The Human Code
The Human Code" podcast unravels the intricate blend of technology, leadership, and personal growth, featuring insights from visionary leaders and innovators shaping the future. Host Don Finley dives deep into the human stories behind technological advancements, inspiring listeners at the crossroads of humanity and tech.
The Human Code
Scaling Success: Ryan Mayes' AI Journey
Transforming Businesses with AI: Insights from Ryan Mayes
In this episode of The Human Code, host Don Finley speaks with Ryan Mayes, a turnaround specialist and innovation leader at fleet Corp, about his approach to integrating AI in business operations. Ryan discusses the importance of focusing on people, processes, and technology to create sustainable change. He explains how AI can enhance customer experiences, differentiate competitive markets, and drive long-term growth. The conversation also touches on the challenges of user adoption, the value of incremental improvement, and lifelong learning. Ryan highlights the significance of understanding customer needs and leveraging AI to augment, not replace, human roles in organizations.
00:00 Introduction to The Human Code
00:49 Meet Ryan Mayes: Turnaround Specialist
01:56 Ryan's Philosophy: People, Process, and Technology
02:59 Leveraging AI for Business Transformation
04:07 Challenges and Successes in AI Adoption
07:05 Future of AI in Business Strategy
10:01 Customer Experience and AI Integration
20:09 Data Management and Performance Measurement
24:45 Advice for Aspiring AI Enthusiasts
28:40 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Sponsored by FINdustries
Hosted by Don Finley
Welcome to The Human Code, the podcast where technology meets humanity, and the future is shaped by the leaders and innovators of today. I'm your host, Don Finley, inviting you on a journey through the fascinating world of tech, leadership, and personal growth. Here, we delve into the stories of visionary minds, Who are not only driving technological advancement, but also embodying the personal journeys and insights that inspire us all. Each episode, we explore the intersections where human ingenuity meets the cutting edge of technology, unpacking the experiences, challenges, and triumphs that define our era. So, whether you are a tech enthusiast, an inspiring entrepreneur, or simply curious about the human narratives behind the digital revolution, you're in the right place. Welcome to The Human Code. Today, we're excited to welcome Ryan Mayes, a turnaround specialist and innovation leader with a proven track record of transforming high risk operations into thriving businesses as vice president of professional services and operations at fleet Corp. Ryan oversee SAS delivery. And corporate solutions across north America, consistently driving growth, efficiency and customer satisfaction. In today's episode, Ryan shares his philosophy of focusing on people, process and technology to create sustainable change. We'll explore how he's leveraging AI to scale operations, enhance customer experiences and differentiating competitive markets. Ryan also highlights the importance of lifelong learning. Staying curious and adapting to rapid technological advancements to remain ahead of the curve. Join us for an inspiring conversation about leadership transformation and the practical application of AI and reshaping businesses for the future. Ryan, it's a pleasure to have you. And my first question is. What got you interested in the intersection of humanity and technology?
Ryan Mayes:I think my, philosophy in my professional roles has been to focus on people, process and technology. When it comes to strategic initiatives, strategic roadmapping, I've keyed in on those three areas. And I have also believed that They're not isolated. They're very much intertwined. When you focus on one, you're impacting the other two. And so I've had a lot of success in my career with, developing plans and developing a vision and strategy with an executable according to those three, main themes. And so I have always thought that. People or team members are aided or enhanced by using technology. not as a replacement of team, because I think ultimately whatever solution you're trying to solve, people in many organizations are considered to be, a competitive advantage. And so as you equip them with technology, not only are you enhancing their ability to produce or increase their productivity, but the outcomes or solutions of which they are providing either to an end user or to a customer are much more. And so I think in my journey through, continual improvements, Six Sigma and technologies such as AI, I think there are opportunities to, to be far more aggressive with finding new ways to do work, much more efficient and much more effective. And I think in my experience, within the last year and a half with AI, that falls right into my methodology that I've employed for many years. In that AI is not a replacement of a solution per se, but it's a wonderful tool to come to a more effective outcome quicker.
Don Finley:and I think it's a nice paradigm to hold that basically we're looking at augmenting what people are doing over the replacement idea And at the same time it comes back to this reflective point of when we're working on these things, we're working on them for the sake of ourselves. And I mean that not as a selfish endeavor, but in the endeavor of we're doing it to solve problems that we have today, or we're doing it to create something that we've imagined that doesn't exist today and To have tools like AI can be really helpful. in the last year, what have you seen as being the roadblocks to your own adoption or, the areas where you thought it was going to be super helpful and it, gave you pause.
