Unlocking AI & Consumer Behavior: Insights with Shahar Boyayan

So if they have a restaurant, a dentist practice, whatever it is, and it falls through the cracks, sometimes they have an autoresponder or a newsletter, but it stops right there. We need something in depth because the consumer today is Expecting hyper personalization on everything. They want to feel they matter.

And it’s not with the newsletter every 10 days that you’re going to do that. We need to keep that communication going in different formats in a way that they will really engage with us. They will become fans of what we do.

So it’s not business, you know, say, hey, we are here and we are awesome. But a lot more than that.

That’s why we created this and that’s why I think if you don’t do the proper follow up, you are always leaving money on the table.

Freddy D
00:03:31.994 – 00:04:15.574
Oh, absolutely correct, Shahar. I have a philosophy. Being in sales for 40 years, I was a tech guy for five. One of the things that drilled into my head was follow up and follow up.

In today’s world, if somebody sends an inquiry for your product or service, you have a 15 minute window to respond. If you don’t resp. Respond within 15 minutes, they’re probably looking someplace else.

And the advantage of responding very quickly is one, it shows you’re interested, shows respect, and more importantly, if they are looking at somebody else. Right. You can set the bar quite high for your competitors because you’re the first one to be there. Yeah, right.

Shahar Boyayan
00:04:15.662 – 00:06:01.330
Today, the average response time has been 72 hours. The lead is dead by now. Yeah, but people get busy and they don’t do.

And also, I think, Frederic, we need to think about where do I cause frustration with my customers? A simple example that happened to me several times. I go to a hairdresser in Utah that I like. She’s cutting my hair.

I’m always like, I need to be in and I need to be out. Then the phone rings. She answers frustration here because she stops what she’s doing and go answer the phone.

She’s frustrated because she’s trying to multitask. Right. It goes well. The other customer will be rushed because whatever they want to ask, she needs to get rid of the phone call very fast.

So you have three people frustrated in less than five minutes. We need to understand that this happens in our businesses. So we need to pinpoint what are these frustration points and how can I solve this.

For example, with voice AI, the voice AI could be carrying that conversation on the phone. She wouldn’t interrupt my experience, and everything would be perfect.

If she has the proper systems in place, the follow up will be done with whoever called and with me as well. I cut my hair every three weeks. Have I ever received a call, text, email saying, hey, Shahar, I know you like to cut your hair every three weeks.

It’s time for you to book an appointment. Simple reminder that would say, wow, they notice that I cut every three weeks. Not every four, not every five.

So all this, you keep thinking, okay, we create that loyalty. But their loyalty is on a very stretchy line that can be broken at any point because there is not the thing of I matter to them.

Freddy D
00:06:01.790 – 00:06:10.042
I have a saying in my book, Creating Business Super Fans, that people will crawl through broken glass for appreciation and recognition.

Shahar Boyayan
00:06:10.186 – 00:06:47.092
Exactly. And you know what’s happening?

There was a Harvard study showing that one in every five Americans feel extremely lonely, and one in every three Americans think they have a good friend. Since COVID we have been isolating ourselves at home, then work from home thing, and now AI that we are catering our houses to exactly what we want.

But we are feeling lonely of social interactions and the business that say, hey, I know what you like to eat when you come to my restaurant. I know how you like things done. I know the experience you expect. Well, they’re doing well, right?

Freddy D
00:06:47.196 – 00:06:47.972
Absolutely.

Shahar Boyayan
00:06:48.116 – 00:06:55.280
They’re just crossing their arms and thinking, wait to see how this goes. They are going to be left behind.

Freddy D
00:06:55.820 – 00:07:52.882
Absolutely correct. And you said an important thing here that I want to emphasize, Shahar, is that people are working. Some people are still working from home.

Businesses are trying to get people back into the office, but nevertheless, there are people that have their own businesses and they work at home by themselves. And like you said, they’re a little bit lonely. And one of the things I shared in my book was sending a birthday card through the mail.

Old school, you know?

And you might be the only person that sent them a physical birthday card, which takes you minutes to do, but that impact on that person is profound, especially if it’s the only card they got.

They’re going to become a super fan of whoever the sender is, and they’re going to tell their huge circle of friends, my dentist sent me a birthday card. Can you believe that? Nobody else did, but my dentist did.

