The result is an uncomfortable reality for dealership leadership. A customer can love the vehicle they bought from you and still have no reason to service it with you. That is the retention problem fixed-operations leaders need to solve. The Customer Is Not Abandoning Dealers. Dealers Are Losing the Experience. The numbers tell an interesting story. Cox Automotive’s 2025 Service Industry Study found that dealerships’ share of national service visits has fallen from 33% in 2018 to 29%, a 12% decline in dealership service visits over the period. Yet average dealership service and parts revenue reached approximately $9.23 million in 2025, up 33% in eight years. Meanwhile, more than 300,000 automotive repair businesses now operate in the U.S. That creates an important paradox. Dealers are making more money in fixed operations while losing share of the service market. And the competition isn’t necessarily winning because it has better technicians. It’s winning because it is often easier to do business with. In more recent years, some franchise dealerships have turned to mobile servicing, valet service, more loaner car availability and a full range of amenities intended to win that business back. J.D. Power’s 2026 U.S. Customer Service Index found that dealership service satisfaction improved three points, but dealers continue to face significant competition from aftermarket providers focused on speed and convenience and from direct-to-consumer brands offering mobile and valet service. On average, mass-market customers spend 1.61 hours waiting for maintenance at a dealership, while 62% of comparable aftermarket service visits take less than an hour. The aftermarket has figured out something important: Customers don’t want to service their cars. They want their cars serviced with as little disruption to their lives as possible. Dealers need to figure it out, too. Convenience Is Not a Luxury Anymore Consider the customer’s perspective. They have a job. Kids. Meetings. Errands. School. Traffic. A commute. A phone that never stops. Then the dealership says, “We can get you on Thursday at 9:40 in the morning.” The independent shop says, “Drop it off tomorrow morning. We’ll text you when it’s ready.” The independent shop may not have factory-trained technicians or access to the manufacturer’s complete technical ecosystem. But it has solved a problem the dealership hasn’t: It made the customer’s life easier. That’s why convenience needs to become an operating strategy, not a marketing slogan. Dealerships should aggressively evaluate: • After-hours or early morning vehicle drop-off • Pickup and delivery • Mobile service • Valet service • Rideshare integration • Express maintenance • Online scheduling • Real-time text updates • Digital approvals • Digital multipoint inspections • More liberal vehicle loaner policies • Upfront estimates, where appropriate • Extended service hours • Faster check-in and checkout Cox found that 55% of consumers consider the ability to compare service costs online very important. The same study found that 45% of vehicle owners were dissatisfied with their dealership service experience, with unexpected costs and poor communication among the primary frustrations. Interestingly, average dealership repair spending was $261 compared with $275 at general repair shops. That’s a remarkable finding. The dealership may not actually be more expensive. It may simply do a worse job of explaining the value. Dealers Have Advantages. Start Acting Like It. The answer isn’t for dealerships to become independent repair shops. It is to take the best things about the aftermarket and combine them with advantages that the aftermarket cannot easily duplicate. J.D. Power’s 2025 Aftermarket Service Index found that dealership customers expressed greater trust in dealerships’ use of technology to make service more efficient than customers of aftermarket providers. Dealerships also held an advantage in customer trust for complex vehicle repairs. That’s ammunition. Factory-trained technicians matter. OEM diagnostic equipment matters. Technical service information matters. Recall and campaign expertise matter. Vehicle history matters. Warranty knowledge matters. OEM parts matter. Access to factory engineering information matters. But these advantages are meaningless if the customer experiences the dealership as slow, expensive, confusing or indifferent. Or worse yet, if the dealership isn’t repairing the recall because parts aren’t in stock or the recall was never caught. What does it say to a vehicle owner when they pick up their vehicle, and the check engine light has not been cleared? The service department has to translate technical superiority into incomparable consistency, customer value and streamlined convenience. Instead of saying, “We have factory-trained technicians,” explain what that means for the customer. Instead of saying, “We use OEM parts,” explain why that matters. Instead of sending a 15-line inspection report, show the customer a photograph of the worn component. 13 UTAH AUTO DEALER
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