Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap newsletter—the key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
In this episode, Scott Traylor, Vice President of Sales at Mia Labs, Inc., and Thomas Eggers, CMO of Covert Auto Group, discuss how to restructure service communication, taking scheduling off the advisors’ plate, building a dedicated care team, and setting clear performance metrics.
Cracking the code on scalable customer care in the car business
Family-owned dealerships are leveraging generational involvement for a competitive advantage.
Covert Auto Group has been operating for over 100 years, making it the oldest franchise group in Texas. They're setting new benchmarks rather than resting on their reputation.
"We're on the 6th generation and our owners are very, very involved. They're here every day and very involved in the operation, which really makes it exciting." — Tom
Since opening their new ground-up facility just two years ago, they've broken records every month, including highest total volume units sold and most used cars ever sold.
Customers are shifting back to phone calls over digital leads.
But Covert is seeing a trend that differs from many dealers who report declining lead quality and volume.
"We are seeing a very healthy amount of leads, but what we have found interesting is where we've seen a substantial growth in the amount of phone calls." — Tom
Customers are still doing their research online, then picking up the phone to have actual conversations with dealerships.
Misrouted calls are costing dealers measurable revenue and OEM penalties.
By industry standards, one out of every four calls gets misrouted—creating a revenue problem that manufacturers are tracking closely.
"We all certainly know that missed calls, misrouted calls, unreturned calls, all of those cost you money. Have we actually calculated an actual dollar to that? No, but we knew that we had a problem and we needed to find a fix for it." — Tom
OEMs monitor call handling and attach financial consequences to poor performance, making this an operational priority.
Generational differences are creating systematic phone handling failures.
Tom identified several root causes that many dealers can relate to: increasing call volume, generational differences in phone comfort, and multitasking challenges.
"It is call volume...Then we have younger, new generation and...they're actually kind of scared of the phone. You can sit there and see their phone is ringing, they look at it...Then you do have turnover at dealerships in the sales area." — Tom
Service advisors can't answer calls while helping customers in person, new employees don't know how to transfer calls properly, and younger staff members simply aren't comfortable with phone communication.
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Most AI solutions are failing basic voice communication requirements.
Covert tried multiple AI solutions before finding one that actually worked, revealing important evaluation criteria for dealers considering similar technology.
"We vetted a few others and did some trials. And to be frank, it was very, very frustrating because you just think that AI is going to solve your problem and then you start listening to some of the calls and you just want to throw in the towel and give up." — Tom
The biggest problems were latency issues—either customers waiting too long for responses or the AI talking over customers. These are deal-breakers that create worse customer experiences than having no solution at all.
Voice AI is requiring different success metrics than text-based solutions.
Successfully implementing voice technology means measuring different outcomes than traditional lead generation tools. The focus should be on containment rates and call completion rather than just lead volume.
"Early on it was containment rate and we define containment rate as the ability to take the call and resolve the call without transferring a call." — Scott
Covert started with 70% containment rates and have refined their approach based on how the technology actually gets used in their stores. Transferring a call to the right person is sometimes more valuable than trying to handle everything in one conversation.
Staff resistance is emerging when technology threatens existing roles.
Onboarding new phone technology requires careful communication to prevent employee pushback. Covert learned that framing matters more than the actual capabilities of the system.
"We communicated with our staff early on and we made it very clear that this solution is not here to replace anybody, it's to take the heavy lifting off." — Tom
The approach of positioning technology as handling routine tasks while letting staff focus on higher-value customer interactions helped reduce internal resistance during the transition period.
Real-time monitoring is accelerating problem identification and fixes.
Rather than waiting for monthly reports or customer complaints, dealerships are implementing systems that provide immediate feedback on call quality and routing issues.
"I get reports four times a day of calls where I can listen and review them. And I used every single one of them and now it's gotten so good that I don't even need to review those calls anymore." —Tom
This approach allows for rapid course corrections and continuous improvement rather than discovering problems weeks or months after they occur.
Manufacturers are implementing stricter phone performance standards.
OEMs are establishing specific targets that directly impact dealer performance evaluations.
"They want over 95% of our calls to be answered, routed and picked up 95% of the time during business hours...That's challenging." — Tom
This is about meeting obligations with manufacturers who view call handling as a core operational competency that affects brand reputation.
Voice interactions are creating different customer responses than text communication.
Understanding how customers respond to different communication channels helps dealers choose the right technology investments. Voice communication provides additional context that text cannot deliver.
"7% of all communication is verbal...but 38% the split second that you add voice into it, the split second, you add voice into it, you pick up tone and that's an additional 38% of understanding and engagement with the human being." — Scott
Phone conversations often result in more successful customer interactions compared to text-based communications, even when the same information is being conveyed.
