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Service Scheduling Is Improving — But Dealers Still Have Friction to Fix

 Dealership service scheduling is getting better across the industry, but a new study shows there is still plenty of room for improvement.

According to Pied Piper’s 2026 Service Scheduling Effectiveness Auto Industry Study, every automotive brand measured improved its overall service scheduling performance this year. The study evaluated more than 6,500 service requests placed by phone and online across 33 U.S. automotive brands and four independent service chains.

The industry average improved by seven points compared with last year, with online scheduling making the biggest jump.

That is the good news.



The less encouraging news is that 16% of callers still could not successfully book a service appointment, and at some brands that number climbed above 25%.

Customers encountered familiar problems: long hold times, complicated phone trees, voicemail, and AI systems that could handle basic requests but struggled when the conversation needed to be transferred to a real person.

In fact, the study found that roughly one-third of AI-to-human transfers failed.

That is an important lesson for dealers adopting more automation.

AI can absolutely help a service department work more efficiently. It can answer routine questions, schedule appointments, organize workflows, and reduce the burden on advisors.

But automation only works when the customer experience stays intact.

If an AI assistant handles the first 80% of a conversation perfectly and then loses the customer during the handoff, the customer probably does not care how impressive the first 80% was.

They just know they still do not have an appointment.

The study also found that independent service chains continue to outperform dealerships in some key areas.

Callers reached an advisor at independent chains in an average of 38 seconds, compared with 66 seconds at dealerships. Independent shops also offered their earliest available appointment about 1.3 days out, compared with 2.9 days for dealerships.

That matters because customers are not comparing dealerships only to other dealerships.

They are comparing the experience to tire stores, quick-lube chains, independent repair shops, mobile service providers, and every other business competing for their time.

For dealerships, the takeaway is simple:

Convenience is part of the service product.

A customer who cannot schedule easily may never make it far enough to experience the quality of the actual repair.

That is where better technology and better process need to work together.

Tools like VAL, the Virtual Advisor Liaison from Dixon Technologies, can help dealerships manage customer communication and service workflows without replacing the people customers still depend on. The goal of automation should not be to remove the human element.

It should be to make sure the human element is available when it matters.

And once that customer enters the service process, tools like StatusPlus can help keep them informed throughout the visit with updates, photos, videos, and clearer communication between the customer and service team.

Modern customers expect convenience before the appointment, transparency during the repair, and communication throughout the experience.

Dealers are clearly making progress.

But the stores that remove the most friction from scheduling and service will have the strongest opportunity to turn that first appointment into a long-term relationship.

Because before you can retain a service customer, you first have to make it easy for them to get through the door.

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