The Dealer Playbook

Ep. 665 - Why Fixed Ops Isn’t Back-End—It’s the Backbone, with Nicole Dolphin

• Michael Cirillo

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In this episode, my guest is Nicole Dolphin, Retail Development Manager at Groupe Touchette, and we’re digging into the part of the dealership that doesn’t always get its fair share of attention—Fixed Ops.

Nicole shares how the service department isn’t just about oil changes and tires. It’s a relationship hub. It’s where trust is built (or lost). It’s often the reason someone decides to buy their next vehicle from you—or not.

We talk about how dealerships can better introduce customers to the service side before problems happen, what most teams get wrong about customer handoffs, and how to make your fixed department feel less intimidating for first-time visitors. Nicole also shares her journey from receptionist to parts manager in luxury stores and what she learned about emotional intelligence, leadership, and navigating a male-dominated industry.

If you’re trying to figure out:

  • How to actually retain customers long-term
  • What emotional intelligence has to do with customer loyalty
  • How to develop your people without micromanaging them
  • Why knowing where to park can make or break a customer’s trust...

...you’ll want to hear this one all the way through.

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MC:

This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer. Hey auto industry, welcome to this episode of the Dealer Playbook Podcast. Of course we are here at the Toronto International Auto Show. I'm with my new pal, nicole Dolphin. Yes, I said it, pal, nicole Dolphin. Yes, I said it, right, Nicole Dolphin, we were just joking that so many people have your last name tattooed on them, but in the form of a dolphin. I think that I love names, but everybody in my audience already knows that you are the retail development manager at Group Touchette.

Nicole:

Yes.

MC:

We're going to be talking about the value of the service department and of course I love this topic because typically on a show called the Dealer Playbook people are always talking about the variable side of the business, very rarely the fixed. You know it's kind of the stepchild side of the business, but I think that's why I'm fascinated by it. Your perspective from fixed operations, I think, is highly valuable. So I want to ask you this to kick things off from your perspective, doing what you do on the fixed side of the business, what do you see the value point for the customer experiences? Because I know a lot of it happens in the fixed department.

Nicole:

Well, it's usually what helps sell the next car right, it's what keeps them coming back, it's what helps keep the lights on. So I think it's super important to keep your clients engaged through the second half of the process, after they've purchased that car. When they have, they appear to have so many options to do that.

MC:

Right it's. It's like the thing where they always forget about on the variable side too is like that introduction into fixed. So, from your perspective, how do you guys do it in your group? Is it a part of the sales process that there's an introduction to fixed? Is it shortly after the sale? How does it look in an ideal situation?

Nicole:

The ideal situation is different than often what occurs. But I mean the ideal situation is that there is some sort of handoff between your sales department and your service parts side of things, mainly because customers are usually very uncomfortable with that side Unless they've done business with you before. That's a whole separate area of the dealership. Often it feels different. They don't necessarily always know what's going to happen to them when they walk in there, what you're going to ask of them or tell them that's required, and I think it helps people get a little bit more comfortable with dealing with that side of things. So it's vitally important but often overlooked.

MC:

What's interesting, we had a conversation here I think this is now the second time, maybe third time I've referenced an interview we did here in Toronto with the vice president of the Royal York Fairmont. He's the general manager of the hotel. He actually shared an experience he had where he was out of town the check engine light, I think, came on and he went to a dealership he wasn't familiar with and it was because of the experience he had in service that he is now willing to drive out of town to that dealership to go and buy his next vehicle. That's incredible. So kind of a full service.

MC:

I almost said full service, but a full circle of where you just started with your first statement, which is recognizing how much fixed actually drives variable, where so much of the narrative in our industry is that variable drives fixed. Yeah, narrative of our industry is that variable drives fixed. So what I want to ask you about, based on what you said, you had mentioned that it is the aspect of the dealership that so many are unfamiliar with. I feel like it's the place where we can be most consistent from a hospitality perspective.

Nicole:

I agree, I think it definitely is. But I think when consumers are driving down the road and they see so many different places to do business, there's a perspective that they're just not comfortable. They don't know what to expect when they walk into your dealership. So I mean, if they've done business with the service department for years, then that's one thing. They know what to do when they come in. They know the people that they see at the counter, they know all of that. But if they're brand new, they don't know even where the counter is, they don't know who they're talking to, they don't know what the process is where they're putting their car, and it can just be really uncomfortable, especially if you're a female walking in which often they're tasked with those jobs.

MC:

Now, Right, not as easy as having fresh baked cookies in the service department.

Nicole:

Yeah, but it probably helps?

MC:

Probably helps, though I would definitely come to that. You bring up a good point, and so what do you think about, or what's your vantage point, as far as how do we mitigate some of those friction points so that people are more familiar with where to go and who to talk to and where to park their car?

