Beau Townsend Ford Lincoln is on the cutting edge.

The dealership in Vandalia, Ohio, walked away from last month’s Reynolds and Reynolds Retail Summit: Amplify 2024 in Leesburg, Va., with two of the three Automotive Amplifier Awards, presented for the event’s most innovative best practices.

Sales consultant Justin Rash earned the award in the variable operations category for implementing a fully electronic signature process with enhanced tools and e-contracting, while warranty administrator James Dieli was honored in fixed operations for implementing a paperless system in service that helped drive a nearly 100% increase in labor sales.

Service shop manager Jeremy Reardon of Westside Lexus in Houston was the winner in the people category for his innovative process for recruiting high school and college students, which Reynolds said has changed the culture of the service department.

The contestants for the awards presented their idea live at the summit, with the winners selected based on how innovative and unique their best practice was, the impact it had on their dealership and how easily other dealerships could implement it in their own stores. The judges were Paul Daly and Kyle Mountsier of Automotive State of the Union and Tim Whalen, service manager of Voss Auto Network.

The grand prize for each category was a $5,000 donation to the charity of the winner’s choice, a feature story in Reynolds’ Amplify Magazine and a personal trophy.

Reynolds’ annual two-day Retail Summit brought together experts across the country to discuss best practices and explore innovative ideas for improving outcomes in every department at the dealership.

“This is why we hold this summit,” Reynolds president Chris Walsh said. “To share information and inspire growth within the industry.”

Walsh said the Summit is “our chance as an industry to collaborate and explore new ideas on how to improve. The future of the industry is in dealerships’ hands. We will be at the forefront of that movement supporting dealers.”

During the event, Reynolds debuted Spark AI, an artificial intelligence data layer that provides a unified data model for AI tools throughout a dealership, and launched four new AI products – Conversation AI, Engagement AI, Prospect AI and Merchandising AI.

“The feedback from dealers on Spark AI has been outstanding,” Walsh said. “This advance in technology puts the power for dealerships to maximize their potential at their fingertips.”

The company also announced the merging of ReconTRAC and AutoVision to create gains in efficiency, and released a report sharing fixed ops metrics based on a dealership’s urban setting and volume.