It’s not hyperbolic to say that many service departments are seeing customers less and less over the course of a year. Historically, vehicles came in about three to four times a year for maintenance, or every 3,500 miles, to stay safe and road-ready. Now, you may feel fortunate to see a customer even once a year.
With fewer at-bats to drive revenue, every interaction matters. So, how are you supposed to make the most of each visit and give customers a clear reason to approve recommended service?
This is the important conversation that Greg Uland, vice president of marketing at Reynolds and Reynolds, and Dave Rogers, fixed operations director at Piazza Auto Group, had on the Connected Podcast at
NADA 2026. Let’s take a look at the strategies for maximizing service opportunities that
came out of their conversation.
MPI Videos as the Approval Booster
Greg and Dave’s discussion on Connected covered many ideas for optimizing every service interaction, but they specifically concentrated on
utilizing MPI videos to suggest service. Dave brought up an excellent point: When was the last time you bought something online without seeing a picture or video of it first? Customers like to see what they’re buying before making any official purchase. They also expect transparency, and that expectation doesn’t stop when they pull into your service drive.
For example, a written note about worn-down tires can be easy for a customer to brush off. Without seeing how bad they are for themselves, customers may assume the tread is good enough — or even that advisors are trying to sell something they don’t need — and may decide to wait longer before replacing them. But with a quick video showing the worn tread on their tires, the issue feels real and much more urgent. An MPI video opens the door for a more transparent presentation of necessary service work, which in turn leads to more service jobs and more profits. And using video isn’t just a nice idea — it produces measurable results. Dave noted that at his dealerships, technicians or advisors who use video see a 35 to 40 percent increase in approvals from customers who view it. For a service department, that’s a significant profit opportunity waiting to be tapped.
Behavioral Metrics as the Performance Driver
One of the most interesting ideas that emerged from Greg and Dave’s conversation was the idea of placing behavioral metrics at the forefront. Behavioral metrics are the specific actions and habits that lead to your KPIs. While KPIs carry a lot of weight for many service managers, they shouldn’t be the only focus. When you emphasize behavioral metrics alongside KPIs, you can more easily pinpoint missed opportunities and train your team to improve upselling.
Behavioral metrics act as signals to identify room for improvement for daily service interactions. For instance, if four techs are performing MPIs and three have a 40 percent closing rate, but one only has a 20 percent closing rate, you can address the behavior that’s leading to that lower rate. There are many factors to consider, like whether it’s the cars he’s writing up or if he’s not writing up a thorough RO. But by starting with the behaviors that drive the numbers, you can discover any underlying issues that may be getting in the way of profits. Behavioral metrics are especially important if your dealership is using video. If all your techs use video and have strong upsell closing rates, but there are one or two stragglers, you can look at how the successful techs are filming their MPI videos and compare.
Ultimately, Greg and Dave came to the conclusion that maximizing service opportunity goes beyond tracking the end results: It’s understanding the actions that produce them. When service managers focus on the daily behaviors behind the numbers, like using MPI videos to show customers what their vehicles need, they get a clear path to making the most out of every customer visit.
