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I’ve spent most of my adult life in dealership Fixed Ops.
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I started as a…
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Dave Foy reposted thisDave Foy reposted thisWhat happens when dealers and vendors stop pitching and start listening? One thing that stood out from our Boston Automotive AI Summit was hearing how much attendees valued the conversations happening between dealers and vendors. Rather than every interaction turning into a product pitch, people were discussing the actual challenges dealerships are facing. That was exactly the kind of environment we wanted to create. An event where dealers can learn from real experiences, ask questions, and have conversations that help them think differently about their businesses. Because sometimes the most valuable thing you leave an industry event with is a conversation that stays with you long after it's over. What makes an automotive industry event worth attending for you?
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Dave Foy posted thisSome of the best people I've worked with in automotive are people I lost touch with. Throughout my dealership career, I worked alongside people who were really good at what they did, and I learned a lot from them. But when I moved on to another dealership, I wasn't always good at keeping those relationships going. Looking back, I wish I'd stayed connected, because there was still so much I could've learned from those people.
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Dave Foy shared thisOne of the easiest ways to improve your service drive might already be sitting in your DMS. When I was working at a Nissan dealership, I noticed something in the DMS that nobody was paying much attention to. There was a field for the customer's license plate number, but nobody was filling it in. In Massachusetts, we have front license plates, so when a customer pulls into the service drive, the advisor can look at the appointment sheet, match the plate number, and already know who's arriving. Think about the difference between asking a customer if they have an appointment and greeting them by name before they've even stepped out of their car. Sometimes improving the customer experience starts with making better use of the information you already have.
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Dave Foy posted thisIs your best service advisor actually ready to lead a team? I've seen dealerships take their top advisor, promote them into management, and expect them to know how to lead an entire department because they were great at taking care of customers. But think about what made that person a great advisor in the first place. They knew how to build relationships with customers, communicate with technicians, and handle the day to day responsibilities of the service drive. Now they're responsible for an entire team of people, all with different personalities, challenges, and areas where they need help. They have to know how to coach someone through a problem, influence how their team works, and help employees get better at what they do. That's a completely different set of responsibilities. And too often, dealerships expect people to figure all of that out on their own without giving them the training they need. Being a great service advisor doesn't automatically make someone a great service manager, but that doesn't mean they can't become one. People aren't born great managers or leaders. That's something you learn.
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Dave Foy shared thisThis is what uncomfortable looks like Danny Zaslavsky asked me the other day, "What do you feel is your superpower?" I said, I know it is not speaking in front of a crowd! I've reflected a lot about this question since he asked. One thing I realize, I can appear confusing to people in this industry! Fixed ops process and numbers guy, creative and marketing person My range may look like a lack of focus if the connection between the two is not made Here is the connection - I discover meaningful ideas, shape them into stories and get people to care So, my superpower is I'm a creative business builder whose understanding of people, operations and store come from a career in fixed operations Thanks for the thought exercise Danny!
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Dave Foy reposted thisDave Foy reposted thisWatching back content from The Automotive AI Summit and something hit me. We were all made to create. Everyone has a unique ability to create, whether that may be creating an event, creating art, creating a home for our families, everyone is made to create, and that is what I want everyone to realize coming out of The Summit. Whether you are a dealer, vendor, or anything inside or outside automotive, there is creation. Vendors - The creation of a great product for dealers to use and grow with. Dealers - The creation of great teams and the best opportunities for your people. Creatives - The creation of great, unique to you art that really evokes life into yourself and others. Anyone In-between or Out - The creation of a life you're proud of, new experiences, and being a light for the people are you. Creation isn't always a physical product, it's so much more than that.
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Dave Foy posted thisI've been saying for a while that voice AI solved the wrong problem in dealerships. Sure, answering every phone call matters. But why are customers needing to make those calls in the first place? If we're not looking at the customer experience behind those calls, we might be improving one part of the process while ignoring another.
