A pre-order is when you pay for something before it’s actually available. For a new EV, it’s a way to reserve one and help the company plan production.
Traditional dealerships are the usual car-buying setup: local dealer stores that sell the brand’s cars. The host is saying the EV company may not use that normal dealer network.
The FTC is a U.S. government agency that protects consumers. In this story, it’s referenced because complaints were filed with them about car-buying practices.
This means the price you see in ads or online doesn’t end up being the price you pay in the store. The concern is that it may be misleading or not clearly disclosed.
This is when the financing terms don’t add up the way they were explained—like fees or monthly costs being different than expected. The point is that customers can get surprised by loan pricing.
Add-ons are extra items or fees added to the deal. The issue here is that they weren’t clearly told to you up front, or customers later say they didn’t agree to them.
FNI add-on disclosure is about whether the dealer clearly explains extra products and fees during the finance step. The concern is that customers may not realize what they’re paying for until it’s too late.
Santander Consumer USA is a company that helps finance car loans. Here, they’re mentioned because they agreed to pay money back after a dispute about fees on loan payment extensions.
This is when a lender changes your loan schedule—like extending the time you have to pay. The issue in the story is that borrowers were charged extension fees that weren’t clearly disclosed.
In a car dealership, “Fixed Ops” usually means the service department. That’s where they do repairs and maintenance and sell parts—basically the work that keeps customers’ cars running after they’ve bought them.
An “intake form” is just a form people fill out to share background information up front. In this kind of interview, it helps the host ask more specific questions based on what the dealership team says is going on.
Here “efficiency” means the service department is trying to do work with less wasted time. It’s about getting cars checked in, repaired, and out the door in a smoother, faster way.
“Process” here means the set of steps the service team follows every time. When the process is well-defined, repairs tend to go more smoothly and with fewer mistakes.
“Culture” is basically how the team works together day to day. It’s about the attitudes and habits—like how they treat customers and whether everyone follows the same standards.
A multi-point car wash is a car wash done in several steps. The dealership is saying they can still do it quickly even while turning around service work fast.
Video walkarounds are videos the technician records to show you what they’re seeing on your car. It’s a way to make the inspection easier to understand.
A multi-point inspection is a checklist of common things a technician checks on your car. It helps the dealership show what’s okay and what might need attention.
A lifetime warranty is coverage that’s supposed to last for the whole time you own the car. Here, they’re saying if you pay for a repair once, they’ll cover that kind of repair again for as long as you keep the vehicle.
Presidian is named as the company they partnered with to launch this “lifetime warranty” program. The context suggests Presidian provides the platform or program structure that the dealership team uses to offer the coverage to customers.
Darren Murray is the leader of Presidian, the company behind the program they’re talking about. They’re saying his team helped make it easy for the dealership to use.
They’re saying the coverage includes common car items like brakes and the battery. So if those parts need repair, the program is supposed to help cover it.
Here, “transparency” means the dealership explains what they’re doing and what’s included in the coverage. They’re describing it as showing customers details (including with videos) so there are fewer surprises.
A warranty like “12 months / 12,000 miles” means the company will pay for certain repairs for a limited time and limited driving distance. After that, you may have to pay out of pocket.
The transmission is the part that helps the car shift gears and send power to the wheels. If it breaks, it can be expensive to fix, which is why warranty coverage matters a lot.
A “lifetime complimentary warranty” is an extra warranty offer provided at no cost, intended to cover repairs for as long as the customer owns the vehicle (or for a defined “lifetime” period, depending on the program). Dealers use it as a trust-building incentive when customers worry about expensive failures after the standard warranty ends.
“Retention” here means getting customers to keep coming back instead of leaving. The idea is that better warranty protection makes people trust the brand/dealership more, so they’re more likely to return.
OEMs are the car companies that make the vehicle in the first place. When they talk about warranties, it usually means the coverage rules from the manufacturer, not an independent shop.
Unlimited mileage means the warranty doesn’t care how many miles you drive during the warranty period. So the coverage is based on time (like three years), not mileage.
Powertrain components are the main moving parts that transfer power from the engine to the wheels. The discussion here is about which of those bigger, more expensive parts get longer warranty coverage.
A retention tool is something a dealership uses to encourage customers to return for service again. They’re talking about how to measure if it’s working, like whether customers keep booking repairs.
Term
RO
An RO is a repair order—basically the paperwork for a service visit. “Dollars per RO” means how much money the dealership makes on average for each service ticket.
“Video MPI” is a way for a repair shop to show you what they found on your car. The technician records and documents several inspection items, then sends that info to you so you can see the issues before approving work.
XTime is a computer system a shop uses to handle the inspection videos and send them to customers. It helps the shop keep the process organized and share the inspection results quickly.
“Send open rate” means how many people actually open the message the shop sends. In this case, it’s how many customers open the video inspection the shop sends them.
“Upsells” are additional services or recommendations offered during the repair process that go beyond the original customer request. In fixed-ops, they’re often driven by what the inspection reveals and how clearly it’s communicated to the customer.
“Retention percent” is a number that tells you how many customers come back to the shop again. Higher retention usually means the shop is building repeat business.
A “claims example” is a story about a real incident where someone had to file an insurance claim. The point is to learn how mistakes during service can lead to big problems and costs.
A lug nut is the bolt that holds your wheel onto the car. If it’s not tightened correctly, the wheel can loosen and even fall off, which can cause a serious crash.
Risk management is about trying to stop problems before they happen. Instead of waiting for insurance to deal with an accident, you look for the weak spots and fix them with better checks and procedures.
“Last line of defense” means insurance is the final safety net. The goal is to prevent the problem in the first place, so you never have to rely on insurance after something goes wrong.
A “double check” is a workflow practice where a second person verifies critical steps to reduce human error. Here it’s applied to tire service—specifically verifying wheel fasteners—so quality is maintained even when the shop is moving efficiently.
Term
QC
QC means quality control. It’s the shop’s process for double-checking work so problems are caught before the car goes back out.
Zurich is an insurance company. In this conversation, they’re basically talking about how repair shops should double-check their work so mistakes don’t slip through.
Hailstones are pieces of ice that fall from storm clouds. For cars, bigger or sharper hail can make deeper dents and more damage than small, round hail.
Dent Wizard is a company that fixes hail dents using a method that can often remove the dent without repainting. That’s usually cheaper than full body-shop work.
“Totaled” means the insurer decides it’s too expensive to repair the car, so they treat it as a write-off. Big hail damage can add up quickly across many panels.
A body shop is where cars go for dent and paint repairs. If hail damage is too severe for paintless repair, a body shop usually has to repaint and fix panels the traditional way.
Hail nets are like a protective cover dealers put over cars during hailstorms. The goal is to keep hail from hitting the paint and windows as hard as it would without protection.
“Totaling” means the insurance company decides the car is too expensive to repair. Even if the car can be driven, the cost to fix it may be more than the car is worth.
Technician productivity is basically a way to measure how efficiently the service techs are working. It looks at how much work they get done (or how many labor hours they bill) compared to how much time they have.
Tech payroll is just the pay the dealership gives its service technicians. The point of tracking it is to make sure the shop’s labor costs match how much work the techs are actually getting done.
Customer pay means the customer is paying out of their own pocket for the service. If it’s down, it often means fewer customers are approving repairs or buying services compared to before.
Closing rate is how often the service advisor’s recommendations turn into real, approved repairs. If closing rates drop, it means fewer customers are saying “yes” to the work being offered.
A maintenance schedule is the carmaker’s plan for when you should do services like oil changes. If the schedule gets stretched out, the car may run longer between services, which can increase the chance of problems.
An extended warranty is extra insurance for your car after the original warranty ends. If something breaks later, it can help pay the repair bill instead of you paying everything.
Car
Mercedes
Mercedes is brought up as an example of a brand’s process for scheduling the next service visit. The host is saying the customer should have the choice, not feel forced into it.
Car
BMW
BMW is mentioned as another example brand in the discussion about service visits. The host is saying customers should be able to decline the next scheduled appointment.
“Prepaid” here likely means you buy a service plan ahead of time. Instead of paying for each visit later, you’ve already paid for the maintenance you’ll need.
Hyundai is a car brand. Here, the speakers are saying Hyundai has trouble keeping customers coming back for service, and they think the warranty/service rules are part of why.
A free maintenance plan is when a car brand or dealer promises to pay for certain routine services. The speaker is saying Hyundai’s plan isn’t working the way it’s supposed to.
Warranty compliance videos are documentation requirements where technicians must record and submit video evidence to justify a warranty claim. The host argues these extra steps add hurdles to technicians and slow down the repair process, which can frustrate both shops and customers.
Technicians are the mechanics who figure out what’s wrong and do the repairs. The speaker is saying the warranty paperwork/video requirements make their job harder.
Flat rate labor means mechanics get paid using a standard time estimate for each repair. So if the job takes longer or shorter than that estimate, the pay usually doesn’t change.