Nicole:

Well, I mean, I think it starts with even first impressions of the dealership. It starts on your digital side of things. I mean you can have tours, you can have welcomes, you can have, you know, here's meet the teams, all those sort of things that sometimes people will go and look at when they're trying to calm some nerves before they're walking in someplace new.

MC:

Sure.

Nicole:

But I think that happens just as the customer is becoming a client of yours, is walking them through what that process looks like. I mean, I think a good salesperson will take their client through that process and when you come in your car will go here. When you you know phone in, this is the person you'll be talking to. Here's what will happen on your first appointment. I think that's where things like second delivery and get to know your car nights and all these sorts of things come in really handy because it makes people more comfortable with the other half of the dealership.

Nicole:

You know, sometimes a side they don't physically even wander into.

MC:

Yeah, Isn't that interesting. Now I'm curious as I think about it retail development manager, sales and profit. How did you get into this? What was your journey into the car business?

Nicole:

It was very I was taking a break from university and picked up the phone because back there you didn't have the internet quite as much and started looking for what type of office, sort of jobs existed. And automotive was near the top of that top of the phone book list and I started out at a BMW dealership. So that was pretty close to the top of that too, and I went in there and they were looking for a receptionist. So I started out at a BMW dealership yeah, so that was pretty close to the top of that too, and I went in there and they were looking for a receptionist. So I started in reception and then I was moved into the parts department fairly quickly, because I got a little bored with just reception, yeah, and kind of the rest is history. I kind of went through those different processes, different dealerships, kind of worked my way up to parts manager and then parts operations, so mostly in the luxury world. But yeah, it's been a little bit of a random journey.

MC:

What did you see? So you start as reception? Usually that's where it ends for most people, right? Whether it's the car business or the restaurant industry, or it's like usually that first job that weeds out so many people. What was it about your experience that you're like yeah, I'll lean into this a little bit more.

Nicole:

I mean, I suffer from wanting to stay busy and not wanting to to just settle with where I am. So I, you know, suffer from in the fact that I'm always changing, always moving. My staff have had to flex with that too, as we've kind of changed processes and stuff and they always used to hate the question of so, guys, I have an idea, because that meant that things were about to shift real quickly for them.

MC:

You're an optimizer A little bit. That's what I'm hearing. You're an optimizer, and but isn't that interesting. I want to key in on that, especially for those that are tuning in. I don't know if it's that you struggle with it as I look from the outside, and I think that is that the key to your success right Probably the those of us who because I dare I say I probably struggle with this too.

MC:

In the back of my mind, I'm always like there's got to be a better way. Right, like I'm always. I wake up in the morning I'm like just got to be a better way to sleep, so I go buy a new pillow. You know there's got to be a better way to not have arm pain all day. Oh, buy a new keyboard. You know like I'm constantly looking to optimize it and you know friends of mine share similar sentiment to you. But I'm finding it's the thread, it's the common thread of those that didn't just stop and hit the brick wall but actually push through. So you go from reception and then you said into parts yeah, what was your experience like coming from reception into the parts department?

Nicole:

I was as green as you could get. I knew nothing. I didn't even drive at the time, I knew nothing about cars. They stuck me with a parts manager that nobody got along with. So they thought, well, let's just see how it works. And I usually tend to just kind of roll with things and kind of see how things go. And so him and I got along enough that I didn't ruffle any feathers and he wasn't throwing anything at me like he was other people. And then a few months later they let him go and looked at me, went you got this right, and I was like three months part-time and parts I know nothing. So I spent some time with another parts manager who was in the same brand, every night on the phone with him learning how to do things for a week or two and then kind of took things off by myself for the next few months until they brought somebody in who I kind of worked a little more collaboratively with at that point.

MC:

Have you always been this way, like this determined, or is it something you grew? Yeah, you were. Just as long as you can remember. You're like I am going for the thing. Usually, typically and I don't have better words to say it I'm a I'm big, I'm a big intention guy. My intentions are usually very pure, but then the Italian in me lacks the right words. But in a, dare I say, male dominant industry, here you are having these opportunities along the way. Does that give you fight to push forward? Does that give you unnecessary or necessary pressure?

MC:

I want to key in on others who might be in a similar position today, who maybe are the receptionist, who maybe were asked to be in the parts department or, as you said, kind of fell into this elevated role, who are feeling overwhelmed or stuck. Or what do I do to kind of take a similar approach to you? What was your mindset like at that time to be able to accept that challenge? Hey, does your marketing agency suck? Listen, before we hop back into this episode. I know you know me as the host of the Dealer Playbook, but did you also know that I'm the CEO of FlexDealer, an agency that's helping dealers capture better quality leads from local SEO and hyper-targeted ads that convert. So if you want to sell more cars and finally have a partner that's in it with you, that doesn't suck visit flexdealercom. Let's hop back into this episode.

