Total Customer Connect with Euwart Anderson and Steve Guyette at the Fixed Ops Roundtable

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Welcome back to the Fixed Ops Roundtable. I'm Sarah Vantine here with Ted Ings. Today we have the Velo and Total Customer Connect panel. And Ted, lots of exciting information that our panelists will get into today.

[00:00:13]>> Very timely, Sarah. You're so right. We want to welcome back our our great friend Ewart Anderson, executive vice president of Velo. And Ewart, I see you brought a you brought a colleague with you as well.

[00:00:25]>> I did indeed, Ted and Sarah. Thanks for having us here.

[00:00:28]Certainly glad to be, you know, be online with you guys once again.

[00:00:33]And many more to come, I'm sure. We've got Steve Gayheart from our team joining us. Steve Gayheart actually has a two-decade plus background in in in all things, you know, auto franchise automotive and fixed ops. And then also has a very heavy SAS, you know, software as a service specifically set of experience points within our within our space offering, you know, a myriad of of options to dealers and really helping dealers to to achieve greatness and profitability in their fixed ops space.

[00:01:01]So, yeah, really excited to have Steve on.

[00:01:04]>> I'm excited to be here as well. Thank thank you so much for inviting me.

[00:01:07]>> Steve, welcome. And you've got great great retail credentials on top of all. So, welcome to the Fixed Ops Roundtable.

[00:01:15]>> Appreciate it. Thank you.

[00:01:17]>> Well, Ewart, to kick everything off, you know, we want to talk about what everyone's biggest opportunity is. And really unpack how technology, customer engagement, and AI are reshaping the modern service lane. Uh just to kick things off, let's talk about what the modern service lane is. And what is that opportunity?

[00:01:39]>> Sure. So, so to define the modern service lane as as we see it, it's really three primary components. You know, one, it's it's having a balance of technology and and hands-on hands-on, you know, deck, so to speak, in the service lane that allow, you know, advisors to advise and allow the technology to do the rest, right? So so there's a there's a balance of of tech stacks that are hands on keyboard. The the likes of, you know, varying service lane tech like, you know, like Dealer Logics or Service Connect from from from TCC, Total Customer Connect. The second piece of a modern a modern service lane is a service lane that's leveraging AI in the most, you know, optimum optimal way. The service lane is not the dealership's like like touch point, you know, with a customer.

[00:02:30]It's more than that. It's the dealer dealership's economic engine with a customer. A 50 to 60% of the dealership's profit comes out of the service lane. So you want you want AI, you know, basically augmenting anything that it can to allow your people to go do what they do best, right? The the third and final thing is technology that specifically arms technicians to be able to create trust and great experiences with customers. So not not from the advisors or service managers point, but from the technicians point specifically.

[00:03:01]That includes a myriad of, you know, whether it's media and video or if it's you know, specific scripting and trans and transcription from, you know, from them walking a customer through what's wrong with their vehicle to create trust and transparency. Those are the three things that we would say defines a modern service lane. And if you're missing any of those three things, you are missing a huge opportunity to create profitability in your service lane.

[00:03:26]>> Yeah, very well said. And Steve, great recognition now for that service drive.

[00:03:29]It really is a goldmine for the entire dealership, Steve.

[00:03:32]>> No, it sure is. You know, you you definitely said it great. And you got to think about one thing in the service industry. What do we have? It's time.

[00:03:40]That's all we have. We're selling time.

[00:03:42]Once time passes, we've lost it. If we can shrink down the areas that our our staff is doing right now and utilize it better. Technology is all there. I mean, we can speed up the process, we can eliminate those, you know, the staff from walking around or the the banter of of the things going on. And then think about the AI. I mean, my god, what a change it's done in our industry these days of making sure that the dealership is available when the customers want us to be available. Because that's the issue. It's all about the customer. It's not about us.

[00:04:14]>> So, gentlemen, I want to follow that up.

[00:04:16]Um you're in thousands of dealerships with Velo right now. Congratulations on that, uh gentlemen. Uh great strides in what you're making with Velo and that focused on fixed operations. What challenges are you seeing, uh and this is for either of you, uh that dealers are facing today from the Velo perspective and what you see out there?

[00:04:37]>> I'll I'll just hit one and then I'll I'll pass it over to Steve cuz I think Steve's got got some really acute understanding of this that I that frankly like is going to usurp anything I can I can share. The The main thing I would call out would be um the challenges centered around, you know, like missed calls, missed opportunities for revenue, getting getting customers back in the service lane. That that whole retention life cycle, I think it's probably the you know, the big opportunity there um for for a lot of dealers like they're having that real-time communi- communication and toolkit, you know, armed armed in the service lane and deployed with automation and some hands-on keyboards is is not optimal in most dealers.

