EPISODE 07
Texting and Tech: Modernizing Dealership Communication for the Digital Age
Featuring Guests Charity Dunning & Russell Hill
Episode Description
If your fixed ops department still relies on outdated marketing or thinks coupons are enough, you’re leaving serious money on the table. But how can dealerships transform their service departments? Why is it so important to build real customer relationships? It’s time to rethink everything about marketing fixed ops!
In this episode of Retention Roadmap, Charity Dunning, Chief Marketing Officer, and Russell Hill, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Fixed Ops Marketing,and Co-Hosts of the What the Fixed Ops?! Podcast join us to discuss how dealerships can optimize their marketing. We explore common pitfalls and emphasize the need for a paradigm shift, as well as the importance of customer experience from the moment a guest arrives. We also look at the underwhelming or nonexistent digital marketing strategies that many dealerships have in place.
Takeaways from this episode:
- Revolutionizing dealership marketing with video, AI, and automation
- Shifting customer communication preferences
- The importance of awareness around dealership services
- The value of transparent communication in driving dealership success

BILL SPRINGER
and president of Krex Inc.

CHARITY DUNNING
Chief Marketing Officer at Fixed Ops Marketing and Co-Host of What the Fixed Ops?!

RUSSELL HILL
Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Fixed Ops Marketing and Co-Host of What the Fixed Ops?!
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Turning Service Visits Into Future Vehicle Sales
Your next vehicle sale may already be sitting in the service drive. Yet while one-third of customers say they would be open to a sales conversation during a service visit, only 14% report that anyone actually starts one. The opportunity is not to pitch every customer who pulls into the lane. It’s to build a defined process that helps sales and service identify the right customers, start relevant conversations, and keep the relationship moving through the entire ownership cycle.
The Three Habits Behind High Service Retention
A dealership can deliver a great service visit and still lose the customer the next time around. That’s because retention isn’t won through one strong offer, one new tool, or even one memorable experience. Retention is built by making every part of the customer journey reinforce the next.
Convenience Has Changed the Fixed Ops Playbook
Customers are no longer comparing your service drive only to the dealership across town. They’re comparing it to every fast, convenient, transparent experience they have elsewhere. Many dealerships may not realize how quickly that standard is rising. Keeping up means choosing technology and service models that fit your customers rather than adopting every new tool the same way.


