2020 Automotive News All-Stars

In a year when many dealerships saw service and parts revenue tank because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bozard Ford-Lincoln’s business has grown.

Through October, fixed ops sales at the dealership in St. Augustine, Fla., were up nearly 9 percent. When customers couldn’t or wouldn’t come to the store for service, Ed Roberts, 47, brought service to them in two ways. First, he expanded pickup and delivery from the dealership’s Lincoln department to the Ford side. Next, Roberts added a second mobile service van to the dealership’s fleet.

Except for surgery to an engine or transmission, the two-person crew in each van can carry out most repairs that would normally be done at the store at customers’ homes and businesses instead.

Remote oil changes and wheel-and-tire services free up the service lane for higher-profit repair tickets.

Another Roberts initiative uses the store’s service vans to perform recall work on-site at competing dealerships that sell used Ford and Lincoln vehicles. Roberts’ crew will run the VINs of Ford and Lincoln vehicles at stores within 30 miles and then offer to send a crew to perform the recall work.

“When you think outside the box, you can find ways to increase business. ... We pick up incremental work every day by doing that,” Roberts said at the Fixed Ops Journal Forum this fall.