Fixed Ops Roundtable

Eric Zuniga works with dealerships across North America on fixed ops strategy, technician productivity, and technology. As vertical business manager for dealerships at ALLDATA, he partners with everyone from single-rooftop stores to the largest dealer groups in the country. He looks at a service department the way an operator does: where the time goes, and where it leaks.

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

Your technicians are already using AI.

Probably today. Probably on a vehicle that's on the rack right now.

Eric joins Sarah Vantine and Ted Ings to break down what AI diagnostics should look like in a dealership service department, including ALLDATA's new Diagnostic Intelligence, and what to demand before you trust any AI tool in your bays:

• Why the data source behind an AI answer matters more than its speed
• How B and C techs can test and prove a failure instead of throwing parts at it
• How one stuck tech pulls a master tech off paying work, and how to stop it
• Where AI fits in technician development and retention, and where it doesn't
• The real-vehicle test every fixed ops leader should run before buying

Diagnostic time is the hidden cap on your shop's capacity. This conversation shows where it's leaking.

Listen to the episode featuring Erik Zuniga for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Erik Zuniga

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

• Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
• Ted Ings on LinkedIn
• Center for Performance Improvement

Tyler Stephens of Elite EXTRA, an Epicor solution offering industry-leading last-mile logistics software, reveals how dealership parts delivery is quietly costing fixed ops departments wholesale customers they never knew they lost.

Here's why that matters right now. Your wholesale customers expect Amazon speed. Today isn't fast enough anymore. More and more, they want it within the hour.

And if you can't show them a driver's name, a live map, and a proof-of-delivery photo, they're already buying somewhere else.

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

• The hybrid driver model that lets you absorb a summer volume spike without hiring for it, then scale back to the core crew you trust
• How a fully in-house fleet can quietly drain you through insurance, fuel, and salaries
• What dispatch to drop-off looks like when orders flow straight from your DMS and customers stop calling to ask "where's my part?"
• The "found it under the seat" returns problem, and how a digitized returns process decides whether a part gets resold or written off
• The three numbers worth tracking: time to service, driver performance, and route profitability
• The question every parts manager should ask before trucking a $3 item 30 miles

One fixed ops director put it in five words: "It's all about the hours." Every minute a part sits in-house is a minute your technicians aren't billing.

If your delivery operation was built for how customers bought parts five years ago, this episode shows exactly where the money is leaking.

Learn more at eliteextra.com.

Listen to the episode featuring Tyler Stephens for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Tyler Stephens

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

• Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
• Ted Ings on LinkedIn
• Center for Performance Improvement

Kaylee Felio spends her days inside the numbers of parts departments, helping managers fix the one line item that quietly bleeds profit all year long. As Sales & Marketing Manager at Parts Edge, she's talked to enough dealerships to know exactly where obsolescence problems actually come from — and why most "solved" problems aren't solved at all.

Here's the uncomfortable truth this episode exposes: most dealerships think their obsolescence is "handled." It's not. It's aging. Right now. While you read this.

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What we discuss in this episode:

• The real number nobody wants to say out loud, what percentage of obsolescence is actually normal, and why the industry-standard answer might not be the right target for your store
• The silent killer behind most obsolescence: a special-order process most parts departments don't even know is broken
• The DMS trap — how switching systems (or inheriting one from "two managers ago") can hand you a mess you don't even know you own
• Protected vs. non-protected inventory — the distinction that trips up more dealerships than people realize
• What separates the dealerships that stay ahead of it from the ones scrambling at year-end write-off time

If you run a parts department, oversee fixed ops, or sign off on year-end write-offs without knowing exactly why they're that size, this episode will change how you look at your next inventory report.

The dealerships getting this right aren't smarter. They're just paying closer attention to the things that actually move the number. Kaylee tells you what those are.

Listen to the episode featuring Kaylee Felio for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Kaylee Felio

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

• Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
• Ted Ings on LinkedIn
• Center for Performance Improvement

Paul Elliott leads the dealer practice group at Insurance Office of America, where his team has placed over $35 million in premium protecting more than 350 franchised and independent dealerships across the country. If anyone in the industry knows exactly how dealerships bleed money on claims that never had to happen, it's him.

