Fixed Ops Roundtable

Hosted by Ted Ings

Business Management EducationInterviews guests

Website RSS feed LinkedIn Facebook

Episodes

292

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

About the show

The Fixed Ops Roundtable, hosted by Ted Ings, is your source for cutting edge information, technology, and best practices from leaders and innovators in the retail automobile industry. Enjoy weekly episodes featuring expert interviews that originally aired during Ted Ings popular Fixed Ops Roundtable live and virtual events.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

August 17, 2026Episode 29220 min

Matt Leone: How DriveCentric Connects Sales and Service to Recover Lost Profit

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

August 10, 2026Episode 29117 min

Robert Wooden: The Blind Spot Costing Dealers Warranty Dollars

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

August 3, 2026Episode 29018 min

Misty Tippets: The #1 Reason Dealerships Buy AI and Get Nothing From It

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

July 27, 2026Episode 28911 min

Erik Zuniga: Why Your Dealership Is Invisible to Today's Car Buyer

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

July 20, 2026Episode 28816 min

Gabe Schiffer: From $500K to $1M in 60 Days with Siro AI

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

July 13, 2026Episode 28716 min

Melissa Terrell: You're Losing Service Customers To Reviews You Haven't Read

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

July 6, 2026Episode 28612 min

Kim Saylor: What CDK's 2026 Service Advisor Report Reveals About Your Dealership

Kim Saylor is Senior Director of Product Marketing at CDK Global, the industry's leading dealership technology provider. With deep expertise in fixed operations and consumer behavior, Kim has spent years translating data into strategy for dealers nationwide. She's one of the most sought-after voices in automotive retail, and when CDK releases a study, the industry listens. 👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event What we discuss in this episode: The 2026 CDK Service Advisor Report just dropped. And the numbers are not what most dealers expected. Kim Saylor brings the findings to the Fix Ops Roundtable, and what she shares with Ted Ings and Sarah Vantine cuts straight to the heart of why some dealerships are quietly building an army of loyal customers while others keep wondering why they can't hold onto them We get into: Why 94% of Gen Z customers return to their selling dealer for service The overlooked recall work opportunity that's costing dealers more than they realize How trust is built or destroyed in the first 60 seconds of a service visit The precise combination of advisor skill and technology that separates the top performers from everyone else There's a generational shift happening in your service lane right now. One generation is outperforming every other in loyalty, spend, and return rate, and most dealers are completely underestimating them. Listen to the episode featuring Kim Saylor 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, Kim Saylor 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

June 29, 2026Episode 28518 min

Chase Southwick: How Northwood Students Run America's Biggest Outdoor Auto Show

Chase Southwick is the 63rd General Chair of the Northwood University International Auto Show , the largest outdoor new car auto show in the United States. A student at Northwood University, America's Automotive University, Chase oversees a team of department heads and hundreds of student volunteers to produce a three-day event that draws an estimated 50,000 attendees to Midland, Michigan each fall. 👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event What we discuss in this episode: This episode covers the behind-the-scenes of a show that's been running for 63 years, what it takes to convince dealers to hand over six-figure inventory, how students build industry relationships that last decades, and what the 2026 theme "Northwood Drives America" actually means for the show's direction this year. September 18–20. Midland, Michigan. Ted and Sarah will be there. This episode tells you why you should be too. Listen to the episode featuring Chase Southwick 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, Chase Southwick 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

June 22, 2026Episode 28421 min

Karl Murphy: The New Mobile Service Model Dealers Are Using to Hit $750K a Year

Karl Murphy is the CEO of Spiffy, the leading mobile service operating system built specifically for automotive dealerships. With over 12 years of experience transforming how dealers deliver service outside the four walls of their shop, Karl has become one of the most sought-after voices in fixed operations — helping dealerships scale mobile programs from a single van into multi-asset, high-margin revenue lines that run with the precision of a software company. His clients include some of the most forward-thinking dealer groups in the country, and the results they're producing are quietly rewriting what's possible in fixed ops. 👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event What we discuss in this episode: Mobile service has been talked about for years. Most dealerships have tried it. Few have scaled it. Even fewer have made it genuinely profitable. Karl Murphy has watched every version of this story play out, and in this episode, he breaks down exactly what separates the operations that stall from the ones that are now generating serious, repeatable gross profit from vans that didn't exist in their service drive two years ago. What's working. Why humans alone can't get you there. And what the dealers who've figured this out already know that everyone else is still missing. Listen to the episode featuring Karl Murphy 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, Karl Murphy 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

June 15, 2026Episode 28316 min

Chris Austin: The Leak in Your P&L That Selling More Cars Won't Fix

Chris Austin is the Chief Revenue Officer of StrategicSource, a Minnesota-based outsourced purchasing organization with 25 years of deep roots in automotive retail. Having grown up inside every department of the business, from sourcing and auditing to client services and executive strategy, Chris has sat inside the budget meetings, contract negotiations, and financial blind spots of dealership groups ranging from single-point stores to 80-location operations across all 50 states. He doesn't just understand dealership expenses. He knows exactly where they disappear. 👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable Event What we discuss in this episode: In this episode, Chris Austin pulls back the curtain on the expense problem hiding inside nearly every dealership in America, the suppliers on autopilot, the contracts nobody is auditing, and the price increases slipping through unnoticed month after month. We're talking about an industry where the average dealership is overspending by 25% on indirect expenses alone. One client recently discovered a 72% increase in their uniform costs they had never caught. Not because they weren't smart. Because nobody had the time, the benchmarks, or the system to find it. We go deep into: Why 95% of dealerships have no dedicated purchasing function — and what that's actually costing them The difference between reactive and proactive expense management How decentralized contract management is silently eroding margins Why selling more cars is not the answer to an expense problem This conversation goes places most dealership financial discussions never do, and if you're responsible for the profitability of any automotive retail operation, what Chris shares here will change how you look at your P&L. Listen to the episode featuring Chris Austin 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, Chris Austin 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