The Dodge Ram is a pickup truck. People buy it for work and for towing or hauling things. It’s often discussed in sales plans because it’s one of the main trucks in the brand’s lineup.
The Jeep Recon is a Jeep SUV that’s being talked about as a new addition to the lineup. It’s meant to be a modern SUV for everyday use, with Jeep-style capability depending on the final configuration. It comes up in the podcast because it’s part of a set of new vehicles being planned.
The Jeep Cherokee is a small-to-mid size SUV. It’s made for carrying people and cargo and can be offered with features that help on rougher roads. It’s mentioned because it’s a key Jeep SUV model that dealerships sell and update over time.
STLA AutoDrive is Stellantis’s system for advanced driving help—things like smarter driver-assist features. They’re saying they’ll add new AI technology to it by 2028.
The Build America 250 Act is a proposed U.S. law. The part they’re talking about would add yearly fees for EVs and plug-in hybrids, and those fees would rise over time.
This segment is about a proposed law that could add fees for EVs and plug-in hybrids. The hosts discuss why it matters for dealers selling those vehicles.
These are yearly government charges for registering a vehicle. The segment says the proposal would charge EVs and plug-in hybrids each year, in addition to what states already charge.
The Highway Trust Fund is money the government uses for road building and maintenance. They’re saying the new EV-related fees would go into that same pot.
ICE means internal combustion engine—cars that burn fuel like gasoline or diesel. The segment uses “ICE drivers” to describe people who pay the gas tax today.
The federal gas tax is a tax added to each gallon of gasoline. EV drivers don’t pay it because they don’t buy gas, so the proposal tries to make up that funding gap.
Stucky Automotive is the dealership business where the guest works. They mention it so listeners know who he is and why he’s qualified to talk about dealerships.
“Fixed Ops” is the part of a car dealership that makes money from fixing cars—like service work, parts sales, and repairs. It’s different from the sales side where you sell vehicles.
“Recon” is the work done to prepare a used car for sale (like repairs and detailing). A “centralized recon department” means the group does that prep in one central place instead of at every store.
The “FTC” is a U.S. government agency that helps protect consumers. Here it’s mentioned because it sent letters related to how incentives and dealership practices can be handled.
A “GM pay plan” is how a dealership general manager gets paid. It’s usually based on goals, and the discussion here is about whether those goals can push managers too hard.
Technician retention means keeping mechanics from quitting or leaving. They’re saying the industry struggles to hire enough people and then keep them working in the shop.
A technician pipeline is how a shop keeps finding and training new mechanics. They’re saying they work with schools and use mentors so new techs can learn the job step by step.
Customer retention means keeping customers from going elsewhere after they buy. Here, they’re talking about which car brands help the dealership get customers to return for service.
Service growth means the dealership is doing more work in its service department over time. In practice, it usually comes from having enough technicians and keeping customers coming back.
Subaru is the car brand being used as an example. The speaker says Subaru runs its stores in a way that feels more like a retail business than a traditional dealership, and that affects how the team works.
Mobile service means the repair work comes to you instead of you bringing the car to the shop. The speaker talks about using service vans and coordinators to schedule and manage those visits.
CDJR is a shorthand used in the auto business for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram. The speaker is saying they have mobile service coverage for those brands too.
The Ford Escape is a compact SUV. It’s designed for regular driving like commuting and errands, with space for passengers and cargo. The podcast mentions it because it’s a vehicle the dealership has available.
Ford Pro Elite is a Ford program that helps dealerships organize their commercial service business. Here, they’re saying they’re switching their setup to this Ford program.
Mobile vans are service vehicles used to bring dealership service capabilities to customers’ locations. In fixed ops, this can reduce friction for customers and increase repair-order volume by meeting people where they are.
Term
MPS scores
MPS scores are customer satisfaction ratings for the service experience. Higher scores generally mean customers felt they were taken care of well.
Gross profit is basically how much money is left after paying the direct costs tied to the work. They’re saying you can sell a lot but still not make much profit.
Term
RO growth
In service-department terms, “RO” usually means repair orders. “RO growth” means they’re trying to get more repair work coming in over time.
It’s a dealership habit of setting up the customer for their next service visit right after they buy the car. Instead of the customer showing up “cold,” they meet the service team first, so coming back is smoother.
Term
FNI managers
This is likely a shorthand for the finance-and-insurance team at a dealership. They handle the paperwork and add-on plans sold with the car, and those plans can connect to what the service department later does.
A vehicle service contract is like an add-on plan that helps pay for certain repairs for a set time or mileage. Whether a repair is covered can depend on records and how the car was maintained.
Maintenance records are the paperwork showing what service was done on the car. For some coverage plans, having those records can be required to get a claim approved.
A service advisor is the dealership employee who acts as the customer-facing point person in the service department. They gather vehicle information, explain recommended work, coordinate with technicians, and manage the customer experience during service visits.
CDK is a company that provides software to car dealerships. In this segment, they’re talking about CDK data on how service calls are handled (voicemail and hold times).
A data cleanse means fixing bad or outdated information in the dealership’s computer system. They did it because the AI was telling customers things that weren’t true about their cars.
Impel is a software tool the dealership was using. They paused it because the information it relied on wasn’t accurate/clean, so customers got wrong answers.
An AI agent is a computer program that talks to customers and answers questions. In this case, it gave wrong answers because the dealership’s information about the customer’s car wasn’t up to date.
A DMS is the dealership’s main computer system for managing customers and service work. Switching it is a big change, so dealerships often clean their data first to avoid problems.
Techian is the company they plan to use for their dealership computer system. Switching systems can change how the dealership runs service and manages customer info.
The onboarding process is the structured rollout plan used to get staff and systems up to speed after a change. In a dealership context, onboarding often includes training, workflow adjustments, and validating that the new software behaves correctly for each department.
A CRM transition refers to moving from one customer relationship management platform to another. In dealerships, CRM systems track leads, customer interactions, and follow-ups, so switching platforms can disrupt sales and service communication unless data migration is handled carefully.
Data cleansing is the process of correcting or removing inaccurate, incomplete, or duplicate records before using them in operations or analytics. The hosts connect it to AI engagement: if the underlying customer/service data is messy, AI-driven outreach or automation can produce worse results.
Zurich is an insurance company. They’re sponsoring this episode and talking about how dealers manage risk and protect their long-term business.
Term
FNI processes
FNI is an industry shorthand for the sales-and-finance steps dealers use during a deal. The sponsor is saying they have training and processes to help dealers do that work consistently.
They’re talking about a change involving Techion and how it impacts dealership groups. It’s the kind of shift that can cause concern and lots of attention.
MPI means Multi-Point Inspection. It’s a checklist-style inspection where the shop looks at several parts of your car and reports what they find. It helps customers understand what needs attention and why.
Unexpected costs are repair or service charges you weren’t expecting. If the shop doesn’t explain the findings clearly up front, it can feel like a surprise and hurt trust.
