Service Directors, Service Advisors Are your service advisors presenting a printed maintenance menu to every customer? Or are they relying on weak verbal pitches that disappear the second the customer says, “I’ll think about it”? Visual selling matters. A clear menu makes the recommendation real. A verbal pitch gets forgotten. Service advisors should not be improvising profitability. #FixedOps #ServiceAdvisor (dealership maintenance menu, service advisor selling, fixed ops upsell, auto repair menu, scheduled maintenance sales, service drive process)

The Payment Shock Is Real. And I don’t think the automotive industry is talking about it enough. For years, we blamed inventory shortages for slowing sales. Today, inventory has largely returned to normal levels. According to Cox Automotive, new vehicle inventory reached approximately 2.8 million units in May 2026. The problem isn’t finding a vehicle anymore. The problem is affording one. Think about the customer who bought a vehicle 4 or 5 years ago. They financed a $32,000 vehicle at 2.9% interest. Their payment was around $500 per month. Now they’re back in the market. That same customer is looking at a $50,000 vehicle. Interest rates are often 7%, 8%, 9%, or higher. The payment they expected to be $500 is now $850, $900, or even $1,000 per month. That’s payment shock. And it’s happening millions of times across America right now. Customers aren’t saying no because they don’t want a new vehicle. They’re saying no because the monthly payment no longer fits their budget. This is why dealerships are seeing shoppers spend more time researching, comparing, delaying purchases, extending loan terms, and holding onto vehicles longer than ever before. It’s also why the dealers winning today are focused on: • Equity mining • APR reduction campaigns • Trade-cycle opportunities • Service customer retention • Used vehicle acquisition • Faster lead response The next battle in automotive won’t be fought over inventory. It will be fought over affordability. The dealership that helps customers solve the payment problem will win the customer. The dealership that only tries to sell the vehicle will lose them. Source: Cox Automotive May 2026 New Vehicle Inventory Report. New vehicle inventory reached approximately 2.8 million units while affordability continues to be one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Cox Automotive #Automotive #AutoRetail #Dealerships #CarSales #AutoIndustry #EVs #Inventory #InterestRates #Marketing #AI #AutomotiveNews #DigitalRetailing #FixedOps #UsedCars #FandI

Congratulations to Artesia Ford on launching with UpdatePromise 👏 Excited to support the team as they continue building a more connected and transparent service experience 🚗 #Ford #FixedOps #CustomerExperience #UpdatePromise

Meet Our Guest Expert: Scott Saxton June 15, 2026 11:00 AM EST Register here: autohubshow.fun/39rhskks #AutoHubShow #FixedOps #TechnicianRetention #AutomotiveIndustry #DealershipSuccess #Leadership

A technician should never walk to the front counter to hand an RO back. Use internal DMS messaging and stop wasting paid labor on hallway traffic. #FixedOps #AutoRepair

Service marketing and revenue shouldn’t live in separate conversations. When content, data, and performance tracking align, growth becomes measurable — not assumed. That’s where real fixed ops strategy begins. #FixedOps #DealershipMarketing buff.ly/Wes1Uyf

🔍 True or False Thursday: Vehicle maintenance comes with plenty of misconceptions. Fortunately, AutoNetTV has spent years helping make the complex easier to understand. Think you know this one? Swipe for the answer. #TrueOrFalseThursday #FixedOps #CustomerEducation #AutoNetTV

You are paying technicians to stand around. When a technician is guaranteed 40 hours but your dispatch process only feeds 25 hours of real work, unapplied labor time destroys service absorption. That is not a technician problem. That is a management problem. Track unapplied time weekly. Fix dispatching. Move high-margin ROs faster. Stop letting empty lifts eat your gross. #FixedOps #ServiceManager

Service marketing and revenue shouldn’t live in separate conversations. When content, data, and performance tracking align, growth becomes measurable — not assumed. That’s where real fixed ops strategy begins. #FixedOps #DealershipMarketing buff.ly/Wes1Uyf

Online reviews are not just about reputation anymore — they are becoming one of the most important signals in AI search. When customers search for the best dealership, service center, or place to buy their next vehicle, they are not only looking at ads. They are looking at trust. And now, AI tools are doing the same. Authentic reviews help show real customer experience, real service quality, real sales transparency, and real community trust. In automotive, that matters more than almost anything. But fake reviews? That is not the answer. Fake, paid, or manipulated reviews can damage your brand, create compliance risk, and destroy trust with both customers and search platforms. AI is getting better at recognizing what is real and what is not. The best strategy is still the right strategy: Deliver a great experience. Ask real customers for honest feedback. Respond professionally. Fix problems when they happen. Build reputation the right way. Because in today’s automotive market, authentic reviews do not just influence customers — they may influence whether AI recommends your dealership at all. #AutomotiveMarketing #AutoDealerMarketing #CarDealership #DealerMarketing #AISEO #AISearch #GEO #CustomerReviews #OnlineReputation #ReputationManagement #GoogleReviews #AutomotiveRetail #CarSales #FixedOps #ServiceDepartment #DigitalMarketing #LocalSEO #DealerLife #CustomerExperience #MarketingStrategy

One of the biggest surprises in mobile service growth isn't dispatching. It's information overload. In this clip, Grant Miles of Cavender Grande Ford talks about how the challenge wasn't getting vans on the road. It was creating enough awareness and putting the right processes in place to keep up with demand. When one person is handling pickup and delivery, mobile appointments, and incoming calls, things can get overwhelming fast. Organization becomes the difference between controlled growth and complete chaos. That's why scaling mobile service isn't just about adding more capacity. It's about building the structure that allows you to actually support that growth. #MobileService #FixedOps #DealershipService #AutomotiveIndustry

