Car Dealership Guy Podcast Jan 24, 2026

Why Most Service Departments Leak Calls – And What Actually Stops It | Pre-NADA AI #5

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

41:21

Brand

Isuzu

Isuzu is a car company from Japan that makes vehicles like trucks and SUVs. They were well-known in the U.S. a while back.

Brand

Kia

Kia is a car company from South Korea that makes affordable and reliable cars. They have become quite popular in recent years.

Brand

Ford

Ford is a well-known car company that makes many different types of vehicles, including trucks and sports cars. They are famous for models like the Ford F-150 truck and the Ford Mustang sports car.

Term

OEM means Original Equipment Manufacturer. It's a term used to describe the company that originally made the parts for a car. For example, if Ford makes a part for their cars, they are the OEM for that part.

LIVE

Hey, everybody, welcome to the Cardiola Ship Guy

Industry Spotlight podcast.

I'm your host, Sam Dark, and today we talk voice AI

and how one multi-generational Ford dealership

in Spaltown, America found a creative solution

to the problem of huge service call volume

at a busy Ford service department,

one that preserved the promise of service, connection,

and delivering on their longtime mom and pop vibe,

plus learned three red flags when considering voice AI.

Joining me today, Luke Sontag,

marketing and IT manager, Kissy Ford,

and Ari Polikoff, CEO Fly.

Today's episode is part of our ongoing

pre-NADA AI spotlight series,

and supporting today's content is Fly,

who will be at NADA this year at 6913N at NADA,

as will Kissy Ford dealer principal, Steve Kissy,

who will also be attending NADA

and accepting a Time Dealer Award.

Let's get into today's episode.

Welcome to the Card dealership guy industry spotlight podcast.

Great to have you here.

Thank you, Sam, nice to be here.

So Luke, one of the things that stands out to me

right out the gate, you're the marketing

and IT manager at Kissy Ford.

Tell us a little bit about Kissy Ford,

and then how does someone do marketing and IT?

Those are two off, rarely combined positions.

Sure, yeah, so Jack Kissy Ford and Claire Moore,

Oklahoma, we're a family-owned store,

been in the same family since 1958.

Long time.

Long time, and our dealer principal,

he is here every day.

He's typically number one sales guy,

and so the rest of us, who I also sell

and do quite a few other things

in a small family-owned store,

you've got to wear a lot of hats.

Yeah, IT and marketing are just two of the hats I wear.

I'm also one of the sales managers.

I have my own customer base as well.

I've got quite a few fleet customers that I take care of.

And my background was more in IT

from previous things I did in my life.

And so I also manage our 50-person organization

and our entire network.

And yeah, but some days I'm back there washing cars too.

So it just kind of depends on what the day brings.

You know, Luke, I started a car dealership in the 90s.

It was an Isuzu, then we got Kia,

and we were probably 30 people or so,

and we did everything.

And I love that.

I love small-town America, smaller dealerships.

How many cars do you guys sell a month?

We average around 80 a month.

80? That's good volume.

Yeah, we're a decent-sized store.

We're not huge, but we're not, you know, too small.

So it's...

How many salespeople do you have?

At the moment we have eight, seven, sorry, seven.

Eight, yeah.

Yeah, but it kind of fluctuates.

We like to be around nine to 10.

We've got a good core team,

and then we've kind of got a constantly rotating

cast of characters.

Yeah, how many technicians?

So we've got, I think we're right around like 10

or 12 right now.

That also is constantly in flux.

And that...

How many service riders do you have?

So we have three service advisors,

and we do average about 700 ROs a month.

And...

So you've got a pretty robust service operation

for the size of Unity.

So what does your service absorption look like?

How much of your dealership expense

does service cover as a percent?

We're on the edge of a big market,

and we strike hard into that big market.

Oh yeah, yeah, we pull.

Yeah.

You know, part of it is just how long we've been here

and our reputation.

I mean, that's, you know, we're 4.7 stars

with almost 2,000 reviews on Google.

And how much everybody around here knows us.

And we're the type of store

where a human being is going to own your problem.

And if you've bought from us or you've serviced with us,

you probably know somebody here by first name.

And they know you or I know you or...

And we're that kind of mom and pop place,

but we do enough business for it to be interesting.

And we're just all about taking care of people, man.

