To grow profits in today’s automotive environment, many auto dealers are focusing on growing service department revenue. Achieving this goal presents a number of challenges, including: 1) Declining new vehicle sales volumes NADA predicts 2018 new-v

Consumers are all about convenience. The Internet has opened access to instant information and new technology continuously enables consumers to accomplish goals faster, access information more easily and organize their lives — all without the h

In our fast-paced society, some of the things done just a short time ago to impress and retain customers no longer work. Today, business owners can’t always keep on top of the latest and greatest ways to keep their customers loyal.  However, there

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed a relaxing time with family and friends over Christmas and had a few days to recharge your batteries. Service directors will need to be at the top of their game in 2018 because dealers will be depending on fixed ops

The annual massive SEMA-AAPEX gathering (say 140,000 peeps) in Las Vegas features literally hundreds of educational opportunities in almost any area of the automotive business and technical world.  This year I was particularly interested in social m

I once heard influential thinker Michael Porter say that strategy is as much about what you choose not to do, as what you choose to do.  Over time, I have found that, while rewarding, choosing what not to do is far harder. It is always tempting to c

While the struggle to decrease unrepaired recall vehicles on the road continues, new business models and technologies are arriving which could dramatically reduce the problem. Foremost among them are the advancements in autonomous cars, the introduct

Most people check their mobile phones within five minutes of waking up. According to a study by Deloitte, people in the United States across all age groups check their phones 46 times during the course of a day.  That number could be as high as 150

A trending technology is the use of bots in customer service. While bots can certainly help companies manage communications faster, sometimes they fail to provide the correct information and consumers just stop communicating with them, pick up the ph