Lower control arms are parts of your car’s suspension that help hold the wheel in the right position. If they wear out, the car can feel less stable or ride worse. That’s why they show up on inspection reports.
Air filters keep dirt out of the air your car uses. If they get dirty, the car can breathe less easily and may run worse or feel less comfortable. That’s why shops often check them during inspections.
Term
customer perception
“Customer perception” is what the customer thinks about the service they received. Even if the car is fixed, customers judge how the process felt—like how they were treated and how clear things were.
Term
RO
An RO is the service “paperwork” for a customer’s car—basically the ticket that starts the repair job and tracks what gets done. It’s what the shop uses to organize labor and parts for that visit.
“Hours per RO” means how many work hours the shop generates for each repair job ticket. If that number goes up, it usually means the shop is getting more labor time out of each job—often due to better workflow or more complete job scoping.
CSI is a score that measures how satisfied customers are after they get service. Dealerships track it to see whether their process is working and whether customers feel taken care of.
ASE is a widely recognized certification program for car mechanics. Getting ASE-certified means a technician has proven skills in specific repair areas.
Concept
coaching every opportunity
They’re describing a hands-on training style. Instead of only training once, managers watch real situations and give feedback right after—like after a call or a customer interaction.
Term
go to as our phone system
They’re talking about the dealership’s phone system. It’s used to manage calls and often to record or analyze them so the team can improve.
DMS systems are the computer software dealerships use to run sales and service. Switching to a new one is a big project because it affects how the whole dealership works day to day.
Reynolds is a type of dealership computer system. The point is that the speaker switched from one dealership software to another.
Term
fix stops
“Fix stops” is a dealership way of talking about the service visit—when a car comes in for repairs. They’re saying the industry uses a certain idea about it that’s not accurate.
LIVE
We're doing better as a result of social media presence.
It doesn't do those three things then it's on the chopping block.
It's in return on investment discussion.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Daily Dealer Live. I'm your host Sam
Dark and thanks for choosing to be here on this Friday the 22nd of May. Happy Memorial Day weekend.
The Super Bowl of Automotive Sales as we turn to think about those who served and gave their all.
Excited to be here on this Friday. We've got a special episode coming up Monday so be sure to
tune in for that. Here's a number worth knowing and working on. Service revenue just hit a record
according to Cox Auto. Over 9 million bucks a rooftop in revenue and yet dealers are losing
market share. We're down to 29% from 33. That's four points. Record money, a shrinking grip.
Today we go to two service leaders fighting for the bay. First up Spencer Nicholson,
fixed ops director at Stuckey Automotive in central PA. Nine brands, three counties and a
bet on building team leaders and getting the right people in the right seats. Then Xavier Rivera,
service director at Green Acres and I-95 Nissan at West Palm Beach on turning the digital MPI
into real accountability and why he says growth comes from developing people not chasing numbers.
Two markets, one mission. Drop your questions in the chat as a reminder we're streaming live
across all CDG social media platforms. Your comments will bring them into today's show.
For example, such as Patrick Block, Mode of Ventures always here to remind us of the dates.
Happy anniversary to the Wright Brothers, US patent for a flying machine which included the
concept of an internal combustion engine. Props back to 1906 and then JJ on the job. Let's go,
fixed ops Friday. We've got that on this big show plus more coming up but first let's hit today's
automotive industry headlines. First up today kicking it off with a sales update. S&P Global
ratings cut its global auto sales forecast this week pointing to what it called a quote double
whammy. Weakening demand in China and rising energy costs due to the Middle East conflict,
the Strait of Hormuz closure, at least the constraint. Global like vehicle sales are now
projected to fall one to 3% in 26. That's down from 92 million units sold last year with US sales
expected to drop three to 5% so we're being impacted outsized. Before recovering slightly
in 2027, US auto sales were already running 6.7% below year ago levels through April with the
annualized rate sitting at 15.7 million units. For dealers, the environment heading into the
back half of 2026 is one where fewer buyers, higher costs and tighter margins are likely to
arrive all at the same time. Up next today, a big story we broke last episode but we were pending
confirmation. The broker enforcement story keeps developing this month. The financial services arm
of Toyota Lexus and Mazda issued notices to New Jersey dealers stating that leases and retail
contracts involving brokers will not be purchased. And if a broker deal is inadvertently purchased,
the dealer is required to repurchase the contract. Toyota Lexus set an effective day
of May 20th. Mazda's kicks in June 2nd. Both notices reference a March 17th memo from the
New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission confirming that brokering is illegal in the state. Fox Rothchild,
attorney who represents dealers in both New Jersey and New York, told CDG this reflects a
broader industry push to eliminate the practice. One New Jersey dealer and NJ car executive
committee member said he welcomes it but remains skeptical about all through noting that brokers
rarely leave a paper trail that manufacturers can actually audit. The lines have been drawn.
The question is how consistently they get enforced. And as an aside, at the end of the day, it's up to
franchise dealers to help with that enforcement. They've got the liability if they're caught and
it weakens the overall franchise system if they don't. So back to the new speaking of OEM
Stellantis laid out its North America strategy at Investor Day Thursday. And it's an ambitious one.
The company plans to introduce 11 new models and refresh another 12 across North America over the
next five years targeting 25% revenue growth in the region by 2030 and expanding market coverage
from 60% today to over 90%. The full lineup across Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler is either new or
significantly refreshed. Ram adds a mid-sized pickup, large SUV and the Rampage. Dodge brings the
new GLH, Jeep adds the Cherokee and Recon. Chrysler gets three new crossovers. On affordability,
Stellantis is committing to nine vehicles under $40,000 by 2030, including two under $29,000
compared to just two under $40,000 in 2025. As an aside, that's a much needed move in this
affordability constrained marketplace. The company back to it, the company is also integrating
Wave's AI driver technology into its STLA auto drive platform by 2028. For Stellantis dealers
who've been navigating a challenging stretch, this is the most concrete product roadmap the
company has put forward in years. But execution, it's everything here. And closing out today's
news with a legislative development worth watching for EV and hybrid dealers, the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee began markup this week on the Build America 250 Act,
which includes proposed federal annual registration fees of 130 bucks for EVs and 35 bucks for plug-in
hybrids with increases of $5 every two years, starting in 2029 capping at 150 and 50 respectively.
The fees would be paid on top of existing state fees and deposited into the Highway Trust Fund.
The committee estimates the fees would generate 30 billion bucks over a decade.
Their rationale? Well, it's that EV drivers currently bypass the federal gas tax at 18.4
per gallon that ICE drivers pay to fund road maintenance. That federal rate hasn't changed
since 1993. Still, there's already pushback and some arguing the proposed fees are above
what an average ICE driver pays annually in gas tax.
And that, folks, is a wrap on today's auto industry headlines and welcome to Fixedops Friday, everyone.
