Driving Solutions with Jim Fitzpatrick, powered by CBT News

How Digital Displays Transform Dealership Culture And Results

• CBT News • Season 1 • Episode 16

Share episode

We explore how North Georgia Toyota uses digital screens to elevate customer trust, motivate teams, and replace manual reports with live, shared data that updates every 15 minutes. GM Greg Epps shows how real-time visibility builds culture while managers gain flexible tools for goals, coaching, and KPIs.

• replacing whiteboards and spreadsheets with real-time screens
• service status boards that show pricing and RO progress to customers
• sales leaderboards that motivate and build culture
• mobile alerts and live KPIs for instant feedback
• fixed ops metrics like effective labor rate and dollar per RO
• opcode tracking and bonus transparency updated every 15 minutes
• management tools for coaching, evaluations, and custom goals
• cost-efficient deployment with one player powering many TVs
• flexible onboarding from a la carte to turnkey
• investing in experience to stand out in crowded markets

Schedule a demo at digitaldealershipsystem.com. There’s also a link right below the video you’re watching—one click away to book your demo. See us at NADA in a few months


Driving Solutions is the go-to podcast for dealership professionals who want to stay sharp, informed, and ahead of the curve. Hosted by Jim Fitzpatrick and powered by CBT News, each episode brings you real strategies, smart tools, and expert insights to help you run a more profitable operation.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and visit CBTNews.com for more.

Announcer:

This is Driving Solutions exclusively on cbtnews.com.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Hello everyone and welcome into another edition of Driving Solutions exclusively right here at cbtnews.com. Digital screens can take your dealership's customer experience to the next level, but they can also boost the engagement and productivity of your sales and service teams by replacing manual reports or handwritten whiteboards with dynamic screens and leaderboards that keep your staff updated in real time. We recently visited North Georgia Toyota and spoke with GM Greg Epps about his store's experience with digital screens. Take a look.

Greg Epps:

My name is Greg Epps, and I'm the general manager here at North Georgia Toyota in beautiful Dalton, Georgia. The store, the Toyota franchise, has been in Dalton since 75. So we're we're on our 50th anniversary coming up. We talk a lot around here about customer experience, culture, what it is. Everything about the customer experience is top of mind. And we give that good experience and we're continuing to evolve with that. When people walk into our dealership, they see all these screens, all these things going on. It's kind of a wow experience. Some of them in the closing booths are just showing rolling footage. As they're getting ready to purchase a unit, they're sitting there watching all this great stuff come through. Service-wise, we have the service pricing menu, the status of their car. People aren't here for service because they want to be. What you can keep them informed and entertain a little bit, the digital systems very much add to that experience. We have the sales tracking board in the sales tower. Every time a salesman has to come desk a deal they're looking at. It's constantly just reinforcing where they're at. You know, if you're down here on the bottom of the list, you know, you can't. You'll hear them say, I gotta move up. We have a couple of screens in the conference room that just rotates through the sales, everything. I want everybody, every employee, wherever they're at in the dealership, they can kind of look and get a feel for where we're at with the back end of the DDS system. You know, it can be used as a management tool, but I look at it really more as a just a communication tool. We're really, you know, looking at ways that things we can show them that they can track every minute of every day, and looking at how we can tie pay plans in. The system will track hours, hours per hour, everything that they're doing, everything that the advisors are doing, to where it really is a transparent, you know, you know, they know what to expect at the end of the week. And again, you get you get some of the friendly competition back there, you know. It does not take the place of management and the need to, you know, some of these other things, but it does take the place of some of that day-to-day task that people had to do. You know, you do paper reports or whiteboards, whatever, that don't get updated, you know, they're three days behind, or people don't run the reports. Now that they don't have to spend as much time building these reports, they can spend more time of getting with employees and and drilling into it rather than just here's your numbers. My two words of advice would be do it. I don't regret one minute ever- the money we've spent keeping them in force and in place. And I think it's it would be a good thing for any dealer that is looking at improving communication and keeping ahead of technology and in our bed technology-related data, that that's that's what's going to drive you into the future. From a customer viewpoint, you know, technology and ways you can serve them better, ways you can be more efficient, more productive, provide a easier, more transparent process. And it all takes it all takes technology. But at the end of the day, we're still in the people business.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So we just uh saw a video of uh Mr. Greg Epps, who is the general manager of North Georgia Toyota, high volume Toyota Dealership. Uh great guy, he's a huge proponent of your product and your services. So uh so let's let's break that down. Let's talk a little bit about that. Tell us a little bit about the store and how long you've they've been a client of yours.

