#435 - How One Dealership Saved $55,000 a Year in Collector Salary
The Independent Dealer Podcast · Jun 11, 2026
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
34:30
Term
warranties and service contracts
A service contract is like an extended warranty. If something breaks that’s covered, the plan helps pay for the repair.
Term
gap
If your car is totaled, “gap” coverage can help cover the difference between what the insurance pays and what you still owe on the loan.
Term
buy here, pay here
“Buy here, pay here” means the dealer both sells the car and handles the payment plan. You make payments directly to the dealer.
Term
lease here, pay here
This means the dealer sets up the lease and you make the lease payments through them, not through a separate lender.
Concept
reinsurance company
Reinsurance is insurance for insurance companies. It’s a way to spread and manage risk instead of one party taking all the losses.
Term
phone system
A phone system is the dealership’s call setup—how calls are routed and tracked. It can affect whether you can prove how much outreach is really happening.
Term
AI
They’re talking about AI automation in the dealership process. The point is that it doesn’t replace people by calling customers or taking money directly.
LIVE
When you say it's not gonna replace jobs,
I say it's not gonna replace your collector,
but it will replace your second collector.
Yes.
Because now my collector handles more
than just 100 counts on a Monday.
Like that was the max, right?
One collector can handle 100 to 120 accounts on a Monday.
Now they can do 180 to 200
because the AI is handling all the low-level.
So we're not actively saying we're willing to cut.
What did that save you in salary?
It probably saved us close to 55,000.
Hello, and welcome to the independent dealer podcast
coming to you from Caesars Palace at Buy Here, Pay Here, United.
2026 in sunny Las Vegas.
Beautiful Las Vegas.
And we have the team from BlitzPay here.
Yes.
This is exciting.
And auto liquidators.
And auto liquidators, which is the authority on this session.
Today we're going to be talking to BlitzPay about what is new.
So Robin, tell us what is new with BlitzPay?
Hold on.
I got a great idea.
Instead of the BlitzPay, how about just Blitz?
That's a great idea.
Oh, it is Blitz.
Fantastic.
What does that mean, Robin?
What is going on?
I see these emails.
I see these press releases.
What's going on?
That's a great question.
So throughout my career, founding Blitz in 2017,
we have always wanted to be more than a payments company.
Payments to us is a race to the bottom.
It's a very commoditized offering.
And we wanted to be more than that.
We wanted to be a tool that not only takes a payment,
but facilitates the entire collections motion,
rather than just a collection.
That collection or an invoice.
Yeah, and I think the people that use BlitzPay at this point
understand that it's an assistant more than a payment processing platform.
That's the goal.
That warms the cockles of my heart.
We're going to see.
I don't think that's appropriate, but we're in favor.
So we always knew you were more than that from the beginning,
though, because you were more than just the payment rails, right?
We talked about that previous episodes.
You are a collections platform, but what else is there?
You're going to start monitoring my children.
What are we doing here?
What is cool in happening?
Before we start with your children.
So we get a few orders.
The first piece is obviously BlitzPay, which is the payment rail.
And we think about it as a pyramid.
The thing that really supports the entire engagement is the payment.
So making a rail that's fast and efficient and optimized,
but then being able to communicate and then sell on one convenient.
What are we selling?
Well, you're selling.
Somebody's need to make a payment.
Okay.
So when you log on to pick your favorite retail location.
Jeff buys a lot of hair products.
So could he get it there?
Yeah, yeah.
Clares.
Yeah.
So you're collecting a bill.
You're selling somebody's ability to stay in their car.
And so in the retail world, there's lots of engagement that is designed to make you go quick.
And you've got one shot at a consumer who is going to buy something on your site.
Yeah.
You know how many things I'll leave in a cart because it's too aggravating.
That's exactly right.
And Bill Pay should be the same thing.
So when you're collecting from your customers who are busy, who are stressed,
your customers don't wake up in the morning thinking, I've got to make a payment.