The FTC just sent 97 warning letters to dealerships. Yours could already be on that list and you wouldn't know it.

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What we discuss in this episode:

In this episode, Paul walks through four real E&O claims that cost dealers serious money, and every single one started as a small, forgettable mistake. A finance manager who typed one wrong APR. A digit transposed on an odometer reading that turned 27,000 miles into a lawsuit. Hail damage that wasn't covered because nobody checked if the policy actually got bound. A repair that got fixed, but never disclosed.

None of these dealers thought they were taking a risk. That's exactly why they got sued.

Paul breaks down what actually protects you when a claim like this lands on your desk, and it isn't a bigger insurance policy. It's the two-minute habits most dealerships skip: the second signature, the printed vehicle history report, the one phone call that confirms coverage before the customer drives off the lot.

If you run F&I, service, or recon and you've never asked "could this come back on us," this episode is the 45 minutes that answers it before a customer's attorney does.

Listen to the episode featuring Paul Elliott for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Paul Elliott

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

• Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
• Ted Ings on LinkedIn
• Center for Performance Improvement

Dave Anderson is the CEO & Co-Founder of Evenflow AI, a scheduling platform that's syncing in real time with dealership DMS systems and posting 20-30% revenue jumps for the stores using it. He's not new to this conversation either — if you were at NADA in Vegas this year, there's a decent chance you already caught his name floating around.

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What we discuss in this episode:

On this episode of Fixed Ops Roundtable, Dave sits down with Sarah Vantine and Ted Ings to go after a scheduling habit almost every dealership still runs on: counting cars. Four advisors, four appointments every 15 minutes, all day long. It looks organized on paper. Dave walks through the math on why it's actually bleeding gross profit before the first advisor even checks a car in.

He's got the data to back it up. A Toyota store's 30-day variability chart. A Honda store where overloaded days dropped hours-per-RO from 1.9 to 1.7, and what that costs across a hundred repair orders. The number that should stop a service manager cold: dealerships running the old way are only capturing about 70% of what their shop could actually produce.

If your shop swings between drowning in backlog and standing around with nothing to flag, this one's worth the 40 minutes.

Listen to the episode featuring Dave Anderson for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Dave Anderson

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

• Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
• Ted Ings on LinkedIn
• Center for Performance Improvement

Andrew Lee has spent 30 years inside the phone lines of dealership service departments, not in a tech lab. He's the Sales VP at AlphaDrive AI, a company started in 1993 by a woman calling customers back after service visits, now trusted by over 1,000 dealerships, including Lithia and Sherwood Ford, one of the largest Ford dealers in Canada.

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

Right now, your dealership is losing 15% to 30% of its incoming calls. Not leads. Not clicks. Phone calls, from customers already trying to give you money.

Andrew sat down with Sarah Vantine and Ted Ings to explain exactly what that's costing you, and how AlphaDrive's AI closes the gap without making your team learn new software or your customers feel like they're talking to a robot.

By the end of this episode you'll know:

• The real reason dealers lose calls even when their BDC is fully staffed
• Why the AI that works doesn't create more work
• The exact RO and revenue lift dealers are seeing (8-20%) and how much less it costs than a traditional BDC (42%)
• How Sherwood Ford turned this into 20% RO growth without losing the human touch in the drive

If you've ever wondered how much money is walking out the door every time a phone rings twice too long, this episode gives you the number, and the fix.

Listen to the episode featuring Andrew Lee for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Andrew Lee

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

• Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
• Ted Ings on LinkedIn
• Center for Performance Improvement

Tej Soni has spent nearly 25 years building technology for the auto industry. As CEO of Frog Data, he's the mind behind Fixed Ops Velocity, the platform dealers can't stop talking about. Now he's back with something bigger.

Your service advisors are walking away from money every single day. Not because they're bad at their jobs. Because the system was never built to catch it.

