Across Industries
A high-volume car dealership
Answering more than 3,500 leads a month in one minute, with half the BDC team — and nobody laid off.
- Automation & AI
The challenge
More than 3,500 leads a month, and an 8-person BDC team to handle them. The problem was never generating leads — it was everything that had to happen after one came in: contact, follow-up, qualification, calls, scheduling, reminders, handoff. As volume grew, so did payroll and missed opportunities.
The results
3,500+
leads handled per month
The volume never changed. What changed is who does the first pass on it — and that the first pass now happens on every single lead, not only on the ones the queue got to.
8 → 4
people on the BDC line
Half the team now covers the same volume. Nobody was let go: the other four moved into customer experience, where a person actually changes the outcome — and the dealership got a stronger post-sale operation out of the same payroll.
23 → 1 min
average first response time
The single number that decides whether a car lead converts. One AI agent owns the whole repetitive chain — reply, qualify, call, follow up, remind, schedule, hand off — so the first minute never depends on who is free.
What we did
We made an AI agent the first layer of the BDC operation: it responds, qualifies, calls, follows up, reminds, schedules and routes qualified opportunities to sales — people step in only where they add value. The BDC line went from eight people to four, and the four who came off it moved into customer experience instead of out of the company. We also took the down payment out of the sales team's hands: they message an internal agent in chat, and Stripe generates the link and sends it by SMS and email.
How the front line runs
Every lead goes through the same seven steps, in the same order, at any hour. A person joins at step seven — or earlier, whenever the lead stops being routine.
- 01
Lead in
Every source lands in the same place, in the same shape.
- 02
Reply
Answered in seconds, on the channel the lead used.
- 03
Qualify
The questions a BDC agent would ask, asked the same way every time.
- 04
Call
An outbound call when the conversation stalls in writing.
- 05
Follow up
Kept alive until the lead answers or is closed out on purpose.
- 06
Schedule
Books the appointment and sends the reminders before it.
- 07
Hand off
A qualified, briefed opportunity reaches a salesperson.
What changed
First response
Before23 minutes on average — as fast as the queue allowed.
After1 minute, at any hour, on every lead.
Follow-up
BeforeAs far as eight people could stretch.
AfterEvery lead, until it answers or is closed out.
The BDC team
Before8 people on the repetitive layer.
After4 people on the exceptions — the calls that need a human.
The other four
BeforeAbsorbed by the same queue as everyone else.
AfterMoved to customer experience, on the part of the journey that keeps buyers coming back.
Down payments
BeforeThe salesperson stopped selling to chase a payment link.
AfterRequested in chat; Stripe sends it by SMS and email.
Growing volume
BeforeMore leads meant more payroll.
AfterMore leads mean more of the same system.
We didn't automate the dealership's people. We automated everything that was keeping its people from selling.
- AI handled the repetition.
- BDC handled the exceptions.
- Sales handled the opportunities.
- And the four who came off the line went to customer experience.