They wake up thinking, I'm overwhelmed.
I'm stressed.
I've got to get to work.
I've got to do all this.
Kids have got to go to school.
I've got to go to work.
I've got to go to school.
Like whatever that looks like, that's shut up and take my money.
Yeah.
That's the basis of what retail has done exceptionally well.
And so our platform starts with Blitz Pay.
And then we've added Blitz Collect and we're adding Blitz Insights.
Lots of different tools to help you engage in a way that is meaningful with your consumer and help them make a payment.
So let me understand this.
So Blitz Pay, the ability to take the payment, Blitz Collect,
is the ability for my collector to interact with the customer in a comfortable way, right?
Is that the software that my collector likes?
That's the AI piece, but it's also the automation.
It's also the, I mean, automated intelligence is,
I've got so much information coming at me on a regular basis that I can't make sense of that it's a healer.
How much information do you, I mean, Janessa?
A lot.
Yeah.
A ton of information for sure.
And what do you do with that information other than your customer feeling overwhelmed?
You don't wake up thinking, I've got all these things to do.
I've got all this data coming from me and it's not making any sense.
So many dealers, they talk about all this data they want.
But majority of them don't know how to use it.
And if you can't make it actionable, if you can't consume it, if you can't make sense of it,
and you can't then take that consumption and make it an action, then it's great.
So it's super interesting.
Is Blitz going to help me take the data that y'all are gathering and teach me how to better collect?
It is.
Very nice.
I've been just having been a former dealer as well.
I think it's really simple to say this.
It changed the trajectory of our dealership when I was part of a dealership.
I'm happy to be part of Blitz today because I get to now help drive some of the things that I know are the challenges within the collections platform or within the collections department in our platform helps address so many of those things.
I'm going to say, so talk to me about the practical application and let's talk about how you're using it in the dealership, right?
Because when we talk about Blitz Collect, this is collections and there's an AI component that I'm curious to know how that's going and how you're using it in a day-to-day operation.
Because I get, you know, everyone has got bots or automated texting or whatever, but we're trying to use technology to make our collector's job easier and make our customers pay on time and ultimately be happy, right, and get it done.
So how are you using it or what application is it taking in your collections department?
So today, we started out just using it with our collectors on their days off to supplement when the collector was absent from the office, days off PTO, things like that.
And that let us kind of start gathering some data and then recently we changed like times of the day, different buckets.
So what we're trying to do is figure out how to collect the most, the fastest, with the least amount of manpower.
And the data that we're getting from Blitz Pay is really helping us be able to dial that in and figure out what that looks like.
So already we figured out that we collect best with the AI agent from 8am in the morning to 9am in the morning and then at 12 to 1pm and then 4 to 5pm.
So when people are on their way to work, at lunch, on their way back home from work or already home from work, we're collecting the most money during those times.
You told me as something before we started recording that this AI collector was able to get through a whole queue in 30 minutes.
It's super fast. You don't even know what's happening really unless they say they want to speak to a live person because once they speak to the AI agent, they can ask to speak to a live person inside of the dealership and then it will transfer that call over to us.
But it's just, it's literally like, it may be faster than 30 minutes or I don't even know how fast it is, but it's super fast.
Well, I mean, and y'all have big queues.
We do.
How many, how many send a queue that this agent's just knocking out?
The one we haven't, we have started having it run one specific queue that we don't even have a collector running it all right now. We just picked one letter of the alphabet and it's 300, 300 accounts.
And so it's running that entire letter right now. And so that's what we're testing the buckets with.
Is it the letter B?
Let her see.
Let her see. So you say 300 accounts, like 300 past two accounts at this thing.
That's past two. I'm sorry. 300 in the queue.
So let's say a hundred.
A hundred probably.
Okay. So if you have a hundred counts late on a Monday, that to me makes a total sense that you say, I don't need a collector to work eight hours a day. That's silly. I'm paying her for, sorry, I'm paying this collector. Him or her could be either.