Warranty reimbursement is how the car maker pays the dealership for fixing a car under warranty. It’s usually based on set time estimates and pricing, not on what the repair actually took.
This is basically the dealership’s effective labor pricing used to figure out how much a repair pays. It connects the standard time estimate for the job to a money amount per hour.
Concept
nine states
They’re talking about laws in some states that change how repair shops and technicians get paid for warranty repairs. The point is that rules can vary by location and affect dealership costs.
Concept
due deal with customers
The host is talking about being careful and thorough when dealing with customers and repairs. The idea is to figure out what’s really wrong instead of just doing the quick option.
An oil change is when a shop drains the old engine oil and puts in new oil. It helps keep the engine running smoothly and prevents buildup from dirty oil.
Term
plastic oil fans
They’re talking about a Nissan part related to the oil system that’s made from plastic. If it gets damaged during an oil change, you can end up with leaks.
Manufacturer specifications are the exact instructions from the car maker for how to do a repair. That includes how tight bolts should be, which helps prevent leaks and damage.
Sometimes a dealership ends up with car parts it can’t use anymore because they’re no longer needed. “Obsolescence returns” means sending those unused, outdated parts back so the dealer can recover value and clear shelf space.
ASR is an automated system that helps a dealership reorder parts before they run out. If it orders too many (or demand drops), the extra parts can be returned—those are “automatic replenishment returns.”
“Buy-in” means people accept the plan and are willing to actually do it. If they don’t buy in, the process won’t work as well because people won’t fully follow it.
This means the dealership’s whole process for keeping customers loyal over time. In this segment, they’re saying that if you meet the customer’s time needs and communicate clearly, they’re more likely to return.
An appointment is the scheduled time you bring your car in for service. The point here is that the dealership should be clear up front about how long it will take.
A loaner car is a temporary car the dealership gives you if they can’t get your car back when you need it. It helps you keep moving instead of waiting around.
A backlog is when there are too many cars waiting for service and the shop can’t finish them fast enough. That’s what can cause delays for customers.
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 Darkin.
Thanks for choosing to be here on this Friday, the 5th of June.
Coming up today, we've got two fixed ops directors, two very different problems,
and both might actually be the same problem in disguise.
Dave Rogers runs fixed operations across more than 30 stores at the Piazza Auto Group.
Last time he was here, he told us RO Count, it's quietly declining across the industry,
and most dealers don't see it.
Chris Skinner runs fixed ops at Grandbury, Nissan, where the team has efficiency, culture,
and process all dialed in and says, the one thing holding them back is, you guessed it, RO Count.
We'll pressure test both those ideas, plus learn more from them on fixed ops.
And in between these dealers, operators, I've got two guys I've spent a ton of time with at Zurich.
Todd Kamitsky, Doug Coyle are on to talk about something every dealer thinks about last and regrets.
First, protecting that legacy.
They've spent decades building.
These are the people I trust, and you'll want to hear what they're seeing out there in the industry.
So today we're getting into what's actually pulling cars out of the service lane,
how the best dealers protect what they've built, and the risks hiding in plain sight.
This is fixed ops Friday and as a reminder, we're streaming live across all social media platforms.
Excited to bring your comments into today's show, including eager from, I would assume, the Monaco Grand Prix,
which is about to get underway or may have already.
But before we dive into those social media comments, let's hit today's automotive industry headlines.
Up first today, main new vehicle sales, they've come in.
Guess what? 16.1 million seasonally adjusted units.
That's up from April's 15.5, and that's above May's 2025 rate of 15.6 million.
Cox Automotive Chief Economist called it a genuine uptick,
noting the market is now running above last year's pace after trailing badly through March and April
when the tariff driven comparison was the toughest.
Year-to-date sales are still down 6% from 2025, but the direction is improving.
Inventory day supply sits at 78 days. That's about 5% above last year,
but the composition is shifting fast.
Hybrids are the tightest segment on the lot because OEMs are producing as many as they can,
and consumers are taking them as fast as they arrive.
On the cost side, the broader ownership picture remains stretched.
Insurance premiums, well, we've talked a lot about that.
They're up 11.5% over five years maintenance and repair costs.
They're up 8.5%, and the average repair ticket now sits at 720 bucks versus 357 in 2018.
Astonishing, the auto loan base has shrunk 3% as a result.
Next up today, an interesting development out of Carvana corner.
TechCrunch reported this week citing Delaware filings that Carvana, get this,
received permission to invest in Slate Auto.
Remember that in 2025?
Around the same time that Jeff Bezos back TV startup started raising $650 million in series C funding.
It's not confirmed whether Carvana has actually deployed any capital yet,
and neither company responded to requests for comment.
The strategic read here matters.
Slate is weeks away from opening non-refundable pre-orders on a mid $20,000 EV with deliveries expected by year-end.
And it has no plans to use traditional dealerships so far as we know.
That's an editorial side.
Carvana already owns at least seven Stellanus franchises and is openly building toward 3 million units annually.
An interesting news item I'll come back to after our news read today.
Next up, CDG News obtained 200 auto-related consumer complaints filed with the FTC between February 2024
and September 2025 through a FOIA request.
And the patterns, well, they're worth flagging for dealers.
The three dominant complaint types were advertising and price mismatches,
financing related pricing issues, and undisclosed or undisputed add-ons.
Florida led all states in complaints with 21, followed by Illinois and Texas at 17 each,
and nearly a third of the consumers who shared how they found the dealer first encountered them through a website or an app.
Worth keeping in perspective?
Complaints don't confirm wrongdoing and many do get resolved,
but the data does map closely to the same issues the FTC called out in its March warning letters.
For dealers, the clearest compliance risks are areas remain advertising price accuracy,
FNI add-on disclosure, and making sure what's on your website actually matches what a customer will pay when they walk in.
And last up today on the regulatory front, Santander Consumer USA has agreed to pay $400,000 to settle claims by New York State
that it charged undisclosed fees on auto loan payment extensions.
The investigation found that while Santander disclosed a one-time $25 fee,
some borrowers were charged $25 bucks per month of extension.
Santander will also return more than $275,000 directly to affected borrowers.
The company characterized it as a legacy issue from a nearly decade ago that was voluntarily discontinued in 2017.
The settlement is relatively modest in dollar terms, but the pattern it represents, it's not.
This is Santander's third significant regulatory action in recent years.
For dealers, the broader takeaway is that financing disclosures are under a level of scrutiny that doesn't show signs of letting up.
And getting that communication right at the FNI desk is increasingly a compliance requirement, not just a best practice.
And that, folks, is a wrap on today's automotive industry news.
Welcome to Fixedops Friday.
So interesting, Carvana files, according to this article, to become an investor in slate.
Why is Carvana investing in slate?
Carvana has a DESA, they did that, they've utilized it.
If Carvana did execute on that investment, what does it mean to Slate's distribution?
What does it mean to Carvana as a whole?
Interesting, CDG News certainly will follow that, the facts of it.
But in my own mind, it makes me wonder, is it potentially a distribution outlet for Slate?
Will we find out more on that later?
Who knows?
We have no information to be clear.
Nothing.
I think CDG News reached out to Carvana and we haven't gotten a response yet, but we would love to learn more.
So it's an invitation to both Slate, who was on our first episode of Daily Deal Alive, to come back on the show and or to Carvana to come discuss this issue.
So, Fixed Ops Friday, everybody, Lauren Klein coming into the chat saying, Happy Fixed Ops Friday and our own Hannah Farmer also.
Happy Fixed Ops Friday, everyone.
Nothing from eager yet.
So we'll have to stay tuned for that.
Let's turn to our first guest on this Fixed Ops Friday, Chris Skinner, Fixed Ops Director at Grandbury, Nissan.
Chris, welcome to the show.
Hi, Sam.
Thank you.
Good to have you here.
All right, Chris, you're a Fixed Ops Director.
You're at a Nissan facility.
How'd you get to be where you are and how's Biz this June of 2026?
As far as getting to my position, it's been a long time coming.
I started out in the auto industry as a tech, well, technically as a porter.
Started out as a porter at a DMT dealership and, you know, just kind of just worked my way up.
Wanted to really learn the business, loved, you know, just the aspect of everything Fixed Ops.
I didn't understand what that meant when I first started what Fixed Ops meant.
But as the years went by, you know, I just became a little bit more engulfed in it.
And I just started, you know, I don't know.
It was like I was meant for it kind of.
Yeah.
Very cool.
Well, you know what?
People are meant for leadership and you're leading in a store making a difference.
You talked in your intake form that your team has dialed in efficiency, culture, and process.
If you say culture again, I'm going to test you on it because I think people drop culture a lot.
They don't know what it means.
What's the current ceiling you're trying to break through, Chris, in this June of 2026?
I mean, it feels like that could be a time.
I mean, I mean, that could be a lifetime answer.
I think, I think what we're trying to really accomplish right now is the battle of kind of getting people back into the dealership.
Right.
I think there's been a, I think over the last couple of years.