[00:05:14]They're working really, really hard, to be fair, um to overcome that, but they're probably not all working with the right tools or potentially the right alignment toward where to spend their time and where their where their dollar for hour is really optimally based, right? So So that that I think is what they're really struggling with. If we can create the demand and make sure those customers are coming back, then I think everything else kind of follows that. So if we can't said differently, if we can't get that right, then the rest of it's really irrelevant. Steve, what do you What do you think? What are some of the other issues you're seeing?

[00:05:45]>> See, you're you're you're right on point. And then about the other part of it that the challenge is the technology that our dealers are using today. They're using several different vendors, several different places. The problem with that is I've got to teach my my my staff how to use different things. It just gets confusing. And they were logging into different in multiple components. When you can log into one single platform and do everything from it, that's going to make the sense. And then one of the big struggles, and I've been hearing always and I it has been an exciting week because call after call this week is what I've been dealing with. Steve, I need more traffic, and I need it now.

[00:06:21]Not next week, not next month, I need it now. How can you get me traffic today?

[00:06:26]Fantastic. AI phone calls. We can make up on AI phone calls and get out a thousand phone calls overnight.

[00:06:34]There's no video We have We have an inbound BDC center. So, we have a BDC call center that's making calls. I would love to just take my entire staff and do that for one dealership. I can do that for tons of dealerships now. I got four dealerships just now. We're doing phone calls today. And think about this.

[00:06:51]When is the optimal time to talk to your customer?

[00:06:53]Right? We It's all different factors.

[00:06:55]How about lunchtime? How about 4:00 in the afternoon? How do I get all my phone calls out at lunchtime? I'd have to have a million people making phone calls.

[00:07:03]Press one button on the AI.

[00:07:06]Noontime, I just shot all the phone calls out.

[00:07:09]Now I'm going to pick up business for you. And then we can we can book appointments for you within days, not weeks.

[00:07:16]That's the difference with Dealer Network.

[00:07:19]>> Steve, you're so right about the communication and the traffic component.

[00:07:22]That is very strongly a subject that Ken and I are hearing uh from from dealers across the country that uh you were you know, these challenges, slow communication, the delays, uh you know, the customers needing status updates or wanting that information uh urgently, and then the dealership not having the means or the methods to be able to communicate effectively to all the different customer touchpoints that need to happen. So, you are How do we help solve those challenges? And how do we bring together better technology, better communication, and practical AI to create a more connected service experience?

[00:08:01]>> Yeah, good good question, Chris. I I think two two points I I would make it going into that. One is, you know, I I think there is this if we just all kind of call you know, call it what it is, there's a maybe a a belief that AI is somehow like replacing people or replacing advisors or, you know, some of that. It's not. It's actually removing all the noise so advisors can advise.

[00:08:22]Like that's that's really what it's doing. It It's removing all the noise so that technicians can do great videos one time and get those out to customers quickly versus having to do it three or four times. It's It's creating, you know, quick you know, connection, real-time connection with customers to Steve's earlier point to get them scheduled get them on the books so they they get into the service lane on the front end. And I I think it's I think it really it really, you know, comes down to like accepting that that fact. And then I mentioned there were two things.

[00:08:49]The second thing is recognizing like what your golden metrics are, right?

[00:08:52]Like every every dealer probably has had the same golden metrics for the last 15 to 20 years. Those golden metrics have to evolve like life evolves, right? And like like our like our environment has evolved. And one of those golden metrics, some of them still hold true.

[00:09:05]One of them is still hours sold per RO.

[00:09:08]Like that's not going to change. And everything you have your advisor, parts manager, and technician doing that does not drive hours sold per RO, you are detracting from one of your golden metrics that actually does withstand the test of time, right? So, so I think it's about like really understanding what technologies do you do you need, what evolution stage is your service lane at, because all service lanes are not made equal, right? You We all know we have our We have our uh Eddies in some of those service lanes, and they don't adopt technology very well. And getting the right tech stack for them is important. You also have your forward thinkers, you know, super high technical aptitude types that pick up and and embrace and just love new technology.

[00:09:50]And you want to give those folks as much of that technology as you can. So, there's almost this like kind of self-reflection at the dealer level to understand where are we, and then what do I need based on where we are, not what's trendy and what's, you know, what's all available out there that I can just go get all of it. Getting all of it might not be the answer.