Alex or almost.
I was going to say Alexa because of my wife and I'm really, really good.
But my real collector, I'm paying them eight hours for the day when they're really only could be effective three hours a day, nine o'clock to 10, one to 24 to five.
Good point.
So why am I paying them to sit around those other hours and chit chat with everyone on staff and make pointless phone calls that are answered?
I need them to call a hundred people between 12 o'clock and one o'clock. Not possible for a human.
And here's the point.
Possible for AI.
Here's the point.
And you said it.
They're not going to answer the phone.
They're making phone calls that nobody is going to work.
I can't answer my phone.
Why are you calling me at three o'clock?
Yeah, that's right.
I thought this was interesting, John.
You may have said it or you may have said it.
The trigger is the phone call out and then the automated text to pay as soon as that happens because so many of our consumers, it's not like they're not seeing our phone call because they're seeing it.
They're ignoring our phone call.
Absolutely.
So what happens is it runs through the queue on the calls and then immediately it will send, if it disconnects, if the customer says they want to speak to someone, it'll transfer all of that information immediately send the payment link out to the customer.
And that's where we're seeing the success is the payment link going out immediately.
And they just as soon as the payment link goes out, the customer goes, well, actually, I don't have to talk to anybody.
I can just make the payment.
Which they don't.
They don't want to talk to us.
That's why they don't answer their phone.
Yeah.
So.
Interesting statistic.
What is the time that the majority of payments are made?
So Janessa is talking about the advocacy of the calls that go out.
Tell me what time you think your customers are paying.
I would have no idea.
I would think it'd be later at night.
Oh, really?
I think it's an evening thing.
I think if it's automated.
So how are you the first thing anymore?
Call it noon.
What time do I actually make the payment?
Oh, maybe like right before bedtime.
So call goes out.
But once I've spent everything out, text follows.
Yeah.
Time to make the payment.
I would have no idea.
Yeah.
Between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m.
I told you right before I go to bed.
Check the last thing.
Put your kids down and then.
Call their workers visiting.
Yes.
And you're like, shiz, I want my car to be there in the morning.
Take a breath.
They have the ability to access.
And that is the epitome of shut up and take a breath.
Yeah.
Don't make me talk to somebody that's give me an easy ability
to be able to pay you and then go on.
But the AI agent's not calling at 8 p.m.
That's right.
Or 2 a.m.
It'll follow the dealer's business rules as to when you want to call.
And the buckets that you want to create are the cues that you want to create.
But the efficacy is so much more efficient.
Now I want to say this.
This doesn't replace colleagues.
What this does is replace a busy work.
This replaces people dialing for dollars, dialing, dialing, dialing,
and not getting anyone on the other end of the line.
And continuing to dial that.
And then.
And then checking it off on their list that they work that account.
That's right.
Right.
So when when a life lecture is working through the account,
they're going through and when they don't make contact,
they just put no contact to move to the next one.
I was a collector one time years ago and it was nothing like having
that Q in front of you.
And my only thought process was get to the end.
Get to the end.
I got to get to the end.
I got to finish.
No matter, you know,
and how many times I'll leave a note that was T.C.
tried to call slash L.M.
left message.
And that was it.
I moved on.
Absolutely.
And that's what that's what we see is and our collectors get through the accounts
every day.
But are they really making contact and giving the customer the opportunity
to make the payment when it's convenient for them.
Hey, sorry to break in real quick,
but make sure you guys know about Buckeye long time,
awesome sponsor of the podcast and who I use for all my reinsurance products.
I can't thank them enough for teaching me so much about reinsurance over the years
and coming up with new products and new ways to get my portfolio secured.
My customers have options of warranties and service contracts gap.
I think it's just been great, Jeff.
It's absolutely been a great way for me to build wealth,
put away some money.
So if you are buy here, pay here, lease here, pay here or retail dealer,
it works for all dealers.
You can set up a reinsurance company.