The way we look at businesses,

if we take care of our customers,

then the rest of it takes care of itself.

So you're a Ford operator

and Ford has had a lot of funds

that Ford as an OEM has put into mobile service.

Do you do mobile service in your marketplace?

How many vans do you have if you do?

We don't do mobile service,

but we do a tremendous amount of pickup and drop off.

Pick up and drop off.

Okay, very similar.

Yeah, we've just kind of gone that route

rather than the...

We're cautious in how we allocate resources

and the mobile service thing,

it's a little bit questionable for us.

So the pickup drop off,

so that we've got two to three drivers

any given day that are out shuffling customers' cars around.

We do do mobile recall.

So, and that's been pretty hidden pretty good.

So we just have a little escape

that runs around and does that.

Okay, so your employee, it's not contracted out

and they go do the recall work directly

at the consumer's location, however that works.

Correct, and it's very specific.

If it's airbag stuff or software update stuff

that we can do or just recalls

that are ultimately inspections,

we'll do those mobile and then bring them in house

if we need.

So you know, it's interesting in our world today,

being able to compete as a single point standalone

smaller stores getting tougher and tougher.

How have you staved off all of these years

attempts by presumably larger groups to buy you out?

Is it the commitment to the community?

Is it the dealer's commitment to the employees?

What has caused, it's always interesting to me,

you guys are an anomaly

and you're winning in a very competitive marketplace.

It is, and I feel that too,

that it's, but honestly,

it really comes down to our dealer principle, Steve.

I mean, he is his commitment to the community,

his commitment to the employees here.

I mean, we've got people that have been here

for my entire life, for 45 plus years.

And yeah, 20 years, 30 years is a normal thing here.

And a lot of employees that have retired over the years,

they come back, they visit.

I mean, there is a tremendous sense of family

and at this place.

And that's a big part of reason why I'm here,

but it's, and then the commitment to our customers.

I mean, he is the shining example.

We joke about Steve's little old lady customers,

but he takes care of people

just the way everybody else in the store does

and he sets the tone.

And I mean, it's a vibe that is impossible to beat

at any big store.

And so that's for people that come to us from Tulsa

and surrounding communities that have options

to buy elsewhere, they come here

because they know we're gonna take care of them

and they know if there's a problem

that he's sitting here.

He's not a backseat operator or anything like that.

But mostly the managers here,

we are empowered to solve problems

in a way that at corporate type stores,

you've got to get permission or whatever.

He empowers us to solve problems.

Well, let's talk about solving problems in your role.

So you're needing to deliver a level of service

to your clientele that is unparalleled in the industry today.

So you're a 50 person organization, 80 cars a month,

you've got seven salespeople, 12 technicians,

three riders turning 700 ROs.

You've resisted the urge to go crazy

in the unproven areas.

Like you wanna deliver to your core above

and beyond anyone else.

And that's what keeps you strong as an organization.

So AI is a challenge in today's world

because some of it's proved out, some of it's not, right?

But one problem that many dealers are seeing,

CDK reported on it recently,

average whole time in service department is seven, eight minutes,

which for most consumers is crazy.

You can't wait that long in order to communicate.

How are you, have you discovered any challenges

with how quickly service advisors and riders

are able to respond to customer need?

And if so, what is the challenge

and what is the cost of the organization

if left unsolved for Luke?

Lost business.

I mean, it's easy for anybody to choose to go somewhere else.

Call another dealer, something, book an appointment there.

So I mean, if we can't respond,

then that's business that's going elsewhere.

And that's a huge, huge problem.

I mean, it's, again, with our proximity

to a huge market or a large market here in Oklahoma,

our response, our ability to respond quickly

and with a person is huge, so.

Yeah.

And in service, it's the battleground for attention,

it's battleground for continued relationship

with that customer.

You don't pick up in that timeframe,

it's gonna be a challenge.

So you're here to share a solution that you discovered,

but before you discovered the solution,

what did you realize about how long it took for people

to pick up the phone and what it was costing in business?

Well, I mean, the main thing that we saw

was a whole lot of calls going to voicemail

and then us tracking it, we were not doing a very good job

of replying to those emails in a timely,

or those voicemails that were transcribed to emails,

replying to those in a timely manner.

