For years, the conventional wisdom in the service drive was simple: recalls pay very little warranty labor time, there’s no money in them, and they’re not worth chasing.

Po Duncan has heard that line more times than she can count. She has been with Recall Masters since day one, nearly 12 years, and grew up in the business long before that. Her mom & dad owned an independent shop. She started her career at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and later ran a sales and service BDC for Penske. At Recall Masters she has worked across sales, aftersales, customer service, and product management.

She recently sat down with Corey Smith, national fixed operations training director at EasyCare, for an upcoming episode of his podcast, FWRD. The conversation kept coming back to one idea: the recall visit isn’t a transaction. It’s the start of a relationship, and too many dealerships are letting it walk out the door.

The opportunity is already on your schedule

According to Po, roughly one in four vehicles on the road has an open safety recall. Picture four customers on tomorrow’s appointment list. Odds are one of them is driving a car with an unrepaired recall.

So why don’t more of those repairs get done? In Po’s experience, the reasons customers say no come down to two things: time and expectations.

She walked through a familiar scenario. A customer books a 30-minute oil change for Friday at 10. Nobody mentions the open recall. They arrive, and the advisor tells them the car will need a few more hours. The customer has kids to pick up and a day already planned. The answer is no, and the recall stays open.

The fix is simple. Run the VIN when the appointment is booked, flag the recall, and tell the customer up front how long the visit will really take. Corey summed it up in a phrase Po immediately embraced: slow down in order to speed up. Thirty seconds of scheduling saves a lost repair, and a frustrated customer, in the drive.

Treat every recall visit like a first impression

When a recall customer pulls in, they may be a regular or someone who has never set foot in your store. Po’s view is that it shouldn’t matter. “We should be treating every single customer like we want to earn their business every single time,” she said. Trust gets built one conversation at a time.

For a first-time visitor, that starts with the basics. Show them where the lounge and restrooms are. Acknowledge that a safety recall can feel concerning. Give them an honest time estimate, then keep them updated as the work progresses.

None of this is complicated, but it adds up. Po pointed out that the lifetime value built from that one visit is exactly what helps a dealer principal or GM lower acquisition costs down the road.

Stop selling. Start educating.

Here’s where recalls stop looking like low-margin warranty work. Po shared that, in Recall Masters’ tracking, about 54% of customers who come in with an open safety recall go on to spend money on additional customer-pay work.

That doesn’t happen by pushing. When Corey asked how an advisor should approach a customer who says “I’m only here for my recall,” Po flipped a familiar phrase: instead of “sharing is caring,” she says caring is sharing. Find out what the customer actually needs. Share what you see on their vehicle and why it matters to them. Then lay out the options and let them decide.

Timing matters too. The best moment to have that conversation is while the customer is standing in your drive, not in a text after they’ve left. “We’re not there to sell them,” Po said. “We are there to educate them on what is important for that particular vehicle.”

When Corey asked in the closing lightning round what dealerships should stop doing immediately, her answer took four words: stop selling, start educating.

Every customer deserves a future action

The repair is done and the customer drives off. What keeps them from disappearing until the next recall?

Po credits a longtime mentor with a principle she still repeats: every customer deserves a future action, whether they came in for a recall or an oil change. She encourages GMs and dealer principals to ask a basic question first: do we even have a follow-up process? If not, what tools do we have to build one? Technology can handle some of the legwork, but a real phone call from a real person still carries weight that a text or email can’t.

It’s a belief Recall Masters puts into practice. The company uses AI behind the scenes, but live agents still handle recall text conversations and inbound calls. “One thing I cannot emphasize enough that will not be replaced is people,” Po said.

Follow-up is also where service and sales can work together. Po shared a story from the company’s early days. A dealer group executive wanted proof that recall outreach was driving business, so his team called customers from the transaction report. One customer had come in for a recall, spent money on customer-pay work, and bought a vehicle a few months later.

No one is claiming the recall sold the car. But it opened the door. Loyal customers spend more over time, about 57% more by Po’s numbers, and an advisor who knows a customer has been eyeing a newer model can make a natural handoff to sales.

Culture starts with everyone in the building

Ask most people for the first word that comes to mind when they hear “dealership,” Po said, and it probably won’t be positive. Changing that perception starts inside the store.

She and Corey talked about servant leadership: the idea that you don’t need a title to lead. The advisor, the service manager, even the porter washing cars can ask the same question every day. What can I do to help this customer and make their day a little better?

For service managers, Po’s leadership advice was to invest in your team one person at a time. Stop and ask how someone’s weekend went. Remember what they told you and follow up. “No one cares about what you have to say until you show them you care,” she said. Small, consistent effort compounds. Improve 1% a day, and see where you are a year from now.

The bottom line

Recalls are no longer just a tenth or two of warranty time. With new-vehicle sales softening, every customer who comes through the drive is an opportunity: for customer-pay work, for a future vehicle sale, and for a relationship that keeps them coming back. As Po put it when Corey asked whether a recall customer is a transaction or a relationship: “Relationship. Always.”

Catch the full conversation

This is only part of what Po and Corey covered. The full episode, The Customers We’re Missing: Turning Recalls Into Relationships, premieres on FWRD on November 5 across Apple Podcasts and other major platforms. Tune in to hear the whole conversation, including a lightning round full of quick takes for GMs, fixed ops directors, and service managers.

Want to see what your own recall opportunity looks like in the meantime? Talk to the Recall Masters team.