AI Receptionist For Car Dealerships
Every AI Receptionist Sounds Great
Until It Has to Hand a Buyer to a Human
Power your automotive dealership BDC with Wilma, the AI built into the phone system itself. She answers and books on her own, day and night, and hands hot buyers to your closers with full context on screen, instead of losing them in the transfer.
- 1.4 million users
- 800+ partners
- 135+ countries
Every Missed Call Already Cost You Money Twice
You paid to make that phone ring, between the ads, the listings, the lead providers and the OEM co-op. Then the call came in, and this is what happened to it:
01
1 in 3
Inbound service callers never reach a live person, according to Car Wars data covering roughly 53 million dealership calls in 2025.
02
19 million
Of those calls were missed opportunities in a single year. Car Wars found that more than half ended in voicemail, and another 29% hung up while still on hold.
03
$470
The average value of one repair order, per NADA. That’s the price tag on every service call that rings out, before you even count the sales calls.
Why Reps, Answering Services, and Standalone AI Still Let Sales & Service Deals Slip Away
Every fix promised to catch the calls your team couldn’t, so look closely at where each one actually lost the customer.
Hire
Coverage gap
Another sales support hire
It took three months to find them and another two to train them. Then the mid‑morning rush hit, the status calls piled up, and the overflow went to voicemail anyway. Adding a seat never changed what happens at 7:30pm on a Thursday.
19:32Thu
3 calls
↳ voicemail
↳ 0 booked
Nobody on the desk after hours
Answering service
Callback
You tried an answering service
They picked up, took a message, and promised your customer a callback. The problem is that your customer wanted an appointment, not a callback. By the next morning, the ones worth calling back had already booked somewhere else.
MESSAGE TAKEN · 19:41
"Caller asked about a service slot on Saturday. Please call back."
Saturday slot — booked elsewhere by 09:00
No appointment booked
AI demo
Deal died in transfer
You demoed an AI receptionist
It sounded great on the easy calls. But the first time a real buyer asked about their trade-in, the AI did the only thing it could do: it transferred them to a separate system, where a salesperson picked up cold and asked the customer to start over. That transfer is where the deal died, and in the demo, they never show you that call.
What can you give me for my 2019 Golf?
Let me transfer you to sales.
Context lost
Hi, how can I help you today?
Customer starts over
What Is an AI BDC?
An AI BDC is software that runs the work your business development center does over the phone: it answers inbound sales and service calls, books appointments into a live calendar, handles routine questions like hours, availability and vehicle status, and passes anything that needs judgement to a person on your team. Dealers also call it an AI receptionist for car dealerships. What separates it from an answering service is that it holds a real conversation, checks your live availability while the customer is still on the line, and works across voice, SMS, WhatsApp and web chat instead of taking a message for somebody to process later.
- Voice
- SMS
- Webchat
Incoming call SAT 21:14
A well-built AI BDC should:
Wilma AI, the AI BDC built by Wildix, covers all five.
Meet Wilma AI
The AI receptionist built for car dealerships.
Wilma is built for dealerships that can’t afford to lose another deal to a ringing phone, or another quarter to BDC turnover. She answers in 53+ languages, on every channel your buyers use, and a certified local partner configures her around your store.
She doesn’t replace your BDC. She feeds it the deals that used to die in voicemail.
How Wilma Handles a Call at Your Dealership
01
A customer calls or texts.
Whether it’s Sunday morning or the Monday rush when every line in the store is already lit, Wilma picks up on the first ring and speaks the language your customer speaks. There’s no phone tree to fight through, just a real conversation.
- Voice
- SMS
- Webchat
Live transcript / ES
Riverside Motors / Sales · 11 May 2026
May 2026 Time
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
1234567 891011121314
10:30 11:00 12:30
SMS sent · Test drive booked — Tucson, Sat 10:30
02
The appointment gets booked.
Wilma checks a live calendar, finds a slot in the right department at the right location, and confirms it by text before the call ends. Nobody on your team touched it, and it’s already in your CRM.
03
A real buyer on the line? Your closer takes over mid‑conversation.
When a customer wants to negotiate a trade-in or is upset about a delay, that call needs a human. So Wilma passes it to the right person on your team, inside the same platform, with everything the customer has already said on their screen. The customer never gets transferred to a separate system and never has to start over.
Marco’s screen · incoming handover
Vehicle 2019 VW Golf, ~62,000 miles
Asked about trade-in value, financing (x2)
Preferred day Saturday
Morning log / 11 May 2026
06:14 · Voice · PT Booked → Service bay
07:32 · WhatsApp · ES Booked → Test drive
21:08 · SMS · AR Rescheduled → Service
22:41 · Voice · DE Routed → Trade-in desk
23:55 · Webchat · EN Booked → Finance call
04
Everything's logged, so nothing leaks.
Every call, text, booking and handover is captured in one place and written to your CRM, so your managers start the morning with a complete picture of last night’s opportunities instead of a voicemail box and a guess.
Why This Works When the Last Demo Didn't
The AI and the phone system are the same thing.
Every other AI receptionist is a separate company bolted onto your existing lines. Wilma is different: she’s built into a full communications platform, the one that runs your calls, texts and messages, so when a conversation needs a human she passes it to your closer with the full context attached. Nobody else can promise that, because nobody else owns the phone system underneath.
