- Apr 7, 2009
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This thread is just the tip of the iceberg.The people ahead of the curve aren't Googling for answers — they're already in here, having the conversations you haven't found yet. DealerRefresh is free.Get the full picture →
AI Incoming Phone Call attendant for Sales Appt. Setting
- Thread starter Leonard Person
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- Apr 20, 2009
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- Ryan
I'm not a pessimist, I promise.
I spent most of 2016 to 2022 with CarStory working with some high-powered and well-credentialed Data Scientists with Ph.Ds in AI. The team built a bunch of interesting predictive models for pricing regionally and using AI to reverse engineer build data and dealer-adds using CV to identify listings errors.
We were early to the AI buzzword party... but Dr. Franke was VERY early. He started experimenting with AI in the early 1980's. Dr Franke joined us for a RefreshFriday to help unmask the buzzword AI. I think that episode is still topical today and would encourage anyone that is new to the community to give it a watch.
THIS is a great thread from 2019: A.I. ain't A.I. in automotive. It is B.S.
HERE is the RefreshFriday with Dr. Franke that originated from the thread above:
View: https://youtu.be/YrpemDvcPy0?si=pxL6TVet7K4H5M4T&t=229
(SIDE NOTE: Ask the next vendor slinging AI your way about the "AI Winter.")
One thing I learned during that time from him is that with AI, dirty data drives dirty decisions. We have a MASSIVE dirty data problem related to Trim, Transmission, and Features to solve before any of the AI technologies are going to perform perfectly. In fairness, the same dirty data causes our existing technologies to be flawed today, think about the effect of pricing your cars with the wrong trim, but I think the future appetite for what appears to be human error may be greater than the appetite for machine error once AI hallucinations are more commonly known. I think the expectation of ultimate accuracy will be high.
I believe we should pursue AI in all of its applications to improve CX and efficiency, but man, I really wish that the building blocks of these solutions, the cleanliness of the data that they reference, was on the radar too.
I spent most of 2016 to 2022 with CarStory working with some high-powered and well-credentialed Data Scientists with Ph.Ds in AI. The team built a bunch of interesting predictive models for pricing regionally and using AI to reverse engineer build data and dealer-adds using CV to identify listings errors.
We were early to the AI buzzword party... but Dr. Franke was VERY early. He started experimenting with AI in the early 1980's. Dr Franke joined us for a RefreshFriday to help unmask the buzzword AI. I think that episode is still topical today and would encourage anyone that is new to the community to give it a watch.
THIS is a great thread from 2019: A.I. ain't A.I. in automotive. It is B.S.
HERE is the RefreshFriday with Dr. Franke that originated from the thread above:
View: https://youtu.be/YrpemDvcPy0?si=pxL6TVet7K4H5M4T&t=229
(SIDE NOTE: Ask the next vendor slinging AI your way about the "AI Winter.")
One thing I learned during that time from him is that with AI, dirty data drives dirty decisions. We have a MASSIVE dirty data problem related to Trim, Transmission, and Features to solve before any of the AI technologies are going to perform perfectly. In fairness, the same dirty data causes our existing technologies to be flawed today, think about the effect of pricing your cars with the wrong trim, but I think the future appetite for what appears to be human error may be greater than the appetite for machine error once AI hallucinations are more commonly known. I think the expectation of ultimate accuracy will be high.
I believe we should pursue AI in all of its applications to improve CX and efficiency, but man, I really wish that the building blocks of these solutions, the cleanliness of the data that they reference, was on the radar too.
Yesterday, we had an incoming call from a company trying to sign up car dealers. I apologize for not knowing what company it was because, well, I will get to that.
Someone says, Line 2 wants to talk to the owner. I answer, and they went into the sales pitch. I tried to stop them to ask a question, and they kept going. I tried again, and they kept going. Then it hit me and I politely asked "Am I talking to a fucking recording"? The reply, no, you are talking to a real person through a series of recorded conversations......for Quality Control purposes. I (again, politely) say "If you had an actual person doing your calls, you would probably do much better".