Todd Katcher:

They they were uh Greg's always been into technology. Uh he's really been into the idea of the customer experience and really understanding how digital signs can be incorporated to communicate with customers from day one. I mean, you think it started back in 2016, 2017. And when you walked into his store, it the the customer experience was different from whether you came in for sales or for service. So he's integrated everything on that end, and then over time, he's also realized the benefit of communicating with his sales team even more by upgrading his dry erase boards and his fixed ops reports to boards that actually motivate his team. And what he says is build culture in his stores.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. Yeah, he he talked about that in the video, and he said when he was asked uh by the interviewer, you know, what did you do before the boards? And he goes, Well, we'd have like some spreadsheets or whiteboards or what have you, as is the case with most dealers. I know that's what I used when I was running stores, and that it's 2025. I mean, are we really still using whiteboards and sheets? But by and large, they are, and that's all historical data that you're looking at. What you're providing is data in real time. I mean, as soon as that uh that RO uh you know gets gets opened up, it's there for the for for the team to to monitor, right?

Todd Katcher:

Yeah, so there's two different components. And if we focus in on fixed ups for a second, uh from the customer perspective in Greg's store, they're seeing their name on the board when they walk in, and that RO is tracked through their process. So if someone's in the lounge area or walking around the store, as Greg says, they can actually see the status update so they know what's happening with their vehicle, and the dealership doesn't have to do anything for that. Then on the other end, you know, the average advisor is going to do between 100 and 150 ROs in a month. It's impossible for them to track that every 15 minutes, like what we do. So if they have bonuses for that, or on as a tech, you're looking at a board or you have a report. Most dealers that I speak to, they look at reports or share their reports or their techs or their advisors once a week. And so, how do you really track where you're going on a weekly basis? And what happens if that weekly ends at over over the time of a month end as well? So you kind of lose that ability to know where you are because a lot of them have bonuses based on their hours or efficiency or different metrics. How are you tracking that if you're looking at a report once a week or even once a day? Yeah, if you're doing 150 ROs a month, you know, I how are you tracking that to know where your performances, where you're trending, where you're tracking based on your metrics that you have in the store?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. Let's talk about the the internal team, uh, the sales team, the the service team. Um, obviously, when we didn't have these boards, you know, when I was uh uh running stores, um, we used the motivator board that we would change weekly. You know, here's how many cars you got sold, here's how many warranties, here's how many trade-ins came in, so and so on, which was obviously a very antiquated way to do that. Now, obviously, with with a service and a product like yours, it's in real time right there in front of the world to see. So talk to me about that. Because when you walk into the desk uh or the tower, you know, depending on what they call it at the dealership today, but if you walk into the desk area with the sales managers, you've got it all right there. So that that's a true motivator board, right?

Todd Katcher:

Yeah, so our program is actually goes beyond just that screen. So with our system, not only does it rotate through reports that the dealer selects, but then there's also mobile reporting. We've had some great users of our system that are using their mobile to go ahead and communicate with their staff on where they are based on their goals that they set. So they know even on their mobile device, they get an alert whenever one of their colleagues sells a car, and then they all gather around the sales, uh, the sales desk and look at our screen update because it doesn't update just your sales, it's gonna update where you stand on all the KPIs that you're monitoring in the store. They all applaud. Name pops up on the screen saying, congratulations, and then they go ahead and get back to work because now they got a little motivation in them and it builds culture in the store, a little camaraderie in there on the sales time. And you can't you can't do that otherwise. And so uh so people are gonna feel more part of a team if you have if your goal is 10 and someone else is 20, but yet you're gonna hit your goal, you're at the top of the board where they might not be at the top of the board because they're having a slower month.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right.

