Service loyalty is slipping. According to the 2025 Cox Automotive Fixed Ops and Ownership Study, the share of buyers with vehicles under two years old returning to the selling dealer for service fell from 72% to 54% since 2018, and dealers have lost roughly 12% of service visits to competitors over the same period. That is real fixed-ops revenue leaving the building, and a future sales customer leaving with it.
The good news? Those customers are not gone for good. Most are sitting in your DMS right now, unworked, waiting for a reason to come back to you.
Your first-party data is the asset. Customers you sold but never serviced, or who you have not seen in over a year, represent an opportunity, not a loss.
They left for fixable reasons. A large share cite price perception or poor communication, not better service somewhere else.
Reactivation beats acquisition. Winning back a known customer costs a fraction of finding a new one, and repair orders are predictable.
The complete guide shows how to turn your DMS into a reactivation engine using market intelligence and AI, and how to recapture the revenue you already had a claim to. Fill out the form below to get instant access.