[00:10:09]>> No, no, for sure. And then on top of on top of that, you've got to look at like you had said, every dealership is not created equal. Even if you've got multiple stores in the same group, they're not all they're going to be the same. They have different process, they have different procedures, they have different people, right? We have to be able to adapt to their environment. When we can adapt to their environment and get their buy-in, because that's the success. You've got to think about your weakest individual in your dealership to make him successful. That's the guy that we have to focus in on. And when we get his buy-in, everybody's going to follow suit right through technology, and they're going to embrace it, and they're going to challenge it, and I love love when you challenge it. Give me the challenges because I'm going to help you and understand it. And we talk about I mean, listen, our our some of our technicians, they're not young. We've got some guys in their 60s out there, you know, we're we're still out there turning wrenches.

[00:11:01]And for those guys to embrace that technology, I remember an individual that point-blank told me he's never going to touch it, never going to work with the system, and point-blank, you know, maybe go away. I said, just humor me, try it.

[00:11:15]I come back a week later, the guy hugs me, says, I never made so much money in my life. Thank you. Can you go help that young kid cuz he doesn't understand it?

[00:11:23]>> Okay. Well, gentlemen, it's an exciting time. I don't remember in my career a time like this where we had so many things on the technology side that are going to directly impact the dealership.

[00:11:35]Steve, it seems like it's all coming in on fixed, right? It's happening in fixed, service, and parts. Everybody is now aware of it, or if not, uh they will be. And it's been a quick awakening. So, Steve, you mentioned, uh you know, the the director looking for more traffic today. How can I increase the, you know, number of people that I have coming into my drive? How do all these things with the technology you are and Steve positively impact the bottom line? Um give us some rundown on that.

[00:12:05]>> So, let me just give you some some thoughts about the marketing aspect of it.

[00:12:09]>> Okay.

[00:12:09]>> We do marketing today. It's been, you know, maybe text messages, maybe emails, maybe direct mail, maybe live phone calls. What works?

[00:12:20]Everybody's different, but I'll tell you what, if you go after all of it, that is going to ensure. Now, you got to think about direct mail.

[00:12:29]Since COVID, direct mail is starting to come back now. I kind of look forward to looking at my mailbox and I'm like, "Ooh, what do I got in today?" right?

[00:12:36]Now, when you're getting those pieces of mail, you have to tangibly hold that thing to throw it away. You you have to.

[00:12:43]Email, you can go click, get rid of it, right? You can filter it out. Phone calls, think about a phone call. We're in a meeting right now. My phone's ringing left and right. I'm not going to answer it. But guess what's happening right now? There's a voicemail. Guess what I will do. I'm going to answer that voice. I'm going to listen to it. "Oh, hey Steve, this is ABC Toyota, we're you know, we want to see you for service." Okay. You know, that is it and it's going to be consistent. The message is going to be consistent and that's where it all comes in play.

[00:13:11]>> It's some of your >> I was going to say, you are maybe some of your thoughts on this as well.

[00:13:16]>> Sure. Yeah, I I think I think um in the grand scheme like like Steve kind of covered the the front end well, right?

[00:13:21]Like that that kind of get the get the dealer or get the customer rather back into the dealer, making sure that all those touch points happen in a in a, you know, really optimal, automated way where possible. I I think also what what's what what else is important is when they get into the service lane, what is that experience like, right? Like, how what level of trust can they create while they're there? Um can the dealer create rather with that with that customer while they're there? And how do they do that? And I think I think the there's two there's two simple touch points that really define that today based on what the market data says.

[00:13:55]One is transparency. And transparency is not just saying it. Transparency is showing them like very, very clear videos and media and pictures that clearly articulate in layman's terms, not tech terms, this is what's wrong with your vehicle and why you need to fix this from a safety, you know, protocol perspective. And the other the other piece is how consistent and how quickly, you know, do those communications happen with that customer? Does that customer get strung out 4 days and they [clears throat] don't know what's going on with their vehicle or is there this ongoing communication cadence, automated or not, and it in and infused in that communication cadence the transparency I mentioned? If dealers can continue to solve that, that's where they're going to see their their profitability skyrocket and continue to grow because that's I mean, that's their ultimate goal, right? But if they're not able to give customers that, you know, the the reality is the market's really competitive for the customer's business.

[00:14:51]Like, there are shops and other dealers who are hunting for that customer and if they will give them that experience or otherwise, that customer is gone. So, so dealers really have to accept that this is not about like adopting technology to keep up to to just keep up with the times. This is about adopting technology or losing profitability in your bottom line.

[00:15:13]>> Very well said, Yury. And and Steve and Yury, the the biggest takeaway that I think Ted and I are taking from this conversation is that the opportunity in the modern service lane is really to reduce friction, improve communication, and create a better experience for both the customer and the dealership team.