Shahar Boyayan
00:07:53.026 – 00:08:47.448
Exactly. It might be the only car they get on that date.

And today you don’t even need to do the designing or anything, because you have AI to design and to ship that without you touching your hands in anything. But, you know, what’s the barrier here? To convince the business owner that this type of marketing works really well.

They will think that whatever they do on social media will work today because what everybody else is doing. But you have to understand that when I get a card in the mail, I will give undivided attention to that card. Right.

What’s behind that Somebody remember this, I am not invisible. They know I exist. They know I spend my money with them. The bond you create, you do not create by posting videos.

I’m not saying it’s not good to do social media. We all do it. But I have to understand that when I have a chance to get undivided attention, I should go to that.

Freddy D
00:08:47.644 – 00:09:15.220
Well, I have another saying. The little things are really the big things. The little things usually have the biggest impact.

Saying thank you is a little thing, but the impact it has is tremendous. Saying I appreciate you for the extra effort you put in is a little thing, but the impact is profound. I’m grateful for you being a customer.

Yes, that’s a little thing, but the impact is huge.

Shahar Boyayan
00:09:16.280 – 00:10:40.740
Because as consumers today, we actually have tons of options to spend our money. We don’t have to go back to the restaurant, we don’t have to go back to the hairdresser. We have many options.

We could create the fun of trying something new every single time. But for the business owner, that’s not what you want. You want that repeat customer. So if you don’t go the extra mile, you’re not going to get that.

Unfortunately, during COVID we had to adapt things to survive as businesses. We thought that after that was over, it was okay. Right? From QR codes and not having paper menus anymore to all kinds of other bad habits.

And we didn’t go back to the good habits. Right. And that impacts because anything that makes me work to get the service is not going my way if I have to. And simple things you might take.

No, but everybody uses QR codes. Yes, they do. Very useful. I have to get my glasses from my purse. I have to put glasses and then I have to scroll.

It needs to adapt to my screen on my device. So I thinking all the time, obstacle, obstacle, obstacle, obstacle. Then I have the dinner, my dear, wonderful dinner.

Nobody’s going to ask for my name, my email, my address, my birthday date, not so spend sometimes a couple hundred dollars on a nice dinner, but the business owner has no way to bring you back.

Freddy D
00:10:41.040 – 00:11:08.270
Correct? Yeah. So let’s go more into prop talkie and talk about some of the automations in there.

We talked a little bit about the hair salon with the phone automation.

I’d like you to share a little bit more because I’m familiar with the platform, but I’d like you to share a little bit more of how really this is such a game changer for businesses implementing something like prop talkie into their business.

Shahar Boyayan
00:11:09.290 – 00:13:29.946
So if we analyze a business Whatever business it is, we can create a workflow that is how you work inside, high level, Right. I can create a workflow cater to exactly what you need as a business. It’s not a cookie cutter. We are going to adapt that.

When it comes to the AI agents, or like we like to call them, the AI employees, same thing is done. It is tested for your business specifically. We do tests every single day. For example, we were testing because AI is good, but it can be better.

And it depends on the AI learning from you every single time. Right. That’s how they get better.

So we did a test for a funeral home, a fictitious one, to see how, in a very sensitive subject, how the AI would behave. Because you programmed just up to a point. And it was impressive, Frederic.

It showed some empathy, made suggestions that were exactly according to what the person was talking about and budget and things like that. If we tested that six months ago, it would be a totally different ball game. So it evolves. And the more you keep feeding that AI, the better it gets.

You mentioned cards. We just did with a client of ours. I have several restaurants as clients.

And it took us a while to convince that for Valentine’s Day we should send a card in the mail with a promotion. The resistance is always because it’s not online. Right? But we did. We sent it. He has two units.

Both units broke a record in attendance not only on Valentine’s Day, but also on Saturday with cards. Simple thing, right? It was a card with Valentine’s stuff and a coupon as an offer. That was it. But all of that was done automatically.

He didn’t have to go to the post office, I didn’t have to go to the post office. Nothing like that. You have to think, okay, let’s talk to this business, see what are the friction points. Where are the points where they are failing?

Either because they don’t have time, or they think it’s too expensive, or it could be better. Create a solution to keep the customers that you have first and then go after new ones, because that sustains the business. Sometimes we have crisis.