Welcome back to Fixedops Friday. Let's dive into our first guest because reminders streaming live
across all social media platforms join in the conversation today. Fixedops Friday is one of
my favorite days of the week. Spencer Nicholson is up first, Fixed Operations Director at Stucky
Automotive. Spencer, welcome to the show. First of all, thanks for having me, Sam.
Thanks for being here. So before we get going on today's topics for our audience that may not
know you, share who you are, where you are and how's biz this Friday? So work for Stucky Automotive
here in Central PA right around State College, so Penn State, pretty close to where our stores are.
So I started here about nine years ago. Work my way, started out selling cars in our Subaru store,
promoted finance manager, worked my way into sales manager, got the opportunity to come over
and learn Fixedops, became service manager, and then was fortunate enough that Matt thought
enough of me to promote me into Fixedops Director to oversee all of our stores,
commercial truck shop, and collision centers. Wait, so you went from finance manager into Fixed?
Finance manager, sales manager, and then yeah, into Fixed. What was that transition like? That
is unusual. Most would go finance, sales manager, GM, and then you lead a store. You took a very
different path at a time by the way when Fixedops couldn't be more important in the industry. Why'd
you do that? Honestly, I just saw the opportunity. It was the next step and we don't have GMs in our
organization. So that step's not there. So it was again, took the opportunity when it came about
and never looked back. What's in place of GMs? So we have sales managers, service managers,
and then myself and my counterpart Chuck on the sales side. And then we have some directors
below us, but we don't have people actually running the stores. So who has command controller? Who has
P&L responsibility at the store level? That's an interesting structure. And why? What's the
thought process but behind not having a general manager at the store? Honestly, it's worked for
us. We do a lot of things a little bit different. Again, we don't have GMs. We don't handle
used cars in the store. We have a used centralized recon department. Okay. And again, it's just
worked for us. And we are, again, we're growing and again, it doesn't work for everybody, but for
us it definitely works. So I'm asking the question. I am curious and the reason for the questions is,
I think a lot of dealer groups across the country right now are looking at structure.
How do we better deliver a great experience to our customers? Is it the traditional mold?
Don Hall would say, hey, look, part of the issue with the FTC and the letters that went out is
GM pay plans that incentivize and pay way too much money to a GM that drive results at stores.
He's been very, he's spoken out about that often. And so I'm super curious when I hear about a
different structure, kind of what led to that and then what structure is replaced. And I know it's
not the purpose of the conversation day, but I am. So who ultimately is responsible for the PNL
at a store in your organization? Like how do you get that accountability if not a GM?
So again, we're very transparent with all of our people when again, when we're going through,
going through statements and again, all of our managers, service managers, sales managers,
we're very, very transparent with what we do. And again, so they have that ownership. That's
again, know how much personnel you have to what your expenses are, to get how much
grossing you have every single day to drive those results. So sales managers, service managers,
everybody's equally responsible. Dan C comes into the chat asked the question I was asking
out of a way to go, Dan. He says, is the owner of the dealer principle? So is the owner of the
dealer principle in this case, Dan? Or Spencer? Yep. Okay. Yeah, master dealer principle owner
and president. Yeah, yeah. And then Patrick block ventures says gonna have a true holistic view
of the dealership when he gets to be in charge. What a cool path you're getting a lot of comments
online. Paul Salisman says, wow, Spencer is a future GM and owner with that experience,
again, going from finance to sales manager into fixed ops at a time when fixed ops is so crucial
to everybody's experience. So Cox came out, they said, Hey, look, revenue is way up, but the share
that we auto dealers are getting is down relative to independence. Does that track what Cox reported?
Does that track across your organization? What are you doing to get that share back if it is?
So we are up in our house, not quite as much as we'd like to be. But we are up, which is obviously
a good trend. Yeah, definitely. So again, we're still fighting against those negative stigmas
that dealerships have. But we fight those with speed, transparency and price. That's what we
try to build what we do around. And again, kind of get the whole team rallied around it. And again,
it's working for us, but we can always definitely be better. Yeah. All right, right people, right
seats get set at every 20 group in America. Take us inside the actual mechanics. How do you
diagnose that someone's in the wrong seat or the right seat? And what's the move
once you know from your perspective as fixed obstrector, Spencer? So again, I think that,
you know, obviously, we try to give, you know, all of our people we promote almost entirely from
inside. Very cool. And again, we try to give those opportunities. If we need to go outside,
we will. We've got some really good people from outside as well. But for the most part,
we promote from within. And again, given those people the strong background they need,
like I said with, but not having GMs, we're very transparent with the numbers and what we need
to do. And again, we have meetings every day to try to build those people up and get them to
where they need to be. But again, when it's, when it's not, not necessarily working the way that
we want. Again, you can see at the numbers, you know, team morale, turnover, all that kind of
stuff we can, we can kind of see whether people are in the right seat or not.
Yeah. So technicians, you got a lot of doors, different brands. What's your strategy on
hiring and recruiting in May of 2026 technicians and retention for that matter?
So it's obviously that's one of the major struggles throughout the industry, right?
Is again, bringing in enough technicians for the amount of work that we have. And again, we have
teamed up with the, the career and technology centers in our area. And they are, have been a
great pipeline for us. I'm having a meeting with one of my shop form and yesterday about really
building a plan to bring these kids up because not everybody starts in the same spot. You got
some people that are ready to take on more right off the bat. And, you know, you got the really
green new team members that are, are, you know, they need to be on the Lou Brack with a mentor
for a little bit longer. Yeah. So you represent a whole host of manufacturers. You got Ford, Subaru,
GMC, Stilanus, Mitsubishi. In May of 26, from your perspective, who's winning in that bid to
retain customers and grow service? And then who's challenged or provides the greatest
opportunity from an OEM standpoint? I'll be honest, all of our OEMs do a pretty darn good
job with it. I don't think we, we struggle with the, the retention part at one more than the other.
Again, our, our Subaru stores probably are, are shining star in terms of retention. Again, we,
we sell a lot of new Subaru's and we, we get those customers back on a pretty frequent basis,
kind of a, almost a cult following for us. And then we've honestly seen that in our Nissan store
as well, even though we haven't had that as long, but our Nissan customers are very, very loyal as
well. So in your role, where you're working with multiple stores across multiple platforms,
what lessons do you take from Subaru as an example, as a best practice and share with
your other stores? Because it truly is a different experience, right? A lot of great
organizations will transfer some of those lessons learned from OEM to OEM. Yeah. Again,
Subaru has a, they, they do have a great platform. And again, they, they, they don't treat you as a
dealership. They call it a retailer. A retailer. In fact, you're in trouble if you say the word
dealership. I did an open house once for one of our stores. We have four Subaru stores. Jeff
Walters was there and I made the mistake before doing that. I was the MC before, before doing it.
I, I, I referred to it as dealer and in his very kind, gentle way, he came up and he just said,
just remember when you're up, we're a retailer. I'm like fair point, fair point. So yeah.
