Every advisor is at the drive. The service line is ringing anyway
Between eight and ten your advisors are writing tickets with a customer standing in front of them, and the phone is the thing they cannot get to. Vandial answers it, books the appointment into the calendar they already work from, and takes the details a ticket needs — without diagnosing anything or quoting a repair it has not seen.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callTanya Cruz“Hi — my check engine light came on this morning and I'm about due for an oil change anyway.”
Booked — Thu 7:30 drop-off, 2021 model, 41k miles, check-engine + oil service
- Service, not sales
- the call reaches the drive rather than the showroom — a different department
- Loaner asked
- on every service booking, so the advisor is not chasing it on the morning
- Two questions
- Steady or flashing, and the mileage — before anything is booked
This is what your callers hear
The same receptionist a service department gets, answering as the trades we already run. Yours is in the middle — press play.
One dealership service call, and what it left behind
Answered on the second ring. Every field below was captured during the call — nobody typed it in afterwards.
“Hi — my check engine light came on this morning and I'm about due for an oil change anyway.”
Classified0:15
- service appointment
- not drivable-risk
Captured0:35
- 2021
- 41,000 mi
- check-engine steady
- oil service due
Booked1:06
- Thu 7:30
- drop-off
- advisor queue
Booked — Thu 7:30 drop-off, 2021 model, 41k miles, check-engine + oil service
Read the whole dealership service call, line by line
- 0:02Tanya Cruz: Hi — my check engine light came on this morning and I'm about due for an oil change anyway.
- 0:06Vandial: I can get that booked. Is the car driving normally otherwise — no rough running, no warning chimes?
- 0:12Tanya Cruz: It drives fine. The light's just steady, not flashing.
- 0:15Classified — service appointment · not drivable-risk
- 0:19Vandial: Good — a steady light isn't the emergency a flashing one is. Can I take the year and model, and roughly the mileage?
- 0:31Tanya Cruz: It's a 2021, about forty-one thousand.
- 0:35Captured — 2021 · 41,000 mi · check-engine steady · oil service due
- 0:42Vandial: I won't guess at what the light is — the technician will pull the codes and your advisor will call you with a price before any work starts.
- 0:52Vandial: Are you waiting with the car, or dropping it off? Thursday half past seven is open for a drop-off.
- 1:02Vandial: Thursday at 7:30 then. You'll get a text confirming it.
- 1:06Booked — Thu 7:30 · drop-off · advisor queue
Answered, understood, booked
One number, picked up on the second ring — at 2am, on a Sunday, while you're already working. By the time the caller hangs up, it is in your calendar.
It answers
It answers the service line on the second ring at ten past eight, while every advisor is at the drive with a customer in front of them.
- 0:00Incoming call
- 0:02Answered by Vandial2 rings
- 0:05“Hello, Marlow Plumbing.”
It understands
It asks whether the light is steady or flashing, takes the year, model and mileage, and finds out whether they are waiting or dropping off.
- Job
- Water heater — leaking
- Where
- 14 Marlow Street
- Access
- Side gate, dog in yard
- Urgency
- Today if possible
- Still on
It books
It books into the calendar your advisors already work from, with the symptom and the mileage attached, and texts the customer a confirmation.
Text to Dave · 13:01
You’re booked for today, 1–2pm. Reply R to move it.
It asks what you would ask
These are the questions the agent runs for dealership service departments, and the operational reason each one exists. Change them, add your own, or take them out — they are configuration, not code.
Is the check-engine light steady or flashing?
A flashing light is a drive-it-no-further problem. It is the one question that changes whether this is an appointment or a tow, and it costs four seconds to ask.
Year, model and roughly the mileage?
The mileage decides which service interval is due, and it is what stops a booking arriving with nothing on it but a name.
Waiting, dropping off, or do you need transport?
A waiter and a drop-off take different slots and different bay time. Getting it wrong is a customer sitting in the lounge for four hours.
Is this under warranty or a service plan?
Asked and recorded, never answered — coverage decides who pays and that is the advisor's call, not the phone's.
Has it been in for this before?
A repeat visit for the same complaint is a comeback, and a comeback should reach a manager rather than join the queue as a fresh booking.
Best number for the advisor to reach you on?
The estimate call is the one the customer must not miss, and the number on the account is often the one nobody answers at work.
More than a answering service for car dealerships
An answering service takes a message and charges you for it. Vandial knows your prices, your patch and your diary — so it books the job, or puts a real emergency straight through to you.
It picks up out of hours, and while your line is busy
It answers the calls that arrive while the drive is full, and after the department closes — which is when a customer with a light on decides who is looking at it tomorrow.
It knows your prices, your patch and your hours
It answers from your diagnostic fee, your waiter cut-off, your shuttle radius and your service hours, and refuses to invent any of them.
What it knows
Diagnostic fee
$189, applied to the repair
Waiter slots
Before 9am only
Transport
Shuttle radius, loaner by advisor
Hours
Service 7–6 weekdays, 8–2 Saturday
What matters reaches you. The rest waits
A flashing light or a car that is not safe to drive reaches a person. A routine oil service does not, and never should have.
