MRC 2025: Don’t Miss Eric Mercado’s Workshop on Fixed-Ops & CLV

From First Oil Change to Forever: Driving Customer Lifetime Value Through Fixed-Ops Marketing The countdown is on. In just two weeks, the Modern Retailing Conference returns to Palm Beach — and Force Marketing is proud to be back as a Platinum Sponsor, driving the conversations that define the future of automotive retail. This year, we’re focusing on what truly connects dealers and their customers: the service experience. Why Fixed-Ops Is the New Front Line of Loyalty For years, success in automotive retail has been measured by monthly sales volume. But as consumer expectations shift and acquisition costs rise, the most forward-thinking retailers are rethinking what drives true growth — Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Your fixed-ops department is more than a service lane. It’s your most consistent opportunity to build trust, gather first-party data, and stay connected long before customers re-enter the buying cycle. Inside the Workshop On November 17 at 10:30 AM in Plaza 1, Eric Mercado, Partner/Division President at Force Marketing and our family of brands — WeDrive and GSM — will lead a workshop titled: “From First Oil Change to Forever: Driving Customer Lifetime Value Through Fixed-Ops Marketing.” In this session, Eric will challenge automotive retailers to rethink fixed-ops marketing as the most powerful driver of CLV. He’ll walk through how an audience-first, offer-second strategy — built on precise, VIN-verified audiences — outperforms broad, generic campaigns every time. Drawing on years of experience helping top dealer groups unlock the power of first-party data, Eric will show how a Customer Data Platform (CDP) can unify sales, service, and marketing data to create a single, actionable view of each customer. With this unified view, dealers can orchestrate omnichannel communication — across email, direct mail, display, social, streaming, and text — that triggers the right message at the right time in each customer’s ownership journey. Attendees Will Learn: How to calculate and increase CLV by leveraging the service lane as the starting point for long-term loyalty and repurchase. Why segmenting by ownership triggers (warranty expiration, recall, service due) drives higher ROI and more efficient ad spend. Practical steps to activate audience-first campaigns with data-driven offers across channels instead of blasting generic promotions. Real-world examples of dealers using CDP-powered personalization to retain customers, win back defectors, and drive profitable second and third transactions. This session is perfect for dealer principals, general managers, fixed-ops directors, and marketing leaders who want to move beyond one-time service coupons and build a predictable, high-ROI pipeline of repeat sales and service revenue. View the official session on the Modern Retailing Conference site. Continuing The Conversation Last year, Eric Mercado joined industry leaders on CBT News to discuss the evolving role of first-party data, customer lifecycle marketing, and the future of fixed-ops engagement. His message then was simple: dealers who treat every service interaction as a data opportunity will lead the next decade of customer growth. That insight has only become more relevant. At this year’s Modern Retailing Conference, Eric will build on that foundation—showing how dealers can connect first-party data across service, sales, and marketing channels to create a unified customer journey. Watch Last Year’s Interview Here: Why It Matters Now As Q4 continues and the industry looks ahead to 2026, connecting service and sales through first-party data isn’t optional — it’s essential. Dealers who master that connection today will own the customer relationship for years to come. Modern Retailing Conference | Palm Beach, FLNovember 17 | 10:30 AM | Plaza 1 Why It Matters Now As Q4 continues and the industry looks ahead to 2026, connecting service and sales through first-party data isn’t optional — it’s essential. Dealers who master that connection today will own the customer relationship for years to come. Modern Retailing Conference | Palm Beach, FLNovember 17 | 10:30 AM | Plaza 1