Covid was a big one. The businesses that survived were businesses that could communicate with their customers during that time in an effective way. Right?

Freddy D
00:13:30.018 – 00:14:14.638
Yeah, it involves everybody. Because if you’ve got employees, you got to take care of them. The employees are really the front line to prospective and existing customers.

So if you don’t take time to first recognize your team and empower them to make decisions, they’re empowered to create a great customer experience.

Prospective customer coming into a restaurant for the first time, you want that to be a great experience, not only in the food, but the whole aspect of it and then transforming into a customer and just like you said, maintaining that relationship with that customer. Because it’s very expensive to re onboard customers, it’s very expensive to re onboard employees as well.

Shahar Boyayan
00:14:14.804 – 00:14:15.674
Exactly.

Freddy D
00:14:15.802 – 00:15:35.660
And here’s the thing that you highlighted and I want to really emphasize that is you blended old school method, which is postal and new school technology. And that gives you the competitive advantage that most people don’t realize.

Because an email may not get viewed, you’re not going to recognize who it is. The subject line doesn’t catch your attention. A piece of mail coming in, you have at least a chance to take a peek at it before you throw it away.

It gives you 15 seconds to hmm, I’m look at this a little further.

As you’re going through your mail, you have an actual physical chance, especially if you use a postcard as a marketing method to introduce yourself to a marketplace. It’s going to get seen because there’s nothing open. It’s visual.

And the probability of success, just like you described with the Valentine’s Day, is much higher with direct mail. That’s why it still exists.

And it’s a very, very powerful tool that unfortunately is overlooked today because as you said, and I’m going to emphasize it again, people, it’s all digital and we forgot about all the old things that used to work and still do.

Shahar Boyayan
00:15:36.040 – 00:16:55.760
Yeah. And even when you compare the price, you keep thinking, well, I don’t know how much is the stamp, but let’s say it’s a dollar.

How much are you paying per click when you’re doing the ads online, sometimes not to get qualified leads. I’m spending a dollar to talk to somebody that already knows my business and already knows me, more likely to do business with me.

And you mentioned the employees and you’re totally right. There are three things that are very important. One, they need to feel they belong. Second, they need to feel they matter to you. Absolutely.

Dealing with business owners all the time, you see that you have all types of personalities out there. And in some environments the employee thinks that they just don’t matter, so they don’t care. And the third one have a system for training.

This for the small business owner, like the dentist, the restaurant, the massage therapist, it’s hard because every time they onboard somebody, it’s not nightmare for them because they’re going to spend time doing the same type of training until they are ready. Many times they are ready and then they go. Our system can also host all those trainings.

So you onboard the employee through prop talking, and it will do the whole training.

As long as you do the videos or audio or whatever you want to do as a training, it becomes not only consistent, also systematizing your training methodology.

Freddy D
00:16:55.840 – 00:16:56.518
Right.

Shahar Boyayan
00:16:56.704 – 00:17:10.330
For small businesses is always a struggle. They should, as soon as possible, create material with the training that they do.

Can be as simple as recording with the cell phone and then having a platform to deliver that to the employees.

Freddy D
00:17:10.410 – 00:17:46.380
Oh, absolutely correct. If you look at the cost associated with onboarding a new employee, and then more importantly, someone’s got to train that new employee.

Productivity goes away, just like you’re mentioning is the new person on board. Susie’s the one that’s going to be training him. Well, Susie’s busy training him. She’s not doing what she needs to be done.

So she’s falling behind in her productivity. She starts getting frustrated.

And then you have a person that’s not the world’s greatest business manager who starts complaining, how come you’re letting things slip? And it’s like, well, wait a minute, I’m training Mike. It’s a mess.

Shahar Boyayan
00:17:46.500 – 00:17:47.820
Everybody gets frustrated.

Freddy D
00:17:47.900 – 00:18:14.052
Everybody gets frustrated. And then more. I’ve seen it happen where poor management skills chastise both of them publicly instead of privately.

And so now that pollutes the rest of the company’s environment. Because now everybody goes, oh, my gosh, I don’t want to be what happened to Mike and Susie. And it’s a train wreck.