I've seen stories after stories, you know, after posts of people saying that after markets are taking away customers from the dealerships because of the practices.
Which is by the way like that.
So not non-franchised repair facilities are taking away RO count from dealers.
That is a fact.
The challenge is, Chris, why?
Why are we losing?
And you even in your answer, you flagged RO count as your biggest constraint right now.
Yeah.
What do you think is driving this problem?
Why are some customers choosing to go to independence as opposed to here at franchise dealers at your Nissan stores, an example?
I'll put it like this.
One of the things that I've challenged my advisor, my staff, everybody from the cashier, you know, to the porters all the way up is customer relationship.
I think, I think creating that customer relationship, creating that sense of value is one of the bigger things.
And one of the aspects of what we've kind of encapsulated our processes on is speed.
You know, we're even as a dealer, even with the full multi-point car wash, we're still able to average an oil change in less than an hour at right at about 35 to 40 minutes.
Okay.
So I think with that speed, while also giving customers value, building on what it is that we do, we don't just bring the vehicle in and do an oil change on it.
We, you know, everything from washing the vehicle, giving them a health check, multi-point inspection, you know, giving them, I guess you can say also to giving them proof of it, you know, doing video walkarounds,
you know, with the technicians, you know, showing them, hey, this is your vehicle, this is what your oil, you know, this is what your air filters look like, you know, things like that.
We've been able to create transparency in our processes that a lot of times when I'm spoken to certain technicians in the industry, they feel as though sometimes transparency slows things down.
But what we've actually seen is that actually speeds things up when you're fully transparent.
All right, so give us, it speeds up, it reduces friction, right?
So Chris, give us one.
Give us one tool in your arsenal right now in June of 2026 that you believe has helped you run towards that customer with speed, with transparency and reduce friction in June.
Lifetime warranty.
Okay, what is that?
What does it do?
Lifetime warranty.
When did you start it?
We started it a couple of months ago with a company called Presidian.
And the CEO, the Presidian leader, Darren Murray, he's got a huge following, fantastic guy, fantastic team to work with.
Eric Savage, his fix-offs guy, Tom Evans is the gentleman that introduced us to it.
But Darren Murray and his entire team has made it so simple for us.
But essentially what it is is you pay for a repair once and it's covered for a life of the vehicle.
Okay.
So that includes any mechanical repair, including brakes and batteries.
Okay.
How does that help you?
How does that help you run towards the customer with transparency and efficiency and reduce friction?
The transparency aspect of it is we back up everything that we do in every aspect.
I'm not here to create static.
I'm not here to create, you know, that, you know, tip for Tata.
It's not, you know, it's not, we're here to, you know, we're doing business for you.
It's, you know, it's in and of a, I guess you could say the essence of it is to help customers understand we are here to help you.
At the end of the day, we are here to help you.
The transparency of everything from the walk around with the advisor to the video walk around in the shop pointing out every little, you know, thing that we can in a very efficient manner.
And then training technicians to operate not just from a knowledge standpoint of vehicles, but from an efficiency standpoint, creating processes that help encapsulate everything that, you know, I just mentioned into one process that is streamlined to the T.
It helps us be able to back that up and say, oh, and Sam, by the way today for doing business with us, these items are going to be covered for the life of the vehicle as long as you own it.
Yeah.
So you've got a process.
You've been using this lifetime warranty for a couple months, so you probably don't have hardcore results yet.
Is that, is that sold in F&Is?
Is it sold at the service drive?
Where is that offered to the customer?
Sam, it's actually free.
Okay.
So it's included with the vehicle.
That's part of our process.
It's included in the vehicles.
You include it.
And then finance can upsell it probably if they want, right?
We haven't gotten to that point.
It's still something in the making that we're trying to do.
But as of right now, it is solely a fixed ops position.
Okay.
As far as like selling it, giving it to the customer as part of the repair.
Oh, they pay for the repair and then it's a warranty on the work performed.
On the work performed.
For the parts and service.
Yep.
Got it.
Got it.
How do customers receive that?
Like, are they, do they question a little bit or they kind of like, hey, how is this, and are you still competitive from a price standpoint with other dealer groups?
With that.
We are definitely, we are definitely competitive.
When it comes to price point, as far as the customer, as far as what the customer feels when they see that, when they hear that.
The standard, and I can't speak for every single manufacturer, but I know Nissan, let's just talk about Nissan.
Nissan has a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty.
Somebody has a $7,000 transmission that they're needing on their vehicle.
1212.
That's what you get.
1212.
That's what you get.
Yeah.
I mean, maybe on the transmissions, they've actually added the three year 36, but the biggest question the customer's eyes is, what's going to happen in four years?
Yeah.
What's going to happen in 40,000 miles?
I mean, my transmission failed at 80,000 miles.
What's going to happen in another 80,000 miles is going to fail again.
You know, that creates distrust, you know, with the brand that creates distrust.
I hate to say it, but it actually creates distrust with our dealership because when people, you know, to the average person, when they see a dealership, they see the manufacturer.
Yeah.
And so, you know, that distrust gets lost in the manufacturer.
The distrust gets lost with the dealership.
And what ultimately ends up happening is when we're able to say, hey, listen, not only are we appreciative of the business that you brought to us, we're going to back up everything we stand for by giving you an offering you a lifetime complimentary warranty with that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so, you know, it'd probably be interesting to talk about it later once you've got some history behind it.
But that's an interesting strategy to increase your retention, get our own count back into the store.
And provide something into the area that, you know, a lot of OEMs aren't necessarily doing.
Aril Peraris comes in and says, look, Nissan is three years unlimited if you buy a component.
Is that true or is it one year?
I think he's a little, I think on the, unlike the engine, like certain powertrain components may have a three year unlimited.
But every part with Nissan is, yeah, like certain powertrain components, like heavy components, like power transmission, stuff like that.
But no, if someone goes out and buys a door lock actuator, it's a 12 months, 12,000 mile warranty.
But again, even the three year unlimited, most, as we know, the age of ownership is starting to grow and has been growing for the last few years.
So again, what happens after that three years, right?
We don't expect a transmission to fail after replacement or engine fail after replacement in the next three years.
So while the unlimited mileage aspect of it may be okay, what happens to the customer after that, right?
What's the metric that you're tracking, Chris, when implementing a retention tool like this?
Are you tracking dollars per RO? Is it customer pay? Is it retention?
What level are you working to move the quickest there?
Right now, retention. Our retention is high because in our area, we are, I mean, we have a lot of Nissan dealerships actually in our area.
We have four within a 40 mile radius of us.
So when it comes to retention, that's the biggest driving factor.
And in our particular area where we are, there's a lot, a lot of aftermarket shops, a lot of non-OEM shops out here and in a town where we're poor.
Where are you located?
Grandbury, Grandbury, Texas.
Very good.
Yeah, it's about 30 miles south of Fort Worth.
So MROS AZ comes in and says engines and transmissions, those are three years unlimited.
And then he says basic, he or she, basic components, those are 12.
12.
So I think that's a great, that's a great and a very interesting tool on the retention side.
It'll be interesting to track your success with that once you've got some time underway.
You mentioned video MPI as a way of creating that connection transparency with the consumer.
What's your delivery tool on video MPI?
We talk about it, it seems every fixed ops Friday.
And what's your standard?
What's your goal?
And where are you right now?
Standard is 95%.
I understand that there's going to be certain situations where we're not going to be able to do it or, you know, if something happens with our system and it's just down or something like that.
But our tool that we use is XTime.
And with that tool, we're able to send those video multipoint inspections directly to the customer.
As soon as the technician pulls into the shop, you know, they have iPads, they're able to go in and start doing those video multipoint inspections, start taking pictures immediately.
So you want the 20, 25 or you want the, I think you said 90, 95% send open rate.
What are you getting right now?
Right now about 85.
And I think a part of that too is, you know, what's crazy is I hate to say it, but I sometimes technicians still act like they struggle with technology.
And I'm not sure if that's just a, I'm not sure if that's just a, you know, an excuse or what, but, you know, driving it home.
I think the biggest thing that was, that we're able to help out with and kind of, kind of to touch the point that you're talking about is like following the data.
As time goes on, upsells are just increasing.
I mean, we, you know, 150 more dollars per RO is what we've ran over the last three months.
With the video MPI is what you're saying with the video MPI and with, you know, with proceeding because again, retention aspect.
We'll have a couple of times where customers will say no to us initially and then they come back saying, Hey, we've got a couple of estimates done by the shops, but they didn't offer a lifetime warranty.
Yeah.
So with that in our back pocket, it's an extra, you know, trigger.
What's your, what's your retention percent?
What's your goal today?
Our retention percent right now, and it depends on what we're talking about as far as like first time customers.
You know, two visits, three visits, you know, things like that are biggest retention are, I guess you can say the area.
What's weird is within the first one to three year ownership, it's very high.
Once it gets into that fourth year where the basic warranty falls off, or typically what we see is when their free oil changes fall off.