You can ensure your own stop giving money to those third party providers that
aren't going to cover your stuff anyways.
Keep it in house.
Call the guys and girls over at Buckeye risk services and get set up ASAP.
So many times I've asked people that, you know,
I'm at their dealerships looking at their collection stuff and you go,
well, you know, what day did you have on whether your collector actually made contact?
I'll say, well, how many, how many touches did they have today?
Well, I can tell you how many touches.
And then you go, well, how long were they on the phone?
And some people have phone system.
They go, well, they, they actually only had three conversations over 10 seconds
or over 15 seconds.
You go, well, your, your collectors aren't working.
You don't have this problem here, right?
No, I want to make it clear what AI does.
AI is not calling and taking payments.
Your customers are not miraculously answering AI calls.
They are not answering calls.
85%.
Yeah.
85% don't answer the phone.
Then they follow it with a link and they pay by the, the 15% that do need some sort of help.
They need some sort of specialize in something or another.
And that's where the transfer happens.
And what's, I mean, hopefully everybody listening and watching is using let's pay,
but for some reason you're not.
What you can take away from this is if your collectors are calling and not getting answers,
they better be sending a payment link as soon as that call goes out, right?
Absolutely.
The efficiency and the efficacy of the entire collections motion is that link.
That's how people want to pay.
They want to pay in a way that is intuitive and easy back to retail.
I'm gonna order something on Amazon.
I gotta push the button.
It shows up.
The payments process is invisible.
Same thing.
And how many times you see payment or text messages from dealerships that go out that
don't ask for payments, right?
Or don't have the embedded link in there.
And if you're doing that, it's just stupid.
I'm going to jump on the soapbox just briefly.
No, not you.
If you're not asking for engagement from your customers, if you're not giving them a
way to take immediate action, you may as well send it in the mail.
For sure.
It's the same thing.
Okay.
If I have to send it and then take three steps, I've got to log in and password.
I've got an account number.
I've got to do whatever those things are.
You may as well send a letter.
You're going to have.
I ignore so many invoices that I can't just pay.
They're not set up like with like a link.
100% or if it's like a bill pay automatically.
I'm like, I got to write a check.
I got to do what?
Or I have to log into something to figure it out.
I'm like, oh.
Yeah, yeah.
Consumers are stressed.
Yeah, totally.
The state of the state right now is not great.
So I've got my payment.
I've got $300.
I've got it, but I've got it on three different cards.
I've got half in my wallet.
I've got half in cash.
It doesn't make any difference to you.
Yeah.
Put the onus back on the technology and give your consumers an easy way to pay and then
get out of their way.
Let them go do what they're doing.
So, Ron, let me ask you this then.
What about the next level?
What about like payment arrangements or let's say they're reaching out to make a payment
or switch a credit card and they can't figure it out?
Like when is the Blitz Collect going to be able to handle that kind of stuff?
Like level two customer issues.
So I will tell you very candidly.
I appreciate that.
The technology is there to handle it today.
We haven't built it out because nobody answers the phone.
Okay.
What about text messages?
So that's...
He keeps going back to that.
Like how many times have you asked for this, Jeff?
Talk about this before for me.
Well, I just want to know because I'm like, I'm ready to pay you.
I just want like the text message.
It's on the roadmap.
Like tease us a little.
Give us something.
Yeah, it is.
We have really been focusing on improving the platform.
Blitz Collect, Automation, the way that groups and campaigns go out to make it
efficient for you.
Our inbox is now an inbox rather than a bill.
It's taking us some time.
Yeah, that's important.
Yes.
It is important.
And now we have...
Look, I didn't want to build buttons on a microwave that nobody was going to push.
I wanted to build things that really...
Useful medium.
Yeah, that were immediately not just useful but relevant.
And so we...
The text to pay, the text engagement, the text bot, whatever we're going to call it,
is definitely on the roadmap.
And we've made some pretty significant improvements to the automations and to the engagement.
