In today’s fast-moving digital era, automotive dealers must do more than just repair vehicles to stay competitive—they need to deliver exceptional customer experiences, drive fixed operations growth, and streamline every touchpoint in their service department. That’s where Xtime steps in: a full-suite fixed ops software platform designed to modernize service operations, elevate customer engagement, and ultimately boost profitability.
What Is Xtime?
Xtime is an automotive service experience platform that helps dealerships and service centers optimize their fixed operations (i.e. service, maintenance, repair). It’s part of the Cox Automotive ecosystem, and its purpose is to empower dealer service departments to operate more efficiently, win more repair orders, and deliver a seamless, transparent, and customer-friendly service journey.
At its core, Xtime includes modules for scheduling, inspection, engagement, and marketing (Invite), integrating tightly with dealership management systems (DMS), CRM systems, and payment processors. The idea is not to replace existing infrastructure, but complement and enhance it.
Key Components of Xtime and Their Benefits
Xtime’s strength lies in having a modular suite—dealers can adopt one or more capabilities depending on their needs. The main modules are Schedule, Engage, Inspect, and Invite. Here’s how each contributes to a better service ecosystem:
1. Schedule
The Schedule module allows customers to book service appointments online via phone or computer. Rather than forcing them to call, this self-service option increases customer convenience. You show available time slots, recommended services, pricing, and financing options—all transparently.
For dealerships, this yields more predictable shop load, better capacity planning, and higher throughput. The site claims up to a 27× return on the investment in scheduling.
2. Engage
Once an appointment is booked, the Engage module helps maintain seamless communication with the customer throughout the service journey. Think: texting updates, letting customers pay online, minimizing wait times, and accelerating check-out.
These small conveniences have a big psychological effect: customers feel informed and empowered. That reduces frustration and fosters loyalty.
3. Inspect
The Inspect module gives the service team the ability to perform digital vehicle inspections enhanced with photos and videos. These visual diagnostics help customers see exactly what is wrong, and more confidently approve recommended repairs.
Inspect also helps internal staff collaborate better and accelerate approvals—especially for additional service recommendations (ASRs).
4. Invite
Invite is Xtime’s marketing tool for aftercare: personalized messages, targeted offers, and reminders based on a customer’s past visits, declined services, or time since last visit.
Empty shop slots are costly. Invite helps fill them by strategically re-engaging customers and driving more repair orders during typically slow times.
Integration & Ecosystem Compatibility
One of Xtime’s strongest selling points is that it works with, not against, your existing systems. It offers integrations with leading dealership systems, DMS platforms, CRM tools, and payment processors. This ensures workflows aren’t fractured and data flows smoothly across your tech stack.
Additionally, Xtime is part of the Cox Automotive family, giving it access to a broader network of automotive retail and service solutions.
Measurable Outcomes & ROI
Xtime emphasizes quantifiable gains. The site references aggregated performance from dealers using Xtime between August 2023 and July 2024, showing solid increases in repair orders and revenue per repair order.
Some of the benefits include:
Higher shop efficiency and throughput
More approved repair orders (thanks to transparency)
Improved customer retention
Greater profitability per serviced vehicle
In client testimonials, service leaders praise how Xtime’s system integrates with their existing environment and makes their operations more cohesive and modern.
Why Dealerships Should Consider Xtime
If your dealership is still running a mostly manual, phone-based, or disjointed service workflow, here’s what Xtime can bring to the table:
Better customer experience. When customers can see what’s recommended, receive updates, and pay quickly, they trust the service more.
Efficiency gains. Scheduling, inspection, and communication become smoother, reducing friction and waste.
Revenue uplift. More service orders, more accepted repairs, and better utilization of shop capacity all contribute to more income.
Marketing automation. Invite helps fill unused capacity instead of leaving it idle.
Scalable growth. You can start with one or two modules and expand gradually without ripping out your existing infrastructure.
Challenges & Considerations
While Xtime is powerful, there are a few things to keep in mind:
Change management. Staff will need training to adopt new workflows, especially in going digital with inspections and communication.
Data integration. Seamless performance depends on your existing dealer systems being compatible. Sometimes custom integration work is needed.
Cost vs. scale. Smaller shops will need to examine whether investing in these modules yields sufficient return—though the modular model helps here.
Customer adoption. Some customers may resist digital-first processes (though over time, most adapt).
Best Practices for Implementation
To maximize success with Xtime, dealerships should:
Start with priority modules. For many, scheduling + inspect or engage is a good entry point.
Train staff thoroughly. Make sure technicians, service advisors, and front-desk teams understand how to use the tools.
Encourage the digital journey. Educate customers about the benefits of transparent inspections and text updates.
Monitor metrics. Track approval rates, shop capacity use, revenue per RO, and customer retention to gauge impact.
Leverage Invite intelligently. Use data to send relevant offers—avoid spamming or irrelevant messages.
In a competitive and fast-evolving automotive landscape, dealerships can no longer treat service operations as an afterthought. Customers expect transparency, speed, and seamless communication. Xtime provides the tools to deliver on those expectations while helping service departments operate smarter, not harder.
By modularly integrating scheduling, engagement, inspection, and marketing, Xtime enables dealerships to modernize without overhauling their entire IT backbone. The payoff can be substantial: more approved repairs, better throughput, increased customer satisfaction, and higher fixed ops revenue.
