I received this excellent summary of Rob Leary's DSES breakout session, and had to share it with y'all!  Thoughts?

Leary began by explaining that automotive retail is in a mini-recession, with new car sales declining over the last five to six months. New car sales are projected to drop by as much as 13 per cent by 2019. Leary explained this declining projection in new car sales is because approximately one third of all new vehicle sales are leases, which are coming due between now and 2019. A flood of high-quality CPOs are coming into the market place and will cause used car prices to drop. He also mentioned sales margins continue to shrink on the front-end of the dealership. Although this info is bleak, Leary said, it opens many opportunities for growth in fixed ops:

According to the Car Care Council, 84 percent of vehicles will fail an inspection. That means more than eight out of every 10 vehicles that enter service drives will fail an inspection. This allows for more opportunities for upsells, but the status quo must be challenged with improved processes and behavior.

Dealerships show up in less than three percent of search results in Google when “service and repair” is searched. There are huge fixed ops SEO opportunities for dealerships. Leary encouraged dealership executives to make the investment and put quality fixed ops content on their websites and push more customers to book appointments online. Another huge opportunity according to Leary is text messaging customers. Only two percent of customers are receiving an email or texted regarding an estimate, status of repair and bill. Eighty-seven percent of all calls to a smart phone go to voicemail. Leary encouraged attendees to start texting because 98 percent of texts are read within three minutes of receipt and usually only take five seconds to read on average.

Leary closed his presentation by sharing a list of top 10 fixed ops best practices to drive more profits and increase efficiencies:

1. Appointments – 1st, 2nd, 3rd – all online.
2. Greet Customers with digital greeter board and greet every customer by name.
3.  Write-up your customers via mobile and follow a forced march process.
4.  Automate your dispatch process.
5. Electronic multi-point embedded with labor and parts pricing that keeps people accountable and drives results.
6. Electronic estimates for your customers that include pictures and/or video of actual repairs.
7. TEXT your customers – they prefer it.
8. Review and approve estimates electronically, review final invoice electronically, and pay online.
9. Follow-up on any declined services.
10. Next appointment – every customer leaves with their next appointment like the dentist’s office.

Anything you'd add to this list?

If there's anyone else who summaries from DSES presentations, we'd love to have you share them!