How Top-Performing Dealers Handle State Emissions Program Participation
Most dealers treat state emissions programs like a checkbox item, and that's exactly how they end up in trouble. They'll participate because they have to, fail ...
How Top-Performing Dealers Handle IRS Form 8300 Cash Sales Compliance
It's 2 p.m. on a Tuesday. A customer walks into your showroom with a briefcase, wants to buy a truck outright, and hands you a stack of cash. It happens more of...
How Top-Performing Dealers Master AML Reporting Thresholds Without Killing Sales
Back in 1970, when Congress passed the Bank Secrecy Act, nobody expected that rule to eventually land on car dealerships. The law was meant to catch criminals m...
How Top-Performing Dealers Handle Post-Service Survey Follow-Ups
Here's the uncomfortable truth: your dealership is probably letting money walk out the door every time a customer finishes a service visit and doesn't hear from...
How Top-Performing Dealers Handle Lost-Customer Recovery Scripts
How many customers have you permanently lost because your dealership didn't have a real plan to win them back? Most dealers don't track this number. That's the...
How Top-Performing Dealers Use Customer Portals to Drive Retention and CSI
Sixty-three percent of service customers will switch dealerships within two years if they can't easily access their service history online. That's not a statist...
How Top-Performing Dealers Benchmark Mobile App Engagement Metrics
The first mobile app for car dealerships launched in 2008. It was basically a vehicle inventory browser with a callback button. Today, that same dealership woul...
How Top-Performing Dealers Handle Annual Ownership Anniversary Outreach
In 1952, the first customer loyalty card appeared at a supermarket in Queens, New York. A stamp for each purchase, a free item after ten stamps. It was crude by...
How Top-Performing Dealers Handle Text-Based Service Check-Ins
How many service reminders does your dealership send each month that never get opened, much less answered? This is the quiet killer of customer retention that ...
How Top-Performing Dealers Scale Employee Referral Bonus Programs
The Employee Referral Bonus Trap: Why Most Dealerships Get It Wrong Your service director mentions a promising technician she knows. Your GM hears about a shar...
How Top-Performing Dealers Handle Succession Planning for Family Dealerships
The Succession Plan Nobody Wants to Talk About (But Should) According to the Family Business Institute, roughly 70% of family dealerships fail to survive the t...
The Dealership Acquisition Playbook: What Top Performers Do Differently
The Dealership Acquisition Playbook: What Top Performers Do Differently You've just signed the papers on an acquisition. The seller's shaken your hand, the leg...