Ryan Mayes:I think some of the roadblocks that I've seen is, is our team using the deliverables or the output? That I'm producing and that, that would be across the board on any initiative. But on, on this one, it's really changing the way that we work. Instead of allowing a team member or a salesperson or an end user on the operations group to solve the problem on their own, we're coming alongside of them and providing them with. Templates, articles, tools, new ways of working. And so user adoption, I think, is really key. I don't think you necessarily flip the switch overnight. To say, now we're going through a new paradigm change and we're going to work this way. But I think you have to see incremental change, and progress and communicate those short term wins. I've always been a big proponent. If you can't acquire transformational change and then at least try for incremental as opposed to doing nothing. I think some of the successes that I've seen is from a marketing enablement perspective, providing our team with far more, intimate and detailed information on scripts, playbooks, competitive analysis, landscape definition. It really enables them to have much more one on one intimate conversations with the customer that are more targeted and more pointed based upon who the end user of the audience really is.
Don Finley:And so I think you're using AI to help you to create some of these artifacts.
Ryan Mayes:Yes, because we went from, all right, we don't do much to now we've gone from, now we have a catalog or a library of content. And I think it's not to me, the part a, or the first part is, okay, now we have content now, what do we want to do with it? And I think, as I begin to take a look into next year, sort of the year two, It's really bringing all of that content into a framework of, this is how we work going forward. This is the strategy or, the real intent. In terms of not just what we use, but how we use it. And the end result is, a greater value proposition, customer conversation. it's more targeted, I think, going forward as opposed to, here's just a data dump. And I think that's some of the things that I'll probably key in on next year. to really key in on how we increase our user adoption and really increase our end results as well.
Don Finley:it's funny. So we were talking pre show about the crawl, walk, run. Kind of space, And what was funny is we were talking about how you're in the crawl space of Hey, we're going to figure out how we can utilize this. It's a lot of trial and error. It's seeing what sticks, finding the places where it does add value and you get more comfortable with the solutions, but then what you just described is you're preparing to get into that walk phase. of actually making targeted approaches and saying, Hey, if we apply it here's how we know we can gain some efficiency. And it's finding those three X use cases that enable you to grow. And so in thinking about 2025, what are some of the things that excite you about this, like technology option that is, coming to play? what are some of the questions that you have there as
Ryan Mayes:I think when I begin to consider what's next year, you mentioned, crawl, walk, and I know we talked about that. Pre show. I'm a firm proponent of transformational change. I've been in situations in most of my roles and most of my career where you don't have the luxury of time to scale an operation, to develop a vision that has some type of, of an aggressive, 18 month roadmap, you've got to, you've got to move forward and prepare teams for. Significant scale and scope, full well knowing that they're not prepared for either one. Because I've worked in many organizations in many roles where there are hyper growth. Environments, double digit growth year over year. it would be very easy jokingly to say, you know what? I'll just shut this department down for two years. We'll retool and we'll start back up. No, you have to do that while the bus is moving down the road and the wheels are turning. Now that's a very daunting, thought. If you've never been in that environment before, but as I've matured throughout my career, I love those environments because it's a wonderful opportunity. You know what? We're going to develop a plan. we're going to really improve our team members experience by focusing on people processing technology, like I said, and within the current company that I'm in now, I do believe that using AI going forward as part of who we are and what we do, that I think is the key going forward. It's not just what I'm doing. Leading a particular core function within a business unit. It's more or less transcending to, what merchant services as a real opportunity to differentiate itself in the marketplace, not just in terms of its value proposition, but how we work, in terms of developing that value and what we do with it to really provide. More intimate and more sophisticated solutions to solve our customer problems. And I think that's where AI really comes into allowing us to scale more into that transformative effort. Like I mentioned,
Don Finley:and coming into like the merchant services space, as an industry, there are a lot of solutions in the merchant services space for anybody who's taking payments in any form or fashion. And so like to be able to both the services in new, innovative ways, but additionally to help the customer to understand those services. cause it is somewhat daunting. I spent some time in credit card. What's it when you actually create the credit card? I worked for Barclays for a while. we put credit cards on vending machines and help build like Coke's platform as well. And so I've seen it from number of angles and the complexity of the solutions that are available through your business. And that type of solution can be daunting for a customer, but then also understanding it on a monthly
Ryan Mayes:it really is. we're more or less working with the retailer or the company, the organization, but there is a customer front end component. the customer is I'm purchasing fuel. I'm purchasing a product, and I'm swiping my card and then I'm leaving. But that's not the end of the organization's responsibility. There's the entire receiving of that payment. And then there's the, all of the reconciliation and settlement post transaction, the customer is long gone. and so what we try to focus on is more of that end to end customer experience, not just from the customer's perspective, but also from. the organization's perspective as well, and really, to your point, I agree with you, the payments industry, regardless of whether it's fueling industry or another sister type ancillary industry is, could be conceived as very commodity based. everyone provides a point of sale piece of hardware. Everyone provides a payment solution. Everyone wants to provide you with a similar type experience. But what I mentioned before is, what does our organization do differently? that really separates us from our competitor base. Our competitor base is. It's regional, it's geographic, and it's also a nationwide or enterprise. So the way we go to market has to vary based upon, are we talking about, a national play or are we talking more of a geographical or a regional play and I getting back to AI, I think that's where we get into, much more sophisticated process in terms of. Defining our markets, defining our landscapes. And then from there, how do we operate within that particular market or landscape differently in the Southeast than we would say in California or in the West, because they operate differently. In many ways, but you're right. I think, transitioning a thought process into a value from a commoditization type market into more of a specialty, but also focusing on scale and scope, because we have to not necessarily churn through customers. That's not really who we are, but we have to reach solutions faster. And I think that's where AI really comes into play with how we operate our business differently next year.
