How this Honda Dealership is Sourcing Used Vehicles from the Service Drive with AI

Used vehicles are gold. For suburban dealers, the service drive represents one of the most consistent sources of potential trade-ins, but too often, those opportunities are missed.

This store, already retailing ~90 new and ~140 pre-owned vehicles per month, wanted to stop leaving money on the table. Their decision to deploy AI Employees was driven by a simple but powerful use case: service drive appraisals.

The challenge

• Every service customer is a potential trade-in or upgrade, but human advisors rarely have the bandwidth to start those conversations.
• Current show rates (50%) and closing rates (25%) suggested upside if responses were faster and more consistent.
• Retention risk: too many lease and finance customers were drifting away at maturity.

Why AI Employees

Primary outcome: increase sales appointments by targeting service customers.
Pain points: slow response times, missed follow-ups, retention leakage.

The AI Employee is programmed to:

• Identify service customers eligible for appraisal offers.
• Engage instantly in French or English with tailored upgrade hooks.
• Propose 2–3 disponibilités for a sales appointment.
• Collect key details (kilometrage, paiement actuel, solde) before hand-off.
• Escalate in real time to managers when opportunities are hot.

Use case in action: service drive appraisals

1. Appointment sync: Every RO triggers an outreach from the AI.
2. Engagement: Customers are invited to consider an upgrade with an appraisal during their service visit.
3. Qualification: The AI gathers basic trade/finance info before booking.
4. Scheduling: A 30-minute sales appointment is secured with a 15-minute buffer.
5. Handoff: Sales managers receive details instantly in the CRM.

Success metrics (30-day target)

• +50–80 incremental sales appointments sourced from service customers.
• Show rate lifted to 60–65% on AI-booked appraisals.
• Close rate sustained at 30–35%.
• Zero missed opportunities: every service visit is offered a trade-up path.

The decision

When asked what failure would look like, leadership was clear: “no increase in appointments.” The AI Employee ensures that doesn’t happen—turning the service drive into a steady stream of qualified appraisals and used vehicle acquisitions.

This is Behind the Decision, where suburban dealers choose AI to unlock the value of their service lane and secure the inventory they need most.