"Half of their DMS is inactive!" – A Wakeup-Call for Service Drives and How to Bring Customers Back | Mark Altieri, EVP of Business Development at Zonic Design
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"Half of their DMS is inactive!" – A Wakeup-Call for Service Drives and How to Bring Customers Back | Mark Altieri, EVP of Business Development at Zonic Design
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We've seen dealers that have half of their DMS inactive, and that's a huge challenge because those are people that should be doing business with you.
So, how do we help the dealer engage, re-engage those folks, you know, and a lot of that comes down to communication.
Today, I'm joined by Mark Altieri, EVP of Business Development at Zonic Design.
Fixed stops is becoming the battleground for dealership profitability, yet communication breakdowns and underutilized tech stacks continue to drag performance.
Mark explains how rapidly evolving AI tools can strengthen engagement, reactivate dormant customers, and help dealerships retain buyers long after the warranty window closes.
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Full throttle.ai, Repair 360, and of course, Zonic Design. And now, let's get into the show.
Mark Altieri on the CDG Podcast. Mark, welcome.
Great to be here. Thanks for having me, Yossi.
Great to have you on a Fixed Ops voice on the podcast. Heavily requested. We've started, for anyone that's a very close follower, they've probably have noticed we've done a little more fixed ops on Daily Deer Live, a little fixed ops on the newsletter.
Now we got it on the podcast. So we're spreading the wealth. We're keeping it diversified and hitting every part of the dealership.
I want to talk about challenges and opportunities in fixed ops, which is an increasingly, always an important part of being a dealer, obviously, but you can't help but put a little bit more emphasis on it when you desperately need it.
And when I'm looking through, you know, our group chats and I'm seeing the pulse on the industry right now, and many just tremendous dealers across the country are saying they're, you know, bleeding gross, terribly slow on the new side.
I can't help but wonder what are the biggest challenges and opportunities right now that dealers can take into their control and work on to, you know, to improve.
But also to make sure that if one department in the dealership is not doing that great right now, maybe new, then maybe we can make sure other departments are doing a lot better.
Of course, it's something that you don't want to deal with when you need it. But here we are.
So talk to me about challenges and opportunities. Let's just start with challenges. What challenges are you observing right now across the country in within fixed ops departments?
Well, I mean, to back up to what you said originally, one of the things we're hearing a lot and I think I've heard it mentioned on your podcast is the reprioritization of service and service departments.
Right. And for us, that's it's a good position to be in because that has always been zonic priority is fixed ops.
It's all we've ever done. So, you know, when you look at challenges that are surfacing in the market today, the more the more glaring ones obviously are, you know, it's the difficulty in the front end.
There's there's obviously shrinking margins, right? And so you hear dealers now talking about the back end as the backbone.
So I think we're seeing more challenges in the front end in in fixed.
I think the opportunity is great moving forward because you have a population who's keeping their cars longer and longer, right? And that's positive for fixed, but it's only positive for dealership fixed if we as dealers do right by the customer.
If we treat them right, if the engagement is right, right? One of the biggest challenges dealers have and we hear it all the time is once a warranty expires, customers tend to defect and, you know, we've seen we've seen dealers that have half of their DMS inactive.
And that's a huge challenge because those are people that should be doing business with you. So how do we help the dealer engage, re-engage those folks, you know, and a lot of that comes down to communication, which is why our focus, really, if you distill what we do and what zonic does, it really is about removing the
moving as much friction from engagement as we possibly can.
You were a fixed ops director for many years. You've been with zonic for quite a while now and things have changed, but human nature hasn't changed. So when you say you are working with dealers on communication and you view that as a big challenge, can you be more specific? What exactly is the challenge and how are you fixing it?
I think general engagement, right? I think one thing that we've seen over the years and I've had this conversation on the dealer end 20 years ago and we're still having it now and it's an interesting one.
The dealers spend millions of dollars to make the phone ring and when it does, we tend to fumble that engagement, right? And it's almost like all of the investments going into developing the quarterback, but then we tie the wide receiver's hands behind their back, right?
So we're asking for that engagement. We're asking for the phone to ring and when it does, we're still not doing a great job. We haven't for a long time. I think that's improving. That's one of the areas that we are stepping in and really putting a lot of effort into improving is removing, again, some of that friction of engagement between dealer and customer.