Don Finley:it sounds like, you could come up with a, nationwide plan, but have some hyperlocalization because of what AI could help you
Ryan Mayes:I think you're completely correct, Don. our, our enterprise customers generate a certain percentage of our revenue. But when you start taking a look at the base itself, now you're starting to run into much more, what we call single or multi unit owners. And then what I call mid majors, they're geographically located and they operate differently. So we may sell one particular product or solution across all three of those segments. and most people do as well, they will use that product differently. And I think that's where we get into much more differentiation, without, trying to figure out, we'll just go hire five more people to run our marketing outfit. That's not really going to happen. And so I think using technology to augment our current team. and our base here is really one of the things that I want to key in on next year.
Don Finley:Are you seeing any change in skills as far as your base team in regards to how you want to grow with, these solutions that we're talking
Ryan Mayes:Yes. back in the day, sales came easier, and now they're not. And I think within the fueling industry, it's far more fragmented. we have a lot of customers and companies that used to work with us that no longer, because they're out of business. And so the other thing that's hindering that is you see a lot of new market, Now, they may be national, but they also may be geographic as well. So again, getting back to that market landscape definition is becoming more critical for us. And then, pre show, we talked about within the fueling market, a lot of our customers want to consume solutions in the cloud. So what is your product roadmap? How are you moving in a way that meets customers where they are, not necessarily where you want them to be? And I think that is one of the other differentiators that I'd like to key in on next year is, how do we meet customers and how do we solve their problems where they are? As opposed to, this is our product. Talking about your product or service and your features is always going to be important, but tying it into solving their problems. I think that's one of the differentiators that really separates. a growing company.
Don Finley:Yeah. what is that first order problem that your customers are having today? That a new payment solution would help with, I know some of our, for some of our like, service based businesses, Their customer satisfaction is like number one as far as what's driving decisions. for other payment providers that we've worked with, like the, their clients are looking for something along the lines of like how quickly do they have access to their cash? what are the problems that your customers are facing that you feel like you could actually solve better, with AI
Ryan Mayes:I think anyone, and we deal with this in our personal lives as well. customer support is usually on page one, probably towards the top third of the page. if I call you, I want you to pick up a phone. If I email you, I want you to write me back. customer support is expensive. in my previous organization, the methodology when I moved into that new role was When we have a customer call, we want a team member picking up a phone. That's great. That worked when we were a smaller organization, but if we want to continue to grow, that's probably not going to work. And then we began to, do some data analysis. why are customers calling in? they want to know where their local store is. They want to know if the store is open today or their operating hours. Those were easy ones to automate. through an IVR. And for us in the fueling industry, it's somewhat similar, customer support, you can't hire enough people to pick up on first ring, but what you can do is, what would life look like if we provided customers with self help? what if we talked about maybe automating some of those, recurring questions that are easily answerable? and I think that's one area. I think the other area is communicating to the customer use cases. white papers, maybe not necessarily the documents themselves, but what are other customers doing in working with us, that are helping them run their business more profitable, more profitably, helping them drive revenue or increase market share. And I think, again, getting into that, how do we somewhat automate or provide additional. AI type based resources to provide with our sales team and our sub support team. really information that gets down to the root cause of why customers are even contacting us to begin with. we're a market leader, we're well known, but. Really getting beyond the commodity type conversation into problem solving and really solutioning and really growing with customers as they grow. I think those are some of the things that we've had some marginal success with to start, but I think really with AI really getting into why would customers want to work with us? Why would they not want to work with a regional competitor who might offer them a similar type product at. 20 percent off list price than what we could offer. Now you're getting into not just the total cost of ownership, but the value really turning into what you do into, we provide value and really turning that into customer speak in terms and in language that they, clearly understand.