That's where we kind of lose it.
And then we pick back up between the seven to 10 year range.
Right now we're having about a, about a 43% retention rate, which actually is above national averages.
I really like to see us get closer to the 48, 48 to 49 range.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I'll tell you what, Chris, thank you so much for sharing with us daily do live audience your journey to increase that retention percent delivering a more transparent frictionless experience.
Last question up and then we got a jet is you talked about this under our oil change.
You know, we've talked to a lot of stores on the show that are working on creating that great experience on oil.
If you make the promise you don't deliver, that's a problem you break trust.
What's one thing you're doing today to help execute and deliver on that sub hour?
Is there a strategy you're implementing to help deliver on that or do you fall short in some cases?
Very rarely do I fall short.
I think the biggest, man, that's a lot of things that go into the process.
Everything from understanding, setting appointments, you know, things of that nature.
You got to train your advisors, right?
You're trying.
Yeah.
You got to train your advisor.
I'll tell you, Sam, the biggest part about it is every and God, I don't want to sound cliche, but everyone understands the idea of urgency.
That's one of my biggest things here is, you know, you can be fast, you know, not overly, you know, work or, you know, we're making mistakes, but have an urgency.
There's a sense of urgency as soon as that car pulls on the drive.
You know, we have competitions of, you know, not necessarily who can get it out faster, but who can get it out, you know, what type of time we're running.
There's clocks on the technicians walls where they can actually see, okay, the clock start as soon as car pulls into the shop.
You know, I got to get this out.
I got to get it going.
Everything down to the technician or to the parts, you know, when the process, by the way, so you have a timer clock for each RO as soon as it comes in, clock starts and they can see the time that will change.
Every single one.
I think that's, by the way, they're, they're like, hey, we got to get these parts of the technicians, you know.
On, on this weekend of F1 and Monaco and NASCAR in Michigan with our own Carson Hosevara in the race to win a race at Michigan.
I love the idea of a clock because it gives certainty behind a deadline and you're working towards a big goal.
So Chris Skinner, fixed operations director at Granbury Nissan.
Thank you so much for joining Daily Deal Live.
We'd love to track your progress in the future.
So thanks for being on and come back at the very end.
We're going to bring you back in for a round table.
All right.
Okay. Thanks Sam.
All right.
Thank you.
I love it.
A lot of great comments coming in from our audience.
Everybody's getting in on this a little bit just talking about creating value through speed.
Dan C. says speed is important, but it can't be at the expense of quality and I agree 100%.
Lauren Klein comes in and says it's like a LOF pit crew, which eager is watching probably right now.
So, all right.
Let's talk about Stream Company.
Today's episode is brought to you by Stream Companies.
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Stream Companies, missed opportunities report analyzes your strategy and highlights where you can drive more sales faster.
Request your free report today at streamcompanies.com.
D-D-M-O-R, props to Stream Companies for supporting today's content, including that great conversation.
We just have Chris Skinner on ways he's working to increase his retention and also compete against other neighboring Nissan dealers in a truly saturated market.
And I think there are a lot of franchise dealers out there across the country that are seeing competition nearby.
Not only independents trying to creep into your business, but other OEM competitors as well.
All right. Let's keep it going today.
Next up, Todd Kaminski, Vice President Direct Markets at Zurich, Doug Coyle, Vice President Direct Markets at Zurich.
Welcome to the show.
Todd and Doug.
What's going on, Sam?
Dude, we used to work together.
So, what is this like?
Five years later, here we are on the show talking about Holdings Automotive.
And I got to tell you, as I said in the tease at the very beginning, it warms my heart to have you all on here because this is what I used to do before I got into the COO gig at Ziggler.
So, welcome to Daily Dealer Live.
Thanks for having us. You're the reason we're here, buddy.
I love it.
All right. So, let's dive into protecting dealer legacy, which is something as I teased.
It's something that is super important, but sometimes we don't think about it until it's too late.
What does protecting dealer legacy mean to you, Todd?
Can we go, just something Chris said just now, Chris Skinner?
Yeah.
I love speed in service as a customer.
Not as an insurance guy so much, yeah.
The speed is fine, and I know this isn't exactly what you're asking, but I know you're always interested in a claims example or something that's happened.
Sometimes speed, and we recently had this happen, if a technician doesn't maybe tighten something on the car before the customer leaves,
I won't get into specifics, but I've seen this happen, and it's happened recently where someone doesn't maybe tighten the lug nut and the tire maybe rolls off the car, which causes a severe accident.
That is not something that happens as infrequently as you would imagine.
So, we love speed as customers, but as an insurance company, it doesn't hurt to maybe double check and not have it as a pit crew scenario as much.
So, Todd, let's talk about that.
In an increasingly competitive environment out there, you've got independent repair facilities, you have franchise dealers, everybody's trying to deliver their best to customers every single day.
How should a dealer principle be thinking about weighing the balance between incredible accuracy through discipline, which we've got to deliver quality repairs?
Dan C said it in the comments, speed is important, but it can't be at the expense of quality.
So, what are some tips to balance speed and quality so that we don't create a claim problem that could cost millions?
Well, first of anything, before claims happen, I guess you got to think about, to take it all the way full circle, insurance is important, but it isn't as important as prevention on the front end, which I guess sort of gets back to speed.
If you're just thinking about the end result or how we use insurance or how we get the car out, what are you doing to prevent a problem in the first place?
So, you think about all of the risk management prevention that comes before any insurance ever happens, you don't want to have to use insurance.
That's sort of the last line of defense.
You want to think about and partner with your insurance company to say, what are the things that you're seeing?
How can we prevent some of these things?
And some things you have a hard time preventing, they're weather, right?
Yeah.
If it's going to flood or if it's going to hail or the wind is going to blow or there'll be fire, that's going to happen.
But there are steps that you can take to prevent any of this stuff before there's something that happens down the road that insurance will take care of.
I'm not sure if that's exactly what you're asking, but...
No, no, no.
And you know what?
That goes directly to the legacy question.
You know, when you think about protecting a dealer legacy, legacy is what we build.
Ziggler Auto Group, 41 stores, four states.
Aaron's name means a lot in the marketplace.
And something like a careless oil change or careless tire change could impact that.
And so he's got to protect.
Todd, I think about a pit crew at F1 or NASCAR.
There are double checks that go on on tires before the vehicle goes out.
Now I'm not going to speak to those two scenarios because I don't know enough about it.
But in a repair facility, a good double check is having a second look at that lug nut to make sure it's tight as tight as the first person.
So there can be a speed element, but there can also be a QC to help make sure that nobody made a mistake in the process.
Do you advocate for that at Zurich and having a second check in place as a process to balance time and quality?
Yes.
As an insurance company, we would prefer you check three times.
I love it.
I love it.
And document, right?
You document it.
What are the policies and procedures you have in place and service in parts?
It comes down to every little thing.
How are you lifting?
Where is everything on the shelf?
Do you have everything over a certain weight up here?
Do you have it low?
Are you bending?
There's a million things, whether they're OSHA related, lifting, fixing the car, repairing.
There's so many policies and procedures.
So when Doug or myself are walking into a dealership, we know which questions to ask to say, okay, based on what we've seen, we've toward the facility, we've interviewed your people,
here are the things that we think we need to put in place, policies, procedures, different things.
You might have to invest in something to save down the road.
But the idea, again, is that insurance is there as a backup plan.
It's not the place you want to run to first.
How often should we be undertaking those checklists?
They're not directly revenue generating, right?
But they're so important to do before a claim rather than after.
They're revenue saving.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't ask Doug.
They're legacy saving.
Doug, how often should we be going through the shop, taste fix stops Friday, and be looking at our processes and procedures in oil changes and tire rotations and all the different things that go on there that could challenge dealer legacy if a big claim happened, Doug.
I would say the recommendation is quarterly at a minimum, but monthly during your, you know, the safety means is extremely important to be proactive to prevent, you know, the risk of the major claim.
Absolutely.
Monthly would be the idea.
And I'm going to throw out my own experience.
Having been in your world, your insurance person, if they're well trained is a great resource to bring in.
And in fact, I remember back in the day, some dealers be like, Hey, don't walk through the shop.
Others would be like, I need you every time you come into my store.
I need you to come in the back door and see if you can get to the front without anyone noticing.
And if you do, I'll buy you a Diet Coke because they wanted me to test all their processes and procedures and me to be those eyes, Doug.
How important is it to have kind of a third party come in and help you see your business in a way you yourself can't see it in May of 20 June of 26.
It's extremely important, you know, having another set of eyes on the operation from, you know, definitely from a service standpoint is huge.
We often do the walkthroughs, definitely twice a year doing walkthroughs before renewals, making sure all the checks and balances are in place.
And then of course reporting back to the owner to make sure everybody's following the process.
So it's extremely important.
All right.
I got a question and it relates to the big question that I think a lot of dealers ask when renewal of time comes up for insurance.
