Ep. 670 - GET OUT of the Customer's Way, for crying out loud! with Gary Graves

The Dealer Playbook

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9d ago 26:32

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In this episode, my guest is Gary Graves, the kind of guy who can build a SaaS platform by day and grade a dirt road by night. One foot in the tech world, the other in the real one. Equal parts futurist and hands-on problem solver, he's spent years collecting and analyzing the conversations dealerships have with their customers—and the insights he’s uncovered are eye-opening.

We first aired this episode a while back, but honestly, it’s been aging so well we figured more people needed to hear it. The insights are still sharp, the stories still hit, and the timing feels just right.

Gary and I talk about what really happens on the other end of a dealership’s phone line—and what those conversations reveal about how we treat customers. You’ll hear why most CRMs still misunderstand the role of a phone call, how IVRs might be silently costing you business, and what dealers can do today to build actual loyalty—not just repeat transactions.

One of the things I love about this conversation is how practical it is. Gary doesn’t talk in circles. He breaks down what the data shows, what dealerships keep missing, and what it actually looks like to build a culture where customers want to come back.

If you’ve ever wondered why your customers don’t call back, or why some reviews sting more than others, this episode is worth your time.

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FlexDealer Need Better Quality Leads? FLX helps car dealers generate better quality leads through localized organic search and highly-targeted digital ads that convert. Not only that, they work tirelessly to ensure car dealers integrate marketing and operations for a robust and functional growth strategy.

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Chapters

1. Gary's Journey into the Auto Industry (00:00:00)

2. Creating Total Track and Call Monitoring (00:09:17)

3. The Problem with Customer Experience (00:14:52)

4. How Pandemic Changed Dealership Service (00:18:32)

5. Customer Effort and Frustration Points (00:22:32)

6. Solutions: First Steps to Improve CX (00:26:23)

692 episodes

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