And when you say that you are working with them on engagement, what specifically, how are you fixing that communication gap? What is your solution? Because look, I talk to people on a daily basis and some say I'm leaning into more people. I'm leaning into AI. I'm going somewhere in between.
What is your solution? What do you believe is the best solution for fixing that engagement? Which is a huge issue and anyone listening here, try calling the next five service departments right now on Google and see what happens.
I've done it. I've done it on air and it's, you know, you just don't get a 100% answer rate across the board. And that's a problem. So anyways, what is what is your solution? What do you think is the best way to fix that communication gap?
Our biggest stagnant is outbound. Now we use several different vehicles of communication to accomplish that. Everything between, you know, mail, voice, text, digital, right? So there's a lot of horsepower in the outbound effort.
The return path I think is where the biggest efficiencies are. One of my biggest pet peeves is to ignore someone who is essentially raising their hand and saying, I'm here to give you money, EOC. That just simply cannot be ignored, right?
If a customer is calling in and they've pushed one to make, you know, for service, one to make an appointment, and that engagement is anything short of painless we've missed an opportunity.
In this particular case scenario with, with Booking Angel AI connected directly to their appointment mechanism. So now you have a tool that is essentially catching that initial engagement, that initial call immediately.
That person's not being transferred. They're not being hung up on. You know, they're not being put through a complex set of steps. It's very user friendly. It's multilingual.
What is Booking Angel AI?
Booking, it's essentially an AI tool that guides you through the appointment process, right? So you talked about calling a dealer right now live, right? On the air. Going to service, it may go into set up an appointment for instance. What happens, right? More often than not, we're not connecting.
So in our mind, the support to the dealer comes from implementing a program, a tool, an AI based VDA tool that now takes that burden away from the dealership.
So if you're a dealership that has, that's running your own BDC for instance, free them up to do other things.
And what's VDA?
Virtual digital assistant.
Okay. In your perspective, Booking AI or Voice AI, is that what you're assuming or perceiving there's the best solution for service departments to bridge the communication gap?
I think it's one of them now. Now this is going to continue to evolve, right? And one of the conversations and then we're hearing it every day.
AI as a tool is evolving. I think we're at a point where dealers, you know, as a dealer, we're always looking for the new shiny object, right?
What is that? And there's a whole lot of interest from dealers around AI, but I'm not sure that dealers really understand how, where the benefit is.
Our approach specifically as it relates to Booking Angel AI is to support in one of the areas where we've seen, we've experienced as consumers, as dealers, we've experienced a deficiency.
Either as a dealer in the world or a consumer in the world who you have a conversation with that won't agree that phone communication into a dealership, into a service department specifically is light years behind where it should be when you look at what technology is done.
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Mark, when I constantly talk to dealers, many of them are frustrated saying that they're buying certain voice AI tools that are not mature enough yet.
Yeah.
This is not bridging. They agree that this is a huge gap in their dealership communication, picking up the phone service, but they disagree that the tools are good enough to solve that problem and their maturity. How do you respond to that?
That's a fair saying.
I'm not singling out your tool by the way. I'm just saying generally speaking.
No, no. I think that's a very, very fair statement and there's truth to it. And there are a couple of things. In fact, I heard a dealer actually say that to me two or three days ago.
And we were having conversation about a different tool which this dealer is bringing aboard and AI came up and conversation came up and he said, you know, I've looked at it.
I'm not impressed. It's just not there. And so the first question is, okay, what did you look at and when? Well, it's something I looked at. You know, if you looked at something six months ago, if you looked at something a year ago, we were having a completely different
conversation today because technology is evolving in a way where literally when you look at our 2.0 is a hundred times better, more efficient, more user friendly, more natural, more capable than the first version.
And we're only talking about a six month gap here, right? Interestingly enough, we, I was just at a dealer in the South Bay recently, we have turned the entire Zonic program on at this particular store.
Outbound communications inbound, BDC support, texting, etc.
One of the main items that was turned on was the booking angel AI.
And I was in the office with the service director GM, the owner, and we were listening to a recording of booking angel AI interacting with one of their customers.
While this is happening, a team member walks into the office and realizes that we're in the middle of listening to something and just kind of freezes and just kind of listens in, right?
And there's about 30 seconds or so left of this recording.
We let it run through and when it ended, no one really said anything.
And the GM looked at her at this, at this, this younger team member and said, what did you think?