And you'll see that have a significant impact on the way that we collect, the way that we engage.
I want to ask an off the rails question here.
If you look at polls throughout the country, you have so many people worried about AI and
how it's to affect their lives and things like this.
I mean, you kind of worry about that in a situation where AI is doing so many things.
But this is something good.
What do you think about that situation?
I don't think AI, I mean, in the near future, I don't think it's going to replace...
I think it's going to make you more efficient.
Do I think it can make you more efficient?
And do I think that takes jobs?
I think it puts the busy work back on the technology and it allows human engagement
and human interaction for humans that need interaction and engagement.
The truth is that you mentioned it earlier.
It's not going to replace a collections agent.
But then, you know, you all have your operations.
Your collections agents do more than just...
They verify insurance, they update addresses, they update phone numbers,
they do skin tracing, they do all kinds of things.
So this is what the technology will actually allow them to begin doing some of those more
severe or high velocity things that are necessary.
And then it will replace those things, hopefully.
Well, all of us could probably use one or two more hands in the dealership
doing the things we actually need to be done.
So I think this is a way to take the busy work off and do the heavy lifting by real people, right?
We are seeing that already.
We think so far, based on what we're seeing, and I think the more data we have,
the more advanced we'll be able to get with it.
But we're seeing today that the front-end collections is the most successful so far,
which has allowed our account managers to have time to deal with the people
that do need the human interaction, the payment arrangements,
you know, all of the things that we're not ready for yet on goods.
Because we're still a very hands-on industry.
Buy, here, pay, here is, I call it, hand-to-hand combat.
And that's kind of a flippant way to say it, but it's really a human-to-human conversation
every time if you don't do it that way.
And we've seen more and more of these huge buy, here, pay, here operations go down
because it gets away from that.
I agree.
And you've not been able to eliminate any collective positions because of something like this, right?
We have not.
We actually had one that left on our own.
She relocated due to a job somewhere else with her husband.
And we did not replace that person.
Oh, that's a good point.
That's what I'm talking about.
So when you say it's not going to replace jobs, I say it's not going to replace your collector,
but it will replace your second collector.
Because now my collector handles more than just 100 counts on a Monday.
Like that was the max, right?
One collector could have handled 100 to 120 accounts on a Monday.
Now they can do 180 to 200 because the AI is handling all the low-level.
Well, yeah, they can actually handle the ones that need to be handled,
not the ones that just need to make payment.
I think that's what we're going to do.
That's cash sharing.
30%.
Yes.
By receptionist is just answering the phone on a Saturday and running payments.
Get rid of the cash sharing.
Let's pay it a lot for us in general.
Self-help payments has helped a lot.
But from replacing it, it's like my collector left.
Guess what?
We just didn't rehire for that.
We just didn't rehire.
So we're not actively saying we're willing to cut.
What did that save you in salary?
It probably saved us close to $55,000.
Could you imagine that just saved you whatever the math is on that three to four grand a month?
Yes.
That paying Blitzpay probably a very cheap bargain to run their AI.
I'm sure it's like a hundred bucks a month or something.
I don't know.
So your net savings is ridiculous.
Get back on my soapbox for just a minute.
Good.
Oh, I feel like I'm going to hit this one.
Your base to the bottom in payments is what people,
like that's why we dropped pay from the name,
because it's not just payments.
It's other engagement.
Trying to explain that to dealers who are used to the race to the bottom,
where it's just a couple of basis points here and there makes a significant difference.
Everybody's got this opinion that Blitzpay is so expensive.
Are we more expensive compared to our competitors?
Maybe, maybe not.
But it's this, that is the real thing.
Like the balance sheet isn't, it's linear, right?
You've got other things that feed into it.
It's not just about basis points.
We're reconfiguring the way that people think about that engagement.
Cool.
That's, and that's the argument for the AI agent is I as an operator just replaced
a $60,000 a month employee because I bought some little widget.
I didn't replace, just didn't hire.
