Better Car People and the Art of Answering

In 2010, Les Stanford Chevrolet Cadillac made a decision that would look rather small beside a showroom full of cars. It adopted Better Car People’s round-the-clock response service. An inquiry could arrive when the store was closed and still receive an answer. The expensive machinery sat on the lot; the useful change happened in the inbox.

Three years later, according to Better Car People’s account of the relationship, Les Stanford added handling for OnStar leads. A vehicle’s service needs became another reason to contact its owner. In 2018, the dealership adopted the managed Sales BDC. BDC means business development center: the operation that works inquiries, follows up, and arranges appointments.

That sequence is more revealing than a list of software features. First, answer. Then connect another kind of opportunity. Then give somebody responsibility for keeping the work moving. Better Car People occupies the interval between an interested customer and an actual visit. It is a surprisingly busy place.

Three decisions at one dealership

The Les Stanford story, published by BCP, describes a relationship that expanded over eight years. It credits the products with continuous lead response, operational efficiency, and support through the later COVID-19 disruption. Read it as a customer example, rather than a controlled experiment. Its most useful detail is the order of adoption.

Better Car People was founded in 2010. Its current leadership page identifies Matthew Belk as founder and chief revenue officer, and Tyler Uebele as engineering founder. A conference listing from that first year has Belk discussing initial email responses, overnight leads, text messaging, and contact ratios. Before the current enthusiasm for generative AI, the company was already interested in the hours and messages that dealerships could easily neglect.

The calendar is the product

Consider the workflow, rather than the branding. A shopper asks about a vehicle. An initial response acknowledges the inquiry. Further messages need the right vehicle, available inventory, and the customer’s context. A person may need to step in. If the shopper agrees to visit, the conversation needs to reach the dealership’s own system. A brilliant reply that leaves the next employee guessing has merely moved the inconvenience.

Better Follow-up offers email and SMS engagement with automotive expert oversight and outreach for up to 90 days. Sales BDC adds managed appointment-setting across phone, text, and email, using U.S.-based agents and CRM-integrated conversations. The distinction matters to the buyer: software assistance and an operation staffed to perform the work are different commitments.

The service department has its own version of the problem. Brooke AI answers service calls and schedules appointments around the clock. Its product page describes live scheduler integration and escalation to a human. Service BDC supplies live call handling, including overflow and after-hours coverage. Connected Car Response works another entrance into the same process: vehicle health alerts.

The modest word “appointment” conceals several dependencies. The slot must exist. The store’s rules must be represented. The advisor needs the history. The customer needs a clear next step. BCP lists connections with dealership systems including CDK Global, Tekion, VinSolutions, Xtime, and DealerSocket. For a dealer, verifying the connection for the particular product is part of the purchase.

Why buy the people who teach the people?

In December 2022, CentralBDC announced a majority investment in Better Car People. SJ Partners and its affiliates led the equity financing. The announcement described complementary engagement capabilities and reported more than 1,000 GM dealers already working with BCP. Abry Partners lists Better Car People as a current investment with a 2024 investment year.

In June 2024, BCP acquired Proactive Dealer Solutions. That brought Brooke’s voice technology together with dealership consulting and training. The transaction joined software that could handle a conversation with people who understood how a store should handle the work surrounding it.

Proactive’s onsite offering includes recurring performance coaching and process improvement. Virtual coaching, store assessments, and workshops give dealerships other ways to address execution. This is the part of the portfolio that makes the company interesting beyond an AI demonstration. A dealer can purchase a faster response and still have a muddled process waiting behind it. Coaching gives BCP a way to work on that second problem.

The company also sells retention tools through AutoAwards. Loyalty points, prepaid maintenance, gift cards, and targeted communications extend its role past the first visit. Keep It Local adds benefits from local businesses. There is something pleasingly practical about a technology portfolio that leaves room for the neighbours.

In September 2025, BCP made Better AI for Sales available directly to dealers after using it internally and through partners. That change opened another route to the customer: an operating tool could now be bought more directly. In June 2026, the company announced Alex Eckelberry as CEO, bringing experience that included automotive technology businesses AutoLoop and Affinitiv.

The price of an appointment that actually happens

BCP sells a mixture of business software and managed services. Its website groups offerings into sales, service, and training engines, with individual products and bundles. A dealership can ask it to help an existing team or take responsibility for selected communications. The sensible buying conversation starts with the workload: channels, hours, lead volume, scheduling rules, and who handles exceptions.

There are credible alternatives. An internal BDC gives the dealer direct staffing control. Strolid also combines managed automotive engagement with AI and people. Foureyes offers lead recovery, automated follow-up, and dealer data tools. Human involvement alone cannot carry BCP’s differentiation; other companies offer it too. BCP’s case rests on the breadth of its combination: managed engagement, service voice AI, coaching, loyalty, and dealer-system connections.

The company says it has more than 4,500 dealer partners across the U.S. and Canada. That suggests an established distribution footprint. It does not tell an individual store what it will earn. A dealership should judge the arrangement against its own baseline, with the same definition of success before and after deployment.

An appointment booked is a provisional victory. A kept appointment, a completed repair, or a sale is closer to money. Count no-shows. Review the customer’s experience. Include setup work and oversight in the cost. If the existing team already performs well and has spare capacity, the extra service has a higher bar to clear.

Start with the handoff

In an August 2025 interview, then-CEO Aaron Kleinhandler offered a useful corrective to the demonstration-room version of AI adoption: “AI isn’t plug-and-play.” He described untidy CRMs, imperfect schedulers, limited APIs, and 60–90 days of fine-tuning before trust builds. That is an implementation account, not a universal timetable.

“AI isn’t plug-and-play.”

Aaron Kleinhandler, then CEO · August 2025

The operating lesson is straightforward. Before automating a conversation, make sure the information and next step are dependable. Poor inventory context produces poor replies. An inaccurate schedule produces inconvenient appointments. An unclear escalation rule leaves the customer waiting for a machine to discover its limits.

A dealer can copy the discipline without buying the entire portfolio. Inspect an after-hours inquiry. Check whether it reached the CRM. Follow the appointment into the store. Assign a person to resolve exceptions. Measure the visits that actually happen. Then decide whether software, outside agents, or coaching addresses the weakest part of that journey.

Better Car People’s appeal is easiest to understand at that scale. One unanswered question. One customer who should not have to repeat a story. One appointment that survives the trip from a conversation to a calendar. The showroom gets the glamour. Somebody still has to answer.