CallRevu released its Mid-Year 2026 Benchmark report, analyzing nearly 88 million dealership calls (35.7 million inbound calls and 52.2 million outbound calls) from the first half of the year. The full report is available as an ebook from CallRevu, but the bottom line is that dealerships are generally getting better at turning phone calls into repair orders and reducing the frustrations customers experience when calling the shop.

There are still plenty of opportunities that are falling through the cracks, translating to tens of thousands of dollars of lost profit for a mid-size shop. Here are the three key points auto shop owners can take away from the report.

1. Hold Abandonment Costs You Money

Hangup rates increased to about 2.5%, meaning a shop with 1,500 inbound calls is losing nearly 40 customers a month. With an average repair order of $500, bringing that rate down by less than a full percent to 1.6% creates an extra $6,450 a month—that means $77,400 per year. These missed calls are catchable, but unoptimized workflows and incomplete SOPs are keeping both shops and dealerships from reclaiming these lost opportunities.

2. Callbacks Should Be a Cornerstone

According to the report, service departments didn't complete 22.4% of promised callbacks. Whether it's a scheduling issue, workload issue, or other problem causing that missed step, that number represents more than a fifth of the total calls received in a month. Even recovering just half of those missed calls can amount to a dozen repair orders that would have been lost before, adding up to another $5,000-$6,000 in revenue for a moderately busy shop.

3. Action Steps for the Shop

CallRevu advises capping hold time thresholds for service calls at 90 seconds and sales calls at 60 seconds. Digital voice assistants can be used to handle increased call volumes and prevent callers from experiencing dead air (over 60% of the calls monitored were routine or basic questions). These assistants can also be used to address the more common calls and questions, freeing up service advisors from answering basic questions and giving them more time to explain the more complex issues to customers or schedule an appointment. 

The most successful shops are taking full advantage of the software available to them, which includes implementing proactive status update texts or calls and establishing system rules to ensure consistent callbacks and appointment asks.