I didn't hire.
I saved $60,000 net net.
So what that allowed for me to do is basically I just,
we shuffled our accounts, right?
So we took all the front end and said, let's give that to Blitz.
And then we spread the heavy side of her queue amongst what's left.
And now all of a sudden the spend for Blitz is not a big deal.
It's a zero, it's a zero spend.
It's less than, it's costing you $60,000 a month.
It's safest.
It's safest.
As a partner, not just a vendor.
But it's self-help, which is why we have you.
He needs some help.
Hey guys, real quick to jump in and make sure you know about a new exciting sponsor here,
a supporter of the podcast and a supporter of all independent activities.
To be honest with you, Adiron GPS.
Adiron GPS, they have really, really great products.
I've used them before.
They're wonderful.
They don't break if you install them right, right?
All that good stuff.
But like you said, a big sponsor of the industry with Buy Here, Pay Here, United,
and they're at every conference, Jeff.
So make sure you're using the best possible GPS on the market and that's Adiron.
Yep. Give them a call.
Go to our website for more information.
Let's move along because you said a word earlier when we were talking about the Blitz family here.
Pay, collect, and analytics?
That's what you said?
Insights.
Insights.
So what is that?
Is that going to be something that balloons out?
And all of a sudden you're giving me all sorts of data and metrics on who pays, when they pay,
what my collections, when, like, who do I talk to at what time?
Like, why are you calling him on a Thursday?
That's not his payday.
Call him on Friday.
That's his payday.
Think of the data's currency.
In today's day and age data's currency, think of the data that we have as a payments processor.
And through some of our integrations specifically with Adiron, there is a ton of information
that comes from GPS technology in addition to payments.
Payments don't just decline because there's not a lot of funds in the account.
The way that those consumers, the way that the consumers that we're serving manage their payments is by turning their card on.
I don't even know how to do that.
And it happens so often.
I'm like, how does somebody turn their card off?
And they do it in an instant.
They will turn it on in an instant.
And then you can get your payment.
So a simple message like, hey, your payment declined, turn your card on because you're able to see what's happening at a card brand level.
That's massive.
And that accounts for a sizable percentage of collections.
I get this bucket of collections that are declined and I just throw it into my collection queue and then I'm dialing for dollars.
We're going to get more restrictive about the reasons why those payments are declining and how to communicate directly with customers without a collector having to get involved.
I don't even want you to see it.
I want it to be as invisible to you as possible and I want it to be as invisible to the customer as possible.
So right now if I have a customer who's on autopay or whatever and they didn't turn their card on or I knew that it was going to run.
And Kim Blitz right now send that text that says, hey, turn your card on.
Coming.
Coming soon.
A pretext to the text.
It's a pre-collection text.
It's a pre-collection.
Your card's going to run at eight o'clock.
I'm sure it's on.
It's not.
It's what if I don't have money in the account?
What if I see that?
Yeah.
What if it's an MFS and it's a different conversation?
Do you need to transfer money or whatever?
The way that AI is shaping the ability for you to take data, make that data consumable and make it actionable is where AI is super relevant and super powerful.
We had a conversation.
You mentioned Interon and the GPS communication between BlitzPay and them.
That's pretty cool.
Like, you know, you shut a GPS off, right?
That's a human decision.
We're not going to let the AI or the machine do that yet.
But to cut it back on, that's 100% like the payment got made at midnight.
Boom, your card's back on.
You don't have to wait until I'm in the office.
That's right.
We used to have shutoffs and I stopped doing it for that reason because it was such a hassle.
Like, oh, you shut it off.
Now I got to turn it back on at night.
Oh, they called me at three o'clock and made a payment, but we missed it.
Or they texted me and saying, hey, I paid my payment and you don't see it for 18 hours.
When it's instantly integrated, that creates good habits, right?
That's compliance.
That's compliance.
Yeah.
That's a legal issue.
But also if the customer's like, oh, I pay and it turned on.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah.
