Fixed Ops Friday w/ Garry Keyser, Matt Norris, Kevin Proctor | Daily Dealer Live

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Daily Dealer Live.

I'm your host, Sam Darkin. Thanks for choosing to be here with us on this Friday, the 6th of March.

And hey everybody, welcome to Fixed Ops Friday. As we know, the smartest operators in the country

are quietly shifting their strategy right now. It's not about selling more cars, although that's

part of it. It's about owning the service lane while automotive debates EVs, tariffs, and shrieking

front-end grosses. The very best stores in all automotive are building technician pipelines,

commercial service operations, and service lanes that actually generate inventory. Because here's

the truth most of us don't want to fully admit. The biggest profit opportunity in dealerships today

in March of 2026, it's not the showroom, it's Fixed Ops. And today we've got three operators on

the show today proving exactly how they're doing it. Let's get into it. And first, today's auto

industry headlines. Today in the news, we are leading with an update on Scout motors. Just days

after two Volkswagen dealers filed a class action lawsuit alleging Scout's direct-to-consumer model

violates dealer franchise agreements, Scout announced it has surpassed 160,000 vehicle

reservations for its Terra pickup and traveler SUV. That's at least 16 million bucks collected at $100

a pop, a figure that is similar to the one cited in the lawsuit as evidence that Scout is already

transacting directly with consumers, bypassing the dealer network entirely. Scout has emphasized

that those are reservations, they're not sales, and that customers can cancel. Still, dealers aren't

buying that distinction. And with Scout's CEO projecting deliveries of said reservations

out to 2028, this legal battle has plenty of runway left. If you want to hear more about the battle,

go to our show Wednesday where we interviewed the attorney who's representing the two dealers

in a class action suit in which he says the putative suit allows all dealers to join

as they proceed forward. So you can check that out from Wednesday. Next up today,

from one big used car or headline to another, General Motors is consolidating its certified

pre-owned business under a single platform called CarBravo. Effective June 2nd,

all certified used Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC vehicles will move under the CarBravo umbrella,

making it GM's sole CPO program for those three brands in the United States. Cadillac, however,

will keep its own separate program. But the move GM says is designed to simplify the

buying experience and give more dealers a cleaner nationally branded way to merchandise

certified inventory. And as a personal aside, I love what GM is doing right now. The head of GM

came on to the CarDealership guy show DailyDeal Alive from NADA. Their discipline in inventory

production is very cool. And I think dealers are well served to give them a little bit of

flexibility as they move forward with this venture. Either way, it's hard not to read,

this is a direct shot at Carvana, which sold nearly 600,000 units last year and is gunning for

three million, three million units this year. So perhaps to Chevy as they compete with Carvana.

All right, next up today, before we go, let's run through the buy sell wire,

straight off the CDG buy sell tracker. It's been an active, it's been an active wire for

the past few days. First, Lithia closed on Toyota of Gallatin just north of Nashville on March 2.

That's picking up its fourth Tennessee store from the Stumble Automotive.

From Stumble Automotive, Lithia CEO says the group is continuing to target high growth markets

and the deal brings their total acquired US annual revenue to get this 225 million bucks so far.

Down in the southeast, Tamron Gulf Coast, a division of Canon Motor Company added three

mobile Alabama stores from CarLock Automotive, Audi Mobile, Volkswagen Mobile, and Volvo Cars

Mobile. That deal closed February 23rd and pushes Canon Motors footprint to nearly 40 rooftops across

Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. And finally, a feel good one to close on,

Frank Mastrovito of Mastrovito Auto Group fulfilled a childhood dream purchasing a Chevy store on

commercial drive in Yorkville, New York from Leadcar. He now owns two dealerships on the same

strip he pointed to as then a 12 year old telling his parents one day, all own those stores.

Props to him for making that dream come true and part of the American dream,

the auto industry is. As always for the Bicell Tracker, head to cdgbicell.com and

we love our cdgbicell.com tracker Bose Jingle. We love it. And that folks is a wrap on today's

industry headlines and welcome everybody to Fix Ops Friday.

Well, it's Fix Ops Friday. If it's Friday, it's Fix Ops Friday, which means today is the day we

get to dive deep into the service drive in the fixed operations. We've got three incredible

operators joining us today. First up, we've got and actually as a reminder before we go into this,

I'm a little off my normal flow today. First up today, let's go to the chat. Remember, you can

push your comments anywhere across cdg platforms. We're streaming across all Cardiola ship guide

platforms. Our own Michelle says let's go Fix Ops Friday. Paul Salisman excited for my Fix

Ops Friday education session. Thanks for watching Paul Salisman, Hannah Farmer, happy Fix Ops Friday

and Ed Roberts. Thanks God. Thank God it's Fix Ops Friday and we appreciate you and you've got a

little skin in the game with today's show. So first up, we're going to go to Gary Kaiser,

president of LB Smith Ford Lincoln. Gary, welcome to the show.

Hey Sam, thanks for having me. We appreciate you being here. Hey, for those that don't know you,

tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do there at LB Smith Ford Lincoln.

So currently I'm the president general manager of LB Smith Ford Lincoln. Take me all day probably

to tell you the whole journey, but as a young kid, 16 years old, I got into a little bit of

a lie in the road and I had to decide if I was going to go to an ROTC boot camp or find a job

and my teacher found me a job at LB Smith and it's the best thing that ever happened to me.

You know, you find a family and our owners, you know, the Jordans have believed in me and

have allowed me to do every job from, you know, when I started on a lot to a tech to a service

advisor, to a service manager the whole way up through and it's been a great ride.

So Gary, what would you say to those in the auto industry that say, hey, this industry is changing

and really what was the American dream, which means somebody could come in

at a young age like you did and realize unlimited potential? What would you say to that person that

says, hey, the American dream and automotive is dead? Is it dead or is it still thriving, Gary?

