The moment the customer finally has time
On weekdays, between 9 am and 6 pm, your customer is at the office, on a site, in a meeting, on the road. They have no time to compare listings, let alone call a dealership and wait to be put through to the right department.
On Saturday at 6:30 pm, on the other hand, they are at home. The kids are back from sport, dinner is not ready yet. They have just looked at three hybrid SUV listings on their phone. They have done their sums, talked it over with their partner. They call. It is the exact moment their decision is being made.
And that moment very often falls just after the showroom closes. It is no coincidence: dealership hours mirror working hours, while buying decisions are made outside them.
When your customers really call
Look at your phone provider’s detailed report, hour by hour. In many dealerships, the same peaks appear:
- Monday from 8 to 10 am: workshop customers with a problem after the weekend, and those who want to fit in the week’s service.
- Lunchtime: working people using their break to call. Which is also when reception is short-staffed.
- Evenings after 6 pm: new and used-car buyers, more available and more considered.
- Saturday afternoon and Sunday: purchase projects, families comparing together.
The first two peaks are a capacity issue: several customers call at the same time and only one line picks up. The last two are an opening-hours issue. Either way, the phone rings and nobody answers.
These calls are worth more than others
A Tuesday 10 am call may be a simple question. A Saturday evening call much more rarely is: the customer has taken the time to search, has chosen a car, and wants to move forward.
- They have done their research. They know the model, the advertised price, sometimes the exact mileage and options.
- They are comparing several dealerships. They often call two or three the same evening. The one that answers gets a head start, sometimes a decisive one.
- They want a concrete next step. A test drive, a trade-in valuation, an appointment. Not a brochure, not a “call back on Monday”.
In other words, these are the calls that look most like a sale. They are also the ones you lose most often.
What happens on Monday morning
Monday, 8:30 am. Reception arrives and the switchboard shows the weekend’s missed calls. On paper, everyone gets called back. In reality, the workshop opens, customers arrive at the desk to drop off their cars, the phone is already ringing.
Callbacks come later. When they happen, the Saturday evening customer has often already booked a test drive elsewhere, on Sunday, at a dealership that was open or at the one that answered. And when they pick up, they politely say they have “found what they were looking for”.
Let’s be honest: a Saturday voicemail returned on Monday at 11 am is rarely a sale. And most customers do not even leave a message.
The three possible options
- Extend opening hours. Effective, but expensive: you need staff on Saturday evenings and Sundays, all year round, for an irregular call volume. And it does not solve the Monday morning peaks.
- Improve the voicemail. A clear message inviting customers to leave their details and promising a quick callback helps a little. But most customers hang up without leaving a message, and those who do still have to wait.
- Have someone, or something, answer. An answering service, or an AI assistant like Sophia, activated through call forwarding only outside opening hours or when the line is busy. She answers, qualifies the project, books the test drive in the salesperson’s calendar and sends the customer a confirmation. She also handles several calls at once, which takes care of the peaks.
The right answer depends on your call volume. But in every case, the first step is the same: know how many calls come in when you are closed or overwhelmed.
What makes a good out-of-hours answer
Answering is not enough. For the Saturday call to become an appointment, the answer must tick four boxes:
- Answer the real question: vehicle availability, advertised price, trade-in possibility. Without making anything up.
- Offer a dated next step: “Tuesday at 5:30 pm with Julien” beats “a salesperson will call you back”.
- Confirm in writing: a text or e-mail the customer keeps, with the address and the salesperson’s name.
- Pass on the context: the salesperson arriving on Monday must know what the customer asked, without making them repeat it.
A Saturday evening, from start to finish
Saturday, 6:42 pm. Julien has spent the afternoon comparing three hybrid SUVs on listing sites. The one in your used-car stock appeals to him: good mileage, warranty, a price within his budget. He calls.
Without an answer, he gets voicemail, leaves no message and calls the next dealership on Sunday morning. With an answer, the conversation goes differently. The assistant confirms the car is still available, goes over the main options and offers him a test drive on Monday at 12:30 pm, during his lunch break. Julien accepts and receives a confirmation text within a minute.
On Monday at 8 am, the salesperson finds the appointment in their calendar, with a summary of the conversation: the model, the budget mentioned, the trade-in of a 2017 city car. There is no one to call back. They prepare the car and a first trade-in estimate.
The same evening, four other people called: a customer moving their service, a customer asking about Monday’s opening hours, a prospect about a trade-in, a customer asking whether their car was ready. Each got an answer. Because the assistant handles several calls at once, none of them heard the phone ring out, even when three people called in the same minute.
The test to run this Saturday
Call your own dealership this Saturday at 6:30 pm. Then on Sunday at 11 am. Listen to what your customer hears: ringing out, a closing message, a full voicemail? Then ask your provider for the number of out-of-hours calls received last month.
Those two pieces of information are enough to know whether the topic deserves your attention. In most dealerships, the answer is surprising: out-of-hours calls are a significant share of the total, and almost none become an appointment.
Frequently asked questions
Do customers accept talking to an AI on a Saturday evening? Yes, when it introduces itself clearly and resolves their request. What they do not accept is a phone ringing out.
Can the answering be activated only outside opening hours? Yes. Call forwarding is set on no-answer: your team picks up first, and the call only switches over if nobody answers.
What about Sundays and bank holidays? These are often the days families compare. Including them costs nothing more than Saturday evening.
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