Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Industry Spotlight Podcast Recap newsletter—the key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today, Sam sits down with Kevin Frye, Marketing Director with Jeff Wyler Automotive Family, and Paul Nadjarian, Chief Product Officer at CARFAX.
Together, they discuss why most dealers fail at service retention, how clean data unlocks customer loyalty, and why the most predictive buyer signal isn't what dealers think.
Compressing margins are forcing a necessary shift to fixed ops.
The industry has historically prioritized sales and marketing while service departments operated with less strategic attention, but changing economics now demand balance.
"We're really trying to look at the entire picture. And while we do a great job marketing and creating more sales, the truth is that fixed ops has often been neglected across the entire industry. And we'll raise our hands and say we're guilty of that as well." — Frye
Profitability now requires retaining existing customers rather than continuously regenerating new ones at higher acquisition costs.
Fifty-five percent of customers don't return for service in year one.
Dealers have relied on warranty work to keep service bays busy, but this creates a false sense of retention that collapses post-warranty when competing with independents.
"The customers are kind of captive to us as the dealers while they're under warranty. So I think we've, in many cases, taken for granted that these customers will come back to do that warranty work, which has kept us pretty busy." — Frye
The real retention challenge begins when the warranty expires, and customers make permanent service decisions about where to take their vehicles.
Most dealers can't measure retention because data lives in nine to thirteen separate systems.
Jeff Wyler operates 23 rooftops, each with an average of nine to thirteen separate databases that don't communicate with each other, making accurate measurement nearly impossible.
"What is your current retention rate? And it's pretty much crickets and blank eyes every time." — Frye
Because of this, the group is currently consolidating all data into a customer data platform and completing data hygiene work before establishing baseline retention metrics to track improvement.
Providing better information allows dealers to coordinate outreach more effectively.
In 2026, dealers using comprehensive vehicle data will receive files showing exactly what maintenance is due for every customer that month based on actual mileage and service history.
"We're looking to allow them to coordinate off of Carfax Care's better information. We would give them a file that lets them know what's due for everyone that month. So, then they can coordinate their efforts around it." — Najarian
This prevents marketing spend on services that have already been completed elsewhere and ensures recommendations align with actual vehicle needs.
Presented by:
1. CARFAX - Here's a reality check: CARFAX data shows that 55% of car buyers won't return to the same dealership for service in year one. That’s lost revenue walking out your door. But Carfax Lifetime Dealers don’t stop after the sale. They partner with CARFAX to deliver co-branded, VIN-specific service reminders that drive customers back to their service lane. The CARFAX Lifetime program: Give customers the insight they want, earn the loyalty you need. Contact your CARFAX representative today. Learn more at carfax.com/CDG
Push notifications achieve 50-60% open rates when customers opt in.
Email and direct mail get ignored, but app-based push notifications that customers explicitly opt in to receive generate sustained engagement over time.
"I think it's the simplest communication channel right now because they've opted in when they downloaded that app to get those push notifications. I promise you, when I'm getting these little pushes all day or text, that's the first thing I check versus an email, a direct mail, a phone call." — Frye
The key is earning permission through value delivery rather than buying attention through frequency.
One comprehensive monthly message beats five promotional emails per day.
Customers often ignore automotive brands that flood inboxes with constant offers, but respond to predictable monthly dashboards containing all relevant vehicle information.
"I don't need sporting goods information five times a day. And so what what we're doing with a holistic view, and we have all this different data we can bring together in that dashboard view and it's highly accurate, is we send it once a month and you get it the same day every month. So if you get yours on the 11th of the month, every 11th you'll get it." — Nadjarian
Including registration reminders, emissions deadlines, recalls, oil changes, and major service in one place creates genuine utility that customers value.
Dealers lack two critical data points: current mileage and service history outside their network.
Knowing OEM service intervals isn't enough when dealers can't see actual vehicle mileage or whether customers already completed maintenance at independent shops.
"You know that at 5, 10, 15,000 miles it's due, but you don't know how many miles are in the car. You also don't know if they've gotten service work done already someplace else." — Nadjarian
Access to 80% of nationwide service data, including independent shops, enables accurate recommendations that prevent wasted campaign spend.
AI needs clean data before it can deliver personalized experiences.
Dealers rushing to implement AI solutions will fail without first consolidating databases and completing data hygiene work that makes information usable.
"You have a guest coming over sooner rather than later. That guest is named AI and their favorite meal is data. So you need to clean up your house, consolidate your data and clean it, because that is going to be the fuel for all of these AI solutions." — Frye
Without this foundational work, dealers cannot leverage emerging technologies that depend on accurate, unified customer data.
Vehicle history report clicks predict serious buyers better than form submissions.
After analyzing two years of website behavior matched against actual purchases, Jeff Wyler discovered the most surprising predictor of a sale wasn't a lead form or phone call.
"I had my own listings company before coming to Carfax, and I would see it at my company where, you know, the click on the Carfax report was a huge indicator um, that that person was a real buyer." — Nadjarian
When customers pull vehicle history reports, they demonstrate genuine purchase intent by investigating a vehicle's background.
AI search engines pull from 200 sources to generate personalized answers.
Google's AI now delivers different results to different users asking the same question based on individual intent signals like price sensitivity or reputation preferences.
"When you ask who the best Chevy dealer is in Cincinnati, for you, it might be based upon lowest price. For Paul, it might be based on the best reputation management. They'll on average go across 200 different sources to generate the answer." — Frye
Dealers must optimize sentiment and relevance across hundreds of platforms rather than simply ranking for keywords in traditional search.