Now I know if I pay and it turns on.
You know, like creating good habits.
I get off in the middle of the night.
I put plenty of cash.
I walk over to 7-Eleven and make my payment.
And boom.
Yeah.
That's a game changer for folks like that.
What about like preemptive stuff?
We'll get to the point where Blitzkate can say like, hey, red flag, we GPS this car and
it did not show up to the work for the last six days.
We're going to try to run a payment, but obviously it's not been to work.
That's it.
That's it.
That's it.
Look, the reason these customers are inviting you to pay here is because they have fat files,
right?
The credit.
They've got a fat file because they've got credit credit.
They've got no file because they don't have any credit.
You don't have the ability to get any credit.
Okay.
All of that data about what's happening in these consumers lives is basically invisible
once you don't have a traditional means of collecting that data, right?
If it's not reporting, my rent is reporting back to a credit profile.
You're making decisions based on the information that you've got.
The information you've got is they've got a paycheck.
It's steady.
They've got a steady residence.
I'm on the writing based on that.
What if that was a little more?
What if you had a little more?
It was a little more robust and not only was it more robust, but we were giving it to you
in a way that you can actually understand it, and your collectors can understand it,
and then they can make decisions based on all of this information that exists, but I
can't consume in one phone call.
Yeah.
I mean, I guess they used to call that alternative data or whatever it was on these credit reports.
No one in a customer's payment habits in other areas of their life would totally help.
Trained in to be better.
It's not necessarily that we're looking to become a repository.
We're looking to help you understand and ascertain data about your consumers
and how to better help them and when risk profile is going to change the conversation.
Interesting.
This isn't like the, they talked about the old, who was back in the day that had like
your bank account history and could look at all your transactions, right?
That's not where you guys are going.
No, no, no.
Okay.
You don't have a bank account.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're not bankable.
What am I going to track on?
A lot of them are unbankable.
Prepaid cards, most unbanked and unbanked consumers are managing four prepaid cards.
They've got a card for their rent.
They've got a car for their car.
They've got a car for their ancillary experiences, expenses,
and then typically they've got one for like...
I've got like 10 credit cards.
Is that the same type of situation?
Yeah.
But different.
They use those cards.
If I've got six bills and I've got money for three, they're using it as protection.
So somebody can't take their money?
And think about it.
I've never used it.
They can't reach in.
I'm so far removed from thinking like this.
I've never even thought about how they do this.
It's a sophisticated way of thinking about your finances and protecting your money.
It's kind of like a savings account.
It is.
It's so cars.
And you turn it off, turn it on.
That's so creative.
So creative on how they put off their finite amount of money to do that.
I would just say go make more money.
Like I don't understand that whole concept.
Good luck with that.
How do we meet those consumers where they are?
How do we make them feel respected, connected?
She said it.
Yeah.
She said it.
We meet the consumer where they are.
Yeah.
It's like a Robin catch phrase.
We need a t-shirt that says that.
Yeah.
Blitz.
Protect.
Meet you where you are.
Meet you where you are.
That sounds like a fight.
Oh, I can.
Robin, what's next?
What else is on the Blitz payroll?
We wrap this up.
I want to know what I can expect from this Blitz family.
I've coined that term as well.
The Blitz family.
Anything else that you can share with us?
My product chart will have a complete connection, but I'm going to go.
There's a lot of data.
There's a lot of data.
We keep talking.
I keep going back to this data.
The ability to query that data and have it make sense means that I'm not creating
reports for you because I don't think in the end cases of your dealership.
But if I've got a system that I have the ability to get information on that's
specifically relevant to me, wouldn't that be pretty cool?
Be more specific.
I don't understand that.
I think some of these here.
Without giving away the reality is.
You've got a lot of information.
You've got a lot of information and every dealerships.
Every dealership operates in such a unique way.
You can be next to one another and it's as different as an offer.
Yeah.
Right.
So I don't have to know all of the reporting that you need.