How do you both determine the right commercial umbrella limit for a dealership?
We've just talked about wheels that could come off or oil changes that could seize up an engine or somebody who could get hit in a vehicle and cause extensive liability to legacy.
How do you come up with the number?
Can I start?
And then I know Doug has a better answer than me, but I want to start.
My quick answer is you don't.
And I'll tell you a story and I'll tell you why.
My thought on the commercial umbrella is you buy as much as you can afford, right?
So I was a kid.
I just started at Zurich.
I'm in my 20s.
You know, I give a proposal to a dealer.
Here's the umbrella.
You need $5 million of coverage.
You'll be fine with $5 million.
I'm a kid.
So we start going through the year.
He has a major loss.
It's an auto accident.
There's liability.
They're at fault.
This thing starts to creep up.
We're getting a little over $4 million.
He pulls me aside and he says, listen to me, Todd.
If this thing goes over $5 million, me and you are going to have a problem.
Oh no.
I'm like, as in what type of problem?
He's like, you're going to have a problem with me.
Yeah.
That was the moment I said, never again will I tell somebody this is how much you need.
Don't worry.
This is all you need.
So from that point forward, I said, I'm just going to say, here's all of the quotes.
Here's how much you can buy.
You decide because if I tell you five and there's an $8 million claim and you're
out $3 million, I don't want you coming back to me saying you said I was cool.
But I think Doug has a better answer than me.
Go for it, Doug.
I would say that we get off.
We get asset every, every month and every renewal we do.
And it's my common answer is one at one.
I'm never going to tell them specific limit to have because it's going to open a
separate ENO claim.
But the reality is I'll explain to them what the average umbrella looks like
for the size of their operation, give them the information.
But ultimately my answer is typically, especially in today's day and age with all
these nuclear verdicts we're seeing, buy as much umbrella as you can afford.
Yeah.
Because you just never know.
So Doug and Todd, I used to always hear this.
Hey, my insurance agent tells me, I only need a million bucks or a couple million
bucks because the courts are going to try to figure out how much my umbrella is and
they'll never go for more than what the umbrella is.
That's just defied reason to me.
Like, do you ever hear that anymore as that notion got out the window?
You hear, you still hear it, you hear it less.
Yeah.
Because I think dealers, insurance people, just the world is so much more educated
and knowledgeable just with what you see on the news with some of these, like Doug
would say, nuclear verdicts.
And so many dealers are, we're in metropolitan areas, so many people.
Yeah.
There's just juries, there's just too much going on.
I mean, some of these, some of these verdicts are out of control.
So if anybody is still naive enough to think they'll just sue me for what I have, you are
sadly mistaken.
That is not what a jury does.
As they say, this is what has occurred.
We think you owe X.
They don't look at your policy and go, well, that's, we think it's worth 18 million.
Well, he only has a million, just sue him for a million.
No.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So thinking about the evolving business that is automotive, things are changing so fast
in automotive today and in the business environment today.
What are some new risks that dealers might not be thinking about that may not have been
on the radar five years or 10 years ago, but should be today in June of 26.
Dougie.
I say the big one right now is, you know, AI is so popular.
And of course it's, it's, it's been very helpful and, you know, efficiency and speed
to market and everything.
But the one thing they don't think about is the, you know, the possible disparate actions
in my impact, their operation and the decisions they're making, whether it's higher decisions
or credit decisions that they made in the FMI office.
They're not reviewing the information clearly.
You know, everything looks straight on paper, but you know, you need to really go through
the information to make sure you're making the accurate decisions based on, you know,
the actions people in front of it.
Yeah.
That goes back to speed, right?
We're in such a hurry to make decisions to get information to act on it.
AI sometimes can take us down the wrong, the wrong lane.
That's, that's a good one.
I like that.
Anything else?
Can I just add, this seems, this doesn't seem new or sexy.
The weather is new.
Yeah.
So we had some serious air losses come through like the Ohio, Kentucky area pretty recently
in April, everybody saw it, but it's hailing in states that didn't used to hail like this,
Wisconsin, Rhode Island, places like that.
The dealers that are in those areas weren't necessarily thinking about it.
But that 20 years ago, we didn't have to worry about.
And nowadays with these convective storms, you have to think about it.
So it's not just data protection.
You need cyber insurance now that you didn't need 15 years ago.
The weather is changing enough in different spots that you need to consider it in ways
that you didn't used to think about.
In fact, Todd, you've talked about a lot, you know, with the changing weather and with
weather getting more aggressive, it's important to have a strong insurance strategy simply
versus just having coverage.
Tell us about the importance of a strategy and maybe some examples where you've seen
strategy to help protect that coverage now and in the future.
I think a good example just north of where Chris Skinner is where he just said, in Texas,
as everybody in Texas knows, you don't need to be in Texas.
There are serious storms there.
Yeah.
So without naming names, we have a customer there that is so cutting edge the way that
they take care of their vehicles in the event of weather.
They have a meteorologist on staff.
I've never seen this before.
I'm like, you know, you start interviewing a customer to say, well, we're looking out
for our interests here as an insurer.
Tell me how you protect your vehicles.
The minute you start saying, we have a meteorologist and here's what you go.
I'm sorry, what?
Yeah, you have a plan.
They have a plan where every vehicle is going to be taken because certain in certain spots,
a flood, you've got some time in certain places where there's going to be
a tornado or a hurricane.
Well, not a hurricane, hurricane, you have time, but tornado or hail.
You don't always have time.
You have to have a designated plan and this dealer group is supreme.
I've never seen anybody do it better.
Storms are rolling through there and they are routinely taking care of their inventory
so that storm passes by.
They're the dealer.
Bring the cars back on the lap.
They're all nice, shiny, perfect, ready to be sold.
And a dealership nearby maybe has serious hail damage.
So you just have to be really proactive and think about this in ways that you didn't use to.
You didn't need to have these plans.
Which involves not only having a plan, having it written down and it's training your staff
so they understand what happens when those events are triggered.
When you say having a weatherman, I think of the meteorologist.
Do you ever watch the Larry, the Larry David Jerry Seinfeld?
What was the HBO Larry David special where the meteorologist went golfing?
He he forecasted bad weather and then he went golfing the same.
I'll send you the enthusiasm.
Yes, yes, yes.
I'll send you the episode, Todd.
It has nothing to do with this.
It's just funny.
They could do no wrong.
That struck me in that moment.
All right.
Hey, what role does dealership insurance play in keeping a dealership running after a big disruption?
So you think about hail.
That could be a tornado.
You think about a fire.
I saw a lot of those during my days with Zurich.
Talk to us about what happened.
In fact, you know what?
Back then I used to have something I called disaster dice and right before I went into a renewal,
I would roll this disaster dice and it would be a coverage part and then a peril, right?
And it'd be like, all right, let's play this.
Let's game this through this scenario.
Building burns down due to a fire started in the shop by a vehicle.
You know, are you covered?
We're not going to talk that here, but how does insurance help keep things running after a major disruption?
Doug, go for it.
Doug.
I think they're right.
Having the right program and the right coverage is in place and partnering with the company that can basically,
in those situations, it's chaos, right?
So you're trying to control the chaos, getting the adjustments on the ground as soon as possible,
the experts so they can start making, you know, assess the situation.
So one, we can maintain and get them back up and running as soon as possible.
But long term, making sure that we can help them retain their people by having the right coverage
is in place with their business income.
And this is personal property.
Those things is extremely important at the time of calling.
I mean, a lot of people don't realize if the building burns down, you still have all your employees.
You've still got to pay them.
You've still got to keep the operations in, you know, intact.
Because the technicians could go somewhere else, get another job while you're trying to rebuild.
It doesn't necessarily happen overnight.
And that's the purpose of insurance.
And that's how it preserves legacy, Todd.
Sam, you can be wrong a bunch of times on small things.
Yeah.
You can't be wrong once on something that kills you.
Yeah.
Right?
So that's the stuff you have to consider and be ready for.
The Doug is talking about a fire.
It's the dealer legacy.
We're in a family run business.
Yeah.
It's a family business.
So it's the Ziggler family.
But it's all of the families that are working there.
So when that happens, we have to continue.
We have to have the continuity and the people to come back.
We can't have everybody run and go work at other dealerships.
We have to keep them on the payroll, keep things rolling.
So when we get back up and running, we're still the same business.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot of comments online coming in from the community.
Dan C. says, too often I see organizations without formal policies
and procedures relying on word of mouth or on the job training,
having a formal guide where everything is documented in great detail
is critical.
And you know what?
This episode right now could act as a reminder to everyone out there,
dealers, GMs, top down, document some of these things that could help
protect and preserve those, that legacy.
Automotive Tire Guy says at Dan C. Hello.
And Lauren Klein 25-20 correctly called curb your enthusiasm.
JJ, give us the bell.
Lauren Klein.
Lauren, there we go.
Lauren Klein got it.
So all right.
A couple of questions as we wrap up.
