Customer Support and Voice AI
AI receptionist for small business: calls, bookings and handoffs
What an AI receptionist does on a real call, the rules that apply, a sample greeting and a pass/fail checklist to launch one safely.
Inbound
AI Voice Receptionist for Automotive
Sales and service calls after the showroom closes still get answered, with test drives and service slots booked.
Car buyers often call in the evening, after browsing your stock online, and service customers ring before the workshop opens. If nobody answers, they call the next dealer. This receptionist answers your dealership or workshop line, books test drives and service appointments, explains your trade-in process and captures every sales lead in your dealer management system or CRM.
- Test drives and service slots booked after showroom hours
- Every sales lead logged in your DMS or CRM
- Trade-in process explained, valuations left with your staff
$6,900
20–30 working days
Optional maintenance $345/mo
What it is
AI Voice Receptionist for Automotive answers your dealership or workshop line for buyers and service customers. It books test drives and service appointments, answers trade-in process questions from your documents, captures every sales lead into your dealer management system or CRM, and transfers to sales or service staff.
Why businesses buy it
Dealerships spend heavily to make the phone ring, then lose the call when the showroom is closed or the service desk is busy. A buyer who reaches voicemail late in the evening has often booked a test drive elsewhere by morning. This receptionist answers every call, books the appointment and puts the full lead in front of your sales team at opening. Your staff keep every valuation and price conversation. The Scope Card lists the call flows, systems and limits before you order.
Problems this solves
Evening and weekend buyers call after the showroom has closed
The receptionist answers the dealership line outside showroom hours. It books test drives and captures each sales lead into your dealer management system or CRM for the sales team.
Service customers wait on hold while advisers handle the workshop
Service appointments are booked during the call into your connected system or calendar. Advisers can stay with customers at the desk instead of answering every booking call.
Trade-in questions get different answers from different staff
Trade-in process questions are answered from your own documents. Every caller hears the same explanation, and anyone ready to discuss a deal is transferred to sales.
Leads taken over the phone never make it into the CRM
Every sales call is captured as a lead in your dealer management system or CRM, with a transcript and summary. Sales managers can see each one and follow it up.
A good fit if
Sales and service leads ring after the showroom shuts, and nobody hears them until the next morning.
Test drives and service appointments live in a calendar, dealer management system or CRM that can be connected.
Callers ask the same trade-in questions: how it works, what to bring, whether outstanding finance matters.
You want every caller who shows buying interest logged with their details, ready for your sales team to follow up.
Not the right fit if
You want outbound calls chasing leads and service customers. See AI Voice Follow-Up for Automotive.
Service booking is the only call you need covered. AI Voice Booking Agent for Automotive, does that one job.
Most of your buyers message on WhatsApp rather than call. See WhatsApp AI Sales Agent for Automotive.
You want phone answering, lead qualification, appointment setting and follow-up together. The AI Automotive Dealer Stack, includes the core AI Voice Receptionist with those three agents.
How it works
- Sales or service is worked out first. After your greeting and recording notice, the receptionist learns whether the caller is buying, booking a service or asking about something else, and follows the matching call flow from the Automotive workflow template.
- Test drives get booked. It takes the vehicle the caller is interested in, offers open slots from your calendar or CRM, books one inside your rules and confirms it back.
- Service appointments are booked the same way. Vehicle details, the work needed and a preferred time are taken, then the appointment goes into the system your workshop uses.
- Trade-in questions are answered from your process documents. The receptionist explains how trade-ins work at your dealership and records the vehicle details your team needs, but it never gives a valuation.
- Leads are written up for follow-up. Name, number, vehicle of interest and timescale go into your dealer management system or CRM, so sales staff start the next morning with a list.
- Staff are reached when it matters. A caller ready to talk numbers or with a complaint is transferred to the sales or service number you choose, or a message is taken.
What you provide within 72 hours
Your portal lists these the moment you order. Delivery starts the working day after everything is in and your access is checked.
- A telephony account in the dealership's name, such as Twilio, Vonage or Exotel, with the number to use, forward or port.
- Showroom and workshop hours, test-drive rules and your service menu as you publish it.
- Your trade-in process and the vehicle details your team needs from a caller.
- Access to your dealer management system or CRM, and to your booking calendar.
- Transfer numbers for sales, service and the manager on duty.
- Your preferred voice and language, and your call-recording disclosure wording.
- One decision-maker who approves the setup.
- An API key for your own AI model account (for example OpenAI or Google Gemini), created for this build with a spending limit.
The 72-hour rule. Send everything on your checklist, including access, within 72 hours of ordering so your build starts on time.
