At that time in 2008, early 2009, I mean, we’re still in the recession. And coming in, it was a bit nerve-wracking to see other employees be let go because we had to downsize, and I’m the new guy that’s family sitting in the corner at a desk watching this happen and getting the dirty looks as they leave as to, “Hey, why did you get hired, and I’m, you know, now on my way out?”

But that was a learning lesson in it, in and of itself, right? You know, Kevin was up against some really difficult decisions to make, but had to be made, and he bet on me to come in and work alongside him. And from that- Having just one location here in Sacramento, we’ve grown to three total. One in the Bay Area, and then one in the Reno market.

And so to be a part of that growth has been really special to look back on, to see where we were and where we’ve been, and how much further we could go.

Alex Bridgeman: What lessons do you feel like you, Kevin, and the business learned in that ’08, ’09 period?

Josh Melton: Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest lesson we learned is how much the relationships that his dad and then Kevin had built, especially with the builders in the area, mattered.

It was a difficult time for them, it was a difficult time for all the trades, and those relationships that were built prior to that kinda carried us through that time. And I got a really good look at that as, you know, learning how these new construction, new builders bid their work out, really seeing the ins and out of that, and how much those relationships matter with the purchasing managers and the purchasing agents at these divisions at a local level.

And they did a great job with that. I mean, a few of them still meet up with Mike, a few of them still check in with Kevin to see how he’s doing. And so just that idea of relationships and how much they matter was huge through that time

Alex Bridgeman: What do you feel like has been most notable as a change to your operating ethos since becoming president of the business?

Josh Melton: Yeah, I mean, when I first started, we had a scheduling room. We didn’t even have anything digitally on a computer screen. It was an actual room with foam, yeah, foam cork boards that paper tickets were printed out and thumbtacked to the wall with locations of where that work was going for the day. So that was when I started.

You know, fast-forward till now, we’re using a program called ServiceTitan, which most in this space are gonna know about. And just to, to see that evolution has been just crazy, right? From paper to digital to iPads coming into play, that’s been really neat to be a part of. So that wa- that was one of the easy ones to see right from the start.

It was like, “This has gotta change.” I mean, I knew enough in the retail management side, they were light years ahead of this already. And so-

Alex Bridgeman: Even in ’08, ’09, like you, as a, parting wonders with a paper and pen process.

Josh Melton: Yeah.

Alex Bridgeman: Like, what was, at that time, what was the alternative to use? Was there something that was actually useful software-wise in 2010, or?

Josh Melton: Yeah, I mean, right around that time, it, it really started to change, right? A lot of the, the conventions or the shows we were going to, there were kinda startups in the trade space that were looking to partner with garage door companies, HVAC, plumbing, you name it. And so we were able to make a n- connection with one called Door Pak at the time, and I’m not even sure if they’re still around.

If they are, that’s great. They were great for that time of our business. And so that was one of the things I noticed right away coming in was, “Hey, we’ve gotta change this,” because paper tickets, handwritten notes, checking guys in the next morning, you know, them coming in with… There it is. There it is. Door Pak’s still around.

Good for you guys. Yep But that needed to change, and so we took that on. We were able to partner with Doorpack, and they were a good program for us at, at the size we were and scale, you know. And that really started to change everything, right? Because you start to look at the modernization of what we were, you know, trying to do as a business, as a team.

And so, you know, from there, you know, we went to looking at does having our own fleet of trucks make sense? Because at the time, everybody had their own personal truck that they were working out of. And so that was a big change and shift in philosophy of what we were doing. How we ordered, it was very much call in your orders to these manufacturers.

A lot of them weren’t, weren’t working off computer systems or programs that we could log into and place our orders. So that changed quickly right around that time. So, you know, felt like it was definitely an interesting time to get started, but also a good time ’cause you could see where it was, but where it was heading, and honestly, where it still has room to go into.

I feel like we’re still a bit behind other industries in our technology and how we think about things. So I’m excited for the next five to 10 years, especially with AI coming into play, how that’s gonna work You know, I, I think we’re definitely protected. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s ever an AI robot that’s programmed to install garage doors.

Yeah. It wouldn’t surprise me, but i- it’s been a journey for sure just to see where we’ve been and where we’re headed on the tech side in particular.

Alex Bridgeman: Yeah. That would be interesting to see. H- how many trucks do you have across the-

Josh Melton: Yeah, right now across all three, we’re running 35 trucks.