And she said, wow, that was an awesome interaction. This is a pretty well trained team member.
And he said, yeah, well that was AI.
And, and, and I looked at her, I said, that's pretty good, isn't it? And she says, no, that's not pretty good.
That's really, really, really good. And that's where we want to get. That's where we need to get.
So it's making a ton of progress. I agree with you. I'm demoing some software, not that frequently, but I do keep seeing new things in the market.
And, but you've also been, you've also been working with dealers on fixed ops for several decades.
And AI is sort of a last couple year phenomenon at, at the scale that is today.
So if someone tells you if a dealer says, hey, I want to bridge this comms gap in my dealership.
I'm not set yet on implementing voice AI for whatever reason. How do you respond to that?
Do you, is there like a different solution that's second best in your mind?
Is it just throw more people at it? Like what is the, how do you take a dealer through that process? What do you do?
Yeah. Well, there are a couple of things. First off, I think we've tried a lot of that, right?
Because let's go back to the fact that this is a conversation that we've been having for 20 years.
So, you know, when you, when you talk about alternate solutions, a lot of them have been tried,
including throwing people at the problem, right? That's, that's pretty common, I think for us as dealers.
There have been other solutions. In fact, we do have a program where we offer real agents
supporting inbound communications, right? So now we become your inbound scale with real humans, right?
And that is available and it is an option. But, you know, obviously there's a cost.
Is there a dealer where one is, if it is a benefit for one versus the other?
Like, do you see any pattern recognition when it comes to dealers that most benefit from voice AI versus having real agents still?
Humans, like, do you see any pattern there?
I do. I think we do. And really, I think it goes down to volume, right?
When you look at a large volume Metro store, just the sheer number of inbound communications
is pretty difficult for anyone to wrap their arms around.
We're in an era where people have options. People have choices.
And it used to be the roll up the door and they will come era. That is no longer the case.
And we're tracking the inbound communications through our platform.
And we're seeing the number of appointments rise dramatically as the experience becomes more and more fluid, right?
So in the very beginning, we watched this as, you know, people more often than not would suggest that,
hey, you know, I want to talk to a human, get me out of this experience.
And now that's not the case so much anymore.
We've reached a point where the vast majority of the people going through that experience do so through the tool.
Because it is painless. It is user friendly.
More often than not, it's communicating in your native language, which is also huge, right?
It brings people into a different comfort zone.
People who may not have engaged with the dealership in the past now have the comfort to do that.
So, Mark, I want to ask you, you live and breathe this stuff.
Yes.
And what's something that's obvious to you today that you think the industry hasn't yet realized,
but will over the next couple of years?
Like what's an insight to you that's so obvious about where this is all going, fixed ops, fixed ops communication?
What is that?
I think transparency, transparency, you know, in communication.
When you look at how a dealer's service department communicates with their customers versus any other industry,
there seems to be a more of a concierge approach to how other businesses engage with their customers.
I think as dealers, it's kind of the mentality of build it and they will come.
I think it's outdated.
And I think we need to do better.
We need to do better.
And look, it's not an easy business, especially service, right?
If you're there, you're not exactly happy.
You're already starting at a place.
It's not like you're there to buy a car, right, where it's a happy moment.
If you're in the service department, either something's wrong or you need to spend money in maintenance
and doing something that's preventative, right?
It really is more of a dentist experience.
But I think we need to do a better job as dealers in just what that experience is.
All right. So zooming out now, we spoke about the tactics and some communication
and where you believe that the right AI tool within the department
makes bridges a real communication gap.
But when you zoom out, what do you see as like a healthy fixed ops marketing cadence?
Like give me a marketing mix for fixed ops.
Do you just implement a solid voice AI tool?
Like what else are you recommending?
What else are you working on with dealers to not view fixed ops and this one thing so symptomatically
and like just plug a hole, but rather view it more holistically.
Give me the big picture now, right?
Give me the full solution, putting AI aside.
What else do you view as important to dealers nowadays
in improving their fixed ops departments by way of better communication and anything else?
What is that thing in your mind?
No two dealers are the same, right?
So cadence of communication, types of communication, right?
Our approach is not that of tossing the kitchen sink at a dealer and saying,
here you go.
We've talked about the fact that many dealers and consumers alike feel that there's an overabundance of communication already.
