About Austin Subaru

Austin Subaru, part of the Continental Automotive Group (CAG), is a top-performing dealership in Austin, Texas. It leads the country in customer pay labor and parts sales and ranks in the top 10 for new car sales. With over 60 years of service to the community, Austin Subaru continues to excel by offering a high level of personalized care to all its customers. The dealership has over 180 employees, including 53 technicians, and services 100+ cars per day. Cody Penna, General Manager of Austin Subaru, has been with CAG for 13 years, progressing through various roles before taking on his current position in 2024.

The Challenge

In a busy, high-demand environment like Austin Subaru, keeping up with customer needs and maintaining a high level of service is no small task. With a large customer base and a full staff, the dealership faced the challenge of effectively managing customer outreach, service reminders, and appointment scheduling—tasks that would otherwise require significant manual effort. Austin Subaru needed a solution that would allow them to stay connected with customers at every stage of their lifecycle without overburdening their team.

“Imagine having a busy team, but still finding it hard to keep up with all the customer communication. The challenge was finding a way to stay connected and keep the service department running efficiently without burning out our staff.”
— Cody Penna, GM, Austin Subaru

The Solution: Kenect AI

Kenect’s AI-driven platform arrived at a critical moment. Originally referred through a personal network, Cody was immediately impressed by the team’s responsiveness and partnership-first approach.
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"They didn’t come in with a one-size-fits-all pitch. They asked, ‘What’s going on at your store, and how can we help?’ That never happens with vendors.”
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CAG implemented Kenect’s cutting-edge AI solutions across their network of stores to automate business processes to accelerate customer engagement, appointment scheduling, and outreach campaigns to maximize opportunities within their customer base.

With the AI solutions in place, CAG quickly experienced significant growth across its service departments in terms of volume, retention, and staff efficiency, while maintaining high customer satisfaction. The results speak for themselves.

The Results

Service Retention for Out-of-Warranty Vehicles

Austin Subaru saw a significant improvement in service retention for out-of-warranty vehicles, growing from 8.5% to more than 50% above the manufacturer’s expected rate.

“We’ve seen service retention soar for out-of-warranty vehicles. Our retention rate is now more than 50% above the expected numbers for out-of-warranty cars. That means hundreds of additional vehicles serviced every year.”

Recalls Revenue

Kenect's platform helped automate the management of recalls, resulting in substantial revenue gains.

"By automating recall outreach, we’ve been able to completely clear recall lists across all our stores, which has brought in hundreds of thousands in revenue.”

Empowered Staff

The AI allowed the team to focus on customer relationships instead of time-consuming administrative tasks.

“Our team used to manage huge spreadsheets and lists manually, which took days. Now, with Kenect, it’s all automated, saving us hours of work each week. The team is much more energized and focused on helping customers when they need it most.”

Speed to Launch

Kenect made it easy for Austin Subaru to quickly integrate the system, even when expanding to new locations.

"When we acquired a new dealership last year, we had everything up and running with Kenect in less than 24 hours. It was a seamless transition.”

Human-First AI

Kenect allows Austin Subaru to automate processes while empowering staff to focus on engaging with customers.

"Kenect takes care of the heavy lifting, allowing my team to be present, personable, and focused on building strong customer relationships.”

ROI

The return on investment from Kenect has been substantial, with Cody noting that the system paid for itself many times over.

"The ROI from Kenect has been incredible. It costs less than hiring an additional agent but gives us so much more. I wouldn’t want to run the dealership without it.”