Timeline
Start
Intake verified, sales and service call flows agreed
Weeks 1–2
Automotive template set up for test drives, service and trade-ins
Week 3
Dealer management system or CRM and calendar connected
Weeks 3–4
50 test calls from buyer and service scenarios, transcripts sent
Week 4
Your review and two rounds of changes
Go-live
Live on your line, recorded handoff, 30 days of support start
| Option | Delivery time | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 20–30 working days | $6,900 |
| Express | 15–25 working days | $7,950 |
| Rush | 10–20 working days | $8,950 |
What you receive at handover
- The receptionist live on your dealership or workshop line
- An automotive intent library and call flow templates for test drives, service bookings and trade-in questions
- Connections to up to two systems, such as your dealer management system and calendar
- A test report from automotive scenario test calls, with transcripts
- An admin guide and a recorded handoff session
- 30 days of post-launch support
Expected benefits and how to measure them
- Can help capture sales leads that arrive outside showroom hours.
- Helps service advisers spend more time with customers at the desk.
- Makes phone leads visible to the whole sales team.
- Phone leads logged in the CRM
- Count leads by source in your dealer management system or CRM. Compare the month before launch with the month after.
- Test drives booked by phone
- Count phone-booked test drives from your calendar or CRM. Compare before and after launch.
- Service bookings made by phone
- Pull phone bookings from your workshop system. Compare four weeks before and after.
Before you start: Count last month's phone leads in your CRM and the calls missed outside showroom hours. Note how many test drives were booked by phone.
These are things to track, not promised results. Outcomes depend on your data, your team and your market.
Running costs
The build price is paid once. To keep it answering you pay call minutes in your own accounts, about $0.13 to $0.31 per minute all in for the voice platform, the AI model and telephony, plus number rental. More evening and weekend calls means more minutes, and nothing else changes.
AI usage for the build and test calls is billed to your accounts too.
Ask about running costsCustom requirements
A sixth call flow, for example parts inquiries, or a third connected system such as a separate workshop tool, comes through a written Change Quote. Add a note at checkout, the quote arrives, and the work only starts once you accept it.
Request a custom versionKeep it running
After the 30 days of support, optional monthly maintenance covers monitoring, fixes, model and platform updates and a monthly health report. Change hours handle small changes, such as new showroom hours, an updated service menu or revised test-drive rules. Bigger work gets a Change Quote. Cancel any month.
$345/mo (5% of the build price a month, includes 3 change hours)
Optional. Starts after the post-launch support period. Cancel any month.
How maintenance worksHow this compares
| Do it yourself with a SaaS tool | Hire a custom agency | Upmark Labs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | A call handling service charges monthly or per lead | A custom build is quoted after discovery | Ours is one fixed price, shown on this page before you buy |
| After-hours leads | Messages arrive for someone to sort through | Depends on the brief | Ours logs each lead in your dealer management system or CRM |
| Bookings | Usually passed back to staff | Depends on what was agreed | Ours books test drives and service slots during the call |
| Delivery | Days to brief operators | Usually several weeks | Ours has a fixed delivery time shown before you buy, with faster options |
Questions about this product
Can AI Voice Receptionist for Automotive value a trade-in over the phone?
No. It explains your trade-in process from the documents you approve and records the vehicle details your team asks for, such as make, model and mileage. The valuation itself stays with your staff, who get the details logged in your dealer management system or CRM, ready to call the customer back.
Does the dealership receptionist book test drives and service at the same time?
Yes, as separate call flows. Test drives and service appointments each follow their own questions and booking rules, and both can write into the calendar or system you connect. That uses two of the five flows, leaving room for trade-in questions and a general inquiries flow.
What happens to sales leads that call after hours?
They are captured in full. The receptionist takes the caller's name, number, vehicle of interest and timescale, books a test drive if they want one, and logs the lead in your dealer management system or CRM. Your sales team sees every after-hours lead when they start, with the call summary attached.
Which dealer systems can the automotive receptionist connect to?
Two systems in total, chosen at intake. The common pair is your dealer management system or CRM plus a calendar for bookings. Each needs an API and the access you provide. If your workshop runs on a separate tool you also want connected, that third system is priced as a Change Quote.
Can it handle calls for more than one dealership site?
Not within the base scope, which covers one phone number and one set of information. For a group with several sites, add Multi-Location Setup, or describe the sites in a checkout note for a written Change Quote. Either way the price is agreed before any extra work begins, and the base build runs on its normal timeline.
How soon can the dealership line be live?
Delivery time for each speed is shown in the panel on this page, with faster options if you need the line covered sooner. Your hours, service menu, trade-in process and system access are needed within 72 hours of ordering. Late items push the delivery date back, so have your DMS or CRM admin ready.
What will the automotive receptionist cost to run?
Call minutes, paid in your own accounts: about $0.13 to $0.31 a minute all in, plus number rental. A busy month of evening calls costs more than a quiet one. Monthly maintenance is optional, and we charge nothing per lead, per test drive or per service booking.
Guides on this topic
All guides Catch the buyers who call after you close.
Order AI Voice Receptionist for Automotive.
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