I Didn't Think Automated Service Drive Acquisition Software Was Possible in a Dealership

• Mike spent eight years working in a dealership and was wary of any technology that requires installing a new process in the store.

• The service drive approach he backed is fully automated: AI and process vet the service customer before sales ever sees them.

• Sales receives a normal lead in the CRM. The customer just happens to be in the service department.

• MOTO(drive) uses DMS data and automated texts, pushes VIN and miles to inventory tools, and alerts sales when a customer is ready.

• MOTO(drive) stores consistently buy about 1% of their repair orders without dedicated service acquisition hires.

Every used car manager knows the service drive is full of cars worth buying. The customers are already on your property and the vehicles are already in your bays. The hard part has never been finding the opportunity. It is that buying from the service drive usually depends on the store adopting a new process and sticking with it, which is exactly why Mike Crothers, CEO of MOTO(acquire), was skeptical when his business partner first pitched service drive acquisition software.

Mike worked in a car dealership for eight years before moving into automotive software. He has watched stores try to install new ways of working, and as he put it, "I know how that goes."

Why a new process is the real obstacle

When the idea came up, Mike's response was honest: "Some dealers will adopt a new process. Some dealers already do a really good job at it." But he did not want MOTO(acquire) in the business of building a technology that required coming in and installing a new way of working in the dealership.

That concern will sound familiar to any GM. Your service advisors are focused on the repair order in front of them. Your sales team is working the floor and the CRM. Asking either group to take on a separate acquisition workflow means more training, more follow-up from management, and more places for opportunities to slip.

Stores that already buy well from service have usually built that habit over time. For everyone else, a tool that depends on new behavior is a tool that depends on the busiest people in the building changing how they work.

What should service drive acquisition software actually do?

His business partner's answer is what changed Mike's mind. The plan was not a new process. It was fully automated: "It's just going to be a lead that goes in the CRM."

Here is how Mike described it:

• The AI and the process do the vetting. Service customers are engaged automatically, and the system sorts out who is interested.

• The lead gets worked before sales sees it. In Mike's words, it does "all the vetting, all the massaging of the lead."

• Sales gets a normal lead. The customer is teed up to the sales department based on their interest, and the team treats it like any other lead in the CRM.

The key line: "That customer just happens to be in their service department." Your salespeople do not need a separate playbook. They already know how to work a lead. The only difference is where it came from.

Mike's reaction was simple: "If you could build that, you definitely should." They built it, and it is now live.

How MOTO(drive) puts service drive leads in your CRM

That product is MOTO(drive). It handles service drive acquisition using DMS data and automated texts, pushes VIN and miles to your inventory tools, and alerts the sales team when a customer is ready.

Because it runs on DMS data, it connects to your system. MOTO(acquire) integrates with all major DMS platforms and many others, including Tekion, Dealertrack, CDK, Reynolds, and Auto/Mate. If your DMS is not integrated yet, MOTO(acquire) will build the integration.

The result dealers care about: MOTO(drive) stores consistently buy about 1% of their repair orders without dedicated service acquisition hires. For an example at the group level, see how one dealer group profits from service acquisition.

Buy and sell more cars from service with no extra work

Mike's skepticism came from experience. Technology that needs a new in-store process is hard to sell because it is a hard habit to build. Automated service drive acquisition takes that problem off the table: the vetting happens in the background and your team works the lead the way they already do.

If you want to learn how to buy and sell more cars out of your service department with no additional work, start with MOTO(drive). For more on the topic, browse the Service Drive Acquisition video hub.