How top dealers are rewriting the "fixed-ops" playbook

Hey, everyone — As the Southeast deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, another storm — Hurricane Milton — has slammed Florida. My prayers go out to everyone affected, and I want to say thank you to the folks who have stepped up during these tough times. 

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—CDG

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The fixed-operations department, better known to customers as the service center, is historically a less sexy and more opaque, technical side of the business. 

But it's arguably the most important. Fixed ops is a big deal—it's typically responsible for at least 50% of a dealership’s gross profit and, in some cases, even more. In fact, a lot of dealers are really just huge service centers that happen to sell cars.

But the elephant in the room is electric vehicles (EVs). We all know that EVs require less service and maintenance, but they’re not going away. And progressive dealers are prepping for that reality by focusing on convenience, innovation, and thoughtful processes for long-term growth. 

This week, I chatted with several fixed-ops directors and managers handling over 30,000 repair orders (the customer invoices generated for each service appointment) each month. Each had their own strategy for growing the service department, but they all agreed on one thing: the main goal of fixed ops is to make it as easy as possible for customers to do business with the dealership.

Here’s how they’re making it happen – 

First, nearly all the fixed-ops directors recognize the explosive growth of mobile service and pick-up/delivery, where auto technicians perform a lot of the same services remotely that they do in the dealership.

Ed Roberts from Bozard Ford Lincoln is a top service director in Florida who is 100% committed to the approach. He told me that in this ‘age of convenience,’ more dealers are finally starting to look at things through the customer’s lens and removing the barriers to service. By replicating companies like Amazon and DoorDash and providing fast, doorstep deliveries – dealerships are sometimes winning over entire households… for life.

Bozard Ford Lincoln now completes around 2,000 mobile repairs and 800 - 1,200 pick-up/delivery services each month, which make up roughly 30% of their monthly repair orders. Insane. 

Sure – in a bid to match Tesla, last year, Ford decided to foot the bill for participating dealers to do mobile car service (Volvo dealers – I’m hearing whispers you might be next). And it doesn’t hurt that Ed has 149 technicians and 29 trucks… but it wasn’t always that way. 

In 2015, Ed started mobile service with a single truck and technician. He said smaller dealership operations can start that way, too, if they have the right mindset and embrace the process. 

If they do – both the dealership and its customers stand to gain a lot. Customers using mobile service are less likely to shop around for cheaper options, said Jim Sabino, Fixed Operations Director at All American Ford. The convenience factor outweighs the price sensitivity that usually comes standard with in-store visits.

As Ed put it – It’s no different than choosing to buy a steak at Outback or choosing to buy a steak at Ruth’s Chris – customers will pay a premium for the experience and white-glove service.

Another way fixed-ops departments are moving into the future is leveraging A.I. 

Austin Conroy, the Regional Fixed Operations Director for Rohrman Automotive Group, told me that A.I. tools, like automated messaging, boosted repair orders by 30% at one store over three months, which added about $130,000 to the bottom line. Engagement rates also surged from 2 - 3% to 15%, thanks to targeted, data-driven follow-ups that reach customers with precision timing.

But it’s not just about cranking out more repair orders…

The elections are skyrocketing dealer ad costs with CPM (Cost/1K Impressions) prices increasing as much as 16%.

This dramatic shift is likely driven by the increase in political spending on social media and search platforms in the run up to the election.

This data insight comes from the thousands of dealers already using Fullpath’s CDP to unify and activate their data.

Austin said the A.I. compensates for human scheduling habits. For example, a service advisor might avoid booking late-in-the-day appointments to make sure they clock out at a certain time, but A.I. follows rules exactly — filling appointment slots and giving customers every available option.

This “always-on” approach has led to more timely service visits and improved retention rates, helping Rohrman keep customers in-house instead of losing them to aftermarket competitors.

And get this – the integration has become so sharp that customers sometimes come into the store asking to speak to “Connie” or other A.I. assistants, thinking they’ve been communicating with a real person. (Wow, I have many questions…) But at the end of the day, Austin said what I’ve heard from many dealers – A.I. is a supplement, not a replacement for the human touch.

Going a level deeper, Tully Williams, Fixed Operations Director at The Niello Company, told me that forcing customers to engage with A.I. is probably not the way to go in the short term. He said that until the auto retail industry has reached Amazon-caliber A.I., consumers need to be given the choice upfront on whether or not they want to engage with A.I. chat technology. That approach could definitely go a long way with consumers. 

On the hardware side, fixed-ops directors are using visual A.I. to turbocharge inspections. And dealers are also tapping predictive A.I. to fine-tune inventory management. Basically — there’s a ton of innovation happening in every direction.

The last big perspective shift I’m seeing in fixed-ops is reconditioning (the process of getting a used vehicle cleaned up and/or fixed for retail sale). This costs dealers time and money. Not only do they pay for the labor and materials – every day the car stays off the market, it loses resale value. 

Not long ago, I interviewed Michael Kelley, GM at Bourne’s Auto Center on the Car Dealership Guy podcast who had a massive problem on his hands: a constant service bottleneck where reconditioning jobs kept getting pushed aside for customer pay work and service contracts.

So – he built a centralized, off-site center dedicated entirely to reconditioning. This “used car factory,” handles all internal work separately from customer vehicles. Raul Gomila, GM/Partner of City Kia was running into the same problem and found a similar solution. City Kia now operates as an “express lane” for quick maintenance. The heavy-lift repairs, reconditioning, and new car PDIs (pre-delivery inspections) are done off-site at a separate center. 

This makes total sense to me. As dealerships consolidate and scale, a centralized reconditioning center could feed several stores efficiently under the same umbrella in a concentrated region. I mean – Carvana’s doing it, why can’t dealers?

Not everyone is there yet, though. A lot of dealer groups carve out efficiencies by keeping reconditioning in-house but treating it like a separate department. Dedicated advisors and techs focus solely on used cars, cutting reconditioning time down to 48 - 72 hours. 

As I take a step back and look at the big picture, one thing stands out: successful service departments are laser-focused on creating value for both customers and the dealership. They’re transforming from behind-the-scenes moneymakers into forward-thinking, customer-centric, tech-savvy operations that can deliver exceptional experiences… if they have the right playbook.

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• Riverside Auto Group is on the hunt for a Controller located near Rome, GA.

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Thanks for reading. See you on the next edition…

—Car Dealership Guy

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