Dealer Talk With Jen Suzuki

Latest Episodes:

Leaders Go First: Teaching AI Inside the Dealership Mar 05, 2026

Show notes

AI isn't something managers can delegate. It's something they have to demonstrate.

In this episode, Jen talks about one of the biggest leadership shifts happening inside dealerships right now: leaders becoming the model of how to use AI, not just the ones telling everyone else to use it.

Your team isn't going to adopt tools because of a memo or a mandate. They adopt them because they see their leader using them in real life, in meetings, during problem-solving, when building customer messaging, or when creating new sales ideas.

Jen shares how managers can introduce tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and others inside regular team meetings so people learn naturally instead of feeling forced. When leaders use AI openly, asking questions, testing ideas, building scripts... it shows the team how to think differently and stay relevant in a fast-changing industry.

The message is simple: People don't follow mandates. They follow models.

If you want your team to evolve, they have to watch you do it first!

🔥Check out our sponsors!🔥

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading automotive DMS platform that helps dealerships run more efficient, connected, and customer-focused sales and service operations.

LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability.

Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.

ZukiTalk helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals.

The Most Underrated Follow-Up in the Dealership: 20 Seconds of Video Mar 02, 2026

Show notes

20 seconds.

That's all it takes to separate average dealerships from memorable ones.

Customers don't remember your CRM. They don't remember your process map. They remember effort.

In this episode of Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki, Jen breaks down why short, 20-second personalized videos are one of the most powerful follow-up tools in modern dealerships — in both sales and service.

Not five minutes. Not perfect lighting. Not corporate scripts.

Just 20 seconds of clarity that says: "I was thinking about you."

Jen explains how replacing traditional texts and voicemails with quick, candid videos builds obligation, increases engagement, and showcases your humanity. She shares simple scripts, real-world examples, and ways managers can turn this into a fun, competitive in-store activity.

You'll learn: • Why video follow-up increases memorability • How to structure a powerful 20-second message • What to say when confirming appointments • How to stand apart from competitors instantly • How to coach your team to execute without overthinking

Perfection isn't the goal. Presence is.

Because 20 seconds today beats zero seconds tomorrow, every single time.

🔥Check out our sponsors!🔥

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading automotive DMS platform that helps dealerships run more efficient, connected, and customer-focused sales and service operations.

LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability.

Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.

ZukiTalk helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals.

How to Teach a New Technique to Your Team and See Immediate Execution Feb 26, 2026

Show notes

Great ideas don't fail in dealerships because they're bad. They fail because no one installs the behavior fast enough.

In this episode of Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki, Jen breaks down a simple, high-energy methodology to help leaders stop "motivating" and start installing execution inside their stores.

Most dealerships don't have a training problem — they have an execution problem. Processes get rolled out. Energy fades. Thirty days later, nothing sticks.

Jen shares her proven meeting framework — used at NADA Academy and in high-performing stores — to compress action, build accountability, and make learning fun and sustainable.

You'll learn how to: • Pick one behavior and install it fast • Teach a technique in under 20 seconds • Use real examples to drive discussion • Create immediate execution through activity • Run contests that build visibility and accountability • Shortlist, vote, and let the team own the win

This is about turning meetings into movement. Not speeches. Not theater. Behavior change.

If you're a GM, GSM, Fixed Ops Director, Sales Manager, or Service Manager who's tired of initiatives fading out — this episode gives you a repeatable structure to make things stick.

Momentum doesn't come from motivation. It comes from movement.

🔥Check out our sponsors!🔥

Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading automotive DMS platform that helps dealerships run more efficient, connected, and customer-focused sales and service operations.

LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability.

ZukiTalk helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals.

The First 5 Minutes That Control Your Customers Entire Service Visit Feb 22, 2026

Show notes

The first five minutes of a service visit can make or break everything that follows.

In this episode of Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki, Jen dives into one of the most overlooked yet powerful moments in fixed ops: the service check-in. This isn't about speed. It's not about numbers. It's not even about selling. It's about trust.

Jen calls the check-in one of the two sacred moments in every service visit and if you miss it, nothing else matters. From reviving the dying walkaround to turning rushed transactions into relationship opportunities, she shares real-world principles advisors and managers can immediately apply to boost MPI approvals, retention, and long-term revenue.

