Initially, Keyes Bell Road Toyota had three shuttles and a rental car fleet to help customers get where they needed to go while their cars were in the shop. “We had three shuttle drivers, three vans, three phones, and a board where we separated east and west,” says Scott Huggett, service director.

Each morning, Bell Road’s shuttle drivers experienced a rush, trying to get customers to work after they’d dropped off their cars for service. Customers got impatient. Drivers got stressed out. When service members recommended potential upsells to customers waiting on shuttles, the answer was likely to be, “No.”

The dealership had also eliminated its loaner fleet as another option for service customers. “You never recover all the potential costs of an internal fleet,” explains Huggett.

The cost of shuttle service — including drivers, vans, gas, phones, insurance, tires, and other costs — was another big budget item. The company was anxious to minimize those expenses, while increasing customer satisfaction.

In 2016, Huggett heard that a sister store had started using rideshare for their service customers, and decided to explore it as an option for Keyes Bell Road Toyota. Since it was a new concept for the dealership, he wanted to be able to pick up the phone and talk to someone who could help him through the process.

Huggett was impressed with the Lyft representative who got him started with Bell Road’s service. “He gave me the lowdown through a webinar, and we basically signed up then and there,” he says. “Lyft made it easy.”

Huggett’s team began using Lyft Concierge in April 2016, to schedule customer rides on demand. “We load the customer’s information into Concierge, hit enter, and the customer gets a text message in seconds, letting them know a Lyft ride will be there in just a few minutes,” says Huggett.

“There’s no service department in America that can get a customer picked up at their store and to their destination that quickly,” he says.

Huggett looks forward to partnering with Lyft for additional services in the future. “Lyft is a leader,” he says. “Our partnership offers opportunities for both companies.”