Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap newsletter—the key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today’s guest is Mark Altieri, EVP of Business Development at Zonic Design.
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.
Dealers are sitting on inactive DMS data worth millions in potential revenue.
Many dealerships operate with roughly half their customer database marked inactive, representing a massive untapped opportunity.
"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."
Reengaging these dormant customers through better communication can unlock significant fixed ops revenue without acquiring new names.
Phone communication failures waste marketing dollars and push customers elsewhere.
Dealers invest heavily to generate inbound calls, yet frequently fumble the most basic service interactions when the phone actually rings.
"Dealers spend millions of dollars to make the phone ring and when it does we tend to fumble that engagement."
When someone calls to schedule service, they're literally raising their hand to spend money—ignoring or mishandling that call sends them straight to a competitor.
AI voice tools have reached a level of naturalness that surprises even dealership staff.
Modern virtual assistants can now handle service appointment scheduling with conversational quality that mimics human interaction.
"I looked at her [a team member], 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.'"
The team member had overheard a recorded interaction and assumed it was a well-trained human employee, demonstrating how far the technology has progressed.
AI technology is advancing so rapidly that six-month-old demos are already outdated.
Dealers who dismissed voice AI tools a year ago are missing dramatic improvements in capability, naturalness, and user experience.
"If you looked at something 6 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, AI is 100 times better."
The gap between first-generation and current AI tools represents a fundamental shift in what's possible for service communication.
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High-volume metro stores face the greatest challenge in managing inbound communication.
Volume dictates the optimal solution. And larger dealerships handling massive inbound call volume often struggle most with consistent call handling.
"When you look at a large volume metro store, the sheer number of inbound communications is pretty difficult for anyone to wrap their arms around."
The scale of incoming service calls at busy urban stores makes manual processes nearly impossible to execute consistently without technological support.
Texting has become the preferred communication channel because it feels less intrusive.
Customers increasingly avoid answering phone calls but respond reliably to text messages, making SMS a critical engagement tool.
"Less people are picking up their phones less and less. The texting seems to be feels like a less intrusive form of communication."
This shift reflects broader consumer behavior changes—people want to control when and how they engage, and texting provides that flexibility.
Communication strategy must match local demographics and customer behavior.
A tech-heavy urban market responds differently from a rural bedroom community where customers bring their dogs to wait for service.
"We may walk into Yossi's Motors and through a series of questions look at your demographic, your product, your geography, 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."
Direct mail, voice, text, and digital each perform differently depending on geography, age demographics, and local market characteristics.
Most dealers already have too much technology and not enough measurement.
Dealerships routinely stack 20-plus software platforms without examining whether core metrics are actually improving.
"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."
Simple questions about appointment trends, repair order counts, hours per RO, and retention quickly reveal whether existing tools are actually working.
Post-warranty defection represents the single biggest opportunity in fixed ops.
Customers tend to leave the dealership after the factory warranty expires, but longer ownership cycles create a large retention window.
"Once a warranty expires customers tend to defect. You have a population who's keeping their cars longer and longer, and that's positive for fixed, but it's only positive for dealership fixed if we as dealers do right by the customer."
Extending customer relationships beyond three years requires proactive communication and a service experience worth choosing over independent shops.
Transparency and concierge-level communication should define the modern service experience.
The service department's default approach of "build it, and they will come" no longer works in a market where customers have abundant choices.
"When you look at how a dealer's service department communicates with our customers versus any other industry, there seems to be more of a concierge approach to how other businesses engage with their customers."
Treating service visits like dentist appointments (necessary but unpleasant) misses the opportunity to create an experience customers actually want to return to.