Oh, no, it's thriving. You know, I still sit in interviews and hire young, you know,

young lads that, you know, are looking for jobs and they start and, you know, on the lot or in

quick lane or, you know, one of our departments and next thing you know, they're selling cars and

they just, once you get into this industry, there's so many, so many different careers under one

rooftop and it's just so exciting. Yeah. Well, it's FixOps Friday. You recently shared,

you've got a new mantra at your auto group for 2026. Share with us that mantra and how it came

to be. So we, it's so exciting, you know, for us right now, we opened a Ford Pro Elite 33,000

square foot, 26 bays, I mean, extra large bays for the commercial world. Through that commercial

business so much that we had to, you know, build a building and FixOps has always been our backbone.

I mean, we just, we love FixOps, we crush FixOps and this year with moving so much gross out of

our main shop, you know, we had to figure out FixOps again and I thought, how am I going to,

how are we going to do this in our FixOps meeting? So we got 2026 is the year, so we named it 2020

Fixed, made T-shirts for all years. I love that. You know, because this is the year of FixOps. I

mean, we got to figure it out, you know. 2020 Fixed, I think that's a great rally cry for the

entire auto industry. In fact, I have a personal ask, will you send me, I'll pay y'all, send you

a check. I want one of those shirts. I want a 2020 Fixed shirt from, from you guys there.

Yeah, so I mean, they wear it on, they wear it on the weekends, just to remind them that, you know,

just not here, we still got our easy path is now something we got to recreate.

So that Ford Pro Elite Commercial Service Center, that's a major commitment. That's a big

financial investment. What made you decide this was the right strategic move in 2026?

So we've been working on it for a couple years and our business, our commercial business,

just grew out of control, you know, and in these commercial accounts, there's no one's

taking care of them, you know, they're waiting. That's their offices and that's their toolboxes

and they're sitting on lots and not getting repaired, right? So if you can turn them fast,

it's, it's low hanging fruit. I mean, the commercial world doesn't really, you know,

monitor the price of the repair. They monitor the time of the repair. So go ahead.

Why is it such an unmet need? Why did it pop up almost out of nowhere that created this

opportunity that you're capitalizing on? It didn't pop up out of nowhere. We had a vision,

you know, we had a vision probably in 2018 that this is what we wanted to chase, right? So

one of my foreman's and myself, we sat at Sheets, Wawa, Rutgers every morning at 5.30

and we would write down everyone that was getting fuel that day. And then we would go visit them

and say, look, all we want is your warning work. We know, we know John's doing or whoever's doing

your repairs, right? Just give us our chance at your warning work. And then we're going to pick

it up and deliver it, right? So this was before Ford even had picked up in delivery and mobile and

all that. So once we created that team to pick up and deliver and allow them to keep their day

going, it just grew and grew that it was busting at the seams in our main shop, right? We got 37

stalls in our main shop and it just was out of control. Do you see the nature of that business

of the demand there increasing, declining, staying flat? I mean, obviously you've invested planning

for the increase, I would imagine. Yeah, definitely increasing. I mean, there's so much out there.

There's so many commercial and just the regular, the average Joe that has one landscaping vehicle

that he's trying to make a paycheck for, right? To pay that. What is a typical commercial customer

relationship look like compared to a retail one? So it's a good question. When we were building

this building, we're like, well, we really don't need a waiting room because we go pick them up

and they don't come in, right? Or they drop off. So the commercial customers, you know,

all they care about is getting their vehicle back because their tools are in that vehicle to fix

what they need to fix. Yeah, yeah. All right, we're going to go into the comments. Angelica

surprised us 2020 fixed. I think she's picking up off your rally cry 2020 fixed props to Angelica.

And then eager K comes into the text with an update from a Mannheim auction. It says,

good afternoon, fellas. Just got done with auction today at Mannheim, New England,

had a great day. Big engine vehicles are getting dumped by dealers. Gas prices scare is going on

right now. And I think that's in reference to the stuff going on in Iran, the impact on oil overnight,

price of crude oil shot up. And there's some uncertainty out there. And I would argue that

we're going to see a little bit of a shift as we have at other periods of time when the price of

oil has been a little bit under pressure. You probably don't have a big opinion on what that's

going to look like from your vantage point. But do you foresee a little bit less demand on gas engines

and maybe even a little bit more EV in our future? Anything you want to say on that as breaking news

from eager K at the auction? Are you asking me if I want to say anything? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you want to

that's a loaded political. No, that's a loaded question from me. I pass on that question.

Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. So one thing that you've talked about in your

intake form is you talked about working the service lane to acquire vehicles. How big of an

inventory source is the service lane in March of 2026? And what's your process to capitalize on that?

So we're just dipping our big toe into that because everywhere we go, I mean, NADA, the two biggest

seminars we're acquiring vehicles, used car vehicles and retaining tax, right? So, you know,

we're servicing probably an average of 150 to 60 cars a day, right? We're the only ones bidding on

that car, right? And I know this is the new wave going on out there, but it's true. And we kind of

put a team together to do it. And we're stumbling a little bit, right? And it's just as you, you

know, before you walk, you crawl and that's where we're at. But we're getting some great success

and some of the stories that I listened to at NADA, these guys are really acquiring a lot of cars

out of their service lane. And, you know, it depends on your retention, like our store has a

huge retention. I mean, our customers trust us. They've been coming here since, you know, you hear

it in the service lane, the 60s, the 70s. And, you know, it's great because you have their service

records, you know, you're not buying a car, you know that you don't know what you're getting.