But again, it, it, it starts with that, that foundation, I think. Yeah. Again, they, yeah.
Again, we, we love everything at Subaru, right? We love pets. We love the earth. We love all that
kind of stuff, but it really sets in with the team. And again, they, they live that every single day.
Yeah. They really buy in and they, they live that, that culture.
Uh, mobile service. So Ford has been really forward thinking about mobile service. They
financially support it. It's the number one most recalled OEM last year. Uh, you know,
the verdict is still out for this year. Uh, are you in mobile service? How many units do you have?
How's mobile service going in 2026? So I have a mobile van and an escape at our Holidaysburg
Ford store, a van at our Bellfont Ford store, and then a van for CDJR as well. I have a
mobile service coordinator does a fantastic job. One guy, again, he's, he's on the phone all day
doing whatever we need to do to get those vans loaded up. And then another guy that kind of
oversees all the logistics and makes, makes things happen. But again, since we brought him on board
things have really taken off for us on the mobile side. Yeah. Uh, do you have intense to
expand mobile or, uh, you know, what's your strategy you're playing that way?
Yeah. So we are building a new Ford pro elite, uh, to replace our Bellfont store.
And, uh, again, we're going to have to have a few more mobile vans, uh, for that. And again,
it's, it's worked really well for us. Again, we're going to meet the customers where, where they are.
Yeah. And they're meeting them on our turn or on their terms, not on ours.
So, uh, definitely planning on expanding that and continuing to push that out for sure.
Yeah. Yeah. So you're passionate about retention. You're passionate about recruiting. You shared
that with us in the intake. What's, what's one change that you've recently made to your hiring
and recruiting practice that's helped up your game as it relates to recruiting and retaining great
talent at the, at your organization that stuck in. So one thing that we've kind of done here
recently is created some additional roles, um, and, and brought in some team leaders,
which again has helped with our retention. And what it does is it allows our managers to focus on,
on what's important, not just what's urgent. Yeah. And, uh, again, from the, the technicians to,
uh, service advisors, parts pros, uh, again, I think they all feel that they have that little
bit more personalized, uh, touch and attention. And I think it's, it's definitely helping.
Very good. Well, hey, before we wrap up, let's go into a little bit of a
enlightening round, then we'll have you back for the round table at the very end.
In your opinion, what's the most overrated metric in fixed ops today?
Oh jeez. That's, uh,
if I had to, to say right now, kind of on the spot, I'd say sales dollars,
sales dollars don't, uh, don't pay the bills, right? Yeah. You can, you can have, uh, great sales
numbers and, and low gross and stock and pay the bills. What's the one metric you are continually
looking at as a leader across multiple stores in fixed ops?
Honestly, I kind of have three. So I would say, uh, RO growth, uh, where we're at there,
gross profit in terms of where we're trending for the month, and then also MPS scores.
Okay. Okay. And in RO growth, what's your target? What do you look into achieving
accomplish in 26? What's a good number for you?
We're shooting for just customer pay. We're shooting for 10% growth every month.
Okay. And what's one process? I think a lot of dealers in 26 are focused on customer pay,
growing it, because that goes to retention and that goes to bringing that customer back
in, creating a great experience. What's one process that's helping you to achieve and
accomplish that 10% growth? So one thing that I think has helped us a lot is really,
really putting the focus around the sales to service intro. Again, our sales team does an
awesome job. We sell a lot of cars every single month. And again, we don't have to
go advertise to those customers when they come back in. Again, they're coming back,
getting the service intro with our, with our team in the back, having an engaging interaction there.
And, uh, and again, we keep them coming back and, and, uh, just keeping that life cycle going.
So you came from the finance world and sales management as a finance manager.
FNI managers make promises that service ends up keeping. You're in a unique seat. You could speak
to finance managers everywhere. What's, what's one thing now in your fixed ops role over multiple
rooftops you wish you had known as a finance manager? Honestly, just how, how important that
transparency is talking about, you know, again, the finance managers when, when we're selling a
server's contract, again, talking about the, uh, needing to have your maintenance records,
right? I was talking with Wes, my service director about that this morning. And cause we had a,
uh, claim that we're, we're struggling to get approved. He's like, wouldn't it be nice if the
finance managers talked about that in the finance office? And I'm like, that would be nice.
You're definitely right. Um, but yeah, I think that would probably be the most important thing.
Yeah. Um, what's the biggest reason a good service advisor quits? Is it pay or a manager
in May of 26? I'd have to say manager. Um, again, they, they always say people don't leave,
bad companies that leave bad managers, right? And, and again, I feel like we have really strong
retention within our advisors. And I, I do relay that a lot of that, that back to our
managers. We have a great management crew. So one of the statistics we often report on this
shows from CDK, and it is that 25% of calls in service go to voicemail and or go to hold,
uh, you know, they hold for one way or another. And of those, they end up holding for nine minutes
on average. Um, is there anything you're doing in your organization to fight that, to, to respond
more quickly to customers that call or, uh, are trying to get information? Yeah. So we actually
have a centralized BDC in our headquarters building, which is where I'm at now. And our BDC
manager does an awesome job of tracking that. Our phone system allows us to be able to track
all of those calls coming in, gives us positive or negative sentiment. Um, and then again, when
those calls are on hold, we know it. We know how long they're on hold for, uh, again, going back,
listening and making sure, but when the calls are coming through, we tell all of our advisors,
we're treating that phone call like something's on fire. We need to answer that phone and get the
customer taken care of. Love it. So much talk about AI and technology in 2026. Uh, NADA, there
was a certain amount of frenzy and anxiousness around it. Uh, is, are there any AI tools you're
getting a lot of use out of? A lot of value out of May, 2026 in the Stuckey Auto Group? Uh, so
right now we're not utilizing them. We're in the process of a data cleanse. Okay. We were using
Impel and it was working well for us, but our, our data was not necessarily clean enough to
be able to utilize it to its fullest potential. Yeah. And so we put a hold on that until our data
is clean cleaned up. And then we're definitely going to go back because that's a super good retention
driver. So what made you realize it wasn't cleansed? It wasn't clean enough to engage with it heavily.
We got customers responding to the, the AI agent saying, I don't own this car anymore.
Yeah. I haven't had this car for two years. Yeah. And I go, this is, this is just not working.
So we definitely put a hold there, but I'd love to go back to it for sure. So who are you doing
the data cleanse with? Uh, we are in the process of vetting a couple of different, uh, companies
right now. Uh, before we make our, our DMS switch here in September. Okay. Wait, interesting. All
right. We got to pull that thread. Who are you switching to? We're switching to Techian.
Okay. Very cool. And where are you going? Where are you coming from?
We're on automate right now. So is that a, is the prospect of a big DMS change like that terrifying?
Like how does that, I think about that. That's probably one of the biggest transitions is
particularly for a group. So Ziggler, where 41 stores, four states, 27 hundred employees,
that would be a massive change for us. How do you approach that as a service director?