You'll learn how to: • Turn the walkaround into "walk-in education" • Build trust before the inspection ever begins • Use simple human connection to reduce defensiveness later • Create operational impact by improving the first five minutes • Coach presence, tone, and professionalism — not just process

When customers feel educated early, they're less defensive later. And when they trust you? They buy. They return. They ask for you.

This episode is a must-listen for Service Advisors, Service Managers, Fixed Ops Directors, and GMs who want to boost service revenue without pushing harder, just caring smarter.

🔥Check out our sponsors!🔥

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading automotive DMS platform that helps dealerships run more efficient, connected, and customer-focused sales and service operations.

LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability.

Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.

ZukiTalk helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals.

ELR Isn't Accounting, It's Leadership! Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

If your service managers and advisors can't explain Effective Labor Rate in one sentence, money is leaking out of your shop every single day.

In this episode of Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki, Jen breaks down the most misunderstood yet most powerful performance metric in the service department: ELR (Effective Labor Rate). While advisors often track CSI, gross, and hours per RO, ELR quietly tells the real story of how the shop is performing, how advisors get paid, and how profitable the operation truly is.

Jen simplifies what ELR actually is (and what it's not), why it matters more than the posted labor rate, and how everyday advisor behaviors like discounting, incomplete presentations, weak explanations, and missed opportunities directly drag it down.

This episode connects the dots between ELR and advisor income, shop absorption, and leadership discipline. Jen also outlines practical coaching strategies for service managers, including daily visibility, advisor-level tracking, role-play, discount accountability, and how to celebrate ELR wins so strong behaviors get repeated.

ELR isn't a scary accounting term. It's a performance mirror. If you understand it, you can influence it. If you can influence it, you can control profitability.

🔥Check out our sponsors!🔥

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading automotive DMS platform that helps dealerships run more efficient, connected, and customer-focused sales and service operations.

LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability.

Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.

ZukiTalk helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals.

Staying Relevant with Dealer/GM Fred Emich | AI, Texting, and the Phone Call Debate: What Still Wins in 2026 Feb 16, 2026

Show notes

This one was different, we recorded an in-person (we are both within minutes of each other in CO!) episode in a studio (yes, the kind rappers use 😄) with a dealer/general manager from a 100+ year family dealership story that started back in 1922.

Meet Fred Emich from https://www.emichauto.com/

We get into what most leaders don't talk about: the daily pressure to stay relevant, how to keep people invested across multiple rooftops, and why the service department deserves way more leadership attention than it usually gets.

Then we go deep on tech adoption, how to vet new tools, why "shiny object" purchases fail, and the non-negotiable rule: if your team won't use it day-to-day, don't buy it.

We also tackle the big debate: "customers don't want calls anymore." Spoiler: they don't want robocalls… but they do want real explanations when it matters, especially in service.

If you're trying to modernize your dealership without sacrificing the human connection that built your reputation, this episode is a roadmap.

🔥Check out our sponsors!🔥

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading automotive DMS platform that helps dealerships run more efficient, connected, and customer-focused sales and service operations.

LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability.

Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.

ZukiTalk helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals.

Why the Service Walk-Around Is Dying and How to Bring It Back Feb 03, 2026

Show notes

There are two sacred moments in every service visit and if you miss them, nothing else matters.

In this episode of Dealer Talk, Jen Suzuki breaks down the most overlooked, most powerful moment in the service lane: the check-in.

This isn't about speed. It's not about scripts, numbers, or reports. And it's definitely not about rushing customers through like a transaction.

Jen shares what she's seeing on dealership drives across the country: walk-arounds disappearing, advisors glued to iPads, low energy, rushed tones and customers quietly losing trust.

You'll learn why the check-in is where trust is either built or broken, how a proper walk-around isn't an upsell but an education, and why customer involvement early makes approvals easier later. From eye contact and body language to flashlight moments under the hood, this episode dives into the small, human details that drive retention, loyalty and long-term relationships.

If you're a service advisor or manager who wants better inspections, smoother MPI conversations, stronger surveys, and customers who come back asking for you, this episode is required listening.

Because when customers feel seen and heard, everything else gets easier.

AI Isn't the Hero, Here's the Service Model That Works for Advisors Feb 01, 2026

Show notes

AI isn't here to replace service advisors, it's here to protect what they do best.

In this episode of Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki, Jen speaks directly to service leaders navigating the overwhelming wave of new AI tools flooding the automotive space. While the industry is being told to move faster, adopt more, and automate everything, Jen challenges leaders to slow down and ask a more important question:

Is this technology protecting human connection or eroding it?