So we're still trying to figure that out. So I think a lot of stores are. And in fact, service

lane acquisition is one of those things you almost hear as a buzzword. Everybody's talking

about it. Not everybody's figured it out. We'd love to hear from our listening audience in the

text. We'll bring those comments in. As you're thinking about it, and you're starting to create

that process, what does the process look like? Who's conducting those appraisals? How often are

you executing on those? And then how many vehicles are you picking up on an average month since you

began? So great question. So we've switched gears a couple of times. We thought maybe one of our

used car managers would sit down there and start having the conversations. And, you know, but our

clients, you know, we have such great relationships, our clients didn't know our used car managers.

So our senior advisors would be the ones to say, Hey, Sam, today when you're in here today, how

about a complimentary appraisal on your vehicle? You know, that really seems to be getting traction.

Now we just started it about a month ago. I think we bought maybe eight to 10 cars out of there so

far. Okay, okay. You know, so but a lot of a lot of appraisals and a lot of tire kicking, we're

planting seeds and, you know, in this business, a lot of things you do, you don't get instant results.

Yeah. So transitioning from the used car acquisition piece, which I do believe in, I think you can

have a major impact on used cars overall dealership profitability. You've opened this new commercial

center and you've talked about backfilling the main shop. What is backfilling the main shop

look like in March of 2026 after you've opened this huge commercial service center there at Ford?

So what our plans are to start, you know, we struggle with transmission repairs in the Ford

world and, you know, any Ford dealers out there listening would probably say, Yeah, that's a

true statement. So we are actually creating a transmission shop inside of our shop that we're

going to expand. And, you know, a lot of our Ford dealers around us are a month out for

transmissions, you know, and then you got loaners and it really puts a bind on your business. So

we're going to expand that like having like an internal transmission shop for all makes and

models inside of our inside of our dealership. And, you know, of course, we're trying to buy

more used cars instead of running the used cars through the main shop, we're going to have a

used car recon center. So a lot of good exciting plans, you know, we have a vision, we just got to

get there. Yeah, yeah. And truly in 2026, Fixedops is a big opportunity in in operations you've

capitalized on on the commercial side. We reported last year 2025 Ford is the number one most

recalled OEM. How are you meeting customer demand and needs for those recalls? Are you involved in

service? Is there anything you're doing different in your organization to help create a great

customer experience for those customers that are going through recalls and or routine warranty?

You know, in the Ford world, you know, Ford has pressed mobile pickup and delivery and more we got

we got five mobile bands, three really running, you know. So are we doing anything different? I

wouldn't say anything different or stands out compared to all the other Ford dealers in our

world. Just you got to have it's got to be its own business. And it's got to be have its own

advisor, its own, you know, that's got to be a little iceberg off the big iceberg. And it's

got to run like that, or where you're constantly, you know, looking and searching, trying to figure

out how it works. Yeah, Ford has done a lot in terms of supporting the program with factory

money with mobile service. Are you guys all in on mobile service? How many mobile units do you

have? Or are you doing more pickup delivery work? So we do we do a lot of both. We're not some of

the super stores that are out there, but we do we do well with it. We have we have five bands,

but we only have three running at this time. And pick up and delivery. I think we have eight

quarters in the morning, eight quarters in the afternoon. And you know, clients love it. I mean,

it's great. I mean, all manufacturers, they it's easy CSI. So going into the text eager case

says every dealership should have at least two dedicated transmission experts on hand that do

nothing. But transmissions eager says I agree. And then BDN goes 69 says, what do service managers

and advisors think about this is a question for you, Gary, what do service managers and advisors

think about possibly losing customers and selling less hours when cars are bought in the service

lane? So one of the tricks to use car acquisitions and services, what do you do with the revenue

loss to the service department when we snag it as a used car or sell a newer vehicle, Gary?

So, you know, we're a month into it. And I think out of our the ones that we acquired,

75% of them bought a new car. So, you know, it's a great question. We're pretty fortunate in service

that, you know, our flow is pretty strong. But, you know, we haven't got to that point where we

said, hey, we're going to hurt our service department, because you got to keep it all going,

right? You got to keep everything rolling. All right, Gary, as we wrap up, and then we're going

to bring you back for the round table at the very end, a lightning round, if you will. If there's

a dealer listening to Gary that says, Hey, I want to grow service revenue 20% this year in 2026. In

your opinion, where should they start? What's starting grounds for that 20% boost in service

revenue? Hands down commercial. Yeah, so much of it out there. It's higher labor rate. They fix

their vehicles that you don't have the time you're not even waiting on OKs. I mean, they just need

them fixed. And it's so strong, such the low hanging fruit of our business. Yeah, yeah. And

it's interesting that note that it's been under a need that's been undermet and you've executed

on strategy to go after it. Gary Keiser, President of LB Smith, Ford Lincoln, we appreciate having

you on the show today. Thanks for joining to share your perspectives. We'll have you back

as part of the lightning round at the very end. Thanks, Gary. Yeah, thank you. And we are full

swing into fixed ops Friday. Thanks everybody for being here. Thanks for posting your comments

on social media. Again, we'll continue to bring those into the show. Igor Kay reporting live from

the auction as it relates to used car values with gas engines. That'll be super interesting

when you think about impact to EV and EV demand if the price of oil becomes significant through this

Iran thing. Let's talk Great America. Today's episode is brought to you by Great America,

Great America finances, buildouts and remodels including service equipment, collision and repair,

body and paint, EV charging, car washes, signage and software. Upgrade your dealership without

draining cash. Learn more at GreatAmerica.com forward slash dealer build and we appreciate

Great America for supporting today's content including that great conversation with Gary about

servicing commercial vehicles and their expansion to meet that growing need and automotive and then

also their new initiative aimed at going after used cars and really, you know, they're working to

perfect that. So I think a lot of us can learn from that. And I am super excited to get my 2020

fixed t-shirt from their organization. I love that rally cry. So let's swing straight into our next

guest up next fixed ops director at Bozard Ford, Matt Norris. Welcome to the show.