It's a daunting task coming up here. We're, we're ready, but again, we're,
we're just taking little bites at a time, trying to, trying to work through all the
onboarding process and we're excited. How long have you been, uh, like working towards it from
the time you made the decision to the, to conversion? Um, we probably been, I mean,
honestly, it's been in the works for, for quite a while here, but it's, it's really kind of getting
down to the nitty gritty word. We're getting ready to, to make that move.
All right. I don't want you to give away any trade secrets or anything else. So I'd love to
have you back on as you go through this transition. We did a CRM transition with Dennis Gingrich,
Neville Auto Group Sacramento, and he gave us an in the week, you know, he gave us a behind the
scenes look at what that transition looked like. DMS is such a bigger lift. It'd be great to have
you back and give your service, a fixed ops director perspective on what that transition
looks like. Techion is definitely a big name in automotive today. And, and it'd be interesting
to see the, uh, the, the successes and also the challenges you get. So Spencer Nicholson,
fixed ops director at Stucky Automotive. Thank you so much for being on the show. We'll have
you back as part of the round table. Awesome. Thanks a lot. All right. Thank you.
That would be it. That's a huge lift. That's actually one of the things that like you think
about making a big change. DMS, it's all your accounting. It's like everything resides in there.
And that would be a huge, uh, that would be a huge lift. And I appreciate, uh, Spencer's perspective
too on cleansing data. And the need for that, especially as you start to engage with AI, um,
and Impel's got a great tool, but you can engage. And if it's not clean data, you're reaching out to
customers that are like, Hey, that's not accurate, right? You want it to be accurate. So all right,
let's talk Zurich for a moment. Today's episode is brought to you by Zurich dealers want to win
now and build for what's next. Zurich pairs proven FNI processes with insights driven training,
income generating programs, profit participation, and risk management solutions. So you can drive
stronger performance today, all while protecting long-term value. Learn more at ZurichNA.com
forward slash CDG, or you can click the link in the show notes below to learn more. We appreciate
Zurich for, uh, supporting today's content, including that fascinating conversation with
Spencer Nicholson about everything they're doing at the Stuckey automotive group. What a cool growth
trajectory to go from finance and sales management into fixed ops. That makes him and his perspectives
truly unique in all of automotive. And I think, uh, super valuable. Uh, we'd love to catch up
with him later on the Techion transition. Um, thanks for, uh, the comments in the chat. We've
got the automotive retired guy, uh, uh, saying Techion seems to be transitioning to a lot of
dealership groups. I think anytime anybody makes a big change like that, it leads headlines and
causes everybody to get nervous. Uh, he also says it is a mandatory rule when a new car sale
happens to introduce the new customer to service parts and schedule the first service appointment
tentatively, talk about old processes, but tough processes to execute on a hundred percent of the
time. So props for them to share that next up fixed up Friday. We go to Xavier Rivera,
service director at Green Acres Nissan and I 95 Nissan Xavier. Welcome to the show.
Hi, Dylan. Thanks for having me. It's awesome to have you. Thanks for being here. All right,
for our daily dealer audience that doesn't know you, hasn't met you. Who are you? Where are you?
What do you do? How'd you get? Were you a finance manager before you got into the, uh,
leadership role? Okay. Definitely not. So yeah, I run both stores, Green Acres Nissan, I 95,
um, the fix off director for both. I literally started from the ground up and fix, um, my whole
life. I started 16 years ago as a porter and, uh, worked myself up, uh, became a service advisor.
Um, got to gain my, gain my stripes and got a service manager position, did more and more,
got more on my plate, learn more, send me to school for NCM. You know, I have a great, um,
you know, mentor that's just pouring into me. So I'm learning a lot from my, from my owners and,
and I, I'm so thankful for them because I wouldn't be in the position that I am at learning so much
and growing so much, but I'm here today because of that, just, uh, everybody that's poured into
me. So it's, I definitely started from fix and I'm staying in fix. I'm like, what a finance. I
agree. Good. Well, fix tops is a great place to be, especially on a Friday. If it's.
Fix stops Friday, all right. Let's talk MPIs. Hey, thanks for the belt. Dan, thank you.
Uh, you've built your recent strategy around accountability on that digital MPI. Cox's new
study is blunt about why that matters nearly half of vehicle owners, 45% say that they are
dissatisfied with dealership service. Usually over unexpected costs and poor communication
Is the video the thing that closes that trust gap
in your mind, Xavier?
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, transparency is huge.
When you have an inspection to a customer,
one, let's just say that it's a brand new car
that they've never seen before underneath it, right?
Finally, they're in love with their vehicle
and they get to see all the good.
But then when their vehicles break down
and they see the bad where they might need
lower control arms or their air filters dirty,
it's coming straight from their car
and their response is,
wow, how come I never saw this sooner?
So moving now to 100% send rate
and 90% of videos and pictures.
The customers are really, you can't go back.
They love it.
I'm getting a great response.
They're just adamant about now receiving them
if they don't get them.
So it's really a good turning point.
My dealerships went from being on the bottom
of our organization to now my stores are number one
and number three.
So I make it a priority that I want to be transparent.
I want to build trust and value.
And my technicians and my service advisors are doing that.
So 100% send rate and 90% open?
That's your staff?
That's where I want all my customers
to see all the pictures and videos.
And 90% for the technicians.
I would love to be at 100,
but be realistic.
Some of those vehicles, there's stuff that there's metrics
that it's not going to happen.
So what's the delivery tool at your organization
you're using for the video?
We're using XTime.
OK, OK, XTime, very good.
And I've heard from OEMs.
I won't cite the ones we've referenced it on this show
where they say, hey, one of the biggest challenges,
we can get the text to make the video.
But having the service advisors send the video
sometimes can be a challenge.
Have you seen that as a hurdle in your organization
as you've tried to get that better utilization?
And if so, how have you overcome that?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, that was a big hurdle to have the send rate.
You have to really tell them how important it is
and then show them versus telling them.
So I do a lot of role-playing.
I go and I tell the advisors,
hey, this is the reason why you need it.
And I go through the old school way.
Then I show them a video and the picture
that the technician tailored up for the customer, for himself.
And he's going to see the response of, oh, wow,
I want to probably do that repair now.
I find that really important because it's coming
from the technician.
It's coming from the doctor himself.
And my team understands that, you know?
And then once they see it that way
and they see it in the customer perception,
they're on board 100%.
And they understand it now.
And also, it's a huge part of what we do.
I mean, Nissan has it part of our survey.
So we have to make it mandatory
and it's just part of our job now.
So as you tightened up the accountability
behind that process, what metric moved?
Did you see an increase in hours per RO in revenue?
What's the CSI?
What's the metric and how fast did you see it?
Yeah, so CSI for sure, because now it's part of our process.
Hours per RO jumped up tremendously.
I mean, I was only here for one store
for less than two weeks and we went from bottom 15, 16
in our group to number three.