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2h
Congratulations! 🎉
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1d
Don Pearcy and that is exactly what is happening in the majority of dealerships!
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Dave Foy liked thisDave Foy liked thisLooking for an experienced ElevenLabs Agents developer for a contract role. Need someone comfortable building multi-step agent workflows (tool calls, integrations, call flows, variables) Dm me if interested
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Dave Foy reacted on thisDave Foy reacted on this🎃 Happy Halloween from DriveCentric! 👻 Wishing you a day full of treats, great costumes, and no scary follow-up. 🍬 Have a safe and happy Halloween! #HappyHalloween #DriveCentric #Automotive
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Dave Foy liked thisDave Foy liked thisWhat percentage of people buy from 'their guy' at a dealership? What percentage of people call a specific service person when they need to take their car in? Maybe not a popular idea...but why do we think we need to build relationships with customers? Aren't we really saying that we want a clean line of communication? Don't we really want them to see/read/watch what we are sending them? I've bought 3 cars in the past 2 years...and I can't remember anyone's name at the dealership. I don't think I am unusual.
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Dave Foy liked thisDave Foy liked thisYour best employee may have quit months before they handed in their resignation. They still showed up. Hit their numbers. Took care of customers. But they stopped speaking up. Stopped offering ideas. Stopped believing anything would change. And nobody noticed. I've spent decades leading service operations. One of the hardest lessons I've learned is that a healthy scoreboard doesn't always mean a healthy team. The numbers looked good. The team wasn't. I recently joined Bill Springer on the Retention Roadmap Podcast to explore a question every leader should be asking: Are we losing good people because of the pressure of the job, or because of what leadership allows under pressure? That question is at the heart of my new book, "What Pressure Reveals". I'm proud of this book. It carries lessons learned through experience, including mistakes I had to own and moments that changed how I lead. I wrote it for leaders who want to keep great people, build real accountability, and create teams worth being part of. If you've ever lost a great employee and wondered what you missed, I hope you'll watch our conversation. And if something resonates, I'd be grateful if you'd pick up a copy of What Pressure Reveals. My hope is that it helps you recognize something before your next great employee decides to leave. Bill, thank you for the opportunity to share this conversation. 🎙️ Watch the podcast: https://lnkd.in/gFmAbHAJ Here's what I'd love to hear from other leaders: What's the first thing a good employee stops doing when they've started to lose trust in their leadership? #FixedOperations #Leadership #EmployeeRetention #WhatPressureRevealsCulture Is What You Allow: A Wake-Up Call for Fixed Ops LeadersCulture Is What You Allow: A Wake-Up Call for Fixed Ops Leaders
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Dave Foy reacted on thisDave Foy reacted on thisMeet my friend Carrie Mays from UMass Boston! We're now planning a new weekly video podcast together which will launch the first week of January. Each week we will interview an AI innovator from the UMass system -- Boston, Amherst, Dartmouth, Lowell or Chan Medical. It could be a student, a faculty member, or an alum who is doing something really interesting with AI. The audience for this show is the general public - people who want to learn about AI, whether they have some association with UMass or not. We will sometimes have some very technical guests on this show, and we're going to try to explain their work to everyone, not just to engineers/techies. You can sign up on our email list at our placeholder website https://umass.ai The first week of December, we're going to launch a conversation with me and Carrie to learn more about both of us (including a funny story how we met), and to hear our plans for the show. Do you know a great UMass student/faculty/alum who is doing something really interesting with AI? Please nominate them at https://umass.ai website.
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Dave Foy reacted on thisDave Foy reacted on thisThis is always so much fun. Eat’em up, Eat’em Up, Go, Cats, Go! Texas State University
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Best Speaker Award
Fixed Ops Roundtable
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Parts Influencer of the Year - 2020
Revolution Parts
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Top Gold Service Advisor
Ford
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Top Gold Service Advisor
Ford
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Ford Top Gold Advisor
Ford Motor Co
Top service advisor in the region
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