Don Finley:and I think that's the added benefit of what we're seeing with some AI solutions today, is that you can have that personalization, you can have that connection to where the client is at and what they're trying to accomplish. I know we're constantly evaluating AI tools and in both the solutions that we have, that we're currently using the solutions that we're creating. and one of those spaces that I've always found interesting is that inbound calling and if somebody is calling us, what are they calling about? and there's two areas to look at this. One, your IVR system today may, have some of the solutions. but then additionally, when they do get to a call, the transcript is incredibly valuable, but for somebody to listen in on, thousands of hours of phone calls and find the patterns, it's not very effective. Yet having an AI do that, you can have it done in an hour and it showcases Hey, If you add this question to your IVR, you've got a fairly low tech solution in the technology space. But then additionally, we can use those transcripts to train a customer service agent that could actually just be the AI that answers the questions for the client. Helps to, propose solutions or at least identify it. as well as logging that information into your CRM so that you can follow up on it
Ryan Mayes:Yeah. I,
Don Finley:and so there's like varying levels of how you can engage with this, both in a high touch customer position, but also a, Hey, this is for our internal benefit. And then we'll make the
Ryan Mayes:yeah, here within this last year, I can summarize your call and send out the meeting notes. the way that we do it at times is, okay, I'm intensely listening to you. I'm typing. And then after the call, I'm taking 15 minutes to send a summary. that's a way to automate it. I think you mentioned two use cases. If I'm a customer calling you, you provide me with a summarization of that phone call. So now you're providing a premium service to a customer through automation that, prior to that, They would have to take their own notes or take you at their word. And then from a team member or an internal perspective, what are you using? What are you doing to use that information to, upscale your team or to use that for some constructive analysis in enabling them to have a better call when that type of call comes back? I've in my previous organization, we bolted on a quality program that looked at keyword research and, why are customers calling us? you've got the ticket count by type. that's great. So you from a categorization standpoint, why they're calling you, but getting into that voice of customer program that takes it much, much further in terms of customer sentiment and also, tone. And also some of the keywords that you can key in online. Now I know, we've rolled out a new service, we've rolled out a new program that transcends ticket types. That voice of customer program through automation really comes in handy and allows you and arms you with. Here's how we're going to run our business a little bit different.
Don Finley:Do you ever feel like inundated with information now?
Ryan Mayes:Yes. I get just as much email as anyone else. we're somewhat similar, like a lot of organizations. we have data everywhere. We use more than one system. And so the challenge of where's that one, consolidated database, or that one customer record. So, the other thing too is and I'm sure that you're aware of this too, customers can reach an organization through multiple entry points. They can talk to your sales team, they can talk to your operations team, maybe they talk to your product team. And how would you know that? and so not only are there multiple entry points, there are different types. Of conversations. I might talk to the operations group or the customer support team differently than I would my sales rep or my product, engineer. And so pulling all of that conversation in to, this is really what's going on with the customer. Is difficult, it's challenging. It's even more important if the customer is, a tier one type customer. They're spending a lot of money with you. They're, they are integrated with you at the hip and you're going to grow with them. And I think AI really is an opportunity to pull in all of those records and all of those disparate pieces of information to provide, a greater insight into customer sentiment. and tone.
Don Finley:There's this, we basically, all of our companies are being run on multiple platforms right now, Like we're all in the cloud and even if you're using Salesforce, you're likely using Microsoft as well. And so you've got a split of systems that can go on there. like we have, a few different systems that we run this business on. But then additionally, we also have an aggregate of our own like data lake, That we pull information into that like stores everything. And even as a technology firm, I can tell you There's data that we're collecting that we're not looking at yet, So we haven't made that switch from data to information in some capacity. In most areas we are, Like the core things that drive the business, but I feel like every organization out there is sitting on some massive pile of data that they know is valuable to them, but they haven't figured out quite how to pull that into like information and knowledge. And I feel like that's what you're. sharing here as well, is that there's an opportunity to really understand your business better from a holistic standpoint, instead of having the disparate connections that you have between the, five, 10 systems that it takes to run operations.