[00:15:32]For our audience that's listening today, they may be wondering, okay, all of this information sounds incredible, but I'm overwhelmed. I'm not sure, you know, for my business in 2026, what is the most important piece that I should be thinking about with getting started? And so, Jared and Steve, what advice would you have for dealers to get started in this process?

[00:15:54]>> Sure. I I can jump in and then Steve, I'll pass it to you. I I think um the simple advice would be to not feel that you need to consume all of this at once. This is not a you know a full course meal you need to take down in one bite. This is This is more about assessing where you are today and that is the first step that we would suggest.

[00:16:14]Assess where you are and do that, if you don't know how, with a partner who's willing to do that with you. Dealer and Total Customer Connect CCC, we're we're more than happy to do that with you.

[00:16:24]We're not We're not always looking to get dealers to buy our products as much as we are to looking to help dealers to be successful. That doesn't always mean they buy our products. Sometimes that means they're not ready for those types of products. But we can get you to, you know, partners in in the front of me in our in our market that we have that that can offer you what you need, right? Like we really want dealers to be successful because we know if they start at A and we're at, you know, E, they'll they'll find their way there over time. And And we can help be a part of that journey.

[00:16:51]Um the the last thing I would say too and before turning over to Steve is every minute saved in the lane with technology becomes margin. Every approval gained becomes retention. Every connected workflow becomes competitive advantage for that dealer, right? So So that ultimately is what should be at your at at your core as far as, you know, your North Star of why you're using technology. If it doesn't solve those problems, don't use it.

[00:17:16]Uh Steve, what what are your thoughts?

[00:17:18]>> So, kind of what I think is is the the analogy is crawl, walk, run, right? We want to crawl first, and that's the way we've all evolved. We start running into it, that's going to get us into running into walls and stuff. So, when I start looking at it, the first thing I'll always ask a dealer is just almost like they'll do a self-evaluation question.

[00:17:37]And I'll ask one simple question. What is one pain point that you have today?

[00:17:43]Just what is that? It puts it back into the the driver in the driver's seat. The the dealer's in the driver's seat now.

[00:17:48]And then we can work around that. And cuz we can help them with the solutions, but we need to know what they want to fix first. What do they need? Because and sometimes they don't know what they need to fix yet. And that's some of the that's the other part of it, right?

[00:18:00]They're like, "Well, what do you suggest?"

[00:18:03]A lot of and a lot of what we are we've got a lot of, you know, background in the dealership world, which is phenomenal because we can talk the terms. We've we've actually sat in the shoes that they're in. I've turned wrenches. You know, we've wrote service.

[00:18:16]We've dealt with customers. We know the environment. We've been there. We can help them and understand it and adapt to their needs. And then just figuring out, "Okay, let's start off with this first.

[00:18:26]And as you get comfortable with it, let's introduce this. And let's bring this on." And then the big point is right now, videos. Everybody's talking about videos, right? So, I had a conversation with a customer was it yesterday, I think it was. He's like, "Steve," he goes, "I want to do the videos, but I can't get my people to do videos."

[00:18:44]So, okay. I said, "You got two guys in the service drive. I I look at them, they're just sitting there. I said, "You think we can teach them how to use a camera and interview the the tech technician and go over the car and be able to share that with the customer? And then when he completes it, it gets sent to that customer right away?"

[00:19:03]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:05]>> Simplicity.

[00:19:06]Take away the barriers. Find out what is stopping you from moving forward and have a solution. I love it when you give me an issue or a problem, I'm I'm going to give you a solution to help you with that.

[00:19:17]>> And Steve, you sat in that retail seat for many years directing service very large group. I won't mention any names, but you actually had a big hand in helping to design a lot of this early on in the process and look at all the barriers now that have been overcome by things like video. You remember when we used to have to wait for the advisor to try to reach the customer and the tech pulls the car back into the lot and we're waiting to hear customers in a meeting. Now with things like video like you said, you would mention the trust and transparency as well. You know, we're accomplishing that and look how quick the customer can hear direct Steve, directly from the tech. The tech the tech is front facing now Steve.

[00:19:58]We've never seen that before in our in our history.

[00:20:01]>> Take the video now.

[00:20:03]You do the video, you're one-to-one with that customer. Hey Ted, this is Steve.

[00:20:07]I'm going to show you your vehicle. By the way, when you need service in the future, come visit me. Think about this part of it. MPIs, when we were doing MPIs back in the day, we would only do an MPI that needed something, right?

[00:20:18]That's it.