So really our focus is not only in the frequency of communication as the quality of communication
and who is being targeted and when.
There are several tools that we use everything from direct mail to voice, you know, to texting,
which has become probably our biggest segment live agents that are okay.
So customers are doing texting as well.
Yeah, but with live agents and what we're seeing is for obvious reasons, right?
People are picking up their phones less and less.
The texting seems to be feels like a less intrusive form of communication.
So we're seeing this very organic, very natural return in that form of communications,
how people are choosing to communicate all of us consumers alike, right?
On one hand, there's consistency in communication.
On the other, there is the type of communication that better matches a demographic, right?
So we may walk into Yossi's motors and through a series of questions, you know,
look at your demographic, your product, your geography, right?
And establish that historically from what we've seen, you fit the profile of an area that responds better to technology
than it does to direct mail.
Conversely, we have a dealer client in the North Bay here in Northern California,
who's in dealers located in a more bedroom-like community, a little more rural.
And at any given day, if you walk in there today, it's one of the largest waiting rooms you'll see,
and it's always full because you have a group of people that, you know, mostly retired
and they're going to come and hang out with their dogs while they get their car serviced.
That is an area that'll probably respond better to direct mail, right?
Not necessarily maybe as engaged with the high tech.
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Mark, question on that.
You mentioned several different channels there.
For any dealers listening right now that I want to, you know, after listening to this podcast,
they want to audit their stack based on what you just shared.
What do you recommend?
Like what's a simple way to audit what you're currently, you know, your current capabilities?
Like what's the best next step for a dealer listening?
Okay, great.
You've mentioned a problem that I know I face, right?
This isn't some super esoteric technical problem.
Like we know this exists.
Amazing.
What is the best next step for a dealer listening?
How do you, how do you recommend that they start by auditing or what do they do?
You know, if we're being honest with each other, I think dealers know.
Okay.
If there's one thing that, that, you know, we know from having been on that side of the
conversation is we have a report for everything.
We have a report that runs reports to run reports.
So the metrics are always very, very, very, very visible, right?
So in terms of self auditing, you know, I think that's a pretty easy one.
You know, if, if you have programs in place and let's, and let me say this,
most stores will feel and state and tell you that they are probably over technology.
They have 20, you know, different programs in place.
We have a way as dealers to continue to stack technology on top of technology.
And that's, that's not uncommon, right?
So I think that the first step is to look at what you already have in place.
If there are deficiencies that are glaring and they'll come up,
they'll come up to the surface pretty quick.
Is your appointment, you know, are your appointment numbers dropping?
Is your repair order counts different or less?
Your hours per RO has that changed, right?
How's your retention look?
If any one of those needles that are important, that are being measured are out of whack,
then you need to look at what you have in place.
And this is a conversation we have all the time.
By the time we are in front of a dealer, generally it's because there is a realization that what they have in place
is not the right, may not well, at least not now, right?
It may have been at one time and maybe, you know, there needs to be a change of pace now, right?
So we then look at what do you have in place?
What are you communicating?
What does advertising and marketing look like to you?
What vehicles are being used?
And our goal isn't to come in and just replace what is already there.
We may be able to fill a gap.
We may be able to identify where there is a gap, right?
Because the truth of the matter is that, you know,
stores do have certain responsibilities such as, you know, using an OE provider, right?
It's a commitment that you have as a dealer and that's a program that you have to have in place.
So is there a way for us to support that, to provide scale to that effort?
In other words, you're on a factory program.
Who is that program targeting?
More often than not, when you do some digging, it's a more active portion of your DMS, right?
So is there opportunity now in the Pasadu community and the inactive community?
That's really where we do a lot of digging.
When you look at any given store where half of your DMS is inactive, there's an issue there.
But there's also a lot of opportunity.
So before we wrap up, if someone wants to get in touch with you to have a deeper conversation about this or opportunities,
what's the best way to do that?
I would say let's have, I would invite you to have a conversation because every store is a little bit different.
And then let's have a conversation from there because you'll have a bird's-eye view of what we do, maybe not all of it.
Okay, so zonicdesign.com.
That's Z O N I C design.com.
And we got that. We're thrown up in the show notes as well.
And then Mark, the last question I wanted to ask you was, for dealers listening,
what's just the closing message that you have for the dealer community who is, again, going through all these changes right now
is probably being on a call with another potential vendor that wants to sell them something every single day to their fatigue themselves.