Alex Bridgeman: 35 trucks.

Josh Melton: Yeah.

Alex Bridgeman: I’m curious ’cause we had Dustin Winter on the podcast just recently, who runs a Metro Garage in Minneapolis. He’s got about a sim- I think a similar number of truck. Uh, he has a full-time guy on staff who just focuses on maintaining. He’s a, he’s a mechanic, like- Yeah … he works on their trucks, and eventually it made sense for them to h- just hire someone- Sure

to fix vehicles and be the fleet servicer for their trucks versus continuing to just send them to the local shops that, you know, sometimes were busy or couldn’t get you on time or, you know, raise prices and everything else.

Josh Melton: Totally, yeah. I see that as, you know, an eventual next step for us as we continue to grow.

I mean, that makes a lot of sense to bring that in-house and have somebody service and maintain those vehicles for the team. Great solution to that problem as you grow.

Alex Bridgeman: Do you have a, do you try to keep a consistent fleet type, brand or model?

Josh Melton: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we like the Toyota Tundras. The Nissan Frontier works for us as well, but if we had a choice, it’s usually that Tundra.

It’s a good size for a lot of our guys. Can still get the rack on there and be able to, you know, reach those higher heights that these garage doors get stacked to. But those have been good for us. And then, you know, just also with a fleet, right, that branding out on the road, right? We try to wrap them. We have specific wraps for our service trucks compared to our new construction trucks.

New construction trucks are mainly just logo and, you know, the basic information. From the service side, right, that matters a little bit more of just what’s out on the road and showing up to these homeowners’ homes. They wanna see a professional, you know, uniformed look from truck to tech showing up, right?

Alex Bridgeman: Yeah. Did it make sense to eventually wrap the construction ones or install ones?

Josh Melton: Yeah, I mean, I think since they’re out on the road, you know, it makes a lot of sense to have that same look. I think that’s something we’re looking at as we continue to grow out and understand both sides of our business now, right?

The new construction and the home service side. They’re very different, and the home service side for us is A newer venture within the last two years, right? We’ve always done the service work, right? We’ve got over 40 years of EasyLift garage door stickers, and, you know, the thousands and thousands of homes that we’ve installed.

So we always did the work, but it was never a priority, right? New construction took so much of our time. And so, you know, in the last two years, we’ve been able to really put a focus on growing the service side of our business and been able to bring in Kevin’s son, Elisha, to our team. So again, the next generation in here in the garage door space.

Once you’re in, you never get out. And so Elisha’s locked in, but he’s doing a great job growing that side of our business and, you know, really looking at it as its own arm, right? It operates much differently. New construction is all about schedule, logistics, volume. The home service side is customer service, you know, showing up to help grandma when she’s stuck in her garage and, you know, trying to get to her church event.

She needs you there right away, and she needs somebody that she can trust. Yep. She’s not a GC. She’s- Yep … there’s a, there’s a very different personality. Very, very different personality. So it’s been fun, and it’s been energizing. Honestly, coming out of COVID, I didn’t know if this was gonna be the right space for me moving forward.

That took a lot out of me, as it did a, a lot of others throughout the construction space. And bringing Elisha onto the team and, you know, taking on this home service initiative inside EasyLift has been energizing and just a breath of fresh air to be excited about, you know, where we’re headed as a team and a group.

Alex Bridgeman: What has been some of the biggest learning curves in that transition to being more of a service business over time?

Josh Melton: Yeah, again, they’re very different, right? And so I think training, for one. Training on the new construction side’s fairly straightforward, right? You learn the technical side of what it is to install a garage door and opener, you know, make sure it’s running smoothly, and have a good relationship with the superintendent on each job site, right?

Make sure those remotes are delivered, they’re happy, door got installed, onto the next one. Service side, much different, and the skills needed rely heavily on customer service The ability to talk to a customer, to make them feel comfortable with you inside their home, working on the largest moving part on their house that not a lot of people think of until it breaks.

And when it breaks, it’s the biggest thing that happened in your day, whether your car’s stuck in the garage or a number of other reasons, right? A lot of people use that as their front door now. It’s just in and out of the garage multiple times in a day. And so that customer service piece is massive. And so really trying to do our due diligence on understanding The customer service side of the space, learning from others has been huge.

