First response in under 30 seconds
Every new lead gets a text and email in under 30 seconds, day or night. Riley reads the source first, so a KBB trade shopper, a CarGurus buyer and a lease-end customer each get a different opener.
DealFlo is an AI BDC that runs the whole lead lifecycle. Riley answers every lead in under 30 seconds by text and email, follows up for up to three years, books and confirms appointments, and hands the moments that need a human to your people. Your reps' calls get graded and coached, and Riley's next text picks up where the call left off.
Riley answers first and works the long tail: the 11pm lead, the day-four follow-up, the lease that matures in about 90 days, the customer who went quiet a year ago. Your people get the moments that need a human, like the price ask, the manager request, the callback demand and the customer who wants a real person. DealFlo runs alongside your CRM and your team, and it goes live in days.
Every new lead gets a text and email in under 30 seconds, day or night. Riley reads the source first, so a KBB trade shopper, a CarGurus buyer and a lease-end customer each get a different opener.
The default cadence runs 13 touchpoints from day 1 to year 3, and your store can edit it. Every touch takes a fresh angle, never "just checking in," until the customer buys or says stop.
Riley pushes every conversation toward a specific day and time. The show-rate engine then handles confirmations, reminders, reschedules and outcome tracking, so no-shows get worked instead of written off.
Price asks, manager requests, callback demands and "I want a real person" go to your team. Everything else, Riley handles, so your people spend the day on buyers instead of chasing silence.
Calls ring your reps, not a robot. DealFlo records, transcribes and grades every call on an automotive rubric, scores rapport, and puts the call summary on the lead.
Dead leads, leases maturing in about 90 days, positive-equity owners, service customers and past buyers for buyback all get worked alongside new leads, each with its own angle.
A BDC answers leads, follows up and sets appointments. An AI BDC, sometimes called a virtual BDC, does that work in software, around the clock, and hands people the conversations that need them. For a plain-English primer on the category, read What is an AI BDC?. Here is what DealFlo's AI BDC does at each stage:
The same Riley answers visitors on your website chat, books the appointment, and hands off live to whichever rep grabs it. Whole conversations can run in Spanish.
Compliance runs underneath all of it. Sending hours (TCPA), opt-out keywords and DNC status are checked before every single message, and STOP always means stop.
Both have real strengths. A good BDC agent brings judgment, a human voice and relationships. Software brings speed, coverage and a memory that doesn't fade. This is a general comparison, not a knock on anyone's team.
| Area | Traditional BDC | AI BDC (DealFlo) |
|---|---|---|
| First response | As fast as the next available agent during staffed hours | Under 30 seconds by text and email, day or night |
| Nights and weekends | Depends on shifts, staffing or an answering service | Covered, with compliance checks before every send |
| Follow-up length | As long as the process and the workload allow | Up to three years on a 13-touch default cadence your store can edit |
| Consistency | Varies by agent, day and workload | The same standard on every lead, with the full history read before every reply |
| Phone calls | Live conversations with a human voice | No AI voice. Calls ring your reps, and DealFlo records, grades and coaches them |
| Price and payment questions | An agent can bring in a manager to work numbers | Never quotes prices, payments or trade values; hands price asks to your team |
| Unusual situations | Handled with judgment, especially by experienced agents | Manager requests, callback demands and "real person" asks go to a human |
| The old database | Limited by the hours in the day | Dead leads, lease-end, equity, service-to-sales and buyback, on schedule |
| Coaching | Call reviews when a manager has time | Every rep call graded, with a rapport score and a coaching line |
| Getting started | Hiring, training and scheduling | Live in days: forward lead sources and connect the CRM |
A phone conversation with a skilled agent, a customer with an unusual situation, a deal that needs a manager's judgment on numbers, a regular who wants the person they always talk to. None of that goes away with an AI BDC, and none of it should. The point is to stop spending those people's hours on first replies and day-40 follow-ups.