Hours RO was 0.8 and then it jumped to 1.3 just in three weeks.
So it was a big jump.
And the guy saw it, like the advisors,
the technicians felt it.
They said, oh, I'm getting more hours.
I'm getting more bigger ROs and the advisor started seeing it.
Then the tech started getting together.
So when we started having the meeting,
they started saying, yes, absolutely, it's working.
And then once your team is bought in and they see the value,
they're not going back.
Yeah.
What was the biggest objection from some of the detractors
to doing the process?
There probably were some technicians that said,
hey, I'm not as comfortable creating a video
or I don't really feel good about sending.
I don't like my voice.
I wasn't paid to become a social media person.
I don't know.
What was the biggest objection?
How'd you overcome it as you were tightening up accountability?
Let's take it one step at a time.
I understand that some technicians don't want to talk.
I get it.
So let's start small.
Let's show me a video of what needs to be done.
Point it out to me.
Show me some pictures of it at the same time
because that's how it makes it super simple and seamless.
You can just use one video and pictures all the way across.
And let's start there.
Once they started that process and they started
seeing that it started coming back with more approvals,
all I kept asking them to do was, hey, now
that you know that it needs breaks, can you just say,
hey, your breaks are three millimeters.
I recommend you replacing them today.
And that's all I need you to say.
Just one thing.
Just say that and let's try it.
And sure enough, they started getting more breaks.
They started seeing more hours.
And they were saying, maybe I should talk a little bit more.
And they started talking.
Yeah, yeah.
Very cool.
So lead them along slowly.
Let them see the benefit of it.
And then the benefit pulls them into more.
So speaking of, I like how you do the role play.
I like how you engage and show rather than just tell.
You've said in the intake for me,
you said growth comes from developing people,
not just the numbers.
And you're the service director.
You get measured on numbers every single month.
How do you actually hold both of those at once?
Developing people, not the numbers,
when ultimately you're accountable to those numbers.
Absolutely.
So it's just said in the right standard, right?
We make our customers happy.
When they trust us, they're going to spend more money with us.
We're going to be their repair facility.
They're only going to come see us.
So let's build transparency, good customer service.
The basics of the service drive, right?
Explaining them, their maintenance,
and why they need it versus why they don't need it.
And just have that relationship.
Once I do role plays with the advisors almost every other week
on how to greet a customer and just kind of how to interact
and pick up the phone.
The other day, I had a role play,
just how to enter an upset customer on the phone
and turn that around so they can bring in their vehicle
and how we can help them out.
So all those metrics that you cannot measure, right?
You can't measure any of that.
But it comes back to me where I know that my hours per hour
is going to go up because we're having good multi-point videos
and that's measurable.
But how my customers are being treated, yes,
the CSI could tell you a story of where you're at,
but it doesn't tell you the full story.
So my team is, they got my back and I have their back.
Yeah.
What's one thing you do from a cultural standpoint
to kind of push that along, right?
Numbers are important in fixed ops.
You talk about creating and developing your team,
focusing on customer experience.
Is there a process you have going at your two stores
that supports that, hey, let's lean into the customer experience,
let's do the right thing for the customer?
How do you reinforce that?
I have a process pretty much for everything,
how to answer the phone, work track, the whole nine.
But I think the biggest thing is that they see that,
you know, my organization, they just pour into me
and how I've grown to where I'm at now.
And each one of my staff has the opportunity
to do what it is that makes them happy.
I have a parts manager that wants to be a technician.
And he went to school for technician
and we're pouring everything into him
to lead him to school to do that.
We have a parts counter person that wants to be a parts manager.
So we just sent him to NCM school.
My owner, Shane Taylor, is amazing.
He loves NCM.
He sent me to NCM to learn another...
I like that development piece.
I like the NCM piece.
What's one thing you got from your most recent NCM class?
What's a takeaway from NCM?
I mean, I got a lot from...
If it's not a written process, it's just an idea.
And I'm really on that when I came and hit the ground running.
And just till this day, I mean, I had a process this morning
in our fixed off meeting and my warranty happened.
You know, I set up a process for her for, you know,
charge backs or things that, you know,
credits and debits that were going on.
So now I'm like 100%.
If it's not a written process, it's just an idea.
So we're not having ideas.
So that's what we're doing.
So that was one of the biggest takeaways
out of the whole week class that I went.
But it was amazing.
It was really great.
And it definitely made me a better manager,
better fixed off director 100%.
Very cool.
So service director watching the show today
sees your target of that 100% creation, 90% open rate.
And they want to replicate it
and they want to fix their MPI process.
What's the first move that service director
should take May of 26?
Very easy.
Make it part of the paid plan.
Yeah.
How do you, what is the component in the pay plan
that you've done?
How did you do that?
So the set rate has to be 90% or higher.
If not, they do not get their 1% off gross.
Interesting.
That's awesome.
All right.
You're big and focused on training.
What's one piece of training that gave you the best ROI
on a new advisor in the past 12 months, aside from MPI?
Oh, got it.
I mean, honestly, selling the menus in the drive.
A lot of times we look at these huge numbers
and we just kind of get down to the basics.
Air filters, cabin filters, the basic stuff in the drive,
menus, what they do 30,000 miles, 60,000 miles,
and the bundle packages that we have.
A lot of times advisors just don't do it.
And we got to overcome those objectives
and also just let the customers know exactly what they need,
when they need it.
And make sure they understand.
We're here to advise them.
My advisors are to advise.
And you're just there to give them information.
And that's really important in just teaching them
and growing them.
All right, in May 26, what's the most overrated metric
in fixed ops today?
I heard you say that, too.
I knew you were going to ask me that.
I would probably agree with him.
It's going to probably be the sales dollars.
But that's just an easy one to me.
But I mean, sales dollars for sure.
Sales dollars?
OK, and then what's your north star?
My north star?
Yeah.
Like, what do you mean?
Like, what's the most important metric to you
in fixed ops in May of 26?
As a director, you know, it has to be net gross.
It has to be net.
Yeah, yeah.
Awesome.
All right, and then finally, and then we'll go into our round
table, what's the best morale builder that
costs $0 in 2026?
That's a good one.
$0, you know?
A lot of times, I would say just pull them in the office,
have a one-on-one with your advisors, with your staff,
with your technicians, and just let them know
how great of a job they're doing and be excited about it.
I think that doesn't cost anything.
And as directors or managers, we're just
running all over the place, trying to put out fires.
And we might just forget to say, wow,
you handled that customer really well,
and you did a great job.
Or, hey, that wasn't really good.
You got that job done really fast,
and I'm really impressed on how you did it.
Quality control was awesome.
Everything was great, right?
Great job.
And I think your staff needs to hear it.
I love that.
Xavier Riviera, a service director at Green Acres Nissan,
an I-95 Nissan.
Thank you so much for joining the show.
We'll have you back in just a moment for our round table,
Xavier.
Thank you.
