In today’s competitive automotive industry, dealerships and service centers are no longer simply places where vehicles get repaired. Customers expect convenience, clarity, transparency, and speed — from booking a service appointment to final payment. The demand for a seamless, modern service experience has become a vital differentiator. That’s where Xtime comes in. As a robust, end-to-end fixed-ops platform from Cox Automotive, Xtime empowers dealerships to deliver a full-spectrum service experience: from scheduling and inspections to customer communication, marketing, and efficient operations management.
What Is Xtime?
Xtime is not just one tool — it’s a comprehensive suite of digital solutions crafted for service departments in dealerships and auto repair centers. Its mission is to enable service teams to “service more cars in less time,” while increasing operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
Rather than relying on multiple disconnected systems — phone-based scheduling, paper inspections, manual communications — Xtime bundles everything under one roof. This integrated approach ensures a smooth, consistent workflow across all stages: booking, check-in, inspection, repair approvals, checkout, and follow-up marketing.
The Four Core Modules of Xtime
Xtime’s power lies in its modular but highly integrated design. Each module handles a critical part of the service lifecycle. Together, they create a unified, high-performance fixed-ops solution.
Schedule
The Schedule module allows customers to book service appointments online or via mobile — at any time. This 24/7 accessibility removes friction for customers and helps dealerships fill their schedule more reliably.
From a dealership’s perspective, Schedule offers robust shop management and scheduling controls, customizable menus and pricing, and capacity planning — helping manage workload, maximize shop utilization, and reduce downtime.
Convenient scheduling paired with transparent service information builds trust, improves retention, and drives more repair orders.
Engage
When a customer arrives for service, the Engage module streamlines the check-in, communication, and checkout process. With tablet-based reception or self check-in, advisors get instant access to service history, vehicle data, and can conduct walk-arounds efficiently.
Engage also enables real-time updates to customers through text, status boards, or digital notifications, reducing uncertainty and improving transparency during the service process. Online payment and flexible financing arrangements (e.g. pay-now or payment plans) make checkout faster and easier.
This consistent, personalized lane-experience helps boost customer satisfaction, retention, and ultimately leads to higher dollars per repair order (RO).
Inspect
One of the most powerful features of Xtime — the Inspect module — digitizes multipoint vehicle inspections. Technicians can use mobile devices (iOS or Android) to capture photos and high-resolution videos, add detailed notes, and send multimedia reports to customers.
This visual transparency helps customers understand exactly what needs to be done on their vehicle — increasing trust, clarity, and likelihood of approving recommended repairs. Dealers using multimedia inspections often see repair approvals in as fast as 7 minutes.
Inspect also offers real-time dashboards, intra-dealership chat, performance scoreboards, and data analytics to help technicians, advisors, and management monitor KPIs, optimize workflows, and improve consistency across the service department.
When the repair needed is costly, optional financing (through integrated partners) helps customers say “yes” — boosting dollars per RO and overall shop revenue.
Invite
The Invite module turns service into a long-term relationship, not just a one-off transaction. Through targeted outreach — using past service history, declined repairs, maintenance intervals — dealers can send personalized messages, service reminders, or special offers.
This reconnects with customers who may have delayed or skipped service, fills empty shop slots, and drives repeat business. Personalized communications via SMS, email or direct messages make it easy to reach customers at the right time.
Invite helps maximize lifetime customer value, improve shop utilization, and smooth out service demand cycles — which translates into more stable and predictable revenue.
Why Xtime Stands Out: The Business Impact
Efficiency Gains & Higher Throughput
By automating scheduling, digital check-in, inspections, and payment — Xtime reduces manual effort, minimizes bottlenecks, and allows service lanes to operate at full capacity. This leads to shorter wait times, quicker service, and more cars serviced per day.
Transparency & Customer Trust
Digital inspections with multimedia evidence, real-time updates, and transparent cost/pricing menus build trust. Customers are more comfortable approving recommended services — which increases repair order acceptance and additional service revenue.
Revenue Growth & Better ROI
Dealerships using Xtime have reported significantly improved results — more repair orders per month, increased dollars per RO, and a strong return on investment.
Moreover, by reactivating customers via Invite and reducing no-shows through Schedule, shops capture revenue that might otherwise be lost.
Seamless Integration & Unified Workflow
Xtime integrates with Dealer Management Systems (DMS), CRM platforms, payment processors, and other dealership software — meaning you don’t need to overhaul your existing infrastructure to adopt it.
This unified flow — from digital scheduling to post-service follow-up — helps keep data consistent, reduce duplication, and enable smooth operations across departments.
Data-Driven Insights & Continuous Improvement
Recent updates (2023–2025) added features like a Fixed Ops KPI Insights dashboard, enhanced multimedia/video inspections, upgraded messaging center, richer reporting, and improved workflow efficiency to help service managers track performance and spot opportunities.
With better data and analytics, dealerships can make smarter decisions — whether about staffing, marketing campaigns, follow-ups, or service offers — to optimize profitability and customer satisfaction.
What’s New (2024–2025): Evolving to Meet Modern Expectations
In its latest updates, Xtime introduced a set of enhanced features aimed at providing a more modern and customer-centric service experience. For example:
A new messaging center: improved texting and bulk communication capabilities, enabling quicker, more efficient contact with customers or prospects.
Enhanced multimedia support: better video resolution, improved video capture (noise cancellation, optional subtitles), and dealer-branded media for inspections — making visual communication clearer and more professional.
Real-time performance dashboards and reporting tools that aggregate key metrics across Schedule, Engage, and Inspect — eliminating manual data merging and enabling quick, informed decision-making.
Better integration workflows with DMS and CRM systems, streamlining data flow from sales to service and forging stronger operational continuity across the dealership.
These enhancements reflect evolving consumer expectations — especially as digital features become more important in customer decision-making.
Key Considerations Before Adopting Xtime
That said, implementing Xtime effectively requires commitment and alignment throughout the dealership:
Training & adoption: To reap full benefits, the staff (technicians, advisors, service lane personnel) must adopt the digital workflows consistently — using mobile inspection tools, updating statuses in real time, and leveraging communication and media features.
Integration readiness: Ensure that existing DMS, CRM, and payment systems are compatible with Xtime. Proper integration is essential to support seamless workflows and accurate data exchange.
Operational discipline: Consistent use of modules like Inspect and Invite is necessary — from capturing photo/video inspections to setting up personalized outreach campaigns. Inconsistent usage may limit ROI.
Emphasis on customer-centric communication: The real strength of Xtime lies in transparency and convenience — dealerships should focus on using real-time updates, clear multimedia evidence, and timely follow-up to maximize customer trust and retention.
In an age where customer expectations are shaped by seamless digital experiences across every aspect of life — from shopping to service — dealerships can no longer rely on traditional, fragmented workflows. Xtime offers a powerful, integrated fixed-ops platform that transforms the automotive service lane into a smooth, transparent, and efficient customer journey.
By combining smart scheduling, digital inspections, personalized communications, marketing outreach, and deep integration with dealership systems, Xtime helps service departments not only operate better — but also build stronger relationships with customers, drive higher revenue, and deliver a consistent, high-quality ownership experience.