You know, making connections with others that have done it well, learning what we can from them, and then learning what we can learn from other industries. I mean, just think about the fast food space, right? Whatever Chick-fil-A’s doing and In-N-Out are doing, they’ve got it. They’ve got it dialed in. And so, you know, trying to learn what we can from them and implement it into what we’re doing here at EasyLift has been fun to, to learn and, and understand.

So definitely the training piece has been kind of a new space for us there, so.

Alex Bridgeman: Being in garage doors for 18 years, when you go through the In-N-Out line, what are you noticing that, you know, I, I would probably miss?

Josh Melton: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s the efficiency, right? I mean, I think prior to In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A, everything, every order was being taken at the box or the window.

They’ve got employees out there with an iPad running down the line to take your order car by car by car. Just that efficiency, right? And so what can you learn from that in the garage door space? Well, to me, the efficiency in loading up for the day, right? If your warehouse isn’t organized in a way that makes sense, and you’ve got guys taking multiple steps in the morning to load up a truck that maybe is taking them 40 to 45 minutes, well, can we cut that, cut that down to 15 to 20 minutes, right?

So that efficiency model, definitely pick up on that, you know, as I’m looking at other spaces.

Alex Bridgeman: Yeah. You’ll like talking to Alex.

Josh Melton: Yeah. Like I mean, Jordan Impact He’s got it down. Yeah. I’m very excited to talk to him. Yeah.

Alex Bridgeman: Michelle and I lived in Boise for a couple months at one point, and while we were there, they opened the first In-N-Out in Boise.

Josh Melton: Yeah.

Alex Bridgeman: And it actually went viral for a few days because the, it was in this large shopping mall, and they used multiple parking lots as staging lots. Yeah. The cars funneling into the drive-thru, and they had a drone fly over and everyone made fun of it. But what was amazing was when we got there, if you stood in line, it was like 30, 40 minutes, you were fine.

Sure. But we would talk to them as they– ’cause there’s people there standing around helping you, like if you wanna get a T-shirt while you’re waiting in line, that sort of thing. And it turns out there’s this team at In-N-Out whose entire job for the couple months prior and after opening a new location is their entire job is just making sure new locations open smoothly.

Josh Melton: Yeah.

Alex Bridgeman: So the beforehand, they will focus on working with the city on traffic, getting sure the sign works, the lighting and fryers, like everything’s functioning. All the people are hired, and they’re trained. And then once it is open, making sure line and traffic management are going well, the T-shirts are for sale in the right way.

You know, for initial like couple weeks of ordering and like, you know, getting new people brought in, it’s all working and functioning You know, bathrooms are getting cleaned, like, and, and then they go off to the next one. Uh, their entire job is just like this SWAT team that just hops around to every new location starting up.

And it was the thought that was such a unique level of specialization that not only do I specialize in, like, running In-N-Out, but just the opening of them, of a new location. I thought that was so unique and I, I still think about that all the time. Like, what is the– what are, like, the specific roles you train that are– you’re designed for to make sure this, like, very delicate process, like, make sure it just goes well?

Josh Melton: Well, and I think there’s so much value in actually seeing it live and in action, right? Because a lot of what we do here, you can explain it, and you can put it in an email, or you can take whatever approach, and in your mind you’re like, “Oh, this makes total sense. They’re gonna get it, and it’s gonna go perfect.”

Well, no, it actually didn’t, and here we are, and we’re trying to fix it and work through it. But when you actually get out there and physically show them how a truck should be loaded or how we want the warehouse set up and explain the reasons behind it, it just lands so much better. So that idea that In-N-Out is, you know, this special team that comes in, and this is the way we run an In-N-Out, and if you run it this way, it works.

No questions asked. Here we go. And then all these new employees come into that system. They physically see it happening day to day, hour by hour, and then that’s all they know moving forward. They don’t know anything else, but this is how In-N-Out operates. And so that’s another thing, you know, trying to glean from what these other companies are doing well is that exact model here, right?

Show it. Show it in action because anybody that we bring in new only knows it from that forward. Now, one of the issues with that is everybody before, right? Because we’ve got employees that have been here ten, fifteen, twenty years, which is amazing. So thankful for that. It means we’re doing something right too.

