While it’s nice to have room in your shop’s schedule to handle walk-ins and other unexpected work, a service lane no-show isn’t the ideal way to get that extra time. Rather, no-shows throw everyone off and can take quite a toll on both your shop’s workflow and your bottom line.

Here are two holistic approaches to reducing no-shows…

Every dealership wants to increase website traffic, that’s why they spend thousands of dollars per month on advertising agencies to run email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and social media campaigns. Typically, agencies include search engine optimization in service packages to snag organic search traffic. Yet, organic search often feels like the…

A recent article in Wards Auto shares results from a study of 6,200 dealerships conducted by analytics company Marchex. According to the survey, dealerships who use active listening techniques and build rapport with customers on the initial calls are the…

You know to protect your dealership computer system from hackers, but what about your phone system? Phone hacking is common and often overlooked until you get hit with fraudulent charges. According to the Communications Fraud Control Association, phone fraud costs companies over $4 billion each year. The majority of that cost is due to toll fraud;…

I often meet with auto dealers of all sizes across the U.S., and what I’ve seen is that very few realize how many opportunities they are missing due to unhealthy phone systems. Various research has shown that calls outpace internet leads by as much as 4:1 due to mobile devices and click-to-call buttons, but many of those calls go…

Conversations about digital retailing in the automotive industry tend to center around two things: customer experience and an increase in sales volume. But some dealers feel that it just leads to decreased margins on the front-end in the “race to the bottom,|” and that face-to-face interaction will end in more revenue – whether that's in the front or the back…

Facebook recently announced a change to its algorithm that prioritizes posted comments in a manner that can be very beneficial as far as gaining more exposure to your customer’s networks.

According to Social Media Today,…

Dealerships lose hundreds of sales opportunities every year because of missed or mishandled phone calls. On average, a dealership fails to connect with 33% of incoming calls. For every 100 calls, that means you’re missing out on 33 potential deals! Phone calls are three times more likely to convert than other types of leads. It’s crucial to fix your phone…

Let’s go back in time for a moment. 16 years ago, in 2003, there was a brand-new highline dealership. This dealership was getting very little walk-in traffic. Despite having 10 salespeople on the floor, they were lucky if even one customer came in on any given day. With no existing CRM database, they also had zero prospects to follow up with. Salespeople…

The shift from traditional advertising to digital advertising continues to grow. Today, it’s common for 90 percent of a dealer’s budget to be spent on digital channels. Yet, it’s very difficult for most dealers to directly attribute phone calls, appointments, and sales to that ad spend. Instead, you get metrics that don’t directly correlate to customer action…

If your dealership is like most, the sales and service side of the house feel like two disconnected islands most of the time. The teams rarely come together unless handling reconditioning or aftermarket accessory installation. But…

Drivers participating in the nation's most extensive ridesharing services are all independent contractors and, as such, are responsible for keeping their own vehicles maintained. After all, if they want to make money as a contracted driver, it seems perfectly reasonable to expect them to oversee vehicle maintenance, performance, and…

Price is often a major factor in the purchase of any service or product. But it’s important to separate perceived price and received value. For example, $5 for a bottle of water might seem expensive, but that’s a deal if you’re walking through a desert. And there’s nothing blatantly wrong with paying more for quality (or perceived quality)––just look at…

When it comes to social media, some dealers are uncertain of its benefits or unwilling to pay for the reach – and in some cases, both. Well, it is worth getting on the bandwagon as social media usage continues to expand with projections of over 3 BILLION users by 2021.

An interesting…

Walk-ins are a major source of dealership traffic. On the one hand, that’s great for dealerships, because it means less time chasing down leads, since customers simply show up at your door. But it also means that when walk-ins dry up, so does a major portion of revenue. So how can you get more people in the door, prepped and ready to…

For dealers, the digital retail space is filled with more hype than ever. Digital retail companies promise a future with increased conversion rates, higher gross margins, and better customer experience to boot.

And the truth is…it works! Digital retail can do all of those things and more. But there’s another truth most vendors won’t tell you.…

We have all had moments we wished we could do-over. For anyone who saw Avengers Endgame, you understand the value of "undoing" cannot be overstated. So what do we do when against our best efforts to build a strong customer-centric reputation we end up with poor ratings online?

In a slower market, our online reputation can impact be the…

All businesses need good leaders who know what it takes to be profitable, but also how to retain employees who are valuable to the business. Employee retention is key to profitability, as replacing someone takes a significant amount of time and effort. It can also result in lost revenue as the dealership sacrifices the opportunity to connect with and foster…

While the components of digital retailing have existed within our industry for some time, digital retailing as a concept has not. Indeed, dealers could sell a vehicle entirely online in the past. And many have done so. But they’ve done so by cobbling together a less than perfect experience for the customer involving multiple widgets, phone calls, emails, and…