If I've got a system that I can query in a way that helps you get the answers
that you need specifically rather than calling me to build you a report.
And then forcing that report to work for everyone else that she has.
I'm going to hand you a box and tell you you have to stick your business in this
box because those are the walls of the technology.
Instead of handing you a technology that you can fit to your business.
I'm excited for that.
I can ask an agent what I want it to do and it just doesn't.
All right.
Awesome.
This is great.
Yeah.
Thanks everybody.
Guys.
Appreciate it.
This is exciting.
I'm stoked and just to make clothes and give you credit for this because we talk about
it all the time.
But the software providers that think like BlitzPay does and says what do the dealers
need are the ones that are surviving.
We know a lot of payment processors that are the box.
And they're like, nope.
This is what we do.
And you're like, well, can I just get a way to log in?
Nope.
You don't get a way to log in.
Well, can I just?
Like, yeah, there are people that are like, hey, just deal with it.
This is what we are.
But you're saying, hey, we are building these custom platforms and integrating and
innovating in areas that our dealers asked for.
And appreciate that.
Even though I beat you up about it a lot.
We appreciate the partnership.
This matters to us.
We care about our dealers.
We care about the merchants that we serve and we care about their consumers.
And that is an exciting place to be.
And really it's making your messages pay.
How are you making your messages pay?
Thank you, Rob.
Awesome.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thanks, Janessa.
Yeah, thanks.
About this episode
Dealership collectors get a productivity boost when AI handles “low-level” work: one collector goes from “100 to 120 accounts on a Monday” to “180 to 200,” and the hosts tie the staffing shift to “close to 55,000” in annual salary savings. The interview then zooms into Blitz/BlitzPay, positioning it as more than payments—supporting the “entire collections motion.” Guests describe AI-driven call queues, timing “buckets,” and instant payment-link workflows to reduce friction and improve outcomes.
Original notes
In this episode of the Independent Dealer Podcast, Jeff Watson and Luke Godwin sit down with Robyn and the team from Blytz — live from Caesars Palace at BHPH United 2026 in Las Vegas — for a candid conversation about what Blytz is building, why they dropped "Pay" from the name, and what the future of AI-powered collections actually looks like on the ground at a real dealership. Joined by Jenissa from Auto Liquidators, who's already running it in her operation, this one goes beyond the pitch and into the practical.
What You'll Learn:
Why Blytz dropped "Pay" from their name — and what Blytz Collect and Blytz Insights mean for how dealers manage collections from end to endHow one dealership is running an AI collections agent across 300 accounts and what they've learned about the exact times of day customers actually pay
Why 85% of customers won't answer the phone — and how the call-plus-immediate-payment-link combo is outperforming everything else in the collections motion
How AI replaced a $55,000 salary not by firing anyone, but simply by not rehiring when a collector left
The Blytz and Ituran GPS integration that automatically restores a customer's starter interrupt the moment a payment clears — even at midnight
What Blytz Insights is building toward — queryable, dealer-specific data that answers your questions without forcing your business into a one-size-fits-all report
If you're a buy here pay here or independent dealer trying to figure out how to collect smarter, staff leaner, and stop paying people to dial numbers nobody is going to answer, this conversation is required listening.
Support the businesses that support the podcast:
Blytz - BHPH payment processing with fast funding and text-to-pay.
https://theindependentdealer.com/blytzpay/
Buckeye Risk Services - Reinsurance and wealth strategies for independent dealers. https://theindependentdealer.com/buckeye
Ituran GPS - Asset protection and customer management for BHPH and retail dealers. https://theindependentdealer.com/ituran
Follow & Connect:
Website: www.theindependentdealer.com
Facebook Group: @independentautogroup
Luke Godwin: @lukegodwin
Jeff Watson: /sendtojeffw
Like, subscribe, and share this with a dealer who needs to hear it.
The Independent Dealer Podcast
Jeff Watson & Luke Godwin
0:00
34:30