Shahar Boyayan
00:18:14.196 – 00:18:25.742
Yeah. Because one person that is dissatisfied will, you know, wherever focus goes, energy flows. So everybody starts getting with the same sentiment.

And at the end, you have a.

Freddy D
00:18:25.766 – 00:19:04.650
Terrible working day or working environment, and now nobody even wants to go to work. So the productivity goes down the drain. What you’re doing is a great idea, leveraging the technology to onboard new people.

Then you can still have Susie check in on Mike, but now she’s able to do what she needs to do. And Mike can go through the program and then you can have the testing in there to make sure they’ve passed the training.

And that’s rewarding for Mike as well. Because of how you described leveraging the technology. You’ve transformed it into a very positive environment.

Shahar Boyayan
00:19:05.030 – 00:19:32.140
Yeah. And when he’s in touch with client, he is prepared for that. So you avoid all those things.

They’re ready to take care of that customer the way you want. Because consistency is the key to success.

So if I go to a place and I have a nice experience next Time I want the same experience and the other time I want the same experience. If that varies a lot, it will create micro frustration as well. So that adds up over time. Can I systematize?

Freddy D
00:19:32.300 – 00:20:14.204
You’ve gone to a restaurant and it’s a great experience because the server was excellent. The next time you go back, it’s a horrible experience because the server was not a good server.

And all of a sudden your perception of that place changes because you just remember the last experience. It’s like watching a movie. You don’t remember the middle of the movie. You remember the beginning and the end, everything in the middle.

I can’t remember what happened. It’s the same thing in business, really. The sale isn’t the sale.

Most people think the sale is the signing of the paperwork or the transaction being done. It’s not. It’s the whole onboarding process.

Shahar Boyayan
00:20:14.372 – 00:20:21.164
That’s the sale because it sets. And the experience that they are going to have.

Freddy D
00:20:21.252 – 00:20:52.498
Yeah. And if you create a good experience, that’s how you transform customers into superfans. We talked about good experience for the employee.

That’s how you transform them into superfans. That energy transcends. You’ve talked to people on the phone and you’ve noticed someone’s kind of flat and mechanical and you get a weird feeling.

You go, yeah, I’m not sure about this place. And then someone else answers and says, hey, sure, great calling us. You know, we’re super blah, blah, blah, and that energy.

And you go, man, this is a cool place. I’m interested.

Shahar Boyayan
00:20:52.674 – 00:21:43.850
Yep. And let’s talk about sales, because I know you love that very much and I love sales as well.

We need not only as a business owner, but everybody that works with us to understand how we are reaching our customers or prospects on an emotional level. Everybody needs to understand what we are really selling and how we are going to translate that.

So they have a perception of value of whatever you’re offering in a different way. McDonald’s Coffee, $1. Starbucks, $6. Why people put lines on Starbucks for that $6.

They created a connection on how people felt when they went to the stores, how cool they were and they could work from there and things like that. That type of connection, we need to be creating and understanding how it works every single time. We are never just selling something.

Freddy D
00:21:44.230 – 00:22:17.810
Right. And it transcends beyond just customers. What about suppliers? You’re a restaurant getting supplies on your food.

You’re a service business getting supplies and products. You’ve got distributors. If you’re marketing through a distribution channel, You’ve got contractors that come into play.

Think of the home improvement industry, flooring, painting, plumbing, electrical. And you have ancillary businesses. Your lawyer, your accountant. It’s not part of your company, but you need that.

All those relationships are really important in that conversation because they all affect you.

Shahar Boyayan
00:22:19.230 – 00:23:01.662
They’re not only part of your team. We all have to have the same goal. We need that bond from the customers, from the suppliers, other people that we buy services from all the time.

That’s how you create a super force for your business. We are all on the same page, going the same way. You need to translate that.

And many times, Frederik, I need that ongoing communication with groups like suppliers. It depends on the structure of every business.

But that communication cannot lag, especially in today’s world, because we all have so many options all the time, and we are overloaded with information. How can you be top of mind not only for your customers, but also from everybody else that works with you?

Freddy D
00:23:01.766 – 00:24:35.320
And that’s where your platform comes in. Because you can set up some of the automation to create the communications, you know, because out of sight, out of mind is one thing.

The other thing is, unfortunately, the human brain always goes negative. First you don’t hear from somebody. I use it in the dating world, okay? You’re going out on a couple dates and all of a sudden you get ghosted.