Todd Katcher:

So again, it it creates a little bit more like you may not be the top performer, but within what you can do based on your schedule, you're doing the best that you can and you get awarded for that with our system where no other system accomplishes that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right. And then the manager's got the opportunity to set whatever their they want, whatever those KPIs that they want the KPI to be. So if it's gross profit, if it's extended warranties, if it's the most trades, what whatever they want to choose, they can they can put that right into the board and and and uh call it a day, right?

Todd Katcher:

Yeah, managers have the ability to log into the back end of the system and do performance evaluations. We have coaching modules built in. We have uh you could dig into each individual salesperson's performance and set goals for them right there on the spot. So you could use it for doing evaluations of your team, and it's it's a really hands-on tool for management. But what we do for managers is really unique. Every CRM or DMS has this information, and some of those advanced reporting tools that are five times more expensive than ours have those reporting tools, but that shows what's happening in the past. Ours is showing live information just with a couple clicks. So we try to filter everything down into something that's extremely usable while still being advanced enough that we wow customers with all the different features we have. And that's just on sales, let alone fixed.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's fantastic. Um, in Greg's dealerships, he's got screens everywhere. I mean, he's got them in the closing booths, as he as he mentioned uh in the interview. Uh he's got them in the service center, he's got them in the waiting room, he's got them out in the showroom, he's got them in the uh in the desk area, the tower area for the sales managers. I mean, this guy's fully screened out, right? I mean, that that it and he said it's very impressive to the customers that come in.

Todd Katcher:

Yeah, I mean, one of the things that you you deal with in any market, but uh especially in in crowded markets, is that you might have four or five other stores where you could buy a Toyota Camry or a ton, whatever the car is that you're looking for. What where do they want to spend the money? They want to spend the money where the dealer is investing back into the store, back into their people. And remember that when they invest in digital signs on the staff as well as on the customers, everybody feels more welcome. Because not many dealers spend money on their staff.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right.

Todd Katcher:

And so and not many dealers spend money on facilities.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Todd Katcher:

So for dealers that do that, it makes it a better place for the- for the staff to work. And that means that the the the team there is more engaged.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Couldn't agree more. Talk to me about the service now. So so the screen would be right in the middle of the service center or the or the garage rather. Um talk to me about that. And then and then what KPIs are you putting up there?

Todd Katcher:

Oh, tons. So we're so we have over 30 different reports that can be put up on the screen and it's all live. It updates every 15 minutes. So the average advisor is going to do about 100 to 150 ROs a month. The shop guys, they're doing hundreds of hours a month. So the idea to go ahead and track that and update that every 15 minutes with effective labor rate, dollar per RO. We even do opcode tracking. So I talked to a dealer last week and they were spending over an hour a day to track one specific opcode that they had a bonus program set up. Well, that giving that hour back to them not only is helpful and allow them to go ahead and manage their people as opposed to manage reports.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right.

Todd Katcher:

Now our system goes ahead and updates every 15 minutes. So they have a bonus schedule based on selling a particular RO or opcode or part. And they're trying to push that. Well, our system updates on screens that they could see, or they could log in on the desktop and see that information and where they stand so they can see where they are in their bonuses. With our system, you could create a bonus structure in our system with goals. We look at dollar per RO, appointment show rate, uh, the opcode report that we we built for dealers, it's what's called saturation report. And then we have those reports available, but then the manager who may not be it see in front of a screen has access to all these reports at any time from their desktop computer, and they could share those with their general manager live reports. Most other reporting tools, when you share a report, it's an old report. With our system, we built a technology that allows them to share a report that as soon as they open it up, it automatically updates with the latest information.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's fantastic. And uh last time we talked, you said that uh that there it it's got an app, so any GM or GSM that wants to check any of these reports out, they're walking around with it in their pocket. I mean, that's so they they know in real time what what service looks like, what sales looks like, right?

Todd Katcher:

Yeah, indeed. And and you can even give access to the individual staff on for fix or for sales, and they can log in and only see their metrics.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Nice.

Todd Katcher:

Again, like Greg said, it doesn't take the place of management, it doesn't take the place of training, right? It doesn't take the place of your other advertising and marketing, but you do, but it gives a little bit. Like imagine if you went to any dealership and said, Hey, would you spend a couple hundred dollars a month in order to get a 10 or 15% bump in bottom revenue?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Uh-huh, it's a no brainer.

