At Bill Knight Automotive Group, the telephone gets five rings. The business development center, or BDC, has the first chance to answer. If nobody picks up, Pam takes over. That small routing decision tells you more about this dealership AI company than a conversation about whether a machine sounds human. The dealership already has people. What it needs is coverage when those people are occupied.
- Pam answers dealership calls and texts, books service, and routes customers.
- A second agent works recall, retention, and other customer lists.
- The useful test: a completed booking, plus a clear handoff when someone needs help.
Ryan Knight, the group’s director of operations, described the pressure plainly: proactive outbound calls were the first casualty when staff ran out of time. Pam’s overflow and after-hours coverage gave the BDC room to keep doing that work. Knight also credited Ford’s vehicle care resources. It was an operational arrangement with several moving parts.
“Pam earned our trust when we saw it gain the customer’s trust.”Ryan Knight · Bill Knight Automotive Group
The receptionist has a founding team
Pam takes its name from Pam Beesly, the receptionist in The Office. The joke extends to the company’s team page, where employees list favorite characters. Behind the name are four founders: CEO Samee Khan, president Abdullah Baig, CTO Haroun Ansari, and integrations lead Omer Zulfiqar. A founder devoted to integrations is a useful clue to what the business requires.
Founded in 2023, Pam built around dealership communication. In its August 2025 funding announcement, the company described spending 18 months inside dealership operations, shadowing service advisors and sitting with BDC teams. The recurring problem was a broken sequence: a customer called, the store got busy, and the intended appointment never reached the calendar.
A voice with somewhere to put the appointment
The Receptionist Agent handles incoming calls and texts, including English and Spanish conversations. It can answer routine questions, capture sales intent, book supported service appointments, and pass a customer to a person. That last verb matters. A request for a repair estimate may need someone who can discuss the vehicle; a straightforward appointment can follow an established booking path.
The Outbound Marketing Agent approaches the same problem from the other direction. A dealership supplies a customer list and chooses a campaign: recalls, overdue service, declined work, or customers who have drifted away. Pam uses voice and text, follows the configured timing and rules, and books when the customer is ready. Conversations requiring help return to the team.
Pam Console gives staff a place to review calls, texts, appointments, alerts, and unfinished follow-up. This is where an automated conversation becomes visible work. A manager can distinguish an appointment from a request still waiting for an answer, rather than treating both as successfully handled calls.
The caller came back. So did the introduction.
Scott Clark Toyota’s pilot exposed an awkward loop. Pam transferred a caller to the service BDC. When nobody answered, the call could return to Pam, which began collecting the customer’s information again. The store worked with Pam and its telephone-system team to address it. Another problem was silence while information was being gathered; spoken acknowledgments helped callers understand the conversation was continuing.
The dealership also added missing rental-pickup instructions. These were ordinary details, precisely the sort that make a polished demonstration different from a working service desk. BDC manager Devin Proper favored a gradual rollout, with a portion of calls going to Pam while people continued answering others. He remained involved in feedback and appointment review.
Read the denominator
Pam’s Receptionist Agent page reports a 30-day example at a Virginia Hyundai dealership: 1,051 inbound calls handled and 579 service appointments booked. Its stated 82.7 percent booking rate applies to calls with primary service-scheduling intent. Those are different denominators. Dividing appointments by every call would answer a different question.
82.7% booking rate among primary service-scheduling intent calls. This example is not a forecast for another store.
The same discipline applies to money. Pam markets revenue captured, and customer dashboards can show estimated revenue. An appointment-associated estimate does not establish collected revenue or prove that every booking was incremental. For a dealership evaluating the product, completed visits and repair orders make a firmer basis for comparing the software bill with the benefit.
Integration is part of the product
Pam distinguishes dealership management systems from service schedulers and CRMs. Its confirmed DMS list includes Tekion, Reynolds & Reynolds, CDK Global, and PBS. A DMS connection alone does not establish that every appointment type can be booked. The relevant question is which workflow the particular deployment supports, including exceptions and reporting.
Dealer-FX named Pam its preferred Voice AI partner in December 2025, following an existing scheduling integration. Pam also describes a strategic partnership with Tekion and a FordDirect program. Its positioning rests on automotive workflows, direct booking, and implementation support. Staffed BDCs and outsourced call centers remain alternative ways to cover the work. Pam’s own Toma transition page documents overlapping receptionist capabilities.
The work after go-live
Pam sells subscription software to dealerships through a demo-led process. Its commercial offer includes implementation and ongoing support; an event promotion references an onboarding fee. Cost evaluation should include the store’s time configuring routing, reviewing appointments, and resolving exceptions. The company’s Ford program describes discovery, testing, training, and launch across four weeks.
The homepage reports more than 800 dealership locations. Autotech Ventures led the funding announced in August 2025, alongside investors including HF0 and First Harmonic. But the part another business can copy is smaller: start with a defined queue, name the person responsible, test unanswered transfers, and review what remains unfinished. Coverage helps when someone owns the next step. Otherwise, the customer can still be waiting.