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

Eric Zuniga is a fixed operations strategist and industry veteran with ALLDATA, the company that has been at the center of dealership technology evolution for over 40 years. From digitizing OEM information to building the connected workflows that modern shops depend on daily, ALLDATA has seen every major shift this industry has gone through. Eric works directly with dealer groups of all sizes across the country, and his ground-level visibility into what's actually working, and what's quietly failing, in service departments right now makes him one of the most valuable voices in the room.

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

In this episode, Eric Zuniga of ALLDATA joins Ted Ings and Sarah Vantine to talk about what's actually separating high-performing fixed ops departments from everyone else in 2026. There's a conversation happening in your market right now, between your potential customers and AI, and your dealership either shows up in that conversation or it doesn't. Eric explains exactly why, and what to do about it.

Plus the one number in your recon process you need to look at first thing tomorrow morning.

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

Gabe Schiffer is the Customer Success Manager, Siro AI, the platform quietly reshaping how fixed ops teams communicate, coach, and close. Gabe works directly with dealerships and fixed ops teams to implement, optimize, and get measurable results from Siro's AI conversation intelligence platform. He doesn't just sell the product, he's in the trenches with service teams every day, building the coaching systems and evaluation frameworks that turn average advisors into top performers.

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

In this episode, Gabe Schiffer pulls back the curtain on what AI-powered conversation intelligence is actually revealing inside real dealership service departments right now, the patterns top performers share, the small habits quietly costing average advisors thousands per month, and why one auto group's numbers changed so dramatically they thought something was wrong.

Ted and Sarah go deep with Gabe on how fast this actually gets deployed, what a service team looks like six weeks in versus day one, and what's coming next that will change how dealerships connect every conversation to every dollar on every RO.

Listen to the episode featuring Gabe Schiffer 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, Gabe Schiffer

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

Melissa Terrell is one of the automotive industry's leading voices on reputation management and customer intelligence. At Widewail, a platform born from within the auto industry, she works with dealerships across the country to help them systematically capture, respond to, and act on customer feedback at scale. Widewail currently generates three times the review volume of the industry standard, maintains a 100% response rate, and has reputation data on file for every dealership in the United States. 

👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event

What we discuss in this episode:

• The single metric that shows how much ground dealerships have already lost in service retention, and what's accelerating it
• How the shift to AI-powered search is quietly rewiring how customers find and choose a service department
• What your reviews are already telling you about your team that your managers probably aren't
• The difference between responding to reviews and actually closing the loop with a customer, and why it matters more than most operators realize
• Where to start if you have zero reputation infrastructure and a full plate
• The one operational move Melissa recommends every fixed ops director make this week, before touching anything else

Listen to the episode featuring Melissa Terrell 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, Melissa Terrell

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