You gotta love it when things come together. Awesome product. Awesome people. Awesome customers! That's why 100s of dealers trust FixedOPS Marketing for their service marketing solutions. buff.ly/XYAcpr6 #fixedops #marketing #solutions

Trust isn't lost all at once. Sometimes it starts with a single missed service. Learn how the domino effect unfolds: hubs.li/Q04kBc6k0 #CustomerRetention #FixedOps #ShopHacks #ServiceAdvisor #DealershipLife

The dealership playbook is being rewritten. This week's edition of Inside Automotive connects the dots between some of the biggest stories impacting dealers right now: • Nissan lease buyout audits • Carvana's platform strategy • BYD's North American expansion • AI-driven compliance and reviews • Pricing transparency changes • The growing importance of dealership controllers The common thread? The future belongs to dealers who embrace transparency, own the customer relationship, leverage data, and build trust at scale. Read Edition 25 of Inside Automotive and see where the industry is headed next. #Automotive #AutoRetail #Dealerships #AutomotiveNews #AI #CarSales #FixedOps #DealershipManagement linkedin.com/pulse/inside-au…

🚗📘 My new book, AI in the Automotive Space, is now available on Amazon. AI is changing the automotive industry fast, but dealers need more than hype. They need practical ways to use it inside real dealerships — across marketing, BDC, sales, service, fixed ops, reputation, compliance, data, and customer retention. That’s why I wrote this book as a practical dealer operating manual for using artificial intelligence to sell more vehicles, retain more customers, protect compliance, and build a dealer-owned ecosystem. Scan the QR code or search AI in the Automotive Space by Mark W Lamplugh Jr on Amazon to get your copy. a.co/d/04dUNvxd #AI #AutomotiveMarketing #CarDealership #AutomotiveIndustry #DealerMarketing #AutomotiveSales #ArtificialIntelligence #AIMarketing #AutoDealers #FixedOps #BDC #CRM #DigitalRetailing #CustomerRetention #DealershipMarketing #AutomotiveTechnology #MarkLamplugh

Stop accepting mediocre margins at the parts counter. Your retail parts operation should not be quietly handing out unauthorized discounts because a counterperson “knows the customer.” That is not relationship building. That is margin leakage. Run the price override report daily. Review every discount. Find the pattern. Hold the counter accountable. Fixed ops prints money only when leadership protects the gross. #MaxZanan #FixedOps #PartsManager #CarDealership

Solve your unique problems in the shop. Like spreading out traffic, reducing bottlenecks, and decrease declined services. Customer upsell tools that you can use. 👇 buff.ly/ckNntg7 #fixedops #marketing

We're excited to welcome Ed Roberts of Bozard Ford to the Auto Hub Show on June 8th! June 8, 2026 at 11:00 AM EST Register here: autohubshow.fun/3z2pxb7x Hosted by Ian Nethercott and Peter "webdoc" Martin. #AutoHubShow #MobileService #BozardFord #FixedOps #DealershipSuccess

In automotive marketing, too many dealers are forced to start over every month. New month. New incentives. New inventory focus. New OEM programs. New sales goals. New pressure. And because of that, the marketing strategy becomes a constant reset instead of a compounding machine. That is where most dealerships lose long-term momentum. The best automotive marketing does not only chase this month’s sale. It builds assets that keep working after the campaign ends. Every month, you still need to pivot. You still need to adjust creative, offers, payments, inventory, and messaging. That part is not optional. But the real opportunity is building a system underneath the monthly campaigns that creates recurring business without requiring the budget to keep increasing. That means: Better first-party data. Stronger email and SMS follow-up. Service-to-sales campaigns. Equity mining. Lease maturity retention. Review generation. Referral systems. Geo-based SEO. Inventory content that ranks. Video descriptions that keep bringing traffic. Automated lead nurturing. Customer lifecycle marketing. Paid media should create demand. But your owned marketing ecosystem should capture, retain, reactivate, and compound that demand. If every month your only answer is “spend more,” the system is broken. The goal should be simple: Spend smarter. Build longer. Retain better. Create more repeat customers. Turn one sale into the next three opportunities. Dealership marketing has to move fast, but it also has to build. The dealers who win are not just the ones with the biggest budget. They are the ones who create momentum that does not reset on the first of the month. #AutomotiveMarketing #CarDealershipMarketing #DealerMarketing #AutomotiveSales #FixedOps #DigitalMarketing #FirstPartyData #CustomerRetention #AutomotiveIndustry #MarketingStrategy #DealershipGrowth #CMO #AutoRetail #RevenueGrowth

After more than two decades in the automotive industry, one thing became clear to me: Most dealerships don’t fail because of sales. They struggle because of a lack of operational discipline, financial visibility, and accountability behind the scenes. That’s why Becky Ann Braun and I wrote The Automotive Controller’s Ultimate Playbook: Financial Leadership for High-Performing Dealerships. This book was built for the operators, controllers, office managers, and dealer principals who want more than theory. We wanted to create something practical. A real-world playbook based on years inside high-volume dealerships and dealer groups. Inside the book we break down: • Financial leadership inside modern dealerships • Building structure and accountability • Improving reporting accuracy and speed • Fixed ops and variable ops alignment • Processes that help stores scale profitably Becky and I have worked together for over a decade, and together we bring more than five decades of combined dealership experience to this project. Proud to finally share this one with the industry. Structure. Speed. Accuracy. That’s the standard. #Automotive #Dealership #Leadership #AutomotiveIndustry #FixedOps #DealerPrincipal #Controller #Accounting #AutomotiveManagement #ChrisJMartinez