Call Diverting: How to Never Miss a Lead or Customer at Your Dealership

When the phone rings at your dealership, what happens next can make or break your profitability. Let’s paint a common picture. A potential customer is calling to learn more about a car they found on the internet. But, instead of reaching someone at your dealership, they get your voicemail or, even worse, an automated message. The customer is frustrated. They wanted immediate information. Instead, they’re going to take their business elsewhere. This scenario plays out repeatedly at dealerships nationwide. Call diverting is a straightforward solution to this very real problem. In this article, we’ll explore call diverting and how it can help you never miss a lead or customer at your dealership. Now that we know what we’re talking about, let’s introduce Pam’s solution. Pam’s AI for car dealerships offers a valuable tool to help you achieve your dealership profitability goals, like learning about call diverting. This technology will help you respond to calls faster and, in many cases, even before a customer reaches your voicemail.

What is Call Diverting?

Call diverting, also known as call forwarding, is the process of redirecting an incoming phone call from one number to another. Instead of going to voicemail or ringing out, the call is automatically sent to someone else who can pick it up. Let’s say a customer calls your dealership’s main line, but the person they’re trying to reach is unavailable. With call diverting in place, that call can be rerouted to a mobile phone, another team member, or even a virtual assistant who’s ready to help. The caller won’t notice a thing it’s seamless and ensures they don’t hit a dead end.

Manual vs. Automated Call Diverting

Manual

Manual call forwarding is when you set the redirection yourself, often used by staff who turn it on when leaving the office (e.g., forwarding calls to their mobile during lunch).

Automated

Automated diverting systems work continuously based on rules. For example, if no one answers within 15 seconds, the system might automatically forward the call to a backup person, an AI receptionist, or a call answering service.

Real-World Examples of Call Diverting

A salesperson on a test drive diverts incoming calls to a colleague in the showroom. After business hours, service department calls are automatically routed to a virtual assistant, such as Pam, who can schedule appointments and answer common questions. During a high-volume sales event, overflow calls are routed to a central call center or a remote team to ensure that every lead is captured and accounted for. Call diverting ensures that no customer is left waiting, unheard, or sent to voicemail, improving your business’s responsiveness and reputation.

Call Diverting vs Call Answering: What’s the Difference?

Call diverting, also known as call forwarding, enables you to redirect incoming calls to an alternative number or device. For example, if your service advisor is unavailable, the call can be forwarded to another staff member, department, or even to an AI-powered system like Pam.

Use it when you want a human to take the call, but aren’t tied to a single person or location. Call diverting is ideal for teams that can handle overflow or off-hours coverage, as it maintains control over who takes the call without letting it go to voicemail.

Call Answering: A Reliable Way to Handle Incoming Calls

Call answering refers to responding to a call on behalf of your business, typically through a live receptionist, call center, or automated AI receptionist. These services greet the caller, take messages, provide basic information, or route the call appropriately.

Use it when you need guaranteed call pickup 24/7 (even if your team isn’t available). Call answering also enables you to maintain a professional and consistent messaging without hiring additional staff. It helps you avoid missed opportunities by providing a “catch-all” solution for after-hours, holidays, or peak volume times.

When to Divert Calls vs. When to Answer Calls

Think of call diverting as a routing tool, and call answering as a communication layer. Divert to a person when immediate, personalised service is essential, such as sales inquiries, high-value leads, or service escalations. Use a call answering system when you need to maintain availability and professionalism at scale, such as for after-hours support, handling high call volumes, or scheduling routine appointments.

A Hybrid Approach For Dealerships Works Best

Most successful dealerships don’t choose one over the other they combine both. During business hours, calls can be diverted to sales or service teams.

If no one answers within a set time, the call is routed to an AI receptionist, such as Pam, who can schedule appointments, collect lead information, or provide answers. After hours, all calls go directly to the automated system to maintain availability and prevent missed opportunities.

Pam: The 24/7 AI Receptionist Driving Dealership Revenue

Pam's 24/7 AI receptionist never misses a call, scheduling service, or nurturing leads even when your team is off the clock. Experience the technology that's delivering a 20% revenue increase and 10× ROI for over 100 dealerships nationwide, with seamless integration into your existing systems like Tekion and XTime.

See how Pam outperforms both human agents and competing AI solutions by scheduling your personalized demo today. Implementation takes just one day.

Book a demo to boost your revenue by 20%, like 100s of dealerships across the nation.

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Benefits of Call Diverting for Dealerships

Busy dealerships can’t afford to let customers fester on hold or go to voicemail. Call diverting helps dealerships maintain a professional image and keep customers satisfied even in the most hectic situations.

Instead of letting calls go to voicemail when your team is busy, call diverting immediately routes the calls to:

• Available team members
• Artificial intelligence (AI) assistants like Pam
• Different departments

Work Remotely Without Missing a Beat

Call diverting works seamlessly whether your team is working from home, spread across multiple locations, or simply on the move. With call diverting, you can maintain business continuity without needing extra hires or hardware. It’s a scalable, cost-effective way to stay connected, preserve your customer service levels, and reduce overhead.

