Open recalls are one of the most persistent challenges in fixed ops. Customers don’t ignore recalls because they don’t care — they ignore them because resolving them is inconvenient.
Phone calls go unanswered. Mailers get tossed. BDC teams burn hours chasing customers who never schedule. That’s exactly the challenge Chalmers Ford in Albuquerque, New Mexico was facing.
Despite strong customer satisfaction scores, recall completion rates were stagnant. Traditional outreach wasn’t working, and the dealership needed a way to activate open recalls without adding more strain to their BDC or service department.
The Recall Problem Most Dealerships Face
Like many dealerships, Chalmers Ford had thousands of open recalls across multiple OEM campaigns. Their challenges were familiar:
- Phone-based recall outreach taxed BDC resources
- Mail campaigns produced limited engagement
- Customers delayed action because scheduling felt like a hassle
- Recall appointments competed with in-lane service capacity
The issue wasn’t awareness — it was activation. Chalmers needed a way to:
- Reach customers at scale
- Make it easy to say “yes” to a recall
- Convert outreach directly into booked appointments
- Grow mobile service volume without increasing call center workload
A Digital-First Approach to Recall Engagement
To break the cycle, Chalmers Ford implemented Spiffy’s Recall Capture™, a digital recall engagement and scheduling solution built specifically for mobile service operations.
Instead of relying on phone calls, the dealership launched a targeted digital outreach campaign across over 2,000 vehicles with open recalls.
Each customer received personalized SMS and email messaging that:
- Educated them about their open recall
- Offered a convenient mobile service solution
- Allowed them to schedule an appointment instantly
Customers could book a mobile recall appointment online using Spiffy’s Mobile Scheduler, without BDC involvement. This reduced scheduling burden and call center volume while delivering a fast, convenient booking experience.
The Results After 30 Days
The impact was immediate.
In the first 30 days, Chalmers Ford generated 308 mobile recall appointments through targeted outreach—unlocking incremental service volume from customers who had not responded to traditional methods. The campaign achieved a 14.5% yield from 2,129 targeted vehicles, demonstrating that digital-first recall engagement, paired with mobile service, can significantly improve conversion.
Operational Efficiency Meets Revenue Growth
Beyond appointment volume, Recall Capture delivers meaningful operational and financial impact.
From a single campaign, Chalmers Ford unlocked:
- Approximately 308 mobile labor hours
- An estimated $46,000 in labor revenue*
- Up to $15,250 in OEM mobile incentives*
At the same time, nearly 40% of all appointments were created without a phone call, reducing BDC workload and freeing staff to focus on higher-value interactions.
*Estimates are illustrative. Dealer labor rates, recall labor time, and OEM incentive structures vary by market and program.
Why This Matters for Fixed Ops Leaders
Chalmers Ford isn’t just a recall success story. It’s a signal of how fixed operations are evolving. As customer expectations shift toward convenience and digital-first experiences, recall execution has become less about checking a box and more about capturing demand and turning it into revenue.
Fixed ops leaders are evaluated on their ability to scale service without scaling headcount. This is where traditional recall strategies fall short. Manual outreach and phone-based scheduling simply don’t align with the volume, speed, or flexibility modern service operations require.
Chalmers Ford demonstrates what happens when dealers invest in establishing a recall outreach program, rather than treating it as a side project. By embedding digital engagement and self-scheduling into their recall process, they created a repeatable, low-touch way to convert latent demand into booked mobile appointments.
For fixed ops leaders, the takeaway isn’t about chasing a single result. It’s about building infrastructure that turns recalls into a dependable, controllable input for mobile service growth.
Ready to Capture More Recall Demand?
Open recalls represent untapped service demand. Recall Capture helps dealerships activate that demand, convert it into booked mobile appointments, and scale recall execution without increasing headcount.
If your team is ready to complete more recalls and drive incremental service revenue, now is the time to implement Spiffy’s Recall Capture. Book a demo to see it in action.
Posted in Digital Servicing