You're great for me.
Thank you.
Turning to the comments, lots of great comments online.
And by the way, one of the cool things
I love about Daily Deal Alive is our audience not only
engages in the chat with us, but they engage with each other.
So there's some comments I won't bring in,
because you guys are talking back and forth, which is awesome.
Igor K comes in and says, hey, Sam, hello, community.
Late auction day today.
Got a few cool cars, Mannheim MMR Valley,
still going up for most segments.
Crazy.
And then the automotive retired guy comes back in and says,
you have to educate the customer better today
as auto leasing is ramping back up.
People that lease could care less to service
their leased autos.
And that's a fair point.
I mean, maybe some of the loss in account
from a penetration standpoint, not a gross point,
could be from a loss in that leasing area.
All right, let's hit fixed ops Friday round table.
Welcome back, Spencer Nicholson and Xavier Riviera.
Thanks for being here.
Welcome.
The fight and the fight came on.
I didn't know.
Let's go.
You know, we used to call it cage match,
because I love people who debate on this part of it,
but it doesn't always have to be a debate.
All right, here we go.
You both lead with people over numbers.
You focus on people developing.
So settle this.
If a tech is a culture problem, but a production monster,
do you keep that tech in 2026?
Nope.
It's a cancer to the chop.
You got to get them, you know, coach them as much as you can.
If you can't get that out, they got to go.
But that tech is turning a lot of ours hugely proficient,
he or she, but just is a culture killer.
Well, how do you deal with that, Spencer?
We've found that typically, if it's a culture killer,
there's other things going on there
that aren't necessarily going right.
So again, we try to coach everybody as much as we can.
But if it's not working, it's not working.
Xavier, agree, disagree?
Yeah, I agree.
I mean, Spencer's on it 100%.
You got to pull the bad weeds.
I mean, it's cancerous.
That is definitely a big cancer for the whole department.
It can't happen.
You can train them as much as you can,
but that's a big cancer you got to take out.
Patrick Block says one bad apple could kill productivity
for many others.
And by the way, Spencer has taught us all the lessons
from FNI.
I think that's something I learned even on the sales floor,
right?
You could have an incredible producer on the sales floor,
but if they're a culture killer, it'll ruin the entire store.
You get a lot of great people working well together
as a team and everybody works well together.
All right, rural central PA versus West Palm Beach.
Those are two totally different markets.
You've got the same job.
What's one big stop's truth that's
identical no matter where the store sits?
Spencer's on.
Come ahead.
That's a good one, Sam.
Oh, jeez.
If you take care of the customer,
the direct is going to come, right?
Take care of the customer.
The numbers are going to follow.
Yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
It wasn't easy when I was going to say the same thing.
It's all about the customer.
Yeah.
We say that, but there's so much friction in automotive today.
What are you both doing today to reduce friction?
We've talked a lot about video MPI, so let's not go there.
But from a customer calling in and being
able to talk to somebody to schedule,
there is friction throughout the automotive space.
And I feel like that might be part of the reason why we're
seeing some exit from servicing at dealers,
even though our gross is up.
We got to get that back somehow.
How are you guys fighting friction today in automotive fixed?
I say for me, it's going to come down to what I tell my advisors
when I do their role plays.
Customers come in already with a shield.
And we got to make sure that we make them really feel
like genuinely that we want to take care of them,
that they're part of the family, right?
Not just say it and just do, oh, hey, how can I help you?
No, have a conversation with them.
They have kids just like us.
They have a family.
They have bills.
We have to understand that if their car breaks down,
how can we help our brother and sister, you know,
whoever out in the street?
So they're just like us.
And I think that's really the turning point
on how we can win those customers back.
Spencer?
Yeah.
Again, he said earlier that having your advisor
should we be advisors?
And not, again, yeah, are we selling service?
Absolutely.
But being an advisor is the most important part.
Yeah.
So going into the comments, Igor Kay,
salary discussions in the shop, that's a culture killer.
Make a policy in year over year stores
not to talk about salaries between employees.
How do you deal with that?
Who makes how much?
Who gets what jobs?
How do you deal with conversations over pay in the shop
that could potentially turn people negative?
Yeah.
I mean, that's, it happens.
Those technicians are usually best friends anyways.
They're going to talk to each other,
but it depends on what type of leadership you have, right?
You have starts from the top.
And if you have like, for example,
unfortunate enough to have two double platinum technicians
with Nissan, you know, they know their role.
I don't have to tell them.
They know what to do.
They know that we're going to go to them
because of all the problems and everybody else
is right underneath them because they have the most experience.
So it comes with the territory.
They know that, you know, once you get to that level,
that's where you want to be, you know?
So everybody else says that standard in that tone.
About professionalism,
professionals just aren't going to go down that road.
Schwatt team comes into the chat says,
look, I might be naive,
but how do these gentlemen think about solving
for the tech shortage?
It's not as easy as just paying more.
We've talked about that.
Free ice cream cart on Fridays
or air conditioning in all the shops.
How do you solve for tech shortages?
Well, my text, RNAC.
So they're good out here in Florida.
So they're you got it.
Yeah, you know, thankfully for me, I don't have a tech problem.
I actually found that my biggest
my biggest thing that I could I did was
hire within my loop texts.
I sent them the training.
I sent them to Nissan training.
I trained them up to be a main shop tech
and then sent them to get certifications.
ASEs, the whole nine.
I want to start them from the bottom
and set the you know, the right expectations
and, you know, just really start from the ground.
Like that's how you start.
And then you don't have a bad apple
because you molded them so much
that now they're to a higher level
and it's going to be way better for them and way better for you.
Yeah, Spencer.
Yeah, I mean, same here.
We got the school to work programs
where the kids are coming in the afternoon,
their work and they're getting that baseline.
We're growing them, putting our
putting our attention there, sending them to training.
Again, I think we probably have more senior masters
than than most people in the state, to be perfectly honest.
So Spencer, a 22 year old kid comes to you and says,
hey, why should I get into this automotive service department?
Why not go to the trades or some sort of a tech job?
I mean, there's there's so much opportunity there.
Again, you can go and you're going to build that career.
Yeah, you're going to wrenches.
There's places you can go after.
You can go be a service advisor.
You can be a parts parts manager.
You can be a service manager.
There's there's just so many routes you can go
after you get that that baseline and that foundation.
Xavier similar to to to make a point on that.
I mean, absolutely. Like I told you, I had an advisor.
I had a technician be wanted to be an advisor.
He was phenomenal.
He's doing great things.
I have a porter that wanted to be a service advisor.
He's doing phenomenal.
I had an advisor that wanted to be a technician and, you know,
set him up in like what Spencer said, right seat and putting everybody
in the right places where they want to be.
They're happy. I'm happy.
I'm pouring into them to make them successful.
And ultimately it comes back around.
So Paul Salisman comes in the chat says, look,
what's the service advisor training process and are they trained
on how to handle clients and who does that training
in your organizations?