Nicole:

I think it was about setting little goals for myself, and honestly, I'm not a really big goal setter. I have a lot of like. You know, I keep a thought in the back of my mind, but I'm not one of those people with vision boards and making all these notes regularly. I don't dream up my goals that way, but it's more like okay, I feel like this is where I want to be next, and so at that point I start making small decisions that kind of help me there and trying not to ruffle too many feathers to get there either.

Nicole:

I have no problem standing up for myself or my team or anything else when need meet, but I don't try to create problems where there doesn't need to be. So, as a female, sometimes you just have to let some things go. It's not worth the argument, especially in an industry that's been very heavily male dominated. There are some habits that have been formed and not all of them are intentional. So sometimes you kind of have to let some of those comments slide or some of those situations go, to just kind of keep moving forward and not let it hold you back, because it usually isn't intentional, and when it is, then you address it. So I think it's just kind of trying to move through things that way and kind of take people by surprise.

MC:

It's. You know, we, obviously. You know, rose, we were chatting about this the other day. I have four sisters, no brothers. Now I have two sons and a daughter, and I grew up in an environment Italian-Portuguese immigrant parents. You know, four sisters, strong belief systems, not realizing until I had my own sons that I didn't have the opportunity to be a stupid boy Like I didn't. And now that I'm a father of two boys I'm like so someone's not right Sometimes with these two. They say really dumb things sometimes and I realized I didn't have that opportunity because if I even got close I'd get a doll over the head or a Barbie or something.

MC:

But what you're saying is really intriguing to me the tenacity to speak up when you're like you have. There's a I'm just reading between some lines here, nicole which is the emotional intelligence is huge aspect of growing in this business to know when to open your mouth and have the tenacity and the ability to articulate and to address, like you said, and then also, on the flip side, the resilience and the tenacity to know when to keep your mouth shut because people are going to say stupid things sometimes. And how do you? So what is it about you that you've been able to develop that ability.

Nicole:

Because I think as a whole, as a society, we struggle with that there has to be. Biggest difference between staff and management is that management have a big picture in mind and staff are often looking at the small picture, what's in front of them at that moment. And the ones that usually move into management are the ones that have been able to slowly develop that skill, if they didn't have it how to look beyond, right at the second, and look a step or two ahead, or at the people around you or the team environment around you. And I think some people naturally have some of those skills, but other people develop them and just keeping your mind on what the big picture is like, is it going to help that or is it going to hurt that? I think that's some of it. It can be taught, especially with your staff, when you're in charge of people, kind of helping them along, especially nowadays. Like you said, it's a lot of art Right.

Nicole:

But I think it's also something that, yeah, that people kind of naturally just have. They have goals set up and they strive for them and they don't let things distract them. I mean, they said, I'm not that goal oriented, but I find that but you have a vision, yeah, yeah.

Nicole:

Keeping your eyes on exactly what the important thing is kind of is part of that and not letting other things distract you. You know, whether it be, you know, relationships in the workplace or certain friendships that can go sour or even too heavy of opinions. I mean, have an opinion, there's nothing wrong with that, but Automotive is a very small industry.

MC:

Very tightly knit, isn't it?

Nicole:

Things come back. I have a way of coming back at you.

MC:

Isn't that true? It ties in perfectly to where I want. What I want to ask you next, especially as it ties into customer retention, because we know fixed that is the customer retention player of the dealership. Yeah, but everything you're saying, you know, because of our industry, everyone wants that like black and white checkbox approach of like, oh, if I do this and this, then it'll work. And then they do those things and they get discouraged because and because it doesn't work out. And what you shared with me today so so well is actually the secret sauce to why then we do the checklist. It works. It's that emotional intelligence, it's what you've developed over your career that can't be replicated. That becomes the guiding force to checking off those boxes and having it work.

MC:

You bring up the ability to be agreeable doesn't necessarily mean that you have to agree. Like you said, everyone's going to have an opinion, and I think we live in a society where you either agree oh, I vehemently disagree, right, so everybody or, oh, I agree. You know, on LinkedIn, love it, agree. That's the number one comment on LinkedIn. But I don't have to agree with your opinion, but I can agree that you have an opinion. And what would the world be like if we became more agreeable Customer retention by working with customers to ensure they understand their vehicle, that they understand the process.

Nicole:

I imagine people are coming to you with an opinion oh, this was the worst experience I've ever had, or this is the. You know, this car keeps dinging at me or whatever it might be.

