Phone Ninjas, founded in 2010, is an automotive-specific phone coaching and training company that provides ongoing one-on-one coaching, mystery shopping, and scripting services to car dealerships to improve phone handling, appointment-setting, and show rates across sales, BDC, service, and parts departments. Their proprietary Phone Skills Index (PSI Score) has become an industry benchmark for evaluating dealership call effectiveness. They operate on a month-to-month model with no setup fees, delivering weekly call reviews and personalized feedback to dealership staff.
What you do with it
provide ongoing one-on-one coaching, scripting, and weekly call reviews to improve phone-handling skills, so they can higher appointment-setting rates and show rates across departments
When a dealership's sales, BDC, or service staff struggle to convert inbound phone calls into appointments
mystery shop dealership phone interactions and score them against an industry benchmark (PSI Score), so they can an accurate, actionable baseline that exposes gaps management cannot see internally
When a dealer needs an objective view of how their team actually performs on live calls
deliver an outsourced, structured coaching cadence that replaces or supplements in-house training, so they can consistent skill improvement without requiring a six-figure in-house trainer
When a dealer lacks the internal management bandwidth or expertise to hold salespeople accountable for phone skills development
Community evidence
→ Stable
The DealerRefresh community — composed largely of dealer-side voices and industry insiders — expresses broadly positive sentiment toward Phone Ninjas, citing its mystery shop service, coaching model, and industry recognition (e.g., a NADA Spotlight Award) as credible signals of product quality. Several voices note that the platform works well when dealership management actively enforces participation and follow-through, with the founder himself acknowledging that coaching tools only produce results when management holds staff accountable. One dissenting voice raises a meaningful concern: scripted language trained by Phone Ninjas can become over-used and difficult to unlearn, suggesting the scripting approach may create rigid habits rather than adaptive skills. Overall, the community treats the vendor as a respected and legitimate option, though effectiveness is framed as contingent on dealership buy-in.
Coaching effectiveness depends on dealership management follow-through3 mentions
Strong industry credibility and peer endorsements7 mentions
Scripting can become over-reliance on trained lines1 mention
Mystery shopping and PSI Score as useful diagnostic tools2 mentions
Appointment-setting improvement as the core value proposition4 mentions
Cost-effectiveness relative to in-house training alternatives2 mentions
Talent and leadership investment (e.g., Elise Kephart hire)2 mentions
60 mentions · 35 positive · 1 negative · Scored from 20+ years of candid DealerRefresh discussion. Scores shift as new conversations happen.
POSITIVE
"Phone Ninjas generating particular excitement for their ambitious 20x20 booth setup"
NADA 2013 →
POSITIVE
"When speaking to one of my Phone Ninjas clients recently, they expressed their dissatisfaction with the reconditioning tool they were using. I offered to work with them to build a better product. I am now proud to announce the release of Recon Ninjas!"
Tracking the Used Car Reconditioning Process →
POSITIVE
"I have used this strategy for the last three years when hiring coaching staff for Phone Ninjas, and I often have"
How to Hire Great Salespeople →
NEGATIVE
"Unfortunately most of my team were trained by Phone Ninjas and that's a line that they trained to use, A LOT. And you're right, it's hard to get them to stop using."
Your presence is your leverage →
MIXED
"My only goal is to help dealers sell more vehicles. I accomplish this goal by teaching salespeople how to be more effective on the phone. There are no smoke and mirrors in what I teach. The techniques I teach have been around for many years. What makes my company different is the way we deliver the training. I am very proud of the fact that Phone Ninjas has helped many increase their incomes by becoming more proficient on the phone."
Phone Up Ninjas makes AutoBlog →
NEUTRAL
"Jerry Thibeau from Phone Ninjas offering data showing that price questions are rarely asked (4.5% of calls) and suggesting that when they are, salespeople should redirect to discussing the trade-in rather than deflecting on price."
How do you get around giving up price over the phone? →
NEUTRAL
"Phone Ninjas, an automotive training company, posted a job opening for an Automotive Phone & Internet Trainer requiring dealership experience and willingness to travel 8-10 days monthly, with no pay cut guaranteed."
Phone Ninjas is Hiring! →
NEUTRAL
"Jerry Thibeau responds by offering free phone scripts through Phone Ninjas, directing her to fill out a form for access."
Building Strong Scripts? →
NEUTRAL
"Phone Ninjas is hiring full-time and part-time Coaching Assistants for remote work, responsible for organizing and routing sales, service, and parts calls to coaches daily."
Work from home for Phone Ninjas! →
NEUTRAL
"Those numbers are taken from the 300+ dealers who are on the Phone Ninjas training platform. They represent dealers from Florida to California and even a few crazy Canadians. Of the 5000+ calls we coach each month, we probably only hear the ad source on less than 20% of them."
Should I cancel Cars.com? I heard Carmax has. →
NEUTRAL
"If you'd like to sign up for my newsletter, you can do so here: [URL="http://www.phoneninjas.com/ninja-tools/"]Phone Ninjas Newsletter[/URL] Just register for Ninja Tools and you'll be on our mailing list."
Newsletters →