Service Operations Manager - Merchants Auto

 

Build Your Career with Merchants Auto 

Are you a service operations leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment where every day brings new challenges, priorities, and opportunities to improve performance? 

At Merchants Auto, we're looking for a Service Operations Manager to lead the daily coordination, dispatch, and execution of service operations while helping drive efficiency, accountability, and exceptional customer experiences. 

As the automotive retail and service division of Merchants Fleet, one of North America's leading fleet management companies, Merchants Auto combines the agility of a growing automotive business with the resources and stability of an industry leader. You'll join a team focused on continuous improvement, collaboration, and delivering high-quality results for retail, commercial, and fleet customers alike. 

This role serves as the operational hub of our service department, ensuring repair work is prioritized, assigned, tracked, communicated, and completed efficiently while supporting technicians, service teams, and customers throughout the repair process.  

Why Join Merchants Auto? 

• Key leadership role within a growing automotive service operation 
• Opportunity to make a direct impact on service performance and customer experience 
• Collaborative environment that values innovation and continuous improvement 
• Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits package 
• Generous PTO and paid holidays 
• Professional development and career growth opportunities 
• Supportive leadership team and strong company culture 
• Backed by the resources and stability of Merchants Fleet while maintaining a close-knit team environment 

What You'll Do 

Lead Daily Service Operations 

• Oversee repair orders from intake through completion, ensuring work is prioritized, assigned, documented, and completed efficiently 
• Coordinate workflow across service advisors, dispatch personnel, technicians, team leads, parts operations, and external vendors 
• Lead daily workflow meetings and maintain visibility into work-in-progress, repair-order aging, and completion timelines 
• Balance priorities across fleet, retail, commercial, inventory, and sublet service work 

Drive Service Performance 

• Monitor technician utilization, productivity, cycle time, backlog, repair-order volume, and service commitments 
• Identify operational bottlenecks and implement solutions to improve workflow efficiency 
• Partner with technical leaders to align staffing, scheduling, capacity, and resource needs 
• Escalate operational risks and recommend corrective actions when needed 

Manage Customer & Vendor Coordination 

• Ensure proactive communication regarding repair status, timelines, and service expectations 
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders, external customers, vendors, body shops, and service partners 
• Lead service recovery efforts and resolve operational issues affecting customer satisfaction 
• Oversee sublet repair activity and vendor performance to support timely vehicle completion 

Lead & Develop Team Members 

• Provide leadership, coaching, performance feedback, and daily direction to service coordination and dispatch team members 
• Support training, onboarding, cross-functional development, and process improvement initiatives 
• Foster a culture of accountability, teamwork, customer service, and operational excellence 
• Partner with department leadership on staffing plans and succession development 

Champion Continuous Improvement 

• Identify opportunities to reduce delays, streamline processes, and improve service delivery 
• Develop and maintain standard operating procedures, workflows, and reporting practices 
• Utilize operational data and performance metrics to drive decision-making and results 
• Ensure compliance with company controls, policies, and documentation requirements 

What You'll Bring 

• Strong understanding of automotive service operations, repair-order workflow, dispatch, work prioritization, and customer communication 
• Ability to manage multiple priorities within a high-volume, fast-paced environment 
• Strong leadership, problem-solving, organizational, and decision-making skills 
• Experience interpreting operational metrics and using data to improve performance 
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate across technical and non-technical teams 
• Proficiency with Dealer Management Systems (DMS), workflow systems, Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook 
• Advanced Excel skills, including reporting, pivot tables, and data analysis preferred  

Qualifications 

• Three or more years of progressive experience in automotive service operations, fixed operations, fleet maintenance coordination, dispatch, service advising, or related operational leadership roles 
• Prior experience supervising employees or leading a service, dispatch, advisor, or operations team preferred 
• High school diploma or equivalent required 
• Associate's or Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations, Automotive Management, or a related field preferred