I mean, we were just, by the end of the day,

the stack would keep stacking up

and then we'd get maybe somebody called back the next day,

but they'd already made a move elsewhere.

And by the way, that's not on you,

that's an industry problem, right?

Like our technicians and our service riders

have got to love the one they're with,

which means a lot of the problems

customers come in now with today,

especially a Ford number one recalled OEM in 2025,

good, bad or indifferent, right?

We need to be able to spend time with them

to connect, to explain the challenges

and you have customers calling for status updates

or even more complicated calls after hours.

Sometimes it's an overwhelm to those three service riders

to be able to get back to everybody in a timely fashion.

And so that was a problem, it impacts CSI,

it impacts retention.

What was the trigger moment where you said,

look, I've got to find a better solution.

And for a dealership that's as conservative as you are,

who said, hey, I'm not gonna run out and do mobile service,

what was the threshold where you said,

hey, look, I'm willing to look at some solutions

that are a little outside the box, Luke.

The AI thing, everybody is looking at what's going on

and we had recently switched to drive centric

in our Ford CRM.

Great CRM, yeah.

And so we were kind of getting some experience with it

and it was working and it's like, hmm,

what more can we do here?

And with our service manager,

I talk with him every single day

and it's like, this is the pain area.

And so we kind of started looking at different things.

And we looked at, you know,

quite a few AI voice vendors out there

and, you know, cause it's very early in that space.

And we were kind of, we're the type of store

where you call our main number,

a human being answers the phone.

It's not press one for service, press two for sales

or anything like that.

It is straight up human being answers the phone.

And, you know, transfers you

or owns that issue right there, depending on what it is.

And our, you know, the main thing

that we were having issues with was roll, you know,

calls, hold time, go into voicemail.

And then just, you know, really nothing for after hours

and showing up every morning

and having 20 voicemails to try to respond

to the top of everybody's stand in front of you.

But that was kind of the impetus

for looking into, you know, what can we do here?

We didn't want to do the whole press one for this or that,

you know, it had to be something.

And, you know, my belief in the AI

has kind of grown it quite a bit,

primarily from our drive century experience.

And so we started looking around

and Fly was one that came on our radar

and Mia and Pam and a couple of the other ones,

you know, we're on a radar.

So I reached out and talked to and got demos

from all of them and just kind of did my analysis

of, you know, what I thought.

And there was, there was one thing

that really stuck out with Fly and it was their hyper focus

on after hours and rollover calls.

They weren't, you know, they just very specifically

weren't trying to sell, you know, everything else

that it could do and outbound calling

and whatever else, right?

And in, from my role and, you know,

in what vendors were using and stuff like that,

it's super important to, you know,

have vendors that deliver, you know,

not over promise under deliver,

but fully deliver on the simple thing that I need.

And they were hyper focused on that

where some of the other vendors

were got way down in the weeds

of talking about all these other problems

that really weren't relevant.

For me, it's like, hey, you need a specific solution.

Exactly.

If you can solve after hours in rollover,

then, and you can win there,

then we can do all sorts of stuff,

but let's start right there and see how you do.

Because frankly, if you can't do that,

then, you know, none of the rest of it matters.

So Ari Polikov, CEO of Fly,

you get the phone call from Luke and look,

it's a multi-generational Ford dealership.

They are hustling 80 units a month, 50 people,

a ton of tax, 12 tax, three service riders,

you hear their problem of, hey, look,

we want to connect with our customers after hours

and overflow in a way that gives us

a competitive advantage above anyone else out there.

How did you see that problem

and how did you approach crafting a solution to it, Ari?

Yeah, so it's very interesting

because one thing that we always talk between each other

and also with our customers is that is the first step,

like overflow and after hours makes so much sense,

there's nothing to lose there, right?

Those are calls that are basically missed,

that are going to voicemail.

So with every single customer, that's the first step,

we always suggest them, let's start there,

let's start small, and then we can obviously expand.

And for us it's obviously an honor

when we get to work with family stores, right?

Because actually those are the hardest ones

if you think about it from an AI perspective,

it's very challenging, right?

You have a store that has very different rules

that wants you to work in a given way

and that makes it much more challenging,

but it's also much better for us.