Todd Katcher:

You know, would you do that at any time? Would you spend a couple grand? Like they're spending $100,000 to get people from the outside in. Would you spend two grand inside the store? No doubt, or a couple hundred dollars inside the store. That's what Greg's spending. I mean, it's not a big expense because of our technology. You could take one media player with one layout and put it to 20 TVs. Wow. And so it's not an expensive endeavor. And just because they have a big sales staff, I can tell you stories. They don't always just sign up for something digital because they have a big sales staff. I mean, there I know a dealership that has 75 salespeople in Texas. I'll tell you that much. 75 salespeople on their sales floor, and they have a manual board. They have to get on a ladder. He literally said they get on a ladder instead of spending a couple hundred dollars a month.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's crazy. That's crazy.

Todd Katcher:

You know, I spoke to one of the realize it's not Jim, realize it's not because the money. If you have 75 salespeople and you're doing over a thousand cars a month, it's not because you don't want to spend the money, it's because or you don't have the money, it's because you don't want to spend it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right. And that's crazy because when you put man hours on that just to update that board alone, it costs you a fortune just in having somebody do that, regardless of who in the dealership is doing it.

Todd Katcher:

We had a had a customer who had a new change of manager last week, uh a Honda store in New Jersey. They had a change of management and they they turned off our system because they wanted to update the pricing and do all that type of stuff. And he's like, once we got it dialed in, he turned on, he goes, This is the best thing I've ever seen. I've been in the- in the business for I've been a service manager for 30 years. Wow. And this is the best thing I've ever seen. The graphics are so clear, yeah, everything looks great. We have customers asking about things that they never asked about before. That's cool. And that's a $99 service menu.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's fantastic. Yeah. For dealers that are listening to us have this conversation, Todd. The obviously these are the kinds of solutions that we want to be bringing our dealer audience. Um, what what is the next step? Do they call you and say, come on out to the store and and do an assessment, or how many screens do you think I need? And what's the rampa or the the uh the installation time and what uh what or the onboarding? What is it what does all that look like?

Todd Katcher:

Every deal every conversation is a little bit different because every dealer wants something different. Again, it's based on what they want. Um, and so our programs are really customized. Like we said, we could have a dealer who does less than a hundred cars that spends a couple thousand dollars a month, and a dealership that does a thousand cars a month that spends $99 a month. It's up to the management. Okay. So I say start the conversation. So digital dealershipsystem.com. Okay. Uh go there and go ahead and schedule a demo. We have it's a great website. We just redid it. Yep. Uh has videos of our products on there, uh, has everything lit up. You can also go to our YouTube page. I'm on LinkedIn. Uh feel free to reach out and schedule something. The best way to do it is to click schedule demo on our website.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay.

Todd Katcher:

Schedule a demo that's uh convenient for you. Uh if you want to do a 30-minute hour conversation just to go over what's best for you, uh, and we'll spend the time and figure out which one of our products and services or which suite of products and services work best for you. We offer our services as an a la carte service, which is basically just uh we send them the media player and they do the installation as dealers have become more sophisticated, or we could do a complete turnkey installation. Again, it depends on what the dealership wants and what how much they want to invest in that process.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

All right, it sounds like you're very flexible on all of that, which is great. So for the dealer that needs the full suite of services, let's go. And for the ones that just want a certain ones, you you're okay with that, with that too. We're showing all the information on the screen here. I highly recommend, as I have before, when Todd is on. I'm always excited when you are on, Todd, because I I get a lot of great comments from dealers, but uh I highly recommend that you check this out. There's also a link right below the video that you're watching. One click, uh, you're one click away from from going right over to his website and scheduling a demo. You're also going to be at NADA, which is now just a few months away, and uh we'll be seeing you out there. But uh Todd Katcher, founder of Digital Dealership Systems, thank you so much for once again joining us here on CBT News. We very much appreciate it. I know that our audience gets a lot out of it, so thanks.

Todd Katcher:

I appreciate it as always, Jim. Have a great day.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

You too.

Todd Katcher:

Thank you.

Announcer:

Thanks for watching Driving Solutions exclusively on cbtnews.com