Those little ice balls that fall from the sky.
We talked about hail and the threat that it is.
It feels like it's getting worse.
Hail is.
And it feels like coverage is getting tougher.
Is hail getting worse?
And, you know, why does it scare you so much?
I know you gave us a claim example.
Thank you for sharing that.
But it's definitively getting worse.
This isn't a, I'm not guessing is it getting worse?
I'm not the, I'm not the all knowing hail predictor guy.
But hail is the storms are getting more severe.
The hail stones are getting larger and strangely they're getting
more.
It's the right word to put it.
They're less round.
They're more jagged.
They're more damaging.
They're more damaging because of the size and the jaggedness of
the actual.
Hailstone.
So they're, they're penetrating.
So where we used to be able to go in and you have the sort of the
Dent Wizard guy, the Dent and Dig Man come in and suck those out.
And the average claim might have been say the damage was $1,700.
Now it's triple that.
And we're sending these things to body shops or worse.
Now they're being totaled.
Of course they didn't used to get totaled in hailstorms nearly as
frequently.
So hails more frequent.
It's more severe.
It's more damaging.
It is.
If you were to say, what's the one thing that keeps me up at night
the most?
It's the weather and specifically hail because you are so exposed to
it.
There aren't that many dealers with hail nets and hail tents and
ways to protect it or prevent it.
And there's not a lot of ways to quickly get your inventory to a
spot that is under cover.
So Todd, the other thing that kind of strikes me is the technology
that's put into vehicles to build them today.
That is also a factor in totaling vehicles faster.
So you get some hail damage.
And then the components that get damaged, like it feels to me like
vehicles are getting totaled faster.
SWAT team comes in the comments as we got slammed by hail in Denver
just a couple days ago.
And then he says, why are Subaru's so much more susceptible to
damage?
That's an open question for you.
If not, I'm going to give you my guess.
Anybody want to take that wire?
SWAT team comes back in and says thinner panels, maybe?
So.
I have no idea.
You guess.
I'll take that away from you.
I would think there's differences in metal and how pliable metal
is, although having four Subaru dealerships as we have, I think
Subaru's are probably thicker than some.
I could think of some thinner skinned cars than Subaru.
So anyway, Todd Kaminsky, Vice President Direct Markets, Doug
Coyle, Vice President Direct Markets.
Thank you both for being on the show today.
Any closing comments as we wrap up?
We appreciate you.
And we need to actually have you back and continue to talk
catastrophes and protecting dealer legacy at some point in the
future.
Yeah, we love.
No, thanks.
We appreciate being here, Sam.
We would love to talk about awful catastrophes that could happen.
It's crazy.
But I don't know, Doug, if you feel the same way, Doug and I are
strangely excited about insurance.
That's not normal.
But I would say if you're shopping for insurance or you, if you
have an insurance agent that isn't fired up and excited to come in
and tell you about these stories and things that could happen and
ways to prevent it, find a new person.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you.
And by the way, Todd, I apologize.
The titles were listed or Todd Kaminsky, President Direct
Markets, head of sales, Doug Coyle, Vice President Direct Markets.
I was going to correct you, but I figured I would come off.
Shut up.
I know I would have come off like a jerk.
So I'm not doing.
You should have.
You deserve the, you deserve the full, full title.
So all right.
Thank you both for being on.
Appreciate you.
Thanks, Sam.
Thank you.
I got to tell you, I love our audience and how engaged they are today,
particularly Lauren.
Everybody's making up for Eager today here, by the way.
So Eager is not in, he must be out watching F1, having a great time.
And props to Todd for reminding us the balance, the importance of you
got to do the job, but you also got to do the job right.
Again, a Seinfeld.
Anybody can do the job, but not everybody can do it efficiently
and correctly.
So that is also important.
All right.
Last up today, Dave Rogers, Fixed Ops Director at Piazza Auto Group.
Dave, welcome.
Hey, doing today, Sam.
It's great to have you here on this Fixed Ops Friday.
I have a question.
So when you think about protecting legacy, the Piazza group has an
enormous legacy.
What do you do in the shop to help make sure that when those vehicles
go out, you don't see a wheel off.
You don't see an engine out due to lube oil filter.
You know, you're protecting technicians from doing repairs
and having bad things happen in places that could threaten the legacy
of the group.
What are a couple of things you're doing in 2020?
I'll tell you, first of all, I think in the 40-some years that I've been
in the business, it's worse now than it ever was before.
I mean, I think it's cell phones.
It's distractions, whatever the case may be.
But we have some shops to answer your question with shop foreman.
They work with the younger guys, make sure that we don't have any slip
ups that way.
But there's really no way to prevent it.
We've had our share of minor incidences.
We've had a couple of big incidents.
And what Todd was saying before is right on it.
Speed does kill sometimes.
And that's the balance that we've had for years.
You're trying to get a car done in whatever, 45 minutes.
We're not NASCAR.
We're not Indy cars.
I don't have six guys jumping on a car and fueling it and changing tires
at the same time.
It just doesn't work that way.
It's just a battle.
We just try to have our safety meetings.
We try to do all the, all the, you know, check the boxes everywhere.
We can make sure we're, we're good.
Do you find it valuable from a shop standpoint where there is so much
risk having an independent party coming in and helping with some of those
checklists and pointing out things?
I mean, I tell our teams in various departments, it's good to have
somebody that can be a critic before a bad thing happens.
And then you're trying to do it after the fact, right?
So.
Oh, absolutely.
You know, we have store blindness a lot of times, right?
We walk into store.
We don't see it.
So you bring in an outside party.
They look at it with a fresh view.
I tell my general managers and I've made the comment before to all,
all my guys is coming to different door than you went out sometimes.
Take a look from a different, you know, a different angle,
but there's nothing like having a third party outside person that's there
to double check you.
So you're right.
Yeah.
Dave, you were back in, you were on, back on the show in February and
talked a lot about getting back to basics across your 31 stores.
You talked about technician productivity.
You talked about the advisor selling skills, fixed ops focus.
We're a few months out from that conversation now.
What about that you talked about then moved and what's still a work in
progress?
What's moving needles and what's working?
Oh, the guys, the guys and gals in the stores that started really
monitoring tech payroll, tech, you know, tech production,
whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, you know, they're up year over year.
They embraced it.
They do it every day.
Good leaders in the shops, great managers, you know, make that happen.
Customer pay is still down a little bit here and there.
We have some stores that's up, but, you know,
across the board overall, it's down a little bit.
And I think, you know, last month,
the worst thing I saw was the closing rates were down 5%.
So, you know, we've been concentrating on training.
We've been trying to really focus on selling skills, building value.
And, you know, for last month, some bit was up, you know,
the financing was up, but, you know, overall,
it was last month was just an odd month.
Some stores did fantastic and other stores just, you know,
they just fell flat on their face for whatever reason.
What do you attribute the 5-point decline in close rate too?
I don't know.
I don't know if it's people sitting at home watching the news
and getting spooked, fuel prices, you know, the war, you know, tariffs.
You know, we've had some price increases.
You've had some parts increases over the last couple of years.
So, you know, we talked about it once before too,
about aftermarket parts and trying to be competitive.
But, you know, I think sometimes you also have,
we had less recalls in the last month,
a lot less warranty tickets in the last couple of months.
And I think that was feeding the beast.
The car comes in for a recall, you have an upsell opportunity,
you know, those customers maybe haven't been looked at in a while.
So, maybe they were saying yes.
Yeah.
But we have a couple of stores where the managers are early intervention,
TO and the deals, they get involved early.
Don't let the car leave, you know, if they say no to brake,
tires, batteries, stuff like that.
Those guys were at 50% closing.
They did good.
But, you know, it's not every store.
So, you mentioned some of the news items out there right now.
Strait of Hormuz is still under a challenge.
The Iran conflict is still out there.
Oil prices are up and gas prices are high right now.
Talk to us about how OEMs are adapting to that in the shop.
Are there changes in the type of oil that's being used?
Are consumers considering kind of doing less frequent oil changes?
Are you seeing any type of patterns in both by our behavior,
but then also from an OEM standpoint?
I think, and I surveyed my parts managers two weeks ago about the oil situation.
If we're having issues with supply or pricing or anything.
And, you know, most of them came back with, they were okay.
There was a couple oddity oils that here and there that, you know,
maybe aren't so common that we're having a little bit of delay in receiving.
No major price increases.
And then I spoke too soon.
They just started hitting the first in a month.
Yeah.
You know, so I think that the lay between, you know,
$100 barrel of oil and then by the time it gets to motor oil,
obviously that might have taken a couple of months.
So we'll see.
I mean, I've heard rumors from folks that I know that, you know,
some of the brands have had bigger increases than others.
So I'll wait out when I look at the appreciation reports and see what we got.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Last time you were on the show,
you had set a 2000 hour tech floor as the foundation.
And now that it's holding, what's the next floor you're setting?
And is the constraint techs you have or the techs you can't hire?
