Fixed Ops Friday w/ Love, Golightley, & Carlstedt

This Fixed Ops Friday edition of Daily Dealer Live brings together Joel Love, service director at Toyota of Montgomery, and Ryan Carlstedt, EVP of fixed operations at Willis Auto Group, alongside Podium's Liam Golightley, SVP of Dealer Success, fresh off Podium Connect, the company's invite-only summit in Park City, Utah. The conversation moves from video multi-point inspections and UVeye scanning tunnels to the AI mindset shift dealerships need to make, closing with a roundtable on brand loyalty versus true retention.

For dealers, the throughline is that fixed ops is the most profitable part of the store, yet too many service departments still run in reactive firefight mode. Joel Love shows what happens when a store goes all-in on video MPI adoption, and Ryan Carlstedt shows how a deliberate, fun-first culture compounds retention gains over years. Liam Golightley ties it together with Podium's view that AI should run fixed ops like an operating system rather than get bolted onto legacy CRMs and DMS platforms, which matters to any GM trying to grow revenue without adding headcount.

Key takeaways

• Toyota of Montgomery's video MPI approval rate is 78% when customers watch the inspection video, versus just 32% when they don't, more than double the close rate on recommended work.

• One dealership using Podium's full AI suite found $56,000 in found gross profit and 23 booked appointments in its first 30 days, all from customers the team wasn't previously reaching.

• Willis Auto Group has pushed video compliance to 86% across nine stores and nine brands, crediting both video adoption and a deliberately fun, team-first culture for customer-pay growth up 16% year-over-year.