Matt, welcome.

Hey, we appreciate having you. And by the way, one of the things I love about automotive is we

pivot fast. We had a couple last minute changes and you were gracious enough to raise your hand and

working with our team to come in and be part of today's conversation. So thanks. You work with

Ed Bozard who we've had on the show in the past and you guys are a growing organization out there.

So your technician, actually, first of all, Matt, tell us a little bit about yourself for

those who don't know you in your store. So Matt Norris, fixed ops director at Bozard Ford Lincoln.

I've been in the industry probably 30 years between being a technician, service advisor,

service manager and now fixed position. But I love the industry. I don't think I would want to do

anything else. It's been very rewarding for my family and seeing the growth and development of

the people that I get to work with every single day has been phenomenal. So that's awesome. Well,

your technician pipeline in service is one of the most interesting in the industry and you've

intentionally built that. Walk us through how you've built that technician pipeline and how you

continue to grow and develop technicians within the auto group. Sure. So 2016, prior to me getting

here, I've been at the dealership almost eight years now. But in 2016, the dealership started what we

called TDP, our tech development program. And we started off with one instructor and a couple of

entry level technicians. And we felt that the only way that we were going to be able to get

talented with the dealership, which is what everybody struggles with this industry now is

getting talent, right? And unicorns aren't, you know, they're not falling from the skies. And

so we got to grow our bench and we've got to develop people. And we felt the best way to do

that was to start our own development program. And we work very closely with two of the tech

schools in the area. We have great relationships with them. They both have automotive and diesel

programs. We invest a lot into those schools with finances and commitments, etc. And because of those

relationships, we have a pipeline of students that come into the dealership. And so as those entry

level techs come into our quick lane, that's typically where we'll start them. They spend five,

six months on our quick lane. It gives them an opportunity to understand and know our culture

and know how we do things. It gives us an opportunity to make sure that that individual

has what it takes. And then from there, we move them over into what we've changed TDP into BTI,

those are technical institute. And we've moved that into a nighttime role. So those students

come into the program, they start at two o'clock for the first two hours of the day, they spend

working with the instructors doing, you know, the required for the web based training so they

can start working on getting their their certificates and their training. And then at four o'clock,

they come into the shop from four to midnight, they work for 10s. And then they come into the shop

at 4pm. And they work very closely with other students and their instructor. And they work on

live cars. We do pretty much everything except heavy line work for the most part. But two thirds,

I think it's roughly about two thirds of our of our technicians, our masters, our senior masters

in the shop have come out of that program. If you walk through our shop, it's very compelling

when you see the medium age of our of the majority of our technicians are 35 and under.

That's impressive. You know, at Ziggler Autogrew, Bob Keele was on last week or week before talked

about a similar program. So props to you guys on that BTI. And I asked you pre shows, you know,

how many technicians do you have today on staff that are from that program? And it's astounding

that the impact that it's had to your ability. So as you recruit technicians into this industry,

what do you think the biggest myth is an automotive when kids are thinking about a career? What do

you think is the biggest myth and automotive that prevents a lot of kids that would be great

technicians from exploring that as career potential before coming to your school? It's a

six months of training. And for the most part, they've got it, and they can run the ball down

the field and be very successful. Technically, it's a whole different ballgame. There's, in my

opinion, from entry level to being senior master or knowing what's what's going on and how to

properly get a vehicle and diagnose it and actually repair it. It's like years. And so I think,

I think between the learning curve and a lot of technicians are, you know, the younger generations,

a little unsure of flat rate. I think those are probably the two of the biggest myths.

As long as you have some of the programs like, you know, some of us out there do,

I think it's helped support, grow and develop those individuals so they don't have to have

those fears. Yeah. And you know, it's kind of our fault as an industry for not having supported

such a technical skill with training and development. You know, you can't go to, you know,

college isn't the best place to learn to become a technician, right? And school of hard knocks

in today's increasingly complicated world isn't also, you've got to really recruit, cultivate,

career path, guide them through that. What do you think is the biggest mistake most dealerships

make when they're trying to recruit great technicians, understanding where they come from

and the success you've had? So from past experience and knowing a lot of people in the industry,

what I've seen as seems to be the biggest mistake is to bring entry-level technicians in

and make an assumption that because they've been to school, they know how to go out and fix a car.

That's not reality. And you've got to, you've got to support them. You've got to, you've got to pour

into them. You've got to put them either with a mentor, if you don't have a training program,

but it really just takes a special someone to wrap their arms around that individual

and want to grow them and want to develop them. But if you've got those kind of people in your

dealership, I highly encourage you to figure out a way to get those entry-level people in to spend

time with those people that are willing to pour into them. So you've invested a lot of time training

expertise into BTI. If there was a dealer that's listening today that says, hey, I want to create

this technician pipeline program tomorrow, what are the first few steps they should engage in to

create that? So I think first and foremost, you've got to identify the individuals within, you know,

the either you bring people in from outside, but preferably you identify those people within

the shop that are willing to take the time to grow and develop those people. And then you've

got to grow out and develop those relationships with either the high schools or the tech schools

so that you have a pipeline of people that are interested in. And then, you know, having a culture

where everybody understands that work, we all start somewhere and we all got to focus on taking

the time to teach, train and mentor people because all of us have one at some point in time, right?

Yeah. All right. I want to transition over to props to you guys for your commitment to developing

talent, recruiting people and helping young individuals see automotive as a career opportunity

before we get into service, mobile service. Ed Roberts, who may know a thing or two, he says,

hey, ask him about Bozard built. Tell us what that is. We're straight from the boss.