[00:20:20]Videos, that's the same thing. People think I'm only going to do a video when I tell somebody something. Why deliver bad news over the phone? Imagine getting a video saying, "Hey Ted, this is Steve.

[00:20:28]I'm your certified technician. You doing an amazing job with your car. Everything looks fantastic. Keep up on the good stuff. In fact, if you have any questions, feel free to get back to me.

[00:20:37]I'm I'm I'm your technician."

[00:20:39]Make it a personal, right? That's where that's where it makes a big difference with these with these technicians in getting that point out.

[00:20:47]>> You are the whole face of fixed operations is changing and it's changing dramatically and it's for the better.

[00:20:53]It's for the customer, right? You gentlemen mentioned and you know, I'll give you the last word on that because you are you've put this whole platform together with Steve, Total Customer Connect and some of the other amazing brands at Vilo as well that really address, you know, the whole fixed operations gamut.

[00:21:10]>> Yeah, I'm very thankful for for our Velo team for for bringing these, you know, best in class assets, you know, together and these teams together. So glad to have Steve on the team and the rest of the TCC crew. I I think the the last word I would share would be, you know, just taking a really big step back for a moment. We have Velo, we've got, you know, we've got a array of brands that cover, you know, various solutions in fixed ops and that gives us access to a lot of information. And and why that's important is is our view, you know, is maybe a little different than what you might find in our space. We see everything from, you know, from being in over half of the franchise dealerships in the nation today with at least one product to having, you know, roughly 25,000-ish, you know, 30,000 rooftops in shops that are that are on the other side of the equation, non-franchise dealers doing service. We see 65 million ROs a year or more.

[00:22:11]That is a lot of information and what that mean what that helps us to assess and share with our dealers is what we're seeing in the market, intel that that crosses to, you know, two lanes which is really insightful and actionable and most importantly, we know how to do it.

[00:22:27]And we're glad to share that with dealers. We're glad to share that expertise and regardless of the outcome of it, we want our dealers to have these tools, right? So whether they're ours or someone else's, we want to make sure that we're involved as a trusted advisor to help that dealer be successful and I think Steve is a great example of someone very senior who's proven that to be true and we've got lots of other team members doing the same. So so that would that would be my my my last thoughts as what I would provoke dealers to consider is, you know, is look at look at the source of information you're using to do your assess assessments of what technologies you need and what technology evolution stage you're at. Um and if they're not providing you those sources that span a myriad of fixed ops automotive, like you might you might be missing some data points that could be helpful.

[00:23:12]>> Sara, exciting times in our business.

[00:23:14]I've been waiting for Ewert to bring Steve from Total Customer Connect on for some time. So, Sara, here he is, and here's TCC, and uh you know, a big welcome from the Fixed Ops family.

[00:23:25]>> Awesome.

[00:23:26]>> It's incredible to have you, Steve, and Ewert, it's always a pleasure to learn all the different things that are happening at Vilo and Total Customer Connect. It'll be exciting to see how the rest of the year continues to evolve.

[00:23:40]>> Thanks. Appreciate you.

[00:23:41]>> Steve, I see the totalcustomerconnect.com website at the bottom. Um if our audience wants to reach out to a a fellow uh uh former Fixed Ops director uh and perhaps reach out to you with questions, maybe how this or that might work, uh are you open to that? I see you on you're very active on social media.

[00:24:00]>> I am. Listen, I'm I'm on it on LinkedIn.

[00:24:02]Um I'm available 24/7. I call it a lifestyle. You know, I'm available for my dealers. My dealers I I they can call me when I'm out to dinner. I answer the phone because I want to help them when they have the questions. I don't want to go to If I'm on a voicemail, I'm fortunately with another customer. But, I want people to reach out to me directly.

[00:24:19]I'm here to share anything advice. And one key thing is don't look for a vendor, look for a partner. That's what Vilo and Total Customer Connect is. We're partners in this industry because your success That's going to be our success. And that's the only way we're going to work in the long term together.

[00:24:33]>> All right. Steve Guyette, everybody, Total Customer Connect. Welcome to the Fixed Ops Roundtable. Ewert, thank you for uh the opportunity to meet Steve now, and uh looking forward to all the great things that are ahead for all of us in 2026 uh Ewert on the uh on the Fixed Ops side.

[00:24:51]>> Sounds great.

[00:24:52]>> Appreciate it.

[00:24:53]>> Steve Guyette, everybody, totalcustomerconnect.com.

[00:24:56]Reach out uh any questions you have, and Ewert Anderson of Velo here with us today at the Fixed Ops Roundtable.