Never Miss a Lead Again

A staggering 62% of business calls go unanswered. That’s not just poor service, that’s lost sales. Call diverting significantly reduces missed calls by ensuring someone, or something, is always ready to respond. It keeps your front-end running smoothly, allowing your staff to focus on closing deals or servicing vehicles.

Filter Out Distractions

Unwanted calls from solicitors, spam, or irrelevant inquiries waste time. With smart call diverting, these can be automatically routed to voicemail or filtered out entirely, freeing up your team to focus on real customers and revenue-generating conversations.

Handle Volume with Ease

During seasonal promotions, end-of-month rushes, or after a successful marketing campaign, dealerships can get swamped with inbound calls. Call diverting allows you to distribute call traffic across locations or departments, ensuring no customer is left waiting and your team doesn’t get overwhelmed.

How Pam Helps You Divert Calls Without Losing the Human Touch

In today’s always-on world, missed calls mean missed revenue, mainly for dealerships where service bookings, lead inquiries, and parts requests often start with a phone call. But traditional call diverting usually falls short. Either it sends customers to voicemail, or it pushes them to someone unprepared to help. That’s where Pam changes the game.

Pam is a 24/7 AI receptionist, specifically designed for dealerships. It doesn’t just divert calls it intelligently routes, schedules, and nurtures leads while sounding like a real human being. Whether your team is on lunch, off the clock, or attending to another customer, Pam ensures that every call is answered with empathy and precision.

Pam's Human-Like AI: Seamless Integration and Natural Conversations

What sets Pam apart is how human the tech feels. Unlike rigid IVR menus or generic answering services, Pam engages in natural conversations. It understands what the caller needs, whether it’s booking a service, checking availability, or following up on a sales inquiry, and handles it seamlessly.

With deep integration into platforms like Tekion and XTime, Pam updates appointments and logs every interaction directly into your system. There’s no double entry, no messy handoffs, and no frustrated customers.

Pam: The AI Receptionist Delivering Tangible Results for Dealerships

The results speak for themselves: dealerships using Pam report a 20% revenue boost and a 10× ROI, all without adding headcount. Implementation takes just one day, and it never calls in sick. Pam doesn’t just answer calls. It makes every caller feel heard, and that’s what keeps them coming back.

Ready to see Pam in action?

Book your personalized demo and discover how hundreds of dealerships are turning missed calls into consistent revenue.

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Best Practices for Setting Up Call Diverting

1. Defining Call Diverting Rules

Not every incoming call is equal, and your call diverting setup should reflect that. Create rules to automatically route calls based on criteria like time of day, department availability, or the caller’s identity.

For example, sales leads should get diverted to a live agent within ten seconds. After-hours service inquiries? Those can route to a 24/7 virtual assistant like Pam. By tailoring the rules to caller intent or importance, you increase the likelihood of a positive, productive outcome.

2. Use Call Logs and Analytics to Optimise Call Flows

Don't just set it and forget it. Review call logs, wait times, and abandonment rates regularly. These insights help you spot bottlenecks or overburdened departments, adjust diversion rules to meet demand, and improve team response times based on real data. This iterative approach turns call forwarding into a powerful optimisation tool, not just a backup plan.

3. Aim for a Resolution—Not Voicemail

Voicemail is where leads go to die. Eighty percent of callers won’t leave a message—they’ll hang up and possibly go elsewhere. Your diverting system should always aim to get the caller to a real-time solution. This could be forwarding the call to another available team member, transferring the call to a live answering service, or routing to an AI assistant trained to handle common inquiries. Whatever the setup, make sure the caller feels attended to, not dismissed.

4. Integrate Call Diverting with Existing Communication Systems

Call diverting works even better when it’s part of a larger communication ecosystem. Missed a call? Trigger a CRM update and assign a follow-up. Diverted to an AI assistant? Push the transcript to the sales rep's dashboard. Caller clicked your live chat and then called? Sync both interactions for continuity. When combined with CRM, live chat, and follow-up workflows, call diverting becomes more than a stopgap—it becomes a customer experience asset.

Book a Demo to Boost your Revenue by 20% (Trusted by Hundreds of Dealerships Across the Nation)

Pam, the AI receptionist, never misses a call. Instead, it works tirelessly to help you schedule service appointments, nurture leads, and boost dealership profitability, even when your team is off the clock. With seamless integration into your existing DMS and appointment scheduling systems, such as Tekion and XTime, Pam delivers measurable results quickly.

Dealerships using Pam’s technology experience an average 20% revenue increase. Many dealers report 10x ROI within months of implementation. Schedule your personalized demo today to see how Pam can help your dealership. You might be surprised to learn that this technology outperforms human agents and competing AI solutions by a long shot.

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