So a couple of years ago, you know, we've been doing a lot of accessory builds. We got

more heavily involved in building trucks. We wanted to brand that and create a new vertical

within our industry, maybe not our industry, but certainly at our dealership. And so we branded

Bozard built and we've just hired a manager, Justin, to run that program and he's doing a

phenomenal job so far. The team here is phenomenal. But we really want to dive into that market where

we can have a lot of fun with consumers. We can build some cool stuff. We can have some fun with it.

And I'll tell you, from my standpoint, there's nothing cooler than being out at a car show or

being out at the grocery store or Target or something and seeing one of our Bozard built

trucks because they're all branded that way. It's like, you know, it's ours. Yeah. So no matter

where you are, everybody looking at it can see it and they acknowledge it. They see what it is.

All right. We we are powering out right now of a time in automotive history where there were less

new cars in the market. So less UIO for a lot of dealerships, maybe not as much Ford, but there

were manufacturers that were constrained. There are some service departments out there right now

that are saying, Hey, you know what, customer pays not as central to our strategy. We're living off

recon warranty pay, that sort of thing. What do you think is a great target for customer pay to

make a service department healthy? We all know absorption and other things like that. And what

would your response be to a service manager that says, Hey, you know what, it's kind of different

here. Customer pays not as big a deal. UIO was lower over the past several years. So we're going

to focus on warranty work. We're going to focus on internal recon and use car sales. What do you

say to that manager? Well, that's a loaded question. I love the loaded questions, by the way. It helps

my own curiosity. Go ahead. So I'm a firm believer that we need to care for people's cars. And I think

everybody, you know, from a consumer standpoint, I think everybody has different levels of what

how they want to care for their car, whether it's, Hey, at least this thing for two years. And I'm

really not super concerned about, you know, spending all this money on 30 case or whatever the case

may be. But then you have a lot of other individuals that they will keep their car for 150 200,000

miles. And I think at the end of the day, it's our job as a dealership, they don't come into us

knowing what they need for their car. They come into us because we're the experts, and they're

relying on our expertise to tell them what they need. I do think that customer pay is a big part

of our business. It's always going to be a big part of our business. But you know, looking at

caring for their cars, the biggest thing for us is we want to make sure that they have a good

ownership experience. And then obviously, you know, they have a great ownership experience,

and their cars has has had limited breakdowns, because they've done all the routine stuff,

we're going to sell more cars, they're going to come back into us, and they're going to buy more

cars. So are you saying in a way, don't worry about customer pay, worry on the customer experience

and the CP will take care of itself? 1000%. Okay. And what's what's a tool you use in your auto

auto dealership here in March of 26 to lean into creating that great customer experience and fixed

operations? So obviously, a big piece of that is culture. Advisor advisor team does a great job.

I've never worked with a group of advisors like we have here. And I'm obviously biased, but we

have an amazing team. But I think another key component to is the technician video MPI. I think

that's all I love that. Yes. Why what what system do you use? What's your benchmark? And how how

good are you at doing that opposed art? Well, last question. First, we always have the opportunity

to get better. We actually got down my management team. And I just sat down yesterday, we discussed,

how do we improve upon this service? And how do we create a more consistent process in the shop?

And so we're actually launching that the next couple of days. We've got something lined up,

but it's transparency. You know, when when I'm looking at a technician going over my car,

they do an introduction, they go over everything on my car, they tell me, you know, what I'm there

for, then they go over, hey, look, this is some some items that need attention. At the end of the

day, I want to I want my I don't need to be sitting on the side of the room because my car is not

running properly or something happened. And, you know, Ed and I were talking this morning about

how the advisors have traditionally always had the relationship with the consumer. I believe

that game can change now. And I believe that if a technician that's really, really wants to create

a name for himself and really take off, flip that phone around, flip that iPad around, introduce

yourself, let the consumer see who you are, and you'll build a pipeline of customers coming in

that ask for you to work on their car. So, so what system do you use to deliver that video MPI?

And what's your percent standard? What is success at Bozard? So we're using my karma,

and we've got we've got to be above 85%. Okay, and are you above 85 consistently?

Is that? Yeah, we are. Now, what we're not going to do, like when when we bring up bring a stock

unit in for recall or things that nature work, we're not going to do a video MPI on that.

Just because it's time that we can use for other things. Yeah. So, so to tie it back to my other

question, what is the impact of video MPI 85% above on customer pay? Does that customer pay

number go up? Yeah, 100%. And it's interesting when you when we first started this, and obviously

some of our consumers have seen it now. But when when they we first started sending these out,

it was overwhelming response of this is super cool that I get to see what's wrong with my

thoughts. I would identify some things. Yes, things I saw or I met, you know, I heard the

technician like people want that transparency and they like being involved in it. If they have a

if they can be involved in it, man, what a game changer. Yeah. Matt Norris, this is killing me

because our time's almost up and I have so many other questions to ask you for. I want to transition

from customer pay video creating that great customer experience to mobile service. You guys

have a large mobile service operation. Tell us how you're thinking about mobile service in March

of 2026 and any tweaks you're making to it to win between now and the end of the year at your

Ford franchise. So we have, yeah, we've got total of 46 units. We have 41 or 40 on the road currently.

And it is something that we're all 100% invested in. I don't think it's ever going to go away.

I my wife loves it. I don't have to bring her car in. I don't have to inconvenience her anymore.

They go to the house. They do it. She is she's in love with mobile service. My neighbors are in

love with it the first time they had it. But yeah, it's a game changer. One of the biggest

things that we're focusing on this year is fleet and commercial retail work, you know, we're going

to continue that focus but fleet and commercials and other big focus that we're really diving into.

And we we're going to we're looking at going out to these fleet and commercial companies and just

say, Hey, look, we're here. Just give us one of your cars. It can even be an employee car.