Well, your technology has to take on the persona

of that family-owned store,

which by the way, that's my next question,

Ari comes in, Luke, with this solution that says,

hey, we're gonna take care of this after hours phone calls,

we're gonna do it in a way that respects the family

and the culture that the Ford store's created.

We're gonna take a big risk

and these are employees that have been

with the company for decades who easily could say,

we don't want any of that big city AI stuff,

we want a manual operator that's willing to take calls.

How did you, what kind of pushback initially did you get

when Ari brought his solution in

and how did you deal with that with your employees, Luke?

Well, it didn't start out with necessarily pushback,

it was a challenge to Ari and his team right out the gate

and it was if you can make our particular situation work,

then we're good to go.

And he committed to making that work

and then executed on it flawlessly.

And the challenge for us is communication

with our employee, our customers is everything

and setting and managing the right expectations

through the entire process.

And so if you call us to book an appointment

and it's an oil change

and while you're booking that appointment,

it's like also my check engine lights on or whatever.

The way we schedule our shop,

that's two different appointments, right?

And so we needed the AI to recognize first and foremost

that that's two different appointments, right?

It's an oil change and a check engine diagnosis

and book two different appointments.

But then it also needs to consider our calendar

and book those if it's someone who's coming in as a waiter

it needs to book those back to back, right?

So it needs to look at the schedule

in a way to understand,

hey, I'm gonna book the oil change right here

and I'm immediately book the diag right afterwards

with this other tech that's available, right?

So to look at the calendar in a broader perspective

and that was the thing, it's like,

if you can do that, then we got something.

If you can't do that, then they're probably

not gonna do this and that's what.

And by the way, Luke, if you fail at that,

at that simple step, Ari, you don't get a second shot

because you've got veteran service riders, salespeople,

staff within the dealership.

You lose faith in the overall capability of the tool.

And Ari, one of the challenges,

I've already learned this with AI, it can do everything.

It can do anything, but we needed to do one thing

and do it well so that confidence credibility is created.

Ari, how did you rise to that challenge

as part of your company and see the importance

of delivering on that simple single request

rather than trying to do everything, Ari?

Yeah, and you got exactly right.

And I think the biggest challenge about AI

is what you're saying, which is how do you align it, right?

You, as a human, you know exactly what you wanted to do,

but then you got aligned perfectly well.

And obviously AI can jump around and do anything,

say anything, so that is the biggest challenge

that we as an AI company figure out, right?

Which is how do we make sure

that we align our AI perfectly well

and how do we make sure that we have that same brain

working so differently across our customer base, right?

For Luke, like when we had that onboarding meeting,

I remember the first thing he mentioned is,

look, I'm scared because I have,

my operation works very differently

to our customers, I can tell you for a fact.

And we had other vendors before

and they cannot figure it out.

And so he was giving me some stories about that.

We had this vendor, they brought someone twice to my store

and they still couldn't figure out our operation.

So I like, this is hard.

I don't, I'm scared that you won't be able to handle it.

And we told Luke, look, we are running the same AI,

completely different across our stores.

And let me tell you, like,

we will be able to deliver this very easily.

And in less than, I think a week,

we were already live with Luke.

And I think he was pretty impressed.

I remember some of his emails,

he was like, wow, you're actually doing

what you told me you were gonna do.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that was very cool.

Yeah, because the second you don't deliver on that,

then we lose credibility

and you don't have the credibility to do anything else.

So Luke, what were some of the initial results

as you first implemented this system and tool?

And also, all doesn't go perfectly.

We learn as we grow,

what were some of the challenges initially implement?

Yeah, so initially, I mean, the other thing for us,

the price point was a no-brainer.

And where it's like, we're gonna try this

and you're either gonna make it fly or not.

So if we look at appointments booked

and our average RO,

we recouped the first month in the first three days.

Like, so.

Wow.

I mean, yeah.

Yeah, and I mean, even to speak

to some specific numbers.

And we've been live on it since November.

But in November,

it answered 616 calls and booked 110 appointments.

In December, it's 180.

Yeah, and this is just rollover in just after hours.

December, 688 calls, 137 appointments booked.

And a month to date right now,

348 calls and 69 appointments booked.

I mean, it is absolutely killing it.

It's one of these vendor decisions that,

yeah, I mean, it's blown the doors off

of what my expectations were.

