Conversational AI for car dealerships: a BDC that never goes home

What is conversational AI for car dealerships?

Conversational AI for car dealerships is an AI agent that has the first conversation with a shopper the way your BDC does. It answers questions from the content you approve and asks your qualifying questions, on the phone, in your website chat or by text. On calls and in website chat, it books the appointment while the shopper is still in the conversation. SalesCloser runs that conversation 24/7, in 50+ languages, and hands each ready shopper to a person on your team.

Think of it as a BDC that never goes home, not a substitute for your salespeople. The agent sets the appointment. Your people sell the car.

How does an AI sales assistant for dealerships book a test drive?

1. Answer the shopper. Calls to your number and chats on your website get an answer at any hour, from the content you give it, such as your inventory pages, hours, location and store policies. If a question is not covered, your instructions decide what happens next, such as booking a visit or passing it to a manager.

2. Ask your questions. You write them. Which vehicle? New or used? Trading something in? Paying cash or financing? When can they come in? The answers are saved on the lead, so the salesperson knows who is coming and what they want.

3. Book the visit. Connected to your Calendly, Cal.com or Cal.eu calendar, the agent offers only the times your event shows as open and books the test drive or appraisal while the shopper is still in the conversation. Teammates you list as Additional Invitees, such as the sales manager, are added to every booking.

4. Hand off when they want a person. On a phone call, the agent transfers the live call to your sales desk, or to the shopper's own salesperson using a number stored on the lead, and tries backup numbers if nobody answers. Your team gets an email with the lead's details and a call summary.

What lands with your sales team

• A booked appointment on your calendar, with the event type and length you chose.
• The shopper's answers to your questions: vehicle, trade-in, financing interest and timing.
• A call summary and the full transcript. Conversations are recorded and transcribed so your team can review them.
• Your CRM updated. The lead, summary and answers go to HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Zendesk or GoHighLevel. Other tools connect through Zapier, webhooks or the API.

Best AI phone agents for dealership lead follow-up: what to look for

After the first call, check that the agent can:

• Call your web leads. Leads from your website forms can be sent into a calling campaign through Zapier, webhooks or the API. Facebook and Instagram lead forms connect to an ongoing campaign, so new leads are called within your calling hours.
• Keep trying. With Call Retry on, the agent calls again up to 5 times with the delay you choose, and leaves a voicemail on the first or last attempt.
• Text as well as call. With two-way SMS, the agent holds the conversation by text using the same knowledge as on calls. Our team switches SMS on for your account, and US numbers need carrier registration.
• Call back when asked. If a shopper says "call me tomorrow at noon", the agent books the callback and dials them at that time.
• Spot hot leads. A live intent score from 0 to 100 can alert your team or transfer a hot lead to a person.

AI lead reactivation for dealers: work the aged lead list

Import your aged leads from a CSV or Excel file and the agent calls through the list for you. It asks whether they are still shopping, answers questions about what you have, and books a visit for anyone ready to come in. Calls go out only during the calling hours you set, optionally in each lead's local time, and you can cap how many calls start per minute, hour or day. The campaign can stop calling a lead once they have talked, and leads who ask not to be called again are blocked.

Calling rules, consent and do-not-call lists stay your responsibility. SalesCloser gives you the controls.