Your rule: if they say gas, flood or no heat — ring Sam, then me.
Every call written up, tagged and searchable
Every call recorded and written up against the appointment, so a comeback on the same complaint is something you can find rather than something an advisor mentions in passing.
Dave Whitfield · Sunday, 4m 12s
Water heater, leaking
Leaking from the base. Booked for Tuesday 1–2pm. Side gate open, dog in the yard. Asked whether the service call fee applies — told $99, waived on repair.
Eight to ten in the morning is a queue the phone loses
The drive fills, every advisor is writing a ticket in front of a customer, and the service line rings into an empty office. The calls that go to voicemail then are the same-day bookings that end up at the independent shop down the road instead.
When it happens · Every weekday morning, and the Monday after a holiday
A normal month, then a surge month
- Billed per minute
- Your baselineTriples with the calls
- The bill peaks in the same week your phone does.
- Billed per call, like a human service
- Per call, every callEvery extra call, billed
- Including the robocalls and the wrong numbers.
- Vandial
- From $99 a monthThe same
- Call flows are unlimited on every paid rung, and there is no per-minute billing. The rungs differ only in how many unique customers you answer for — and a surge is mostly more calls from the same people.
Robocalls and sales calls are identified and zero-rated on every plan. They never count toward your included customers and never create a customer record.
What it will never do
You are handing your phone to something that talks to your customers when you are not there. These are the lines it does not cross in dealership service, and the words it uses instead.
It never diagnoses the light
A check-engine light has hundreds of causes and a guess on the phone becomes an expectation at the counter. The agent records the symptom, says plainly that the technician will pull the codes, and books the visit.
What it actually says
“I'm not going to guess at what that light is — the technician will pull the codes and your advisor will call you with a price before anything is done.”
It never quotes a repair or promises warranty coverage
It states your posted diagnostic fee, which is a number you set, and nothing else. Whether a repair is covered is a decision about a contract it cannot read, and a wrong yes on the phone is an argument at the cashier.
What it actually says
“The diagnostic is $189 and it goes toward the repair if you go ahead. Whether it's covered is something your advisor will confirm once it's been looked at.”
It never sells a car, and it never calls anybody back unasked
This answers the service line. Sales inquiries are routed to sales rather than handled, and nothing here dials out — outbound is a different product with TCPA attached to it, and we do not do it.
What it actually says
“You want the sales team for that — let me put you through rather than take your details for someone to chase you.”
The job lands where you already work
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV — whichever calendar you already keep. Then your payments, your CRM, and whatever you automate with.
…and a lot more besides
- Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
- Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
- A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
- Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
- Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
- Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
- Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
- Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.
What dealership service departments say before they say yes
Three objections, in the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“We already have a BDC.”
Then you already know what the eight-to-ten window costs, because that is the hour your BDC is also on the phone with somebody else. This is not a replacement for the people — it is the thing that answers the fourth simultaneous call instead of sending it to voicemail, and it books into the same calendar they do.
“Our customers expect a real advisor.”
For the estimate, absolutely, and the agent says so out loud — it books the visit and tells the customer their advisor will call with a price. What it replaces is not the advisor, it is the hold music and the voicemail box that neither of you wanted.
“It'll book appointments the shop can't take.”
It books against the capacity that is actually left in the window, and waiters and drop-offs are different slots because they take different bay time. A booking it cannot fit is one it does not make — it offers the next window instead.
Dealership service questions, answered
What dealership service departments ask before handing over their phone number — and what a answering service for car dealerships can and cannot do for you.
Does it work with our scheduler?
It books into the calendar the department runs on — Google, Outlook, Exchange, Apple or CalDAV — against real remaining capacity in each window, so a booking it makes is one the drive can take.
Will it handle sales calls too?
No, deliberately. This answers the service line; sales inquiries are routed to sales rather than qualified. A service agent improvising a trade-in conversation is worse than a transfer.
Can it tell an emergency from a routine appointment?
That is what the steady-or-flashing question is for. A flashing light, a burning smell, a car that will not steer or stop — those reach a person immediately with instructions not to drive it. An oil change is booked.
Will it quote a repair?
Never. It states your posted diagnostic fee and says plainly that the advisor will call with a price once the codes are pulled. It also will not confirm whether something is under warranty, because that is a contract it cannot read.
What about the calls after we close?
Same agent, same calendar. Most same-day bookings are decided the evening before, and a voicemail box is where those go to the shop down the road.
Does it call customers back?
No. Everything here is inbound. Outbound campaigns bring TCPA obligations with them and are not part of this product.
What does it cost?
Three paid rungs — Starter, Professional and Business — differing only in how many unique callers you answer for in a month. Call flows and full call history are unlimited on all of them, and robocalls are never billed. There is no per-minute billing, and every plan includes talk time far above what a business its size uses.
Already decided you want AI to answer it?
Then the question is which one, and that is a different page: what a generic AI receptionist gets wrong on a dealership service call, and what is configurable about this one.
Not your trade?
The agent's questions, urgency rules, escalations and vocabulary are all configuration. Nothing about a trade is hard-coded, which is why there are 31 of these and not one.