Responsiveness Drives Retention: Derek Simonds of Numa at the Fixed Ops Roundtable

Derek Simonds, Numa’s EVP of Automotive, joined Ted Ings and Sarah Vantine on the Fixed Ops Roundtable to talk about what those conversations show. He argued that a service drive keeps the customers it answers, and that the advisors who respond fastest bring in the most revenue.

Watch the full Fixed Ops Roundtable episode with Derek Simonds. It runs about 20 minutes. This recap covers the main points, and the episode has the numbers and stories behind them.

Key takeaway: Customers come back to the dealership that answers them. In every dealership Derek works with, the advisor who responds fastest and most often produces the most revenue.

The AI Question Dealerships Ask Has Changed

Five years ago, the first question dealerships asked Derek about AI in fixed operations was whether to use it at all. That conversation has moved on.

“Today, that question has evolved to what AI are you using?”

His answer starts with where the AI sits. A dealership’s DMS and CRM are its systems of record, where the dealership records the business. Derek wants Numa to be the system where the work happens:

“We want to be that system of action, that overarching place where all the communication comes through, whether it’s text, whether it’s web chat, whether it’s voice, inbound or outbound, whether it’s e-mail.”

With every conversation in one place, the AI can draw on DMS and CRM data to build context on each customer. Derek described it predicting what people need to do next. For him, that delivers the promise dealerships have been waiting on: AI that makes their people more efficient. A GM also gets a clearer view, which is the subject of what a GM can see with one system.

Why Customers End Up Chasing the Service Drive

On status calls, Derek holds a hard line:

“If a customer has to call a dealership for a status update, we’ve already failed them.”

He places the cause in the advisor’s day. In his telling, advisors spend hours on the phone, holding for extended warranty approvals and trading voicemails with customers. The customers and technicians in front of them still need attention.

“They’re struggling to do the basics that they have to do as far as their job, because they are inundated with people in front of them, with technicians, with customers, and they’ve got all these voicemails.”

His example is an advisor with two finished multipoint inspections, recommended work waiting on the customer’s approval. That conversation is the priority, and the phone keeps interrupting it. Derek said AI handling the routine questions in the background gives the advisor that time back, so responses come faster.

The After-Hours Voicemail Test

Before a dealership goes live, Derek’s team mystery shops it. They call every published number: Google listings, the dealership website, and third-party car shopping sites. His reason is placement: the best AI gets no results if it sits in the wrong spot in the call tree.

Some of those calls go in after the service department closes. The shopper leaves a voicemail asking for an appointment. Derek estimates his team has run thousands of these shops this year at dealerships without AI answering after hours, and few of those voicemails got a callback:

“We have less than a three percent callback right now on voicemails that we left asking for an appointment.”

Then he played the customer. Derek needs a brake job and calls a little after six, once the service drive has closed. He leaves a message, and nobody calls back the next day. He won’t call twice. Driving down the road, he sees an independent shop advertising a brake special and turns in.

“If we lose them for a brake job, we don’t get them back for anything else.”

Weekends stretch the same gap across two days, which is how the Monday morning voicemail pileup starts.

The Fastest Advisor Sells the Most

Derek watches advisor response times across the dealerships he works with, and one pattern holds everywhere he looks:

“The service advisor that responds the fastest to his customers or her customers and they do it the most often produces the most revenue. Hands down.”

In his experience, an advisor who answers customers within minutes is the dealership’s top producer, and the dealership’s leaders confirm it when he asks. His explanation: customers spend more and are happier when the dealership is responsive.

Numa perspective: In the Numa system, calls, texts, voicemails, and chats flow into one shared inbox. AI answers the calls a team can’t reach, including after hours and weekends. Customers get status updates generated from their repair order in the DMS, so fewer of them need to call and ask. Advisors keep the conversations that need a person.

In the episode, Derek shares what happens to inbound calls per repair order once customers get updates without asking. Dealerships tell him the phones got quieter. Fewer transfers help too, as reducing call transfers without more reception staff explains.

Retention Sells the Next Car

Derek closed on the sales side of the dealership. He pointed to the pressure on front-end gross, which gives fixed ops absorption more weight, and he wants the service drive feeding the sales department. Service customers already know the dealership and its process. For Derek, the operating priority comes down to one thing:

“The only thing that matters to me as an operator today is that retention of the customer through the service life cycle. If I retain them in my service drive, I will sell them the next car.”

He ties the next car sale to how often a customer services with the dealership, and the gap he describes is wide. The episode has his numbers. Retention, in his view, runs on communication: answer customers and keep them informed, and satisfaction and retention follow. He made the retention case in more depth at an earlier Roundtable, recapped in what retention requires.

The Bottom Line: A Service Drive Keeps the Customers It Answers

Derek’s argument runs from the unreturned voicemail to the next car sale. Customers who get an answer come back, and the ones left waiting book somewhere else. Numa’s answer is one system for every conversation, so advisors have the time to respond.

Watch Derek Simonds on Ted Ings’ Fixed Ops Roundtable.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Fixed Ops Roundtable?

The Fixed Ops Roundtable is Ted Ings’ show on fixed operations, featuring leaders from across retail automotive. In this episode, Ted Ings and Sarah Vantine talk with Derek Simonds, EVP of Automotive at Numa, about AI, responsiveness, and service retention. The conversation runs about 20 minutes.

What is an AI operating system for a car dealership?

Derek Simonds describes it as a system of action. The DMS and CRM stay the systems of record. The AI operating system is the one place every customer conversation comes through: text, web chat, voice, and email. With every conversation in one place, the AI can use DMS and CRM data to anticipate what each customer needs next.

Why do after-hours voicemails matter to a service department?

A customer who calls after closing and hears nothing back can book the work somewhere else. Derek Simonds says Numa’s mystery shops this year called dealerships with no AI answering after hours. Less than 3% of the voicemails asking for a service appointment got a callback. A customer lost on a brake job, he says, rarely comes back for anything else.

Does service advisor response time affect revenue?

Derek Simonds says it does. In the dealerships he works with, the advisor who responds fastest and most often produces the most revenue, and dealership leaders confirm it when he asks. His explanation is that customers spend more and are happier when the dealership is responsive.

Where can I watch Derek Simonds on the Fixed Ops Roundtable?

The full episode is on Ted Ings’ Fixed Ops Roundtable. It covers status calls, after-hours voicemails, advisor response time, and how service retention feeds sales. Derek’s earlier Roundtable conversation is recapped in What Retention Actually Requires.

See how Numa keeps service customers updated and answers the calls your team can’t reach.