Ryan Mayes:would agree. what I described as the first challenge is where, I'll secure, where's all your data? I've got this Excel file. On my hard drive. I've got this database over here. This system is 10 years old and really no one's really updating it. Okay. my billing system is way over on the other side of the company. that's the first part. But to your point, the second challenge is, and I'm a big proponent of performance measurement. I cut my teeth on that, early in my career and it really hasn't stopped. Performance measurement is not just, a skill, it's an art. And I think in my experience, as I've matured through my organizational history, not a lot of professionals and not a lot of companies really key in on that. Yes, they've got their financials. Yes, there's a P& L and we do some strategic planning, but to your point, do you really know your business well to the point where you can turn right around and articulate it? in front of a customer that secures a sale or describes value or really entices them or encourages them. You know what? We're the right organization for you because we can grow, with you to meet your business needs. And let me share with you all of the great success stories of what I'm talking about with customers who are working with us right now and performance measurement, in my opinion, extends well beyond an OKR or a KPI. I think that's a given you, you've got to be able to measure, there's this adage, you really can't improve what you can't measure. yes, everyone believes in that, but taking it into your point about transitioning data into real information is an art. And I think many organizations really lose on that because. I can't really talk about information because my data is in four different places. what can you do to maybe connect those points a little bit more closely to the point where you could transition that into more of an informational conversation? And I think that's one of the differentiators for growing agile organizations, particularly as we mentioned, where problems are becoming much more complex and coming at us quicker is Can you get to an information stage much faster? to really help solve a problem quicker.
Don Finley:That's incredible. Ryan, one last question for you. for people who are just getting into the game, so if you were to speak to, Ryan from a year ago, what advice would you have for him in, jumping into the AI transformation?
Ryan Mayes:Myself from 12 months ago. Wow. I think what I would say is, we talked about this a little bit pre show. I think lifelong problem solvers. Learners. And whether you are in the early years of your career or whether you're at the midpoint or whether you're in the back half of your career, which is where I'm beginning to find myself. Continual learning and continual development is key. I went into, I found this out a little bit the hard way. I've always been a big proponent of continual learning, but I went through a job transition. About seven years ago, I could see it coming, but I couldn't get ahead of it. And I went through a transition and I started to take an inventory of, all right, where's my resume. And, you go through the steps. And what I found out was rather sobering was, a lot of my skills and a lot of my credentials and so forth were somewhat aged. And I began to talk, through some career counselors and some career coaches, and I was receiving great feedback. That sounded different. it was because what I found out was I was behind, I was several years behind. So that was the first part. The second part was I could fix this, but the sobering part was I couldn't fix it overnight. And so from that point, as I went through my search and year subsequent, I made a vow that I'm, I was going to try as best as possible not to find myself in a position where I'm maniacally focused on my role and growth of my role, but what am I doing to learn outside of my role to increase my exposure, to increase my depth of a particular knowledge topic? And what am I doing? Intentionally to continually develop. And I know we talked about this pre-show, that's where AI came into me. I was introduced to it about 12 to 15 months ago. I got an email from an entrepreneur, Hey, I'm having this product and launch service, program. And it was a series of live sessions and recorded YouTube videos. and one of the YouTube videos was on ai. And I thought, well, I'll listen in on this. This will be very interesting. And it was one of those 10 minute. At the end of the video, I was floored because I saw during the video how to use chat GPT and where taking an idea into production or an opportunity that could go to production. Was fascinating. And I happened to be sitting down watching this video. And at the end of it, I sat there for three or four minutes and my head was spinning. What are all of the use cases that I could use AI for? And the list is everything. And so I, it
Don Finley:list continues to
Ryan Mayes:continues to grow. And I vowed right then and there, I'm going to find a way. To make this a part of what I do in my personal and my professional life. And I think that's been one of the best decisions that I've made in the last 12 to 15 years. So that may be a little bit of a long winded response to continual learning and development is key. Don't wait on your boss. Don't wait on your company. you are within reason. the CEO of your career. So what are you doing to continually grow and learn? It could be a podcast, it could be a YouTube video. I've attended many lectures with. Pad a paper and a pen in hand, full well intending to what are the two or three things that I can learn out of this 15 minute talk that I can apply to my work. And it's through certifications. It's through learning. It's through all kinds of things, reading books. it could be anything and everything. And so when you start thinking of it that way, you are inundated with boundless opportunities. And I think that would be my one piece of advice that I would give to myself 12 months ago, 25 years ago, and continually leaning in on that, as I work for many years to come.
Don Finley:I love it. That's fantastic, Ryan. And thank you so much for being here with us today. So we all got to stay curious and continue
Ryan Mayes:Don, thank you so much. I appreciate being a guest on your podcast and I've had a great time and thank you so much.
Don Finley:Thank you for tuning into The Human Code, sponsored by FINdustries, where we harness AI to elevate your business. By improving operational efficiency and accelerating growth, we turn opportunities into reality. Let FINdustries be your guide to AI mastery, making success inevitable. Explore how at FINdustries. co.