But they’ve seen us through the good, bad, and the ugly, right? And so they know when it was paper tickets. They know when it’s been ServiceTitan. They’ve seen it all. And, you know, there’s a bit of a learning curve there of like, “Well, we’re used to doing it this way, and now they want us to do it this way. I don’t know if I buy that quite yet,” right?

And so you gotta prove it-

But also be open to feedback because that feedback from those employees, those team members that have put in the time year after year here are so important, right? And so really taking what they have to say to heart and being open to the criticism, the, “I don’t get this. I don’t think this is a great idea.”

Uh, really hearing them out, right? Trying to understand where they’re coming from, and so I think there’s a lot of value in that, too, of, you know, being, being open to what your employees are seeing in their day-to-day. ‘Cause their day-to-day is so much different than mine, right? And so their, their perspective and, and feedback is extremely valuable.

Alex Bridgeman: What are some things that y- w- you maybe implemented that like, oh, wait, maybe that’s not the greatest idea, or like that flopped or didn’t work out or-

Josh Melton: Yeah. Yeah. So, so one of the ideas we had back when we were a little bit smaller and had a little bit more room in our warehouse was this idea of almost like a pit crew on a race team, right?

The truck would pull into our shop, and we’d have a warehouse team ready to go with exactly what they needed for the day and load it up as quickly, as efficiently as possible, and then have them drive out, get a check, and then on the road. Sounded great in practice. I was like, “Oh, this is awesome. This is gonna speed things up.

This is gonna be really, really good for EasyLift.” But then when we tried it, it just wasn’t working. We just couldn’t get it down, whether it was missed parts, the wrong door. Everybody was so focused on the speed aspect of it that little details were getting missed. And so we’ve been able to adjust that, right, from the original idea to what works for us now.

But definitely that was one of those ideas where you’re like, “Oh, I just solved it. Here it is.” They’ve been missing this forever. This is gonna change EasyLift, you know-

Alex Bridgeman: Yep …

Josh Melton: from here on forward. And yeah, that did not work, so.

Alex Bridgeman: So how’d you modify it? Like, what’s the version of that today?

Josh Melton: Yeah, so the version of that today is the guys, you know, arrive in the morning, all their work is already uploaded onto their iPad through ServiceTitan, and so they’ve got an idea of what they need to load up on the new construction site for the day, right?

And so they’re partnered with one of our warehouse employees. Everything’s organized by manufacturer, size, series, model, right on down the line. They know where those areas of the warehouse are. They’re able to load up with help on their truck, and then once they’re loaded up, they get what we call a load check before they leave to where they have a second set of eyes to make sure that nothing’s missed, from the style of door going out, to maybe the window insert that’s needed for that garage door.

Maybe it’s a strut, maybe it’s the spring. Somebody to just double-check their work because any time you gotta deliver something on the job site, it’s a loss, right? So you wanna make sure they’re leaving with everything they need for the day and that it’s 100% accurate. So it’s a modification of, you know, that original idea of the pit stop, pit crew coming in and doing that quick load, to where now we’ve got it down to a really good system to where they’re in and out in, you know, 15 to 20 minutes on the road onto those job sites to, to get to where they need to get.

Alex Bridgeman: Nice. Well, I like that second set of eyes.

Josh Melton: Yeah. It, it matters for sure. And I mean, sure enough, they’re catching things, right? Guys, again, that have been here 20-plus years, right? You’re loading up, you get sidetracked into conversation with, you know, one of your teammates, and you grab the wrong thing. It happens, right?

So if we can catch that and cut down on those mistakes, it makes a huge difference.

Alex Bridgeman: And are most trucks laid out in the same way? So if they’re looking to make sure you have rollers, they look in the same place in the truck regardless of what truck it is?

Josh Melton: Yeah. Yeah, so our new construction trucks are set up a little bit differently.

They’re, everything they tech take out for the day is gone by the time they come the next morning. Now, they have some additional parts on their trucks if something breaks on site. Some of the more frequently used items on a new construction job site, they’re gonna have those. But for the most part, that truck’s empty when they come in the next morning.

On the service side, those trucks are stocked with specific items that are needed for those types of jobs, and those trucks, like you said, are, okay, this is the space where the springs go. Here’s our rollers. It’s laid out to where it makes sense for that side of our business.