And as Ari mentioned,

we had been working with another vendor,

not so much in the voice space.

It was more of a recall type tool,

but they just couldn't get it right.

And it was a human deal where they were,

human BDC was doing the outbound calling

and booking appointments.

And it was an absolute disaster.

And I mean, they sent a guy down here twice

from their HQ to try to rescue their relationship.

And it was just, they just couldn't figure it out.

And Ari, I mean, like they crushed it.

Was the element, Luke, for our audience to learn from?

What was the element that they couldn't figure out?

What kept breaking?

It was the multiple appointments.

It was the somebody having more than one problem.

And those problems needing to be segmented

into two different appointments,

our main shop versus our quick lane.

Really basic, right?

But the other organization,

their focus was just on booking an appointment,

not quantifying what kind of appointment

and how it was gonna translate

when the customer showed up.

Because if you're booking an appointment for us

and the customer shows up with an expectation

that their entire problem is gonna be solved

and we're only prepared to solve one

without just burning up our whole workflow for the day,

it's a problem.

And we were having just nonstop customers getting mad.

And that was, and that's where, with Fly,

I mean, they solved it.

And in the first calls,

because with their platform, you can log in

and you can see every transcript.

You can see every call.

You can look at all the data.

You know, I mean, on the first few calls

in that first few days,

it was already doing exactly what we had asked for

and exactly what these other vendors

just didn't seem to be able to pull together.

And so that was a thing.

And then for our staff, I mean, Amanda is her name.

Our staff loves Amanda.

I mean, it went from a very skeptical,

what in the hell is Luke doing?

This, you know, what is this?

You know, to a few days later,

due to Amanda rocks, you know,

and everybody's, you know, kind of,

so we have a joking thing with the team now, you know,

where it's like,

hey, is Amanda screwed anything up today?

And it's like, nope, she's booked,

that, that, that, and it's like, awesome.

So it really truly is for us in a store

where, you know, we wear a lot of hats

and gotta jump and,

but our customers are the main focus.

It has freed up our team on the drive

to focus on who is in front of them

and maximize those opportunities, you know.

And then even when we're returning a phone call, right?

Because Amanda, if it's a,

there are certain situations where

we just have to get an advisor on the phone

with the customer.

We're not, you know, booking appointment

is not really the, is not the optimal path.

It's simply get an advisor.

So Amanda is well aware

because we've, we've dialed this in over time

with Ari and his team of here's these edge case scenarios

where deferred to an advisor.

And so in those scenarios,

Amanda is gathering all this data, right?

She's asking all these questions.

She's taking all these notes.

So for those calls that we, where we need to return,

Amanda tells us,

hey, you need to call this customer back.

They want to book an appointment.

They have all this stuff.

We're, we're, we're fully armed

to call that customer and just pick up where we left off,

where Amanda left off and, and get the appointment booked,

set the right expectations and they come in and it's just,

it's just, it's, it's clicking on in a way that, you know,

if it was a human involved,

taking notes and trying to keep that all down.

Is it too hard cluster?

Yeah.

All right.

So I've got a few questions for Ari

based on what you said.

So first of all,

Luke said this other company just wasn't able to solve

for the problem.

What approach differentiated your ability to solve it

versus their inability Ari?

Yeah.

So we, I think something we nailed as a company

is being really good about,

hey, this is the templates.

This is how service should be booked.

And this is what we've seen works best

across our customer base.

But here is how you can instruct the AI

to do all this different things.

And in our onboarding meeting,

those are all the things we asked, right?

We always ask about what works differently

in your dealership so that we can add all that context

to the AI as it's handling that call.

And so a lot of everything that Luke mentioned,

that was all mentioned in that onboarding meeting.

And that's why when we went live,

that was already there, right?

Which is what do you want the AI to handle

and what do you not want it to handle?

Actually, the main reason why people will get mad

with an AI is because it's trying to handle things

that it shouldn't, right?

That it shouldn't be handling.

And so that is the main challenge

when building an AI,

which is how do you make sure that your AI

is fully aware of this is all you should do

and it's all you shouldn't.

And then how do you make sure

that the process works great after, right?

You transfer to right people.

You alert the right people.

You organize all that communication

so you're not only automating

but also helping with retention, that call.