Nicole:

How does everything? You've shared up a problem and you know sometimes they come in pretty aggressively because that problem has disrupted their entire day or week or trip or something. And it's just about kind of listening to them moving on, not letting it get underneath your skin, because it's usually not personal, and if they're familiar with your process and you have a solid process for helping them, then it can usually take away a lot of that anxiety that they have surrounding whatever it is that's gone on. You know, whether it be just the newness of where they're walking into, the trip interruption they've experienced, or just the fact that you know something's happened that they now have to pay for that. They don't know what's going on yet, like all the unknowns in there, it's people don't like the unknowns.

MC:

Right.

Nicole:

So you know, most people don't know all that much about their car and walking in, and having to ask you to figure it out for them is pretty humbling, I think.

MC:

How do you ensure and I mean yes, training would be the blanket answer here but how do you help your team, who are at varying levels of learning and experience, understand that? To really key in on. But here's how we help the customer. Here's how you don't take it personally Like, ok, I get it, you're Italian, irish and you want to beat everyone up, but how do you teach them to suppress that fire when a customer comes in and says you know, doesn't have better words, so they just attack you personally?

Nicole:

Yeah, yeah, which which happens often enough, I mean, and I've had staff that are like that. They're a little bit of hotheads. They have trouble kind of letting it go. There's triggers that you can see and watch in them as they're interacting with clients. And I think, first of all, you model it yourself. They're watching you all day long. It's like a parent with their children. They're watching you all day long, whether you like it or not. So you have to monitor it, model it yourself, sure.

Nicole:

The second thing is you use the opportunities when you can to kind of explain things to them and in a conversational, collaborative sort of way. So I regularly would have conversations with some of my staff after a situation that did not go the way we had all intended and go so maybe there was a different way we could have done something like that or, you know, just kind of open-ended to kind of get what their thoughts are on it. And then the last thing is as a leader, as a manager, my job is to support them. So I need to make sure they know I have their back in that situation and I would sometimes with one of my employees as he was learning all these skills. He was young he was a little bit of a hothead. I'd literally stand beside him on the while he's on the phone with a customer, knowing he's getting triggered going.

Nicole:

Hand me the phone mid sentence at any point in time and I will take over for you, just so that he wouldn't put himself into that situation that then we'd have to have a different type of conversation going. Okay, so we've talked about this before. You can't use that language with clients and you know like you didn't want to get there so you'd sit there and to be kind of be present and everything. But that was really important and I think when you're trying to teach people who don't have those skills, it requires you to be absolutely present, in that you can't hand it off to someone else. You can't expect it to naturally occur and they're definitely not walking off the street with these skills anymore. So I think it's one of those things that it requires a lot more of your middle management team in people personality training Our chief revenue officer, emer.

MC:

he's a Marine, retired Marine. He says OTJ, on the job training. And as I listen to you, that makes sense. To me it's like getting with them in the moments that really matter, because if you wait too long they'll be like oh, what are you talking about? What? Experience with the customer gives them the opportunity to play dumb, but, as you're saying, it's like no, in the moments after an experience to get with them and to be very clear and concise. In a world that is becoming increasingly, dare I say, afraid of conflict, how do you approach those conversations so that the hothead or the fiery furnace person just doesn't walk away and hate your guts after?

Nicole:

Well, they don't always go very well, okay, I honestly, I think it's just getting to know them. It's getting to know your staff in a way where, when you're sitting down with them, you're not sitting down there to discipline, you're not sitting down there to even educate. They don't feel educated.

Nicole:

They feel like you're having a conversation with them and, while still drawing that line, that when you really need to pull out those tools where there's a line drawn and you can't and you need to, you know that you're approaching them on the relationship side of things that you have that hopefully you've developed, which, let's face it, when somebody's brand new, you don't have a chance to do that yet. If you're correcting those right at the very beginning, you might have made a bad hiring option. But if it turns out that you have a little bit of rapport with these people, then it's kind of using those skills and doing it really casually when they're not in front of their friends and the people around them and you just kind of, you know, find out where they were in that situation too and what you can do to help them. We're not, they're not the problem. We're working on a solution together.

MC:

You know like that must tie in so deeply to the retention side of customers in building that same relationship or building some measure of rapport with them. 100 yeah, 100 I love this topic. It doesn't get enough oxygen. It needs more oxygen. Thank you for being an advocate and a voice for it. N Nicole, how can those listening and watching connect with you?

Nicole:

Best way is probably LinkedIn. Yeah, that's the platform, isn't it?

MC:

Yeah, I love it. Yeah, Nicole Dolphin, thank you so much for joining me on the Dealer Playbook Podcast.

Nicole:

Thanks so much for having me.

MC:

Hey, thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook Podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please subscribe, share and hit that like button. You can also join us and the DPB community on social media. Check back next week for a new Dealer Playbook episode. Thanks so much for joining.

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Michael Cirillo

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