Alex Bridgeman: Gotcha. And then, uh, in thinking about, like, vehicles, do you find that the, because construction you know exactly what you’re installing that day, exactly what parts there are, there’s no excess-

Josh Melton: Right

Alex Bridgeman: so you don’t need as much weight. Your vehicle’s probably more efficient Whereas thinking about a service van or service vehicle, like you don’t know what the issue is, you need to stock up a whole bunch of stuff. There’s a, there’s an HVAC friend who’s done a couple podcasts talking about Ford Mavericks in his HVAC business.

Okay. And they only stock it with diagnostic, like, equipment and- Oh … testing stuff. But that’s mostly because for every job they go to, they almost always need to go back to the shop because every home has slightly different size piping or tubing, or the sink is different, or the toilets are different, whatever.

And so you need enough, you just need enough to figure out what’s going on, then you have to go back and get your stuff. So the Ford Maverick works. But with garage doors, and I was talking to someone at breakfast this morning about this, like there’s a, there’s enough standardization that it’s kinda worth having everything on one vehicle.

Josh Melton: Yeah.

Alex Bridgeman: I’m trying to get a sense for like w- where, where our owner’s philosophy is, like running a service vehicle to balance not having to go back to the shop as often while also being somewhat efficient as possible.

Josh Melton: Yeah. I mean, I think there’s your standard stock that are kept on the trucks that can handle a majority of any service call we get, from a broken spring to, “Yeah, my door’s stuck, it won’t open.”

For the most part, we can carry that on a truck, no questions asked. We’re, we’re gonna have something to, to figure out that problem. Our CSRs do a great job of trying to diagnose the problem over the phone as well. So if there is something special that one of our techs may need that they don’t carry on their truck every day, they can take it that morning and have it ready for that specific job.

But our goal is to show up one time, take care of the job the first time, do it right, and have everything that’s needed for it. But yeah, there’s definitely standardization of the parts and pieces that are needed. And since we’re, you know, newer to this home service space, one of the things, you know, that we’re exploring in discovery phase right now is, you know, just the benefits of a pickup truck versus a van, right?

You know, we see a lot of vans out on the road as service vehicles, and there’s a lot of great reasons for it. And so we’re looking at, you know, pros and cons of each, and I think that’ll be another step in our evolution as we grow that side of our business out is, you know, trucks versus vans.

Alex Bridgeman: What’s the initial pros cons list look like?

Josh Melton: Yeah, I mean, the pros is right, it’s, it’s honestly a, a, a moving billboard, right? You’ve got a lot more space to- It’s a sale. Yeah, to showcase your brand, your branding. You know, it looks impressive when it shows up at a customer’s house Space and security, right? All those parts are saved inside of a van as opposed to, you know, your truck work boxes and inside the cab

Alex Bridgeman: Less cluttered too from the outside.

Yeah. Has… There’s nothing generally… Like, there’s some stuff over the top, but not all the parts aren’t exposed.

Josh Melton: Right. Right. So, you know, those are some of the pros. Some of the cons, right, on a truck, you’ve got that rack. Let’s say one of our service techs has more than one door install for the day. Well, he can load up two to three, you know, sometimes four garage doors on a rack.

For a van, you lose a little bit of that, right? I’ve seen some where they can get panels and sections inside of a van, usually on a single size door, right? It’s a little, yeah, a little tighter space. You know, so that would be one of the cons on our list, at least as to why, you know, we’d stick with trucks.

Now, obviously, the, the, uh, solution to that is, you know, you have a mix of both, right? A lot of the calls we’re going to aren’t necessarily a change out, as we would call it, right? To where they’re taking their old door out and putting a new one in on the first visit. But it could turn into that, right? And if it does turn into that, we can logistically inside schedule one of our trucks to take that door out and install and take care of that customer that way.

Alex Bridgeman: Yeah, that makes sense. I, I’m a big aviation geek and so- Yeah … I like following airlines. We all know, like, the Southwest Airlines, like, everything is a 737 forever and ever. Everyone’s trained for that. We have all the parts for it But a lot of other airlines, like most other airlines are- have all kinds of aircraft for different routes and different equipment.

Some routes are thinner than others, but you still wanna service them. Others you could put, you know, a bunch of A320s all day long. Sure. There’s plenty of capacity. So, like, there’s a, there’s still value in having… because much standardization is, like, great, and there’s benefits to it, but, like, there’s still value in having, like, the specific equipment for this job- Yeah

or this type of service or this location with that. There’s value there.

Josh Melton: Definitely value, yeah.