Let's just go out there and do a little change. I'll just let us show you what we can do.

So Ford has been great at supporting mobile service. They've provided factory dollars for it.

As I mentioned with Gary, you take that factory support away and a does it still

pencil economically? Is it still a very profitable enterprise? And B, do you see for see a time when

there'll be a preference for mobile versus coming into the brick and mortar? And how soon is that

if you think that comes? So I think we're there now. I think as people are getting more and more

exposed to mobile service, the added layer of convenience where I can, if I work from home,

I don't have to come into the dealership and spend two hours at the dealership,

basically with not a whole lot to do with the dealership in a waiting room, right?

So there's a huge convenience there. You can go out to people's businesses. We can go out to the

ball field while their kids are playing sports on Saturdays and do their service right out in the

ball fields like we'll do it anywhere as long as people are okay with it. And so yes, I do that.

I do think that this is going to continue as far as penciling and making it work without the factory

money. Yes, I absolutely think you can go, you can absolutely make it work. You just have to be

very intentional about making sure that your scheduling means appropriately that you're

keeping your guys with a good stream of work. But yeah, I do think it can pencil without factory

money. Yeah, fantastic. Well, I'll tell you what, Matt Norris, fantastic conversation today. We

appreciate you jumping on last minute with us. What is your biggest initiative as we wrap? Final

question in 2026. What do you see as the biggest threat and the biggest opportunity in fixed stops

for dealers 2026? So I think our biggest opportunity, at least from my perspective,

that our dealership is going to be continue with a focus on our buzzard technical and student

growing and developing young tax. Obviously, it's opened up some hours in the evening for us to do

additional work. I think the third thing for us, or second thing, excuse me, is a focus on customer

outreach through our service BDC Center. And then the last one for us is a heavy, heavy advisor

training program. Yeah, yeah, well, fantastic. Matt Norris, thanks for being on the show. Gary

Kaiser came into the comments in our internal little messaging thing. And he said, I'm just

going to read this because that was cool spot on in our words, love the client up close quote,

the revenue will come after and rather than having that focus on customer pay as a metric,

focus on elite service to that customer in the moment and and the rest will come. So

Matt Norris, fixed ops director at Bozard. Thanks for being on the show today, sharing your

perspectives. You're welcome. Thanks for having us. That was fun. And seriously, we had a we had

a little bit of a pivot last minute, he was great to come in. And I would love to continue the

conversation even more on mobile service. But, you know, it's only a 60 minute show, we could go

for a couple of hours here, eager K comes into the comments as Ford's following the Mercedes Benz

playbook with mobile service and roadside assistance. He says, I think it's great. And actually,

the Benz program is awesome as well. They do a lot of the over the air communication with the

vehicle to help dispatch the vehicles and meet customer need. And again, creating that great

customer experience makes it less about price, more about the service and people I think in

2026 are willing to pay for a better experience. And then Christopher Shouten says, how do we lock

in customer loyalty when so many are defecting? Let's hang on to that question for the roundtable

at the very end, because I think we've got just the guests to address those questions and more.

So next up, we are going to turn quickly to Kevin Proctor, Service and Parts Director at

Classic Chevrolet. Kevin, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. So Kevin, you're not far

away from me. So Kalamazoo, Michigan, we're in Western Michigan, you're just on the opposite

side of the state. So we share Michigan. It's great to talk to a fellow, Michigander. So for

those in our audience daily dealer live that don't know you, tell us a little bit about yourself

and what you do out there. So obviously, Service and Parts Director, I started this dealership in

99. Fresh out of trade school started as a technician, worked as a technician for 24 years.

While I was doing that adjunct automotive instructor at the local college did that for

about nine years, which was fantastic, because I could take my star students and bring them

into the dealership and grow my own technicians that way. I quit doing that, you know, the whole

two jobs thing with the family and all that just wasn't working out long term. So yeah, quit doing

that. But I did love it. Got a call from the owner of the dealership about two and a half years ago

and he said, well, I need you up front. So guess what? Take your toolbox home and come on up here.

What was the biggest shift for you going from the prior role to the new role?

It's just so much. And of course, that first year was drinking from a fire hose. There's just

so much to learn up here. It's a lot more stressful. One of the things that they don't tell you as

you're on all the time. When you're a manager, you're on call all the time. When you have a day

off, you have your phone on you because there's often a fire to put out. There's something to do.

You serve the customer and your employees, right? And at the end of the day, you've got to be available

to both. You've got to be available to the customer oftentimes through your employees. So it's

learning to balance multiple hats. It's fascinating in the intake form you talked about. You run

book studies with your service advisors. I don't hear about that a lot. Service advisors

getting into books and then talking about why did you start doing that and what's the business

benefit to the organization of those book studies? So I mean, really, I'm a bit of a book nerd

anyways. So I'm always reading something, multiple books, listening to books, whatever. I'm always

looking for a little bit more knowledge on stuff and just talking to different people

and really realize that my service advisors have a gap somewhere. And I don't know if I'm totally

equipped to fill that gap without help. So I started running shift meetings about a year ago. So

pre-shift, we get together for about 20 minutes. We go over the day schedule, who needs a loaner,

what maintenance everybody's got, what appraisals we need to do, that kind of stuff.

You know, talking about the sales leads, that kind of stuff. And every Friday we do a book study.

So we take a chunk of that service meeting and we do a book study. So really, it really started

out as a focus on hospitality. Go ahead. What book are you reading now? What are you cracking up

as you read now? I'll tell you, but I'm going to also say I don't necessarily recommend it,

but we have had some really good discussions on it. It's write service and write your own paycheck.