Service advisors sit at the center of the customer experience, yet their role has been stretched beyond sustainable human limits. Between check-ins, walk-arounds, technician communication, approvals, loaners, follow-ups, explanations, CSI pressure, and emotional labor, advisors are maxed out and piling on more systems isn't innovation. It's overload.

Jen shares real-world observations from working in service departments over the past year, including her experience building AI to assist with one very specific task: MPI approval calls. What became clear is that when advisors are freed from repetitive, draining work, approvals move faster, technicians wait less, shops flow better, and advisors can be present where they matter most with customers.

This episode reframes AI's role in service: not as the hero, but as the quiet support system working in the background so advisors can lead with trust, clarity, and confidence.

Because the future of service isn't human or AI, it's human + AI, used wisely.

🔥Check out our sponsors!🔥

LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability.

Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading automotive DMS platform that helps dealerships run more efficient, connected, and customer-focused sales and service operations.

ZukiTalk helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals.

What Actually Works in BDC | AI Best Practices From #2 Kia Store BDC Director Jan 28, 2026

Show notes

In this episode of Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki, I sit down with Jessica Colan, who leads one of the biggest BDC departments in the country and works in the #2 Kia store in the nation. I've known Jessica for more than a decade and trained her team for years and what makes her different is simple: she doesn't chase shiny toolsshe tests them against real processes until they perform.

We talk about what's actually working with AI inside a high-performing dealership BDC—specifically how Jessica has used Matador AI hands-on for the last two years to revive stagnant leads, re-engage "ghosted" customers and target low-hanging fruit without wasting human time on dead ends.

Jessica breaks down her "sacred" strategies:

Building custom workflows and sequences by lead source (Trader, Sam's Club, etc.)
Training the AI to sound like your store—not generic dealership spam
Setting up human alerts so the team tags in fast when AI hits a boundary
Running CSV-based campaigns (loyalty, lease maturity, unsold visits) with the right staffing so replies don't overwhelm the team
Using AI-driven engagement to turn "closed" opportunities into open, actionable leads—and pushing hot conversations into the CRM for history
Pairing engagement with quick, targeted video from product specialists (30–40 seconds, not a full walkaround) once the customer shows real intent

This is a real-world look at the truth most dealers are learning the hard way: AI tools don't work without a human behind them. You have to train it, guide it, and integrate it into your process because the goal isn't to automate relationships…it's to protect them.

If you're a GM, BDC director, sales leader, or operator trying to revive leads and stop wasting time, you'll want to hear exactly how a top Kia store is using AI to create speed, engagement, and competitive advantage.

🔥Check out our sponsors!🔥

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading automotive DMS platform that helps dealerships run more efficient, connected, and customer-focused sales and service operations.

ZukiTalk helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals.

LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability.

Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.

Rey: Learn This DMS AI Assistant Dealers Have Been Waiting For! Jan 27, 2026

Show notes

This episode is all about the kind of AI dealers actually need not another shiny chatbot, but a real assistant built inside the DMS and grounded in real dealership data, real workflows, and real accountability.

I'm joined by AJ McGowan, VP of Research & Development at Reynolds and Reynolds and co-founder of AutoVision, to talk about Reynolds' newest reveal: Rey, a tailored AI assistant integrated directly into the Reynolds ecosystem.

We get super practical on how leaders, managers, and frontline teams could use Ray day-to-day:

Service teams asking real-time status questions without leaving the bay
Used car managers making smarter auction decisions by cross-referencing market intelligence with store performance
Multi-store operators pulling up-to-the-second answers mid-meeting (instead of printing reports that are outdated the next morning)
Teams using Ray to learn Reynolds tools, message each other, and even connect with Reynolds support with context already included

Bottom line: the dealer's job isn't to use software, it's to take care of customers. Rey is designed to remove friction, reduce report-chasing, and help dealerships make faster, more confident decisions using the data they already own.

🔥Check out our sponsors!🔥

Matador.ai, AI That Fully Automates Sales & Service Conversations For Dealerships.

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading automotive DMS platform that helps dealerships run more efficient, connected, and customer-focused sales and service operations.

ZukiTalk helps service advisors by making clear, consistent MPI calls that educate customers and increase approvals.

LotLinx.com is a VIN Management Platform that enables precision automotive retailing via /AI/ technologies that improves dealership profitability.