So I'll kind of jump on that.
So again, we our managers are generally in charge of the training process.
My service director does an awesome job with with training our team as well.
On the service side, again, could we be better?
Yeah, we've done offsite trainings, all that kind of stuff,
and it definitely helps.
But again, it's being in there every day and coaching every opportunity.
You know, listening to phone calls and hey, you have that one go.
You know, you know, how'd that go?
Would we, you know, what was the outcome with there
and then just coaching every opportunity?
What tech are you using to record calls and analyze calls and share that?
So we have go to as our phone system.
And again, that gives us basically all the data we need.
So Xavier, Spencer's trade changing DMS systems.
Does that give you if if your dealer came to you and said,
we're changing DMS systems, what would be going through your mind at the moment?
Been there, done that.
Spencer, God bless you.
I wish you nothing but that.
But that's definitely a tough, tough task.
It's one of the biggest lifts I think anybody goes through.
So you how long ago did you do it?
I went from Reynolds to CDK.
I had no idea about CDK.
I had never been in CDK before.
And I had I learned it from the ground up.
I mean, I YouTube did.
I did everything I could possibly do to learn as much as possible.
And I went to a store that had CDK and I just sat with them and I say,
hey, can you just can I just sit with you?
This is who I am.
Can they just taught me something?
Yeah, that's how I learned CDK.
That's cool.
Well, Spencer, we need you back to give us a progress update as you go through this.
Last question up is part of the roundtable today.
What's one thing the industry needs to stop saying about fix stops
because it's flat out wrong Xavier first.
I mean, I would probably say that we're more expensive than, you know,
the Jeffy lubes or the mom and pop shops around.
That is flat out wrong.
Yeah, for nothing.
I did a comparison not too long ago.
I was the cheapest oil change in my town and both stores.
I was doing breaks cheaper than everybody else.
I don't know how this information is not even getting out.
I would be I don't I'm trying to figure out a way to let everybody know,
like not just have a comparison more, you know,
but something thing I saw the box because I'm super cheaper than everybody else.
Like come see me, you know, like my oil changes.
Everything is cheaper.
So they go into jiffy lube.
I had a lady come here saying that she paid 100 and seventy dollars
for an old change in tire rotation.
Yeah, I'm like, I'm half the price.
What is going on?
Why don't you come see me?
Yeah, and she just needed air her tires.
I'm like, come on, I had that discussion with her and she was like,
oh, I'm definitely going to come see you guys.
I'm like, why didn't you see us before?
I'm like, she's like, oh, I didn't even know you guys were here.
So how am I going to reach out to these customers to let them know?
Yeah, what's the friction point that caused us to get that reputation?
Why is it what why why why is it the customers don't see that?
I think it's just I don't know if it's advertisement or, you know,
mailers, but it's wrong.
What they're doing is, you know, for example, they had one that was nineteen
99 oil change, so twenty bucks and a customer goes to see them.
And then I had fine print.
It says full synthetic 6995
Yeah, yeah.
OK, you know, so again, transparency, trust, I'm not going to give them
a false coupon or anything like that.
No, this is my price.
So when you go there, they're going to be upset.
They don't got CSI scores.
They don't have anything like that to worry about like we do.
But, you know, we have a certified train technicians.
We have the whole facility.
Our everything looks beautiful.
So we need to do a better job of educating consumers on that.
Spencer, thoughts?
Yeah, couldn't agree more.
Yeah, we are.
Yeah, again, we're in the same boat.
Yeah, you go to Novelin, Jiffy Lube, any of those places
were significantly cheaper and just the perceptions just not there.
Eager K comes in the chest is don't hire Jiffy Lube techs.
They're really good one.
I have a good.
So I was an NCM school and a board director was telling me that
across the street, there's a Jiffy Lube, but in 1999
oil change, huge banner right in front of their right in front of their dealer.
I guess they're like right across the street.
And he said he put in front of his dealer bigger.
I fixed 1995
It was like that was a great idea.
That's a great idea.
In fact, we need to make that a CDG best practice.
Actually, we can't condone anything.
You got to come up with your own ideas, but that's awesome.
I think that's great.
It was really good.
Yeah, I think education is going to be a big part of that.
We've got to do a better job in our industry of educating,
because I think my parents' generation didn't want to service at a dealership
because it was a lot more expensive.
And I think things have come to parody.
And in our case, we understand the importance of retention so much
that for many things were less to your point,
but the consumer just doesn't just doesn't see that your case as a great idea.
100 percent.
He put a question mark, but I don't think he meant to put the question mark.
All right, Spencer Nicholson, Xavier Rivera.
Thank you both for being on Daily Deal Live Big Stops Friday as part of this round
table. We appreciate you both being here. Thank you.
Thanks for having us.
Thank you.
Patrick Block, Motive Ventures, comes in, should never speak in absolutes.
They could be retrained or have any circumstance that they got the first offer available.
So by the way, I agree.
Like we can train if if if even if they come from an independent shop,
you can train on the OEM certification.
And, you know, I think that's a valuable proposition in explaining
coming to work for a car dealership, too, is those certifications from OEMs
and the standard that they're required to do repairs by that's valuable.
Those certifications are valuable in and of themselves.
And E.R.K. did come back in and says, yes, no question, Mark.
Sorry about that.
So, all right, happy Memorial Day weekend, everybody.
Hope you have an incredible and a fantastic weekend, both in the sales service lanes
and enjoying time with family, friends, whatever you end up doing this weekend.
And to you, our Daily Dealer Live Listening audience, check out our special episode this
Monday, 1 p.m. Eastern as always, and thanks for watching Daily Dealer Live
where we break down the biggest moves in the car business as they happen.
Don't forget, we're here live every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 1 p.m. Eastern.
So if this is your world, hit like, hit subscribe, turn on those notifications.
You never ever miss a beat and we'll see you next episode.
Thanks for being here, everybody.
About this episode
Dealership service revenue is setting records, yet dealers are still losing market share, and the hosts connect that tension to fixed-ops execution. The conversation shifts into practical playbooks: centralized BDC call handling, digital MPIs with accountability, and using video/pictures to improve repair approvals and CSI. Guests also share how they staff and scale fixed ops—technician pipelines, mobile service vans, and measurable RO, gross profit, and MPS targets—while navigating DMS transitions, data cleansing for AI, and even policy ideas like stopping salary talk in the shop.
Today's show features:
- Spencer Nicholson, Fixed Operations Director at Stuckey Automotive
- Xavier Rivera, Service Director at Greenacres Nissan & I-95 Nissan
This episode is brought to you by:
Zurich – Zurich helps dealers operate with clarity, confidence and certainty — driving stronger performance today while protecting long‑term value. From proven F&I processes and insights‑driven training to income‑generating programs, profit participation, and risk management solutions, Zurich is built to help dealers win now — and build for what’s next. Discover more at: https://carguymedia.com/4wxv8dz
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