There's some really good nuggets in there. There's stuff that definitely doesn't work for our

demographic, but it has my advisors talking and that's really what I want. What's one discussion

point in March of 26 that has ended in a takeaway where you've read it in the book, you've debated

it, and you've said, hey, this could actually work.

Well, part of it is building a rapport with the customer, getting to know the customer,

getting to know the customer's vehicle. Customer walks in, you're looking for those tags.

You look for their hat, they're sure, you do the walk around in their car, you look for their

kids, their pictures of the grandkids, that kind of stuff. You look for that one connection point

that you can get with that customer to build the rapport, to build the trust, to get the customer

to connect with you and see you as a human, not just a deletion. So let me ask this, Kevin,

you could stand up in a meeting, in a sales meeting and give your top five hints and tips.

Why is it better to read it in a book, have a conversation, and then have everyone arrive

at that on their own versus you talking about it in a meeting and just leading the meeting with it?

Well, and honestly, we talked about it a little bit this morning in our book study.

It's the idea of show, don't tell. I shouldn't have to tell everybody what to do, but I can show

them. I don't have to tell my customers that we're the best dealership around. I have to tell

my customers that I have the best technicians, but I'd better be able to show them.

Yeah. Yeah. Of all your service advisors, do you ever get some of them that are like,

I just don't read. I'm not doing this. I don't understand it. I don't get it.

This is ludicrous. I'm not doing it. So not anymore. It was a fight. Well, I don't want to

even say it was a fight at first. I did get some kickback from it, and not to sound harsh,

but it really came down to this is a condition of employment. This is what we're doing. That's

not optional. And even though I had to start it out that way, our advisors really embrace it,

and they love it. And I think they love it when the books are not as good sometimes,

because they can pick them apart and go, oh, this is not going to work for our customer.

We can't do this and that kind of stuff. But again, it's getting them talking.

Yeah. But sometimes the conversation is more valuable than the information they're going to

take away because you learn to relate to each other, you learn to talk, you learn to problem

solve. And sometimes you'll probably get the team gather on one side as a team. And as long as

they're all banded together on it, that you've you've accomplished the goal. So let's transition

to warranty labor rate. You talked about focusing heavily on warranty labor rate increases this year.

Why is that such a big important lever in March of 26?

Well, we really have to look to our future. With our warranty labor rate increase, it's

obviously based on a lot of state laws. Whatever state you're in, the state laws drive, whatever

your warranty labor rate increase can be, what goes against it, what goes towards it. And really,

a lot of that is the customer pay repair work that goes towards that. So back to your previous

guess, that yeah, the customer pay work is the customer is important, the customer pay work

is important. Because if you don't have that, then you're not you don't have anything to stand

with your manufacturer to try to get that. Yeah, but what do you say to the service manager that

says, look, there are less new cars in circulation right now, there's going to be less customer pay

because there's less cars to bring back in here. We're an expensive dealership, right? Customers

shop up the road because they're super, you know, they're saving money. You know, I'm going to focus

on warranty pay and internal. I'm not going to focus on that customer pay. What do you say to

that manager? Well, if we don't have the customer pay, we don't have the warranty. You know,

yeah, people, you know, people buy their first car from the sales department, but they buy the

rest of them from the service department. So what's your biggest tip? What's your biggest tip in

March of 26 to create an elite customer experience for every customer walking into your dealership?

How do you train for that in the drive? So honestly, it really comes down to the basics.

Somebody needs to be on that drive at all times. You know, that's one of those struggles that we've

really had is keeping somebody on the drive, keeping those phones answered. When that phone rings,

somebody has to be there to answer it. When a customer walks through that door,

there should be, there has to be a smiling face while they're greeting them and greeting them

by name if possible. What percent of the time would you say you're successful at that? And what

percent of the time do you think we fail at that? Having someone on the drive ready to greet you by

name? Where do I want it or where am I? Yeah. So I'm probably 85%. They do really well. I get it.

Advisors are busy. There's always something to do. But that's something that we really need to focus on.

One of the most shocking statistics, I think, in all of automotive is CDK's recent survey

where they came out and they said, hey, the average wait time, average wait time for a customer

calling and getting put on hold and services nine minutes, which means there's equal over and equal

under. Does that resonate with you? And then what's the solution to that when we think about creating

a great customer experience? Oh, well, you know, I don't, I don't know our exact metrics, but I

can't imagine any of our customers are waiting nine minutes on the phone. There's no way. Who would

wait that long? That's insane. They're going to hang up and they're going to, they might call back

once. And if we don't get on it, they're calling somebody else. This is the way it is. Yeah.

So thinking about KPIs that you watch and monitor, and then we're going to get into our roundtable,

what is, what is a couple KPIs that you watch in March of 26 that are important to you to

decide whether or not your team's running efficiently, effectively and profitably?

I really like to group our KPIs together. I don't know that there's really one important

KPI. We really do like to focus on effective labor rate, because that is what goes towards

our warranty labor rate, is our effective labor rate. So that's a big one. But, you know, we have

our hours per hour. We have our dollars per hour. One line repair orders is a big one.

All of those need to work together. Because if you don't have them working together,

you can have some super clever advisors trying to manipulate numbers and make things look good.

So, you know, we always try to make sure everything works together.

All right. So you talk about super creative service advisors. What is the ideal service

advisor pay plan look like in 2026? And then we'll go to our roundtable.

We keep our advisor pay plans pretty simple. They're based on labor dollars sold rental.

They're based on CSI, effective labor rate bonus. They're really not super complicated.

Yeah. Dan C. comes into the comments, says try audiobooks for those that just don't want to

read. I agree with that. And he says it's a great solution for people who hate reading

audiobooks. Igor Kay agrees with it. Igor Kay also says, I don't get it. We can show you and

train you. But if they say I don't want to do it, you say buy. And that's a standard for creating

that expectation. So, Kevin Proctor, classic Chevrolet fellow of Michigander. Thanks for being

on the show. And we're going to bring Gary Kaiser back in for our lightning round here at the very

end as we wrap up today's fixed ops Friday. Welcome back, Gary. Good to be back. Yeah.