I understand the efficiencies surrounding the concept of Chat Bots. I hate it. We have been down this road so many times and come to the conclusion that people WANT to talk to someone. We build processes around the goal of actually getting someone on the phone. Now when we get an incoming call from someone WANTING to talk to us we are going to put that person into the hands of a Chat Bot???!!! I question if this makes sense. Maybe it does.
Someone says, Line 2 wants to talk to the owner. I answer, and they went into the sales pitch. I tried to stop them to ask a question, and they kept going. I tried again, and they kept going. Then it hit me and I politely asked "Am I talking to a fucking recording"? The reply, no, you are talking to a real person through a series of recorded conversations......for Quality Control purposes. I (again, politely) say "If you had an actual person doing your calls, you would probably do much better".
I understand the efficiencies surrounding the concept of Chat Bots. I hate it. We have been down this road so many times and come to the conclusion that people WANT to talk to someone. We build processes around the goal of actually getting someone on the phone. Now when we get an incoming call from someone WANTING to talk to us we are going to put that person into the hands of a Chat Bot???!!! I question if this makes sense. Maybe it does.
- Apr 13, 2012
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- George
Any updated advice on this thread? Have a customer looking for the best inbound AI call handling, that integrates well with XTime and VIN Solutions?
- Mar 26, 2023
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- leonard
(I resemble that remark Alex.) I spoke with JP Petrovay from Impel about this yesterday. Impel will roll it out EOY or early in 2026.I don't think there is any other kind of discussion with Leonard
- Mar 26, 2023
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- leonard
Everything I've ever used from Impel has been tragically buggy, dated, and WAY more trouble than it's worth.
They haven't shown me a single thing to make me think whatever they have cooking will be different.
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- Apr 13, 2012
- 227
- 182
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- 6
- First Name
- George
Our experience with Impel has been positive, their chat tool performs at or above peers from a consumer engagement perspective, their acquisition of OutSell was smart and will deliver the CDP foundation many would envy, we're cheering for new tech innovators and aggregators!
Too much old tech still living in auto digital.Glad it’s working for your stores. My experience with them was that they ARE the old tech. Some might even say ancient tech.Our experience with Impel has been positive, their chat tool performs at or above peers from a consumer engagement perspective, their acquisition of OutSell was smart and will deliver the CDP foundation many would envy, we're cheering for new tech innovators and aggregators!
IMO - Inbound service appointments are better handled by TRAINING the customer. Most customers would prefer to book the service appointment online vs. calling.
Had a smaller store call and ask for advice - The service advisors were being inundated with appointment calls. They did not have the budget for hiring a service receptionist, and the "AI" service solutions were also way to expensive for what they offered.
So - the setup was == when a customer called and "pressed <number>" to book a service appointment - we moved the call into a 45 sec "hold" were we played music and every few seconds said "did you know you could book your service appointment online at xyzdealer.com" .. music music .. "did you know you could book your service appointment online at xyzdealer.com" ... music music .. "did you know you could book your service appointment online at xyzdealer.com" etc etc. If they hung out for the 45 secs, they were transferred to the advisors like normal.
Cost the dealer was about $100 to have the recording done (they wanted a "professional" voice).
And, did you know what happened? We had about an 80% drop off rate during the message, but a 300%++ month/month online appointment bookings over the next couple months. According to the service advisors, the calls that did hold to speak with them, were more "high level" detailed type appointments that the online service scheduler couldn't handle.
Sometimes, AI is a solution looking for a problem.
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✨ AI Highlights
# Summary Leonard Person asks about AI chatbots that can handle incoming sales calls, set appointments, and integrate with dealership CRM systems. While companies like AIR AI and Invoca are making progress with conversation intelligence and virtual assistants (particularly for service calls), the consensus is that AI isn't yet ready for unscripted inbound sales calls—challenges include understanding diverse regional accents, building rapport with customers, and the fundamental sales process requiring relationship-building before appointments are proposed. The thread suggests that conversation intelligence tools are more mature in other industries and that automotive is only beginning to adopt these technologies, primarily for service rather than sales.
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