Alex Bridgeman: Because you were historically construction focused, does that mean that marketing is a fairly new muscle or was there marketing along the way?

Josh Melton: Yeah. I mean, there was, there was marketing, but it was very minimal, right?

I mean, we did, you know, some fun things with the local news station of, you know, the ugliest garage door contest, right? Where viewers would send in pictures of their garage door to the local morning show, right? Nice. And then we got to choose the ugliest garage door in Sacramento, and then they did a spot on site at the homeowner’s house when we changed it out and put a new one in.

Like, that was really fun, right?

Alex Bridgeman: Alex literally did that, and we talked about it on our- Yeah … podcast.

Josh Melton: Okay.

Alex Bridgeman: So again- There you go … still, like, talking about

Josh Melton: it. It works, yeah. So that was a fun one, but in terms of, you know, a marketing strategy or plan, we didn’t have much, right? So it’s newer in that sense, and I’ve really learned a lot over the past year and a half, two years, just with what Elisha’s been able to bring to the table with his knowledge, and then we’ve partnered with an outside marketing firm that’s kinda helped us with our social media and some of our marketing efforts in that space.

You know, on the Google side, it’s been a bit of a journey for us to get approved through that. I don’t know if that’s a similar story that you’ve heard, but for a business that’s been around for 40 years, it’s like pulling teeth to get, uh, Google to recognize you, so. Yes. So that’s been a, a challenging one that we’ve been working through, but we’re almost to the finish line on that.

And so, yeah, I would say in the last year and a half to two years, our idea of what a marketing plan or strategy is has completely changed and has been fun to see that put into practice.

Alex Bridgeman: There’s, there’s horror stories of- Yeah … people, owners sitting there like, “Why is the phone not ringing?” And they go to Google themselves, and then they’re not there.

And like, “Oh, shit.”

Josh Melton: Yeah. Yeah. This is a problem. We need to fix this. And so, yeah, that’s been definitely one of the, the, the biggest challenges for us in that space right now.

Alex Bridgeman: Yeah. That’s a big one. Have you played around or followed anyone who’s looking at how AI is affecting searching for a business or a, a service provider?

Josh Melton: I just recently saw, like, a reel on Instagram about that. Is it

Alex Bridgeman: Ryan out of Atlanta?

Josh Melton: It might have been.

Alex Bridgeman: Aaron? He’s, he’s done, he’s talked a lot about it at Torsion Talk on his podcast. Okay. He’s talked a lot about how AI is affecting how consumers find garage door IS.

Josh Melton: Yeah, it’s very interesting. I mean, it was a quick clip, but it got me thinking like, oh yeah, that is something that eventually we’re gonna need to address because I can see how you would just go to your AI model of choice and say, “Hey, who’s the best garage door company in the Sacramento area?

Give me the top three options.” And then, okay, here you go, top three, right? And how do you end up in that client’s results, right? So, yeah, I don’t know really anything about it, but I think that’s the next level.

Alex Bridgeman: I mean, that’s, that’s the next thing Rob and I are gonna have to, like- Okay … chat through, is like how does- Yeah

how does that affect how you write a website? Right. How you organize your marketing. And, you know, even maybe even how you ask for reviews. Like, there’s a, there’s a value to recency, like having the latest review be from, like, yesterday. Yeah. Or, like, this week to show that your business is, like, an ongoing thing.

Right. I would assume AI is reading your reviews to figure out, okay, they haven’t had a review in, like, four months. Like, they may or may not be there anymore. Right. Don’t know what’s going on. But hey, this guy was, this person posted a review yesterday.

Josh Melton: Yeah. Great experience yesterday. Yeah. No, that’s very interesting.

Alex Bridgeman: What are some of the growing pains in having multiple locations? Especially in- Yeah … you know, a different state. You got Reno and-

Josh Melton: Yeah. I mean, they all bring their unique challenges, right? The first one for us was the Bay Area, and for us, it was an opportunity with a large builder that needed some support.

We felt like we could provide that support. And so we signed up for that opportunity without even having a physical location in the Bay Area to start. That’s how it works. That’s how it works, right? So we made it work through Sacramento. A lot of hotel stays for our guys, a lot of meals out. But they were troopers, man.