Which Ari sort of accentuates a point

I've made many times on this show,

which is the better the AI,

the better the people you need to have

implementing it on the other side.

Cause to your point, if you don't do great onboarding,

if you don't truly understand what Luke's goal is,

AI, I think a lot of times wants to solve everything.

And in trying to do everything,

it doesn't do the one thing

that the dealer needs it to.

And that is credibility loss.

So props to you guys for listening to Luke and his team

and figuring out how to match that up.

The other thing Luke mentioned is Amanda's ability

to like collect data points and information

so that when the human needs to get involved,

the human has a ton of data points

and information to more to better serve that customer.

So where is that information deposited Ari?

And does it integrate back to a CRM?

Does it integrate back to a database like XTime?

How do you take that data that Amanda collects

and make it usable to the human?

The first important thing is

when Amanda is taking that call,

it's gathering all this information, right?

Yeah, yes.

And if we ever need to transfer that call

when the person picks up,

Amanda is sort of giving you a summary.

It's literally telling you,

hey, this is what happened in the conversation

and this is what you should do.

So once you're joined the call,

you are already fully aware of what happened, right?

You're not starting over,

which is by the way super annoying for a customer, right?

The second part is we,

you can use this very successfully

without ever logging into fly itself, right?

We're fully connecting to the schedulers

and we're reading all the information from there

from the DMS.

And so for example, Luke, they use Techian

and we recently announced our official integration

which by the way is extremely strong.

And so what that means is that

obviously you get to listen to all the calls in fly

if you want to,

but you can just live in your Techian scheduler

and not change much about your operation

because we're just fully reading

and writing directly to them.

So you'll deposit those notes about prior calls

when the human gets involved right into Techian.

So I can go straight into Techian

or I would assume you've also got a dashboard

where you could go to one of both places.

Although I would argue the less different logins you have

like allowing you just to go back to Techian

is going to be the gold standard, Luke, right?

You don't want your people

to have to go to five, six different programs.

That's 100% business.

I got 20 dashboards I don't need anymore

and my people do too.

That was actually one of my very early things with them

is just going to require another dashboard

and they were adamant that they didn't.

And again, like Ari just said,

I mean, the integration is seamless

and the phone system integration too,

we use go to connect, go to for our phone

and I mean seamless so.

So why not Techian has some AI capabilities

born into its TMS system?

Why not use their already existing capabilities?

Techian and everybody's got something AI now

and it's a, you know, I'm not trying to shoot down

what everybody else is doing

but a lot of these bolted on things are just,

you know, it's like the executive said,

hey, we need some kind of AI to get something here

so that we can sell some AI stuff

and it's just garbage.

I'm not speaking to their stuff specifically

but in general, my experience is that

and you know, where something like with Fly,

it's AI from the get go, right?

They're not building from, you know,

legacy product perspective

and how do we bolt AI into this situation

and make it functional?

You know, it's full blown, you know,

we're building this on top of the AI models

that are available to us

and that it's completely different.

It's a rethink of the workflow and the product.

So I think it's interesting,

you've got AI implemented into your CRM,

now you've got through Fly,

you've got AI implemented into your service call handling

with overflows and after hours.

Obviously the capabilities of Fly

and other AI companies are more expansive

than those two, you know, applications.

Now that you have the credibility with your team,

having implemented a system that does what it says it'll do,

is there a 2.0, is there a next step

where you're saying, hey, there's another problem

I'd like to solve with this

or are you looking to just prove this out

over the coming months and continuing to lean in, Luke?

I mean, we're going to continue for sure,

but no, our next step is outbound recall scheduling.

So all powered by Amanda or Fly.

But, and we've, we could have turned that on

right out the gate, you know, Ari mentioned that,

not as part of their initial pitch,

but, you know, shortly after when it was very obvious

that this was working well,

we've taken a little bit of a slow roll approach

to rolling that out just yet,

simply because I wanted everybody comfortable

with it and, you know, but the comfort level,

I mean, like I said, at this point,

Amanda is a member of the team on that service drive

and everybody loves her because, you know,

she's booking appointments,

not only appointments that she, you know,

that we would have missed,

but even for the customers

with just really simple one to call us,

get an appointment scheduled,

don't need a lot of overhead,

they can do that so quickly now

and Amanda is getting it done

and they don't have to wait for their advisor, right?