It's probably a little bit of both.
I think, you know, I think that the idea of setting the floor 2000 was to
really pick up the 1700, 1600 and 1500 an hour guys and gals.
We have higher objectives.
We have guys that turn 3000, 4000 hours a year.
So, you know, they don't, they don't need to be as motivated, but they generally are.
You know, listen to tech, I think the tech hiring process and,
and bringing, you know, new blood into the business.
We've gotten some real good responses from the local trade schools,
the high schools, the vocational schools.
I think that, you know, I know there's a shortage out there,
but I think it's going to get better over the next few years.
More and more kids with mechanical aptitude are definitely coming into the
business.
Whereas I think 15 years ago, the only ones that came in the business are the
ones that couldn't get college or couldn't get a loan or, you know,
the parents didn't know what else to do with them.
So, you know, I think we got, we got good traction right now,
but you know, time will tell.
I might be an idiot and be proven wrong.
Well, you've, you've said on this show in elsewhere that variable only learns
to spell absorption when times are tough.
That's right.
So question, if, if a downturn hits in the next 12 to 24 months,
look at your stores, which of your stores brand-wise is most exposed to a
downturn on the variable side?
What are you doing now to harden and protect for that potential possibility?
Well, I mean, one of the things, again, that's why we went back to the basics
and doubled up on training and stuff.
You know, one of the big pushes has been lately and, you know, it's funny,
the Zurich guys run and, you know, they're obviously our reinsurance plan.
And, you know, one of the topics I was going to talk about is, is the losses
that are coming up in a lot of brands and a lot of cars.
It's huge right now.
It's huge.
You know, like this, you had Jeff Klansman on the other day with,
with, you know, with Mike Mann and, you know, his loss ratios,
it was his whole portfolio, but the Subaru losses are lower.
If you look at it, those cars have five, 6,000 mile maintenance, right?
Six months, 6,000 miles.
You look at Mazda, six months, 6,000 miles.
Those cars are coming in regularly for maintenance.
And wow, surprise, they don't have big claims at 80,000 miles, right?
You look at these other ones where they've extended the maintenance and you
and I talked about this, I think the first time I was on is, you know,
the manufacturers stringing out these maintenance schedules for a year,
14 months, they just been kicking, kicking the can into the dealer's pocket.
I'd say anybody that buys a used car would be crazy not to get an extended
warranty because, you know, the manufacturer and the flavors have been,
you know, the media has been, you know, don't change the oil, wait a year,
wait 14 months.
I think that's ludicrous.
So we started really going back into, you know,
you've had some guests on recently, first appointment after sales.
We started that early last year, making the next appointment,
six months from now.
It doesn't matter.
Mercedes, BMW, let the customer say no.
You know what I mean?
And then, you know, the other brands where, you know,
maybe it's an eight month and a light coming on,
we've just been pushing six months, 6,000 miles.
And then, you know, you see some brands getting away from the prepaid or the
free maintenance, you know, you see some of them.
So we're jumping all over those.
But to answer your question, I think, you know,
some of the, some of the brands where you don't have the loyalty of the customer
is going to be the problem.
And I think, you know, Hyundai's been a brand that we've struggled with
across the board with retention.
I'm not sure why it's been that way.
And I've been dealing with the Hyundai brand since the 1990s.
Every time they throw this free maintenance plan out, it fails miserably.
I think it chases people away more than it ever helps them.
So, you know, I think some of the brands when you have, you know,
you have that transient customer are going to be the biggest problem if we have
a downturn.
What would your message be to Hyundai to increase retention, bring customers back?
I think they got to loosen the rules a little bit with warranty.
I think they're a little ridiculous with some of the stuff they do.
They put so many, the same brand put so many hurdles on technicians and warranty
compliance videos, all this other stuff that they have you doing, right?
And then the same people will criticize you for not being able to keep text.
Well, I didn't, you know, I'm not going up to FIT in New York to hire text
from the photography school, right?
They're taking pictures all the time, like cut them a break.
Let them diagnose a car and let them fix the car.
And, you know, and, you know, you know, there's a, there's a battle across the
country with, you know, flat rate labor going for retail flat rate hours, right?
Yeah.
These manufacturers could avoid this stuff and do just raise the times up
voluntarily.
They can stop playing games and you got to wait for the, you got to wait for the
state to pass the law to pay a tech fairly.
It's not right.
You know, and that's across all brands.
That's not just Hyundai.
That is across all brands.
It is a little bit of a challenge.
I, you know, let me throw this out at you.
What happens when warranty reimbursement goes above customer pay labor rate?
You mean the dollar amount?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It doesn't.
You can't get there.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, there's two things now.
You have the rate reimbursement, the actual dollars per hour, right?
And that's, that's based on your effective or your labor rate repair rate.
Yeah.
And now you have nine states in the country that had this, they passed laws
where the factory has to reimburse you the flat rate hours that you charge retail.
So if I charge, you know, three hours retail and, and, you know,
warranty pays one and a half hours, I can file for, for, you know,
that adjustment and then they have to follow the rate.
God, it's never going to go above it.
It'll follow it.
Right.
Well, we have, we have, I've heard of stories and I know people in New
Jersey is right next state.
They're getting warranty times to 200%.
Yeah.
So in essence, what that's saying is that the warranty flat rate time is half
of what it should be.
So, you know, that's one of the things nobody wants to talk about.
What tax, tech retention, you know, the factory isn't always our friend when it
comes to that stuff.
And, you know, unfortunately we just have to deal with it.
We'll take it on the chin and, you know, that's what makes dealers great.
That's why we need them in this country.
All right.
Last question that we're going to go into our round table at the end.
We appreciate you hanging out.
We had an extra long and kind of a cool con.
We had a great conversation with the crew from Zurich.
It was fun having them on, especially since I used to be there at the fixed
ops focus podcast was 17 episodes in when you and I last spoke.
You mentioned you couldn't quantify the impact yet when we talked.
What is it?
What does it look like now?
Are you seeing it move behavior at the store level as fixed ops focus pod?
It's, it's getting traction.
I have a lot of, a lot of my advisors and my managers listening to it,
getting bits and pieces.
I mean, I think the positives have been, have been way outweighed the negatives.
Occasionally, you know, I talk real, I tell people how it is.
And, and you know, every once in a while you bring up a story that maybe hit
somebody the wrong way, but, you know, it's not meant that way.
And, you know, you're taking heat.
You're taking heat because of your podcast.
All right.
I've been working a while, you know, I get it.
We get ripped from the owners too.
So, you know, that's fine.
Is it only available internally or is it outside?
No, it's on Spotify.
It's on, it's on YouTube.
All right.
Yeah, you know, but, but I give some kudos and I, you know, I,
I have some really good guys and gals that work for me.
And, you know, sometimes they forget their way.
And I had 11 of my managers tell me the other day, you know,
I forgot where I got in this business.
He goes, you reminded me, you know, which I thought was good, you know,
like those are the little things that I think just like your podcast,
just like this.
And I think it's refreshing.
Yeah, I'll tell you, doing this energizes me and it's so much fun to hear
all of our audience that listens coming back and saying it makes
automotive fun.
And I think the fun comes from, we're all in this together pushing
towards the same goal.
And we all have very similar challenges.
If we don't talk about it, we're isolated and that's not fun.
So, you know, I'll tell you from the, you know, from an old school guy,
you know, years ago, I was one of these, one of the guys that I didn't
want my people bad mouthing other dealers, you know, cars that came
in from another store, even bad bad mouthing at the independence,
which, you know, they love bad mouthing us, which is fine.
But I've always felt that you were trashing the business by doing
that.
Right?
And we didn't have this vehicle.
We didn't have podcasts back then.
We didn't have any of this stuff.
And so I think this, and then circles, I'll throw kudos out to
Yossi with the circles.
I think the circles has been amazing.
It's like drinking out of a fire hose sometimes.
Yeah, give me one thing you've gotten out of circles.
I've gotten out of that, that there's a lot of young men and women in
this business that really get computers and AI technology and
they're going to change the freaking world.
These people are amazing.
Some of this stuff, but, you know, it's, it's like the old expression.
What's old again is new.
They're reminding you about things that, you know, oh my God,
I took my half the ball.
Oh, I stopped doing that, you know, and I just think it's great.
It's like, it's like a 20 group, but it's, it's very informal and
it's great conversation.
I love it.
All right.
Well, Dave Rogers, fixed-stop direction director at Piazza Auto Group.
Thanks for being on the show.
We're going to have you right back for the roundtable momentarily.
Thanks for being on.
A lot of great comments coming in from our audience.
Lauren Klein quoting the quote, doing what others won't get you what others
can't.
So let's go straight into our roundtable.
We only have a few minutes and my producers are driving, are going nuts
because we're in OT.
Chris Skinner, fixed-stop director at Granbury, Nissan Dave Rogers,
fixed-stop director at Piazza.
Welcome both back to the show.
So appreciate you being here.
All right.