They made it happen. And so we got our feet wet. We were like, “You know what? This is gonna work for us.” We found a physical space down there that we could warehouse and store product. We have a manager now that runs that location. But just trying to understand how to make your way into a market, especially in a builder, from a builder’s perspective, and be successful, right?

Because I feel like in the builder space, they either have their trade partners that they trust, and if you’re new to that space, they don’t know you from Dan in a van, as you put it earlier, right? And so that was a learning opportunity for us, is to understand how that process works. And so that was definitely a challenge from the beginning with our Bay Area location.

Now, for Reno being in another state, that brought its own challenges, right? The licensing, insurance, everything that went into that. But we were able to navigate that with some help from a friend in Nevada that could walk us through it. We found our physical space there, and we’re able to replicate what we did in the Bay and here in Sacramento with that same model on the new construction side.

So each market has its own unique personality. You know, the Bay Area is very different than Reno, and Sacramento is unique to both of them as well. And so understanding that, too, how the builders work and how the h- uh, what the homeowners want. Bay Area, much more tech-forward, right? So they’re looking for the camera on their garage door opener.

They’re looking for the camera on their keypad to where maybe your customers in Sacramento and Reno, that’s not as important to them. So it’s been interesting to see how that plays out as well.

Alex Bridgeman: What’s been, like, the set of reactions for cameras on openers?

Josh Melton: Yeah. I mean, I think overall, especially for the younger generation of homeowners, has been, “This is great.

I can check in anytime I want.” Especially with, you know, some of the other features like Amazon Key delivery and, you know, some of the big box retailers that can deliver inside a garage. They get it. Older generations, eh, a little more hesitant to it. “I don’t need a camera on my opener. It’s worked just fine for the last 30 years.

It does the job. I’m good,” right? So yeah, there’s some unique set of perspectives on the tech side of, you know, the garage door openers right now.

Alex Bridgeman: We’ve got a new house in Wilsonville, and it has, I think… I don’t know if it has the camera, but I know it has Wi-Fi enablement. Yeah. Which I think you can connect to Amazon and open it up.

I’m curious to try- Yeah … at some point and figure that out. I like the idea of being able to, like, have packages get dropped in inside the garage. We do have to lock the garage door, like the actual door to the house- Mm-hmm … the main door. So we’re figuring that out, but there’s nuances to it.

Josh Melton: Yeah, definitely.

Well, I know for me, on my personal home, I use the app to open and close it when I get home. I don’t even have a remote, right? So, you know, I’m using the app and it’s got the camera. I can see, you know, when my kids are coming, coming and going. If they’re playing out front, you know, you can check in on them if you’re, you know, inside in the, or in the backyard barbecuing, right?

So some nice, neat little features that have, uh, come along in the last few years.

Alex Bridgeman: For the… Are you rolling out the service side across all three locations, or are you starting in one, figure it out, and then roll out to others?

Josh Melton: Yeah, very good. Very good question. So the initial idea was to roll it out in Sacramento, fine-tune it, get it to where we want it, and then take it to our other two locations, right?

So we’ve slowly started to do that in Fremont at our Bay Area location. Reno will follow. And so the idea behind that was, hey, let’s test it. Let’s beat it up here in Sacramento, figure out what works, what doesn’t, before we go out to our other locations. And then with that, if there’s opportunities to expand outside of those areas, whether Southern California or other markets, then we’ll have that model, EasyLift’s model of what a service business looks like.

Alex Bridgeman: Got you. Got

Josh Melton: you there.

Alex Bridgeman: Like what, what have been some of like the hiccups in the rollout that’s been– that you’ve been running into?

Josh Melton: Yeah. I think the hiccups in the rollout would be the leadership structure of the home service team, right? Because when you’re starting up small, it’s just a couple people.

But as you grow out that team and you have multiple techs in that department, you now need some type of quality control or field manager over that team while still having somebody look at, you know, the bigger ideas and bigger direction of that service team and where we wanna take it, right? And so understanding that has been a bit of a challenge, but we’ve been able to navigate it fairly well with the experience we have on the new construction side of understanding what it takes to be a good manager over a team of installing techs, right?

So we’ve been able to borrow some of those things from it, but tweak it to where it fits the service space. I think another challenge or hiccup in the rollout would be the pricing structure, like what we work under, right? Whether it’s commission or a base pay rate hourly. We, we spent a lot of time on that trying to gather as much information as we could from others, and landed on a model that works for us in the stage we’re in now.

