Skip to main content

Dealers Are Raising the Bar on Video Inspections and Service Convenience

 For dealerships trying to improve service retention, the answer may not be one dramatic change.

It may be getting the fundamentals right every single time.

Diehl Automotive, a growing dealer group with more than 20 dealerships and a dozen body shops, recently shared some of the standards it is using to improve fixed ops performance across its stores.

One of the biggest is video multi-point inspections.

Diehl has established a 70% standard for MPIs, meaning the group expects a large majority of service visits to include a video inspection that helps customers understand what technicians are seeing.

But Fixed Ops Director Matthew Whittenberger says the number alone is not the most important part.

Quality matters.

A rushed video that customers cannot understand does not accomplish much. A clear video showing tire wear, brake condition, a leaking component, or another service concern can completely change the conversation.

Instead of simply being told that something needs attention, the customer can see it.

That creates transparency.

And transparency creates trust.

Diehl has even made a point of sharing positive customer feedback about technician videos with employees and recognizing technicians who produce particularly strong examples.

That is important because new technology only works when employees actually use it well.

Dealerships can buy all the software they want, but if the process is inconsistent, the customer experience will be inconsistent too.



The same principle applies to convenience.

Diehl is also working to increase same-day express appointments, expand service hours, grow mobile service, and improve appointment capacity.

Why?

Because customer expectations have changed.

Customers do not necessarily want an oil change five days from now.

They want it today.

They do not want to rearrange an entire workday just to get basic maintenance completed.

And they definitely do not want to drop off a vehicle and spend the next six hours wondering what is happening with it.

That creates an important challenge for dealerships.

The traditional service model has to become more flexible without becoming more chaotic.

This is where tools like StatusPlus from Dixon Technologies can help.

StatusPlus helps dealerships keep customers informed throughout the service process while giving technicians and advisors a better way to communicate updates, photos, and videos.

That allows the dealership to provide the transparency customers want without creating even more manual work for already-busy service teams.

The goal is not simply to send more messages.

It is to create a service experience where customers understand what is happening with their vehicle and what happens next.

Video inspections are a perfect example.

A customer who sees a worn tire or damaged component is not being asked to blindly trust a recommendation.

They are being given the information necessary to make a decision.

That becomes especially important as affordability concerns push consumers to keep vehicles longer.

Customers may be more cautious about approving repairs, but that does not mean they do not want to maintain their vehicles.

It means dealerships have to do a better job explaining value.

Diehl is also responding to affordability by offering service financing options and aggressively pricing tires, including a best-price guarantee designed to compete with outside service providers.

All of these efforts point toward the same conclusion:

Service retention is becoming a competition over trust and convenience.

Dealers have the technicians, vehicle knowledge, OEM support, and customer history.

But those advantages only matter if the experience works for the customer.

Show them what the technician sees.

Keep them informed.

Make scheduling easier.

Give them options.

Respect their time.

The dealerships that consistently do those things will have a much better chance of keeping customers in their service lanes instead of watching them migrate to competitors.

Because in fixed ops, the status quo is becoming one of the biggest retention risks of all.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The First Service Appointment May Be the Most Important One

 For dealerships focused on long-term customer retention, the first service appointment may matter more than most stores realize. All American Auto Group recently shared how it approaches that first visit, and the process starts before the customer even leaves the dealership. According to Fixed Operations Director Jim Sabino, every new or used vehicle delivered across the group’s stores receives a first service appointment before the customer leaves. If the service department is open, the sales team introduces the customer directly to a service advisor or reception desk to schedule it. If the vehicle is delivered after hours, the dealership follows up by email and phone the next business day. That may sound like a small operational step. But it can have a major effect on the customer relationship. Once a buyer leaves the dealership without a clear next step, the service relationship has not really started. Months later, when the vehicle needs maintenance, that customer has options....
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Customer Reviews Are Becoming Dealership Intelligence

 For years, dealership reviews were treated mostly as reputation management. Get more five-star reviews. Respond to unhappy customers. Keep the Google rating strong. Make sure shoppers see enough positive feedback to feel comfortable choosing the store. That still matters. But customer reviews are starting to become something bigger: a source of dealership intelligence. CBT News recently covered how customer feedback is evolving from a public scorecard into a tool dealerships can use to understand what is actually happening inside their sales and service experiences. In the interview, Widewail CEO Cuyler Owens described review data as “the world’s largest focus group,” because customers are voluntarily explaining what they liked, what frustrated them, and where the dealership experience broke down. That is a major shift. A five-star rating tells a dealership how it looks online. The words inside the reviews tell a dealership how it operates. Are customers praising specific advisors...
Post a Comment
Read more