So now your mind goes completely negative and you’re starting to create all kinds of crazy stories. Well, guess what? It happens in business as well. I use that as an example because everybody can get it.

But the reality is, in business, you’re trying to sell somebody and all of a sudden they disappear. You don’t hear from them anymore. And the reality is you have to be disciplined enough to realize that you don’t know what’s going on in their world.

And you sometimes need to give it some space. And then sometimes you need to just reach out a little bit later and just say, hey, I haven’t heard. I just want to make sure everything is okay.

And sometimes they’ll come back and say, you know, completely my bad. I got caught up in this or whatever. And yeah, by the way, you know what? We owe you a phone call. Let’s get this thing wrapped up and the sale’s done.

But you gave it some room. You weren’t like, okay, I just called them. How come they haven’t called me back? Or I sent an email.

How come they haven’t opened it yet and replied back? So leveraging some of the technology, you take some of the Emotion out of it. Yeah. With the workflows as you talk.

Shahar Boyayan
00:24:35.440 – 00:26:03.330
Best thing that technology can do for you is give you control over your business in every aspect that matters. Because what I see that today. Let’s solopreneurs, for example, the very small businesses. I went to a yarn store. Simple thing. I love crafts.

I took a course there. Nobody ever asked who I was, my email, nothing. Then I asked the owner of the store, how do I get to know about other courses?

And then she said, I post on Instagram and I went once a month. And she said yes. And I left.

And I thought, okay, now I need the algorithm to show me her thing all the time or I need to remember the name of her store a month from now. And then I need to go through all the posts to see if I find the one about courses. Why can’t I get an email with the next courses?

And then if you argue about that, they will say, nobody reads email, but you’re not your customer. So if you read emails or only read once a month, that’s you. Doesn’t mean all your customers are that we are always in business.

Working with percentages. Right.

Making me work to know about the courses that you have sounds cool to you because you’re on a platform, but it doesn’t sound cool to me because I get bombarded with information every single day. I’ll be happy to remember the name of your store next month. I probably won’t. And you know, not bad fate. It’s just that how it goes.

Freddy D
00:26:04.310 – 00:26:15.630
It’s sadly the same thing with even the home improvement industry. I’m going to pick on them. We’ve all had work done on our house. You’re happy with the work and then they disappear.

Shahar Boyayan
00:26:15.790 – 00:26:16.398
Yep.

Freddy D
00:26:16.494 – 00:26:36.840
They don’t come back and say, shahar, it’s been three months. Just want to make sure everything is still good. Geez, six months have gone by or it’s a year anniversary since we were there.

Just want to reach out and say hi, if you ever need us, we’re still here. We appreciate you. Simple doesn’t have to be a book, just can be a couple little sentences.

Shahar Boyayan
00:26:37.420 – 00:27:52.870
And your customers can be your sales force. Why not train them to be your sales force? For example, tiles and reforms around the house because they’re higher ticket items.

People think, no, they bought this, they’re never going to buy this again. And they forget the network they have.

If they go to church and have a lot of people if they like to change other rooms in the house, they assume, no, they only do Business with us every so many years. Like cars, for example. That’s not true. And you’re forgetting that the network each person has, you just don’t know how big it is.

This job, that was fine. And then we complain, oh, the market is not doing as I wanted. Yes, because not bringing new people.

What about all the others that you did business with that could be promoting you? So many simple things that can be done. You clean carpets, right? There’s nothing exciting about that.

We all like clean carpets, but really nothing exciting. I hire the company. What if the moment I answered the door, the guy gives me a bouquet of flowers that cost him maybe $5, $10?

When the carpet is clean, am I going to tell my friends my carpets are clean, or am I going to tell my friends I hired this guy to clean my carpets? And guess what? I got these hydrangeas. They’re awesome.

Freddy D
00:27:54.330 – 00:28:08.510
It’s the little things that are the big things.

Which is why I created this business Superfans podcast show a book, and I’m actually starting to work on another book because exactly what you just said.

Shahar Boyayan
00:28:09.770 – 00:29:05.572
People don’t understand that nobody cares about who you are. They care about themselves. You either learn how to talk to the consumer, talking about them, what they will become by working with you.

