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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....
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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...
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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...
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