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

• Why only 1-2% of declined services get logged in a dealership's DMS, when the real number is closer to 10%
• The real dollar cost of ignoring declined services on a store doing 800 ROs a month
• How Frog Data trained an AI model on 150,000 real repair orders to catch what humans miss
• Why personalized follow-up emails convert customers that blanket discount coupons never will
• How AI is turning inbound phone calls into booked appointments and customer sentiment reports
• What it actually takes for a dealer to implement this

If your fixed ops department is leaving $10,000 to $20,000 a month on the table without knowing it, this is the episode that puts a number on it.

Listen to the episode featuring Tej Soni for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Tej Soni

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

• Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
• Ted Ings on LinkedIn
• Center for Performance Improvement

Matt Leone is CEO of DriveCentric, the engagement platform trusted by dealerships nationwide to run their CRM, and he's spent years watching dealers lose money in the exact same blind spot: the gap between sales and service.

Most dealerships run separate systems for variable and fixed ops. That split isn't just inconvenient, it's actively bleeding gross profit out of your store every single day, and most GMs don't even know it's happening.

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

In this episode, Matt breaks down the concept of "leakage" — the silent profit killer that happens when your service advisor has no idea a customer just leased a car last week, or your F&I manager can't see that the same customer skipped their tire coverage twice. He explains why treating sales and service as separate departments is costing you retention, gross profit, and customers who quietly defect to the independent shop down the street.

Matt also unveils DriveCentric's new Service Engagement Hub, a first look at how dealerships can finally give service advisors the same lead management, video, and customer-card tools sales teams have used for 15 years.

If you're running a store in 2026 dealing with margin pressure, inventory headaches, and rising compliance risk, this conversation hands you the exact framework DriveCentric uses to help dealers stop the leakage and unify the customer experience.

Listen to the episode featuring Matt Leone for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Matt Leone

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

• Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
• Ted Ings on LinkedIn
• Center for Performance Improvement

Robert Wooden has spent 40 years inside dealerships, the last 30 building the technology and software behind them. He's the founder of Fixed Ops Intel, now in its 29th year with a singular focus: warranty uplift. No side projects, no diversification. Just the deepest expertise in an industry that's finally paying attention to it.

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

Right now, factory reps are parsing every line of every repair order looking for a reason to deny your submission. Most dealers don't know it's happening. The ones who do are getting reimbursed at rates their competitors haven't even heard of yet.

One state just flipped a switch that could nearly double what dealers get paid for warranty labor time. Robert breaks down the exact multiplier, and why dealers just one state border away are already falling behind.

He also reveals what's happening behind the curtain at manufacturers right now, a shift most dealers won't see coming until it's already cost them money.

And there's a new player entering the warranty uplift space that has Robert sounding an alarm most dealers need to hear before they sign anything.

If your dealership touches warranty claims, this episode could be the difference between leaving money on the table and finding out exactly how much of it was always yours to claim.

Listen to the episode featuring Robert Wooden for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Robert Wooden

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

1. Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
2. Ted Ings on LinkedIn
3. Center for Performance Improvement

One dealer cut their service BDC from six people to two. Same call volume. Same revenue. The only thing that changed was who was answering the phone.

Misty Tippets, Senior Automotive Marketing Lead at Podium, has spent years working directly with hundreds of dealerships as they roll out AI in fixed ops, sitting behind the service counter, watching advisors work in real time, and tracking exactly where follow-up and re-engagement fall apart. 

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

In this episode Sarah Vantine and Ted Ings sit down with Misty Tippets to expose the real reason decline services and follow-up keep falling apart at even the best-run stores, and it has nothing to do with training. It's a capacity problem hiding in plain sight, and most GMs have no idea how much revenue is quietly leaking out of their service drive right now.

There's a reason most dealerships have bought "one more tool" and gotten nothing for it. Misty names the exact mistake, and the one conversation every GM needs to have on day one, before the tool goes live, not after the team finds out on their own.

Listen to the episode featuring Misty Tippets for even more insights!

Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXY

Thanks, Misty Tippets

Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:

• Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable Event
• Ted Ings on LinkedIn
• Center for Performance Improvement