And it doesn’t matter if you clean carpenters or you are a consultant. Who will they become by working with you? If you don’t have that answer, you should sit down and think about it.

Because in whatever we do in life, we need to impact and transform. If we’re not doing that, we are just selling stuff. And stuff has no value. No, it has no emotional value.

So let’s start by thinking who they become by working with me. And when I have a conversation, am I talking about what I do? How good it is? If you ever been to a networking meeting, you know how it is, right?

Every has 30 seconds. They spend those 30 seconds talking about how great they are and you sleep in the middle of the table because nobody cares.

We need to understand that.

Freddy D
00:29:05.676 – 00:29:55.636
Absolutely correct. When I was selling software in the engineering and manufacturing space, I didn’t get into conversations about what the software could or couldn’t do.

Because other products do similar stuff. It gets the job done. I focused on where the business owner wanted to take their business. What was their growth strategy? What was their plan?

What were their biggest pain issues. We looked at how to address those. Then we talked about how my technology could help achieve that.

So I was in a completely different conversation and space than my competitors. They were all Talking about how wonderful they are. And that’s what you reminded me. I didn’t talk about how wonderful we are.

I talked about how I can help you get to where you want to go. And this is just a tool that will help you get to that goal.

Shahar Boyayan
00:29:55.828 – 00:30:26.874
Exactly. And that’s at the end. Exactly what we all do. We sell tools. Right. Our services.

The thing is, it’s a much more effective way of saying, I can do this and I can do that. And there’s AI and there’s automation. Beautiful. But, Frederick, you and I are in a call right now, right? We are recording a podcast.

Maybe your phone is ringing and you’re not answering that. Maybe every sale is a thousand dollars. If you lose one phone call a day, how much less are you going to make in a year?

Freddy D
00:30:27.042 – 00:30:28.106
Yeah. A lot.

Shahar Boyayan
00:30:28.178 – 00:30:40.684
Okay, Right. So you’re talking about you. If you were missing a holiday and it’s this much, how much so.

So we can approach in different ways, but at the end of the day, it’s always about you, not about me or what I do.

Freddy D
00:30:40.852 – 00:31:02.600
Correct, Correct. Well, as we come towards the end here, Shahar, great conversation. We could probably talk about this for hours. You’re very easy to talk with.

Thank you for sharing all the great nuggets because we covered some of the technologies and how to leverage them to help businesses achieve their goals. How can our listeners connect with you?

Shahar Boyayan
00:31:03.090 – 00:31:35.308
Prop Talkie is the best place because if they scroll down to the bottom, they will see some free reports. I have the AI driven consumer trends, which is important for all of us to be aware because we are changing as human beings.

It is the biggest change we have seen in many years. Five generations are alive at the same time going through this change. So we need to be aware of that.

And the five laws of becoming irresistible to a market. If they call the number there, they will talk to an AI agent, but then very easy to get in touch.

Freddy D
00:31:35.484 – 00:32:07.258
Well, I was talking to somebody last year about AI, and he said they were conversing with somebody on a website for almost 10 minutes before realizing it was an AI. They actually thought it was an actual individual.

You can set up the technology to be pretty much a replica of yourself, which is one of the things you talked about on your site. They’re, in a sense, talking to you in an automated fashion. And then when they need to talk to you, it switches you over and you’re not live.

Shahar Boyayan
00:32:07.394 – 00:32:21.492
Yeah. It is really impressive the way it is today. If they are used to going to a website and just having a bot with those five questions they can answer.

It’s not what is out there today. I can train my AI to really talk like I do.

Freddy D
00:32:21.626 – 00:32:22.304
Yep.

Shahar Boyayan
00:32:22.432 – 00:32:22.864
Right.

Freddy D
00:32:22.952 – 00:32:26.768
Yeah. Well, I wanted to bring that up because that’s the game changer right there.

Shahar Boyayan
00:32:26.904 – 00:32:27.696
It is.

Freddy D
00:32:27.848 – 00:32:37.584
Thank you so much for your time today of being a guest on a business superfan podcast show, and we look forward to continuing the conversation another day and having you a guest again.

Shahar Boyayan
00:32:37.752 – 00:32:38.464
Thank you.

Freddy D
00:32:38.552 – 00:33:29.600
All right, Shahar, thank you.