We've got our customer base is the sort where

a lot of our customers,

they have a certain advisor they like to work with

that they go to, right?

But that advisor or those advisors

being that we only have three,

we got customers that go to those three specifically,

they may be busy and they most likely are busy.

They are, they are busy.

Yeah. Right, exactly.

Yeah, they are crushed most of the days.

And so, Amanda is their personal assistant

and they love it because she's booking

their regular appointments, you know,

and handling that overhead.

So again, when they've got a customer in front of them

or they're on the phone on a serious,

you know, on a bigger issue deal,

they're able to focus and I mean,

that is definitely translate.

I mean, we've always been really good on CSI,

but I see the initial uptick

in that at this point.

So, and just as a reminder, this is voice AI.

As Amanda reaches out, it's a voice.

It's not text, email.

It is a, so Ari, tell me this,

couple of things that I hear often on this show.

Number one, voice AI isn't quite there yet.

Actually, Luke, maybe you give me your perspective on this.

Not quite there yet to be able to do the outreach piece.

And then the second challenge

is there's so many privacy issues

and so many call laws and rules

that voice can't really be as effective as texting or email

because you're gonna run a foul of some rule or regulation.

Luke, would you address the voice quality

and then already the laws and regulations?

Sure, and I might throw something

on that laws and regulation thing too.

On the voice quality deal,

that was actually another differentiator with Fly,

to be honest.

There, you know, all of the vendors we looked at

were fairly, you know, in the same realm,

but the smoothness, the continuity of Fly's

was really, it was top class.

It was top class.

I'm not saying that the other vendors weren't, you know,

in somewhere in the same ballpark,

but they definitely, theirs was conversationally

more human than the other experiences.

To the point where our customer,

I mean, we've got people that do recognize that it's AI

and we've had some old timers that don't care for it.

You know, they wanna talk to whomever.

I don't want that AI fancy AI.

Exactly, but overwhelmingly people are, they like it

and then we like it

because from a numbers perspective, it is a no-brainer.

And then, you know, the voice side of it

on the outbound calling stuff,

we haven't done that yet,

so I can't really speak to what that looks like,

but we're ready, you know, we're excited to give that a shot

and how that translates versus text is, you know,

if the AI is able to call and it handles what I need, right?

That's what matters, you know,

whether I'm talking to a computer or a human,

if my appointment's getting booked

and then when I show up down there at that store,

the people are friendly and smiling

and they know exactly what's going on,

not having to stand around and wait

and I'm not like, oh, dang,

we didn't get this properly loaded

and we didn't know you needed that too, you know,

they don't care if it's AI in that case.

And then, you know, the text side of things

versus the text side of things,

there's so many regulations and stuff with text

and opt in, opt out

and whether the opt is in the system or not,

that's a cluster in and of itself.

So I'd much rather have a phone call.

Yeah, yeah.

Ari, how do you make sure the outbound voice calls

don't run afoul of rules regulations

that exist all over the place?

Yeah, so a few details there,

addressing the AI voice is not there.

I think I also hear that all the time.

And my answer to that is always very simple.

It's just, our AI is public.

So just like go to our website and try it

and try to break it.

We always tell our customers, ask whatever you want,

ask for a loan or ask for this, ask for that,

whatever you come up with and break it.

And I think that's when every single prospect

gets like that tracer of like, okay,

maybe it is there actually.

Maybe I do feel comfortable in putting in,

in my family business.

On the outbound side, we do a lot of outbound

and it's more so texting.

And the reason why we have focused so much on texting

for the outbound is because we've seen it

to convert much better than anything else.

And so for the recall side,

when we run campaigns with customers,

we're seeing all the way from five to 10% conversion rates

on recalls and that's awesome, right?

That's, it's a win-win for everyone.

It's a safety thing.

The customer needs to know that they have a recall.

The dealership is obviously getting paid by the OEM

and then it's free for the customer.

So it's just a win-win.

And with the regulations, especially which recalls,

it's much, much safer, right?

Because again, it's safety is not marketing.

So Ari, to those dealers that say,

hey, Voice AI just isn't quite there yet.

What are the top red flags to look for

when selecting a Voice AI company

that would distinguish the difference

between Voice AI that works and is effective

and the Voice AI can only frustrates customers?