Hey, what do you think? We just talked a little bit about ELR as an important KPI. We've talked a

lot about this on the show. Anyone that watches and hears Tully as an example, Tully from Nilo

would say, hey, ELR is not that great a metric. He says I'd rather focus on retention. Gary,

any thoughts about ELR versus retention? Yeah. So, you know, my opinion is I'm retention heavy.

You know, as I said earlier, love the customer off. ELR comes, you know, you get the key flippers

that just give you the keys and say, fix it, right? Once you get that relationship and back

to the question about retaining or the loyalty of clients, it's all relationship. I mean, it's all

just knowing your clients and making them feel at home and don't make it about a service visit.

Make it about their lives. Yeah. Yeah. That resonates with me. All right. First question

up on the roundtable. This is the official. If a dealership and anybody can take this,

if a dealership doesn't have at least 100% service absorption in the next five years,

is that just poor management? I'd say 100%, you know, that's shooting for the moon, right?

In our region, 75% now we're, you know, we're real close to that 100%. Sometimes over, you know,

we dabble with being over that, but I mean, you're shooting for the moon. Yeah. It's definitely

a high number, especially in a rural area with a single point dealer. It's, you know,

that's a tough number to hit. Is there a better stability metric for a dealership than absorption

today? I don't know. I don't, I guess I don't really have a good answer to that one. I would

say no. I mean, we concentrate on our absorption, right? That's our, every time the statement comes

out, we're flipping right to our page and saying, what's our absorption? Yeah. All right. The service

lane, next question up, the service lane might be the most underused inventory acquisition channel

in the entire industry. Should every service advisor be trained to identify trade opportunities

and appraise cars at a dealership of 2026 March in today's world?

I wouldn't trust my service advisors to appraise a car, but

they could start the conversation for that conversation. Yeah. I'll get somebody on the

sales team that we communicate with every day. They go through the schedule with my dispatcher

and we identify the vehicles before they even get here.

Gary? I agree. You keep the service advisors in their arena. When you put them outside their

arena, they already have X amount of texts, X amount of phone calls coming at them. Their

plates are so full and it's like Thanksgiving dinner. It just stuff falls off the edges and

you got to pick it back up and put it on. You start, you'll start losing, I think, CSI if you

start asking them to appraise cars. Next question is one that just fascinates me.

Service advisors are sometimes the highest paid people in the dealership that most GMs don't

train enough. When you think about comp relative to training, what percentage of advisors are

actually performing at their potential where if there is additional training attention,

they could actually exceed that and be even more profitable. Do we train advisors enough,

Gary? No. The whole industry will say it. I believe we'll say the same. In my opinion,

as we do not, they are left out on an island and I'm going. What's the solution, Kevin?

Why don't we train them enough? We talk about it all the time.

Well, I guess I don't know what the solution is. I know what I do and we just talked about the book

studies. That's one thing that I do just to try to train the advisors. Talk to them, build a

relationship with the advisor. Just as important it is for the advisor to build a relationship

with a customer. You have to build one with your advisors. Get to know them. They need to be able

to respect you so that you can teach them how you want things done. I like your process,

because from your role, you're spending significant time with them. They're hearing how you think,

what you do, you're debating things from books, but not everybody has the time, the ability to do

what you're doing. Is there a process in the training world that best trained service advisors?

I believe you have to get them outside their environment to train them. If you try to train

them, we have morning huddles and we do it all day long or train them. You get them outside their

environment where they're not getting fastballs thrown on them all day long. They retain more.

You have to trust who's training them. Are they training them to your culture? That's the big

thing. At the time, you can't take them off the lane because you're so busy that you can't get

them outside of this world. I would love for a future episode to do a round table. You two are

related to service advisors. Everybody's got training in sales. Everybody's got service training

at FNI. I haven't seen a really great, other than the one-on-one you're talking about off-site and

whatnot process. I would love to invite various trainers in to get their takes on that. To you

both, Gary Kaiser and Kevin Proctor, thanks for joining Daily Deal Live and this Fixed Ops Friday

round table. Props to you both. Congratulations. You guys crushed it today. Thanks for being on the

show. Thanks for having us. Today was an awesome show. We had a great conversation on all things

Fixed Ops. We've got a few great shows next week. On Wednesday as an example, we're going to dig

deeper into the broker conversation, hearing the reply side to the broker debate that we had last

week. A bunch of great content coming up next week. But for now, we say thank you for watching the

Daily Deal Live. We break down the biggest moves in the car business as they happen. Don't forget,

we're here every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, live 1 p.m. Eastern across all CDG social media platforms.

So if this is your world, hit like, hit subscribe, turn on those notifications so you never ever

miss a beat. And we'll see you next episode. Thanks for being here, everybody. Happy Fixed Ops Friday.

Fixed Ops Friday w/ Garry Keyser, Matt Norris, Kevin Proctor | Daily Dealer Live

About this episode

Fixed Ops

Scout Motors

dealer franchise agreements

direct-to-consumer model

Scout Terra

vehicle reservations

Scout Traveler

General Motors

certified pre-owned

GMC

Buick

Carvana

Chevrolet Tracker

Lithia

Volvo Cars

Audi

Volkswagen

FixOps

Ford Pro Elite Commercial Service Center

Mannheim auction

service lane acquisition

transmission

recalls

service revenue

Ford F-150 Lightning

EV

EV charging

Mercedes-Benz

roadside assistance

mobile service

over the air communication

customer experience

Cadillac ELR

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