The Reynolds and Reynolds Company

California, here we come! Registration is officially open for Amplify 2026, our annual Reynolds Retail Summit. This year's event will be August 10-11 in sunny Carlsbad at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, Golf Club & Spa. “Amplify continues to grow year after year, and we are thrilled to bring it to the West Coast this August. It’s the perfect setting to experience our latest innovations, share perspectives, and learn from one another in a collaborative environment.” -Christopher Walsh, Reynolds president and acting CEO https://lnkd.in/eDMQ7nXi

“This [Work Forward Internship] program shows me that Wright State isn’t just here to give me a piece of paper... Wright State is setting me up for life.” During his first year at Wright State, Nathan Fairweather thought an internship was out of reach. But thanks to the Work Forward Internship Program and Wright State determination, he was able to land an internship as a software engineer at Reynolds and Reynolds at just 19 years old. 🔗: https://lnkd.in/eftwD7Qc

The impact of Engagement AI, by the numbers: • 37% decrease in appointment no shows • 81% decrease in prospects with no response • Average number of customer engagement touchpoints: 41.8 The average response time for internet leads dropped from 4.2 hours to instant engagement with Engagement AI!

You’ve made the investment, cleared reconditioning, and have a great vehicle finally ready for sale. But instead of showing up online in front of eager shoppers, your inventory stalls. Why? It’s stuck behind a bottleneck of manual tasks, busy schedules, and outdated processes. Stop letting manual merchandising eat away at your time and profit. #FuelFriday https://lnkd.in/gHmVwac2

Customer Testimonial #2 This week, I want to recognize and thank Michael Zamora at Kia Country for taking the time to share how Reynolds has made a meaningful impact on their day-to-day operations. Pictured here is one of the many marketing solutions Reynolds offers—PromoTAG. The concept is simple: get the messaging that matters most to your business in front of 100% of your service customers using your dispatch tags. Here’s what Michael had to say as a long-time PromoTAG user: “Your level of communication has been exceptional, and it has made a significant impact on our day-to-day operations. The services you provide have greatly improved our ability to communicate effectively with our customers, resolve concerns in a timely manner, and deliver a better overall service experience. Your responsiveness, professionalism, and willingness to assist whenever needed truly set you apart. It’s clear that you take pride in what you do, and it shows in the results we’ve seen. You have become a valuable partner to our team, and we greatly appreciate the role you play in helping us succeed. We look forward to continuing our working relationship.” If you’d like to learn more about PromoTAG—or explore other marketing solutions Reynolds has to offer—don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d be happy to connect.

Tune in. Reynolds Director of Compliance Terry O’Loughlin joined Greg Uland on Connected at NADA to discuss what’s keeping compliance teams and dealers up at night. The CFPB and FTC may be pulling back at the federal level, but states are stepping in fast. The California CARS Act goes into effect this October, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have already enhanced regulations on the East Coast, and it seems to be only a matter of time before other states follow suit. O’Loughlin shared a clear message with dealers – prioritize full and fair disclosure, build strong compliance protocols, and rely on quality F&I documents. Don’t miss this episode packed with essential compliance insights! https://lnkd.in/esvwCjtF

The average dealership has more employees today than it did 10 years ago. That's not a sign of growth. It's a sign of inefficiency. Today I'm joined by Christopher Walsh, President and Acting CEO at The Reynolds and Reynolds Company, to discuss how dealers can get operationally lean, what agentic AI actually does inside a dealership, and what the day-to-day looks like five years from now. Top lessons learned from Chris: 1. Headcount has grown because tech stacks expanded horizontally, not vertically. — Most dealerships added people to compensate for systems that don't talk to each other and data that lives in silos. — The dealers asking the right question today are asking how to run the same operation with fewer people. — Chris sees AI as the answer, but only if the underlying data is clean and unified first. 2. Reynolds spent two years building a unified data layer before touching AI. — They call it Spark. The premise: AI is only as good as the data it pulls from, so the foundational work had to come first. — From there, they moved through generative features, AI assistance, and into agentic AI with Ray, their autonomous AI assistant introduced last year. — The goal is augmentation like giving a used car manager better data and better recommendations so they can do their job more effectively. 3. The accounting office is about to look completely different. — Today, it's a posting-intensive department. Chris sees it becoming a cash flow and expense management function instead. — Routine, high-volume, low-risk tasks across accounting, AR, and AP are prime targets for automation in the near term. — The dealers already moving in this direction are repurposing those employees into other parts of the business rather than eliminating them outright. 4. Salespeople don't want to respond to internet leads. Let AI do it. — What salespeople actually want is to be in front of a customer. That's where they perform. — AI handling lead response, after-hours calls, and routine follow-up frees them to do exactly that. — Chris's five-year vision: a GSM walks in each morning and instead of sifting through everything, has a prioritized call list based on buying signals and flagged customer issues from the night before. 5. The biggest thing keeping him up at night is complacency. — Status quo is always the hardest objection to overcome, and it applies internally just as much as it does in a sales conversation. — Chris's job as he sees it: make sure Reynolds is always asking whether what they're doing is the right thing, whether it should be done at all, and whether there's a better way. — His view on the industry overall: resilient, always. The EV whiplash, margin compression, zero growth market, they'll work through it. The full episode is live! Stream it now — YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eTSyMy4y Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eKX_VxaT Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ep-w9vfy 

"That's the biggest pain that we hear or the biggest pain that we see. We all have the same amount of time in the day. How do we become more efficient with our time?" Connected #199 is a fantastic conversation about how to streamline and automate processes in your dealership's business office with Catherine Hart from Corpay! https://lnkd.in/gt4CwT_j

Last year, our company underwent a significant conversion process involving DMS, CRM, and several other software system tools. Anyone who has experienced this type of conversion knows how stressful and challenging it can be. Despite the quality and advancement of any computer software system, the success of training, installation, troubleshooting, and adoption ultimately relies on people, not just technology. We have received exceptional support from Reynolds & Reynolds throughout this process. Special thanks to Geoff Mercurio for his invaluable assistance. I would also like to thank Madison Rogers, Sandra De La Garza, and Justin Smith-Nguyen for their "boots on the ground" support. Our goal at Gillman Companies is to become "Super-Users" of the Reynolds & Reynolds tools we have installed in our dealerships so we can provide the very best service and support for our customers. The Reynolds Performance Management Team and our Utilization Partners have made our conversion process much better than expected and continue to help us achieve "Super-User" status.