Retention.
How important, Dave, you talked about, we saw Chris's focus on retention
in 2026.
What's a good retention target this year, Dave, for a group?
I mean, I think overall we'd be, you know, stupid to shoot for anything less
than 60, 70%.
You know, some of those numbers might be a little pie in the sky, but yeah,
I think, you know, and Chris pointed out, depends on how you measure it
because there's different measurements.
How should we be measuring retention in 2026?
I don't think we should let the OEMs do it.
We should find our own metric.
No, I mean, I've heard some of you get, you know, some guests and some
people in the business saying that, you know, once every 14 months is
retention.
To me, that's ridiculous.
Once every 14 months, that's, you know, if we're bringing customers
back, Nissan Store is a perfect example twice a year.
You know, you're going to build rapport with that customer.
You're going to make them your own.
And I think that, you know, we should be shooting for the true gauge
of construction will be when we get the CDPs up to see if the customer
buys another car from us, right?
That's going to be the true gauge, right?
Where are you on that, by the way, Dave?
No, we're not there yet.
We're still exploring it.
Yeah.
It's a challenge.
You know, you've been through that.
It's a challenge.
Yeah.
There's so many different solutions.
All right, Dave, your group Piazza is conquesting UIO with outside
marketing and mobile vans trying to bring those customers back in.
Chris, you've got strong internal process, but call RO count a gap.
Is growing RO count a marketing problem?
Is it a retention problem?
Or is it a capacity problem?
Does the answer change by store size?
I think it definitely changes.
I think it definitely changes by store size.
I mean, or I think it also changes by one of the things that you guys
were discussing is what's the history of the company?
What are people talking about it?
I mean, that's a huge thing because I came into this company four years ago.
This company was already existing in this town for 10 years before I got here.
One of the biggest problems that when I first got here, doing my own due
deal with customers and trying to get involved with the search drive a lot
more is what's the biggest issue?
When I first got here, it takes three hours to do an oil change.
And that's why when I get people who come in, about three years ago,
Nissan started coming out with some specific models that have plastic oil
fans.
So people are getting these oil fans done or these oil changes done at Walmart.
Take five.
That's down up the road.
And they're coming in saying, hey, I have oil dripping now.
And we come to look at it and the oil fans cracked or the drain plug is
stripped because it's plastic.
They're not tightening it down with manufacturer specifications, you know,
things like that.
So what ends up happening is they bring it here.
And what ends up happening is they bring it here and now we have to fix
the actual, you know, the issue.
And so my first question, why do you take it there?
And they said, well, it's faster and it's convenient.
So when I brought up speed, it wasn't a matter of individuality.
It wasn't a matter of me telling the technician, you need to go faster.
It's about the process.
So when I started looking at the process, I was saying, man, why is it
taking so long for parts to see an RO?
Why is it so long for the technician to see an RO?
The car would sit in the shop for 10 minutes before anyone would touch it.
And I would question, why is it sitting here?
Well, we don't know.
It's like, well, I can't tell you to do anything faster than what you can
already do it.
So my plan is now I got to create processes that create speed as an,
I guess, speed would be the character, the characteristic trait of the process.
But at the end of the day, it's about efficiency.
And so for me specifically, when it comes to RO count, in this particular
region, in this particular area, the biggest thing was what people said
about the dealership.
It's slow.
They never have parts.
They never have this.
They never have that.
When I first started, we had a 72% fill rate.
Same day.
Same day fill rate, 72%.
I couldn't live with that.
I immediately addressed that.
I immediately had conversations with the parts managers and the parts people
saying, hey, let's look at our returns.
Let's look at our obsolescence returns.
Let's look at our ASR automatic replenishment returns.
Are we returning the right parts?
Are we getting all of the manufacturer things that we can get?
What you're doing, I think, is you're re-addressing all the processes that
fit in service to help deliver that great experience.
That's exactly what Todd and Doug from Zurich talked about.
Elite organizations in 2026 have elite processes.
Everybody knows their job.
It's Tom Izzo.
Everybody knows their job.
They know their role.
And they do their job quickly, efficiently, but correctly, accurately.
Dave, what's the solution?
They've got to buy into it, though.
They've got to buy into the process.
That's the biggest thing is the buy-in.
I can help you create a better life if you buy into this process.
And it's like the old ASR.
People don't care about how much you know until they know about how much you care.
How much you care.
And having group discussions and showing people, hey, and congratulating people,
guys, listen, we hit a hallmark statistic.
Last month, we hit an average of 38 minutes per old change to the technicians.
To the technicians and to the advisors, they don't look at that stuff.
They're not thinking about that.
But when I say, hey, guys, you guys have bought in so much into the process.
Here's some of the numbers that you guys don't see that you guys probably don't even care about,
but are making a huge impact for us moving forward.
And because of that, it's easier to say this is actually working.
Dave is delivering an oil change in a specified period of time.
Important to maintaining customer trust transparency and owning that customer retention lifecycle.
Important?
Yeah, I mean, I think you have to meet the customer where they want to be, right?
I mean, if it's a 30 minute oil change, you got to do your best.
Your best ability is availability for the customer, right?
You have to be available when they want to be, and you got to get them in and out as fast as they need to be.
I'm not a big fan of the terms and the express terminology for every brand,
but setting the expectation at the appointment right up, that's where the key is.
If a customer lets you know they got to be out of there in 30 minutes,
then you got to do your best to get them out of there in 30 minutes.
If you can't get it done because your backlog or your tech's called out,
then put them in a loaner car and get them the hell out of there.
I think that's what it's about.
And I think sometimes that's what's lacking with the frontline staff is they're just not either trained
or they don't care enough or they're not paying attention to what the customers are really looking for.
Because if you listen to the customers, and I think Chris probably did this probably better than most people,
you listen to what they're saying, and then you wrap your head around that
and you got to change your processes to match what they're looking for.
If that's what you want to do, right?
You'll hear to that point, Dave, you'll hear a lot of people say,
when you're looking at, if you got a store whose effective labor rate's getting kind of hit,
and you look at their discounts and stuff like that, and you start looking at,
hey, why are you guys giving out so many discounts?
And they'll say, well, this customer was complaining because we took too long.
That's not the answer.
Giving them the discount is not the answer.
It's looking at, if their issue is time, did you not address that?
Did you not set the proper, if it's convenience, if it's, hey, I need to drop my car off,
do you have a rental car available?
It's not a matter, hey, I'll give you a 10% off if you do it with us.
It's listening to the customer, understanding what their actual issues and concerns are,
and then addressing them.
Being the fixer, being, hey, you have a problem.
Here's what I can do to fix it.
You know, I tell my advisors all the time, you guys don't fix the vehicles.
You fix customers.
That's what we do.
We fix the customer, fix their issue and their concern.
All right.
Well, Dave Rogers, Fixed Operations Director at Piazza Auto Group.
Chris Skinner, Fixed Ops Director at Grandbury, Nissan.
Thank you both for being on today's roundtable and sharing your perspectives.
Thanks, Sam.
Appreciate it.
Thanks, Sam.
Thank you.
A fun show today.
We got a lot of action in the comments.
Dale, in progress, retain the customer, drop off a loaner, pick up their car for service,
offer a once in, once in your oil change, do a full inspection on the car and let the
customer know the value of their car.
Dale, in process continues, have people come in and give them a maintenance play of the
things that need to be fixed now soon and later.
The automotive retired guy coming in from Florida, saying, Sam, have a great weekend.
By the way, Eager didn't show back up, so hope he's enjoying F1 and hope everybody has
a great weekend.
This weekend, MIS, Michigan, NASCAR, Carson, host for our excited to see him, props to
the Zurich crew for being on and to you, thank you for watching Daily Deal Alive 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, 1pm Eastern, which means
we're back Monday.
So if this is your world, hit like, hit subscribe, turn on those notifications so you never ever
miss a beat.
We'll see you next episode.
Thanks for being here, everybody.
Bye.
About this episode
Fixed Ops Friday focuses on how dealers protect RO count and service-lane “legacy” through speed, transparency, and disciplined quality control. Guests discuss why RO count is “quietly declining across the industry,” how video multipoint inspections and timed workflows help drive retention and upsells, and how a “lifetime warranty” program is positioned to rebuild trust. The show also covers compliance risks (FTC complaint patterns, fee disclosures), plus insurance and risk topics like hail severity, umbrella limits, and cyber coverage.
Today's show features:
- Dave Rogers, Fixed Operations Director at Piazza Auto Group
- Todd Kaminski, President, Direct Markets at Zurich
- Doug Coyle, Vice President, Direct Markets at Zurich
- Chris Skinner, Fixed Operations Director at Granbury Nissan
This episode is brought to you by:
Stream Companies – How much revenue is slipping through the cracks at your dealership? Stream Companies’ Missed Opportunities Report analyzes your strategy and highlights where you can drive more sales, faster. Request your free report today at https://www.streamcompanies.com/MissedOpportunitiesReport/
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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