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Automotive industry insights, tips, and guides

Six I-9 Compliance Mistakes Costing Dealerships Legal Risk and Fines

Sixty percent of employers fail their first Form I-9 audit by the Department of Homeland Security. Not sixty percent of businesses in your industry. Sixty perce...

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6 Common AML Reporting Mistakes That Put Your Dealer License at Risk

Most dealers think AML reporting is just a compliance checkbox, and that's exactly why they're getting it wrong. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) reporting threshold...

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5 Costly Mistakes Dealers Make With Lost-Customer Recovery Scripts

How many customers have you lost to a competitor this month that you didn't even know were gone until they'd already switched? That's the brutal reality most d...

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7 Costly Mistakes Dealerships Make With Customer Service Portals

The $50K Problem Most Dealerships Don't Know They Have Back in 1990, when a customer needed their service history, they had two options: call the dealership an...

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Mobile App Engagement Metrics: Avoiding the Traps That Cost Dealers Customer Retention

Sixty-three percent of dealerships say they're tracking mobile app engagement, yet barely a quarter of them can tell you what those numbers actually mean. And t...

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The Welcome Call After the Sale: 7 Mistakes That Kill CSI and Loyalty

How many customers who just bought from you are going to hear from your dealership again in the next 48 hours? If you're not sure of the answer, you're probabl...

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The Referral Bonus Trap: Why Most Dealer Programs Fail at Scale

Picture this: it's Monday morning at the dealership, and your top sales guy walks in to tell you he's got a cousin who's hungry to move cars. You shake his hand...

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7 Succession Planning Mistakes Family Dealerships Make (and How to Avoid Them)

How many dealer principals have a genuine succession plan on paper, versus how many think they do because they've mentioned it to their oldest kid at Thanksgivi...

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5 Mistakes Dealers Make With 20-Group Participation (And How to Fix Them)

Most dealers join a 20-group expecting a turnkey solution to their operational problems. Then they don't use it. It's not laziness or incompetence. It's usuall...

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When Expansion Goes Wrong: Why Most Dealers Pick the Wrong Location

When Expansion Goes Wrong: Why Most Dealers Pick the Wrong Location In 1952, when the Interstate Highway System was authorized, dealership real estate strategy...

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Why Your Best Dealer Group Gets Worse the Moment You Hire the Wrong GM

Why Your Best Dealer Group Gets Worse the Moment You Hire the Wrong GM You've got a thriving dealership group. Cars are moving. Service is busy. Then you hire ...

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Most Dealers Do Open-Book Management Wrong: 7 Critical Pitfalls Killing Your Transparency Strategy

Most dealers claim to do open-book management. Almost all of them are doing it wrong. Open-book management sounds simple in theory. You show your team the numb...

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