What's the closing message you have for dealers listening?
Yeah, you know, it's true.
And it's a challenge we face as well.
I think the message to dealers is, you know, pay attention to your measurements, you know, what's happening within your operation.
And I'm referring to fixed ops now because really that's our wheelhouse.
That's our specialty.
And, you know, look at how you're treating your customers.
Find ways of eliminating as much of the friction as possible in communication, right?
I've said this before. I'll say it again.
Someone's raising their hand and been essentially saying, hey, I'm here to give you money.
Pay attention because they also have the opportunity to exercise that elsewhere, right?
There are plenty of options.
So we're going to hold you to that and you better, you're going to pick up the phone when dealers call or else they're going to be messaging you
and saying, hey, I'm raising up my hand to give you money.
That's absolutely right.
That's what we're hoping for.
I see a lot of dealers and groups now paying closer attention to fixed operations.
I wish that would have happened sooner.
But, you know, for us obviously that is a great opportunity because it really is our specialty.
And we really do take our relationships very, very seriously.
We have dealers that we've been working with for 20 plus years, you know.
And so these are really deep serious relationships that as our product lineup evolves, these stores evolve with us, right?
And progress through our lineup of marketing and communication tools.
Awesome.
Well, Mark, appreciate you coming on. Appreciate the insight.
I'm going to be interested to see how your conversations with certain dealers go.
And we'll keep staying close to the pulse of the evolution of voice AI.
I think you made a good point on how it's changing so rapidly and quickly.
And so I'm going to want to do another demo soon to see kind of where we're at today as things are changing that quickly.
Mark Altieri, Zonic Design.
Mark, thanks so much for coming on the pod.
Great to be here.
Thank you for having me.
All right. Hope you enjoyed that episode.
Please give the podcast a rating.
Consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about.
Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.
About this episode
Mark Altieri from Zonic Design discusses the alarming issue of inactive DMS at dealerships, with many having half of their customer databases unengaged. He emphasizes the importance of effective communication and the role of AI tools like Booking Angel AI in reactivating dormant customers. The conversation explores the challenges facing fixed ops departments, the need for transparency in customer interactions, and the evolving landscape of technology in the automotive service industry. Altieri shares insights on how dealers can improve engagement and retention, ultimately enhancing profitability.
Original notes
Today I’m joined by Mark Altieri, EVP of Business Development at Zonic Design.
We break down why fixed ops is still the most under-leveraged profit center in dealerships—and how communication gaps are quietly eroding customer loyalty.
Mark explains how AI is reshaping customer engagement, why half of a dealership’s DMS often sits untouched, and what operators can do to immediately improve retention.
Clear takeaways, practical frameworks, and fast-changing tech insights make this a must-listen for every dealer.
Have questions about how Zonic Design can help your service operations, reach out to Mark directly at [email protected] or find him on linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maltieri/
This episode is brought to you by:
1. Repair360 - If you’re in the used car business, you know wasted time is wasted money. Check out Repair360—the first and only reconditioning software that connects every function in the dealership to tighten recon and help you sell more cars — No more hounding vendors. Goodbye endless texts and hallway chases. Repair 360 connects all the dots. See where every car is and what its recon is costing minute-to-minute in real time. Go to
www.repair360.com
2. fullthrottle.ai® - fullthrottle.ai® is a next-generation AdTech powerhouse. The Automotive DSP™ is built specifically for the auto industry, combining advanced programmatic targeting, real-time bidding, and analytics tailored to drive dealership and OEM performance. With fullthrottle.ai®, marketers can reach the right car shoppers at the right moment and optimize toward real business outcomes like test drives, leads, or sales. fullthrottle.ai® bridges the gap between auto media buying and results-driven marketing. Check out http://fullthrottle.ai
3. Zonic Design - 28 years providing direct to dealer fixed operations solutions. Data • Print • Digital • Voice • AI, Removing the noise in pursuit of frictionless customer engagement. Learn more about BDC-Angel at https://zonicdesign.com
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Topics:
00:06 Why are fixed ops so important?
00:28 What's the first impression in service?
02:38 Biggest challenge and opportunity in fixed ops?
06:10 How to improve dealership communication?
08:24 How can AI help service departments?
21:50 Tailoring communication strategies for different customers?
28:37 Final piece of advice for fixed ops?
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