There's a few things that I would definitely suggest

for every dealer to check even with us.

The first one is just try calling it, right?

That's the easiest.

Try calling it and try coming up with all the cases

that you will in real life, right?

Because booking an old change, that's easy.

What about when they call after hours

and they need to drop off the car

and the dealership is closed?

What about what happens in all the actual situations

that will actually happen when you go into production, right?

People will literally call an AI under their car is on fire.

So we better make sure that we're really careful

with how we're handling that.

So that's one thing.

The other thing, call AI's that are live

and ask them for things that will definitely need a person

and see how fast they will get you to that person.

That is the main thing that will make customers smart.

Actually, what we've seen is that customers are not mad

if they have the chance to do something with AI.

They're definitely mad if the AI is sort of a gatekeeper.

And so I'm like, no, you got to talk with me.

And Amanda is the opposite of that.

She's like, she will do what it can do.

And then if it ever needs a human,

she will instantly make sure to connect you to them

and to alert them to make sure

that they come back very, very fast.

And I think that will actually make customers happier

because on the long run,

we are automated what can be automated.

And then advisors and BDC are more free

to those follow-ups very, very fast

when they're actually needed.

And so that contributes a lot for the customer.

Well, I'll tell you what, Luke Sontag,

marketing and IT manager, Kissy Fort,

not only marketing IT manager, sales manager, sales person,

Jack of all trades in the best way possible

in small-town America,

delivering really a great product to your customers.

It is awesome that you've brought to us such a cool tool

that allows you to weigh out your size

in terms of connecting with customers

and delivering to them.

So Luke Sontag, marketing and IT manager,

Kissy Fort, Ari Polikoff, CEO, Fly.

Thanks for being on the Card dealership

guide industry spotlight podcast.

Look forward to getting possibly an update

in the future, Luke,

as to how else you've implemented this

and other AI tools into your dealer operations.

Thank you both.

You bet.

Thank you, Sam.

About this episode

Exploring the challenges of high service call volumes, this episode features Luke Sontag from Kissy Ford and Ari Polikoff from Fly discussing how voice AI transformed their service department. The conversation highlights the dealership's commitment to maintaining a personal touch while integrating technology to improve customer interactions. They share insights on the importance of effective AI solutions, the challenges faced with previous vendors, and the impressive results achieved since implementing Fly's system. The episode also touches on the future of AI in automotive service and the potential for further enhancements.

Ford Isuzu Kia OEM

Original notes

In part 5 of our Pre NADA AI Spotlight series, Sam sits down with Luke Sontag, Marketing, & IT Manager at Kissee Ford and Ari Polakof, CEO & Co-founder of Flai. We explore how one family-owned dealership used voice AI to capture after-hours and rollover calls without losing its local, human feel. Ari explains why most “bolt-on” AI fails, how deep DMS integration changes outcomes, and what it really takes to get service advisors to trust automation. The result is real appointments, immediate ROI, and less chaos on the service drive. This episode of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast is brought to you by Flai: Flai - Your best people know how to turn an opportunity into an appointment, but they can't be everywhere. Flai is an AI communications platform that handles calls, texts, and emails so every call gets answered, every lead gets followed up, and appointments get booked. Some dealers have seen appointments double. Book a free pilot at http://useflai.com Check out Car Dealership Guy’s stuff: For dealers: CDG Circles ➤ ⁠⁠⁠https://cdgcircles.com/⁠⁠⁠ Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dealership recruiting ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgrecruiting.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Fix your dealership’s social media ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.trynomad.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For industry vendors: Advertise with Car Dealership Guy ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgpartner.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Topics: 02:27 What are Kissee Ford's operational challenges? 08:45 How can AI solve service call problems? 14:46 What is "The Flai Solution"? 20:45 What were the early AI successes? 21:53 How were vendor issues solved? 23:57 How did "Amanda" impact operations? 26:00 How was AI integrated and onboarded at the dealership? 32:03 What are future AI plans? Car Dealership Guy Socials: X ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠x.com/GuyDealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/cardealershipguy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tiktok.com/@guydealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Threads ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠threads.net/@cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Everything else ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Car Dealership Guy Podcast

Car Dealership Guy

View classic page →

0:00

41:21