Context survives the handover only when it never leaves the system
There's no meter running on your calls.
Most AI receptionists bill by the minute, so your costs climb exactly when business gets good. Wilma is included in the license, and the Monday rush costs the same as a quiet Wednesday.
Your cost stays flat exactly when the phone gets busy
It's set up by people who know your store.
A certified local partner builds Wilma around your departments and your call flow, then stays close after go-live. When something needs to change, you talk to a person who knows your dealership by name.
A named person, not a support queue
She sells in your customers' language.
When a buyer switches language mid-call, Wilma switches with them and keeps the conversation moving toward an appointment. She speaks 53+ languages, which on some lots is the difference between a missed call and a sold unit.
No extra charge per language
You know exactly what she's telling your customers.
Every conversation Wilma handles is transcribed and searchable in the same place as your team’s calls, so you can check what she said, see which questions come up most, and change how she answers. With a bolted‑on AI, you usually find out what happened on a call when the customer tells you.
Nothing your AI says to a customer stays out of your reach
Your best calls become your coaching material.
The conversations that matter get transcribed and analysed automatically, so your managers can see how a trade-in objection was handled or where a service call lost the customer, without spending afternoons listening back to recordings. Your top performer’s approach stops being something only they know how to do.
Coaching built from what actually happened on the phone
Trusted by Automotive
Vincenzo and Domenico Circosta
Directors — Fratelli Circosta SRL
“With the Wilma Voicebot, we have managed to eliminate missed calls and radically simplify appointment management. Today, customers receive an immediate response, and we work far more efficiently”
Amy Lovelace
Customer and Community Relations Director at Long‑Lewis
“The ability to call directly from dealership to dealership has saved us so much time. Wildix has been a game-changer for our operations.”
Three Ways to Answer the Phone. Only One Keeps the Deal
| Your BDC alone | Standalone AI receptionists | Wilma AI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers 24/7, on the first ring | Business hours, when someone is free | ||
| Books appointments into a live calendar | When someone has time to do it | ||
| Speaks 53+ languages | One or two | Varies | |
| Hands hot calls to your team mid-conversation, with full context | Already in the room | Bolted on through call forwarding, so the customer starts over | Same conversation, context on screen |
| Logs every conversation to your CRM | Only what someone writes down | Varies | Automatically |
| Pricing | Salary, benefits, training | Per minute or per conversation | Included in the license |
| Setup and support | You manage everything | Self-service | Certified local partner |
| Sick days | Yes | Never | Never |
| Turnover | Every few months | Never | Never |
| You can review what the AI said to your customers | Not applicable | Varies, in a separate portal | Every conversation, transcribed and searchable with your team's calls |
| Coaching material from real calls | Someone listens back manually | No | Automatic transcripts and analysis |
Questions Car Dealers Actually Ask
Will this replace my BDC or my salespeople?
No, and it isn’t designed to. Wilma handles the routine volume that clogs your lines, like status calls, scheduling and after-hours inquiries, so your people spend their time on the conversations that close deals. The hot calls still land with your team, just with more context than they’ve ever had.
Does it work with my CRM and DMS?
Wilma logs every call, text and booking automatically, so nothing depends on someone remembering to write it down. Your local partner maps the integration to the systems your store already runs on during setup.
What happens when the AI can't handle a call?
This is the question to ask every vendor, because it’s where these tools fall apart. Wilma passes the conversation to the right person on your team inside the same platform, with everything the customer has said already on screen. Your customer never repeats themselves and never gets bounced to a second system.
Do customers know they're talking to an AI?
Yes. Wilma identifies herself as an AI assistant at the start of every interaction, in line with AI transparency requirements including the EU AI Act, and any caller can ask to be connected to a member of your team at any point. It doesn’t cost you appointments: what customers actually remember is whether someone picked up on the first ring, not who picked up. The frustration that loses deals comes from voicemail and hold music, and those are the two things she removes.
Where is my customers' data stored?
Wilma is built on infrastructure with regional data residency, and the AI features, including transcription and summaries, run on that same regional infrastructure rather than being sent elsewhere for processing. The platform is SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified, and meets GDPR requirements where they apply. Your local partner will confirm exactly where your data is stored and processed for your market.
Can Wilma quote prices or finance terms?
What she can say is set up during configuration by your local partner, based on what your store wants shared over the phone. Negotiations, trade-in valuations and finance terms are conversations for your team, and Wilma brings them in while the customer is still on the line.
How long does it take to go live?
Days, not months. Your certified local partner handles the whole configuration, from your departments and locations to your routing rules and integrations, and stays with you after launch.
What does it cost?
Wilma is included in the Wildix license, with no per-minute meter on your calls. Your local partner builds the quote around your store, because a three-site group and a single showroom shouldn’t pay for the same thing.
- AI Receptionist For Car Dealerships
The Phone Is Going to Ring Tonight
Somebody will call about a trade-in at 7:40pm, and somebody else will want a service slot on Saturday morning. The only question is whether those calls become appointments in your CRM or messages in a voicemail box.
See Wilma answer a dealership call from greeting to booked appointment, live, in 15 minutes.