The strongest setup uses both: Riley takes the speed and the volume, and your people take the conversations that need a person.
Riley hands off the moments that need a human and handles everything else. These go straight to your team:
Four more moments are human by design:
Everything else stays with Riley: availability and inventory questions, photos and links, scheduling and rescheduling, confirmations and reminders, the follow-up nobody has time for, and the leads nobody has touched in months.
DealFlo runs alongside your CRM, your phones and your people. Nothing gets ripped out. What changes is who does which part of the job:
The handoff is where it shows. A rep picking up a lead from Riley sees the source, every text and email, and the last call summary in one place, so nobody asks the customer something they already answered.
What to tell your team. Their job shifts from chasing silence to talking with buyers. Call grading is there to coach, and each call is graded against what it was actually for, so a lease question isn't judged like a sales call and a wrong number doesn't count against anyone.
Going live takes days, not months. A sensible plan for the first month:
Forward your lead sources to DealFlo by ADF and connect your CRM. Walk through how Riley opens for each of your lead sources, and review the 13-touch cadence, editing any touch that doesn't fit your store. Decide who on your team owns price asks, manager requests and callback demands.
New leads get a first text in under 30 seconds. Your team gets only the real escalations, reps' calls start coming back graded, and the manager digest shows up every morning. Have every manager text Riley from the homepage so they know what customers experience.
Point Riley at the lists you already own: dead and aged leads, leases maturing in about 90 days, positive-equity owners, service customers, and past buyers for buyback. Each campaign gets its own angle.
Bring the call leaderboard to the sales meeting. Pick one rubric line per rep, like asking for a specific day and time or nailing down the appointment, and coach only that.
Compare the month against the month before go-live using the numbers below, then adjust the cadence and who owns each handoff.
Judge an AI BDC on the same numbers you'd use for a BDC manager, measured against your own baseline:
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Response time | How long a new lead waits for a first reply, including nights and weekends |
| Appointment set rate | Appointments booked per lead, by source |
| Show rate | How many booked appointments actually walk in |
| Sold from shown | Whether the appointments are real buyers |
| Aged-lead replies | How many dead and old leads start talking again |
| Handoff pickup time | How fast your team answers the escalations Riley hands over |
| Call scores by rep | Whether calls are getting better, line by line |
| Opt-outs | Whether the follow-up is landing or wearing people out |
Watch the handoff number closely. An AI BDC that answers in seconds only helps if the price ask it hands over gets a fast human reply.
Give sold units a month before judging. A lead Riley answers tonight may buy in six weeks. Read response time and appointments set first, then show rate and sold as the month fills in.
An AI BDC is software that does the work of a business development center: answering internet leads, following up and setting appointments by text and email, around the clock. It is sometimes called a virtual BDC. DealFlo's AI BDC, Riley, also works your older leads and hands the moments that need a human to your team.
No. Riley answers first and works the long tail, and your people get the moments that need a human: price asks, manager requests, callback demands and customers who want a real person.
No. DealFlo has no AI voice agent. Calls ring your reps, DealFlo records, grades and coaches them, and Riley's next text picks up where the call left off.
Leads come in by ADF from any CRM, including VinSolutions, DealerSocket, eLead, CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds and Tekion. DealFlo is a certified Cox Automotive partner with a two-way VinSolutions integration.
Days, not months. Forward your lead sources, connect your CRM, and Riley starts answering, running alongside everything you already use.
No. DealFlo is month-to-month with no minimum commitment under its standard dealer agreement, and a store can choose a fixed term in exchange for negotiated pricing.
30 minutes. We'll show you the exact conversations Riley sends, and what your first 30 days of automated follow-up look like.
Every rep call recorded, graded and coached, with rapport scored on every one.
Read more →Aged and dead leads reopened with a fresh angle and worked for years.
Read more →Reps film the actual car, and Riley's follow-up picks up from the video.
Read more →