I think there’s still room for adjustments and fine-tuning as we learn more, but that’s definitely been one of those challenging areas that is much different compared to the new construction side.

Alex Bridgeman: What feels like the right balance for commission and base pay at this point?

Josh Melton: Yeah. I think right now the right balance is an hourly rate that sustains a tech if they have a bad day out in the field, right?

I still know that they’re gonna be taken care of and can make a living on the wage they’re being given. And then the commission is just built in on top of that to where it gives them incentive to go out and have these conversations with homeowners, the customers, on educating them what they may not know about the garage door space.

Our goal is definitely not to be the company that goes out there and tries to walk out of that garage with an absurd number for a spring change or telling them they need everything replaced on their garage door when they really don’t. Like, honesty and integrity is really important to us here at EasyLift, and so that’s gonna run through our home service arm, that our techs are doing the right thing by the homeowner.

They’re bringing them information on an inspection report that tells them, “Hey, all these systems are working how they should, but I did notice that, you know, A, B, C. Your opener’s 15 years old, it’s working great, but we are, you know, running a special on belt openers right now. You know, it’s up to you. I’ve got it with me.

If not, no problem.” Right? Just giving them options and letting them choose at the end of the day. It’s never forced. It’s, “Hey, here’s what we have to offer. If you’re interested, great, and I can do it today. But if not, you have our number, we’ve got your information. Call us back when you’re ready and we’ll take care of you.”

Alex Bridgeman: Yeah. And so much of it is just explaining what all these parts do.

Josh Melton: Yeah.

Alex Bridgeman: And, like, what a nicer one means. Right. It means it’s quieter or it connects to your phone or your- Yeah … car, like, so as you drive up, within 50 feet it opens. Yeah. So this is like… I think we just don’t think about our garage doors that much.

Josh Melton: No, definitely not. And if, if we’re the expert going into that home, we wanna provide that knowledge to the customer to where we’re educating them with our visit there, right? Just like you said, if we can make that garage door open quieter, and they have a bedroom above that garage, and let’s say it’s your newborn baby’s room, and you’re leaving early for work, yeah, you want a quiet garage door.

Sleep’s important. Yeah. Like, get that sleep, right? So that’s us coming in, bringing value to the customer, and then learning something new that maybe they never thought about.

Alex Bridgeman: You mentioned succession planning is another part of, you know, what you’re thinking about with-

Josh Melton: Yeah …

Alex Bridgeman: with Kevin. Talk through kind of what that looks like today and what are the next, you know, couple years like for-

Josh Melton: Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I think with the succession planning, you know, Kevin’s experience with his dad was very different than how it’s working now, right? Mm. Like, when it’s your dad handing it to your son, you know, it’s kind of like that handshake agreement of like, “All right. Here you go, son. This is now yours. Take good care of it, you know, and we’ll figure out the details as we go,” right?

Well, in today’s world, it doesn’t necessarily work like that, and it needs to be thought out, right? You need to bring in a team around you of advisors that can walk you through that process. We’ve been blessed enough to have a great group around us, whether it’s through relationships and connections that we’ve built through the years or just referrals from others of, “Hey, this person knows this really well about setting up a buyout structure and what that looks like and how long it takes.”

And there’s so many ways that you can do it. It’s finding the one that fits, you know, what you want out of it the best. You know, Kevin’s been vital to this business for years. He’s been a mentor to me. Again, him being my uncle and this being a family business, there’s something to say about legacy, right?

Being able to pass it on to the next generation and see it succeed and to see it grow and eventually be able to pass it on to Elisha, right, his son coming into the business, a, a fourth generation that can take it to an even higher level, right? Like, that’s what we want for it. And so it’s been really fun to see how that process works.

We’re still, you know, learning as we go, learning new things every day about it. But the important thing is to surround yourself with others that have been through it that can kind of look out for everybody’s best interest, right? Because at the end of the day, we all want the same thing. We want EasyLift to succeed.

We want EasyLift to be something that lasts through the years and the generations and be, and continue to be a great company that people wanna work for.

Alex Bridgeman: I love it. Josh, thank you for coming on the podcast.

Josh Melton: Yeah. I had

Alex Bridgeman: a ton of fun.

Josh Melton: Thank you for the invite again. This has been great and yeah, excited to, to hear how this turns out.

Alex Bridgeman: Uh, likewise. Yes.

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