Driving the Future: How myKaarma Is Enhancing Mobile Service in Automotive Retail

At myKaarma, we’re at the heart of rapid changes in the retail automotive industry, and our commitment to mobile service is a clear testament to our commitment to these transformative shifts. Customers no longer want to schedule their lives around dealership visits. They expect service to come to them. As Nolan Ampriester of Kinley Automotive Group put it, “Everybody craves convenience. Everybody wants something brought to them…We’ve gotten great at making customers do business on our terms. We just have to pivot.”

Mobile service is no longer a side offering. It’s becoming a central strategy for dealerships looking to expand capacity, improve customer experience, and drive revenue growth. At the myKaarma-hosted Mobile Service Panel on Ted Ing’s Fixed Ops Roundtable podcast, industry leaders shared how this shift is reshaping operations and how technology is the key to unlocking its potential.

Dealerships pioneering mobile service are seeing incredible adoption. Ampriester described scaling from one van to 33 vehicles running across multiple shifts, handling more than 35,000 mobile repair orders in a single year. For fleet clients, this has meant near-zero downtime, with inspections and repairs done overnight so trucks can stay on the road.

Ed Roberts of Bozard Ford Lincoln emphasized the retail benefits: “Our main priority was to relieve our main shop capacity… we have same day or next day availability now. We’ve moved the needle tremendously on the retail side.”

The value is clear: customers get back precious time, while dealerships expand throughput without the cost of new bays or facilities.

A surprising insight from the panel was how mobile service strengthens (not weakens) the customer relationship. Jeremy Stephens noted, “The technicians have bypassed the service advisor and the customer wants the technician to go back once they build that relationship. The challenge now is how do I get that technician back to that customer every single time?”

Jim Sabino echoed this, describing how technicians often know customers’ pets, families, and hobbies. “It’s a very personal face-to-face interaction… it’s a customer retention tool, a customer satisfaction tool, and a revenue driver.”

This intimacy fosters loyalty, backed by data. According to Mark Mickens, “90% of the customers that had their mobile service done were likely to have the next one done… three times the national average for service retention.”

While customer demand is surging, scaling mobile service requires sophisticated tools to manage scheduling, communication, and diagnostics. That’s where myKaarma comes in.

As Matt Bateman, VP of Partnerships at myKaarma, explained, “None of this is going to happen without advanced technology. That’s going to continue to improve.”

• Service Pre-Diag: A breakthrough AI tool that lets customers describe their vehicle issues before the appointment. It asks smart, guided questions: “Is it on startup? Is it when you’re making turns?” and then delivers a detailed summary directly to the technician. This reduces diagnostic time by 30–40 minutes and increases ROI dollars by 20%.
  
• Streamlined Scheduling & Communication: Coordinators can handle routes, updates, and customer messaging seamlessly through myKaarma’s unified platform, ensuring technicians arrive prepared and customers stay informed.
  
• Integrated Payments & Invoicing: Customers can approve estimates and pay directly via mobile, eliminating friction and matching the convenience of services like DoorDash or Instacart.
  

By simplifying logistics, empowering technicians with better information, and giving customers the transparency they expect, myKaarma transforms mobile service into a scalable, profitable business model for dealerships.

As Sabino declared, “We are way beyond proof of concept… it works. Believe in it and it works.” Mobile service is no longer experimental. It’s the new standard.

Dealers that embrace it now, backed by technology like myKaarma, can capture market share, delight customers, and grow without adding brick and mortar. In Ampriester’s words: “It never stops growing. That’s the awesome thing about a remote operation; you can scale it to whatever you want.”

Mobile service is reshaping fixed ops, not as a supplement but as a core pillar of dealership operations. With myKaarma’s innovative tools like Service Pre-Diag, mobile payments, and integrated scheduling, dealerships can deliver on the promise of convenience while improving efficiency and profitability.

The future of fixed ops is mobile. The question isn’t if dealerships should invest, but how fast can they get started?👉 Learn more about how myKaarma can help your dealership accelerate its mobile service strategy: myKaarma Mobile Service Solutions