Case study · Hicks Auto Sales
Hicks Auto Sales: 66 real conversations on a used-car lot's phone line in 30 days
Hicks Auto Sales is an independent used-car lot in West Monroe, Louisiana. Calls from the store's own phone line are forwarded to an AI phone agent that answers as the store and calls itself Alex. This page shows what Lead Friendly recorded on those calls from October 15 to November 13, 2026, read from the store's own account. No projections, no composites, and a list of what we cannot show.
The short version
In the 30 days from October 15 to November 13, 2026, Alex answered 220 inbound calls. 66 were real conversations, where the caller spoke and the call ran at least 45 seconds, from 45 different phone numbers. 41 of them ended as a recorded callback request, and 9 came outside the store's posted hours. The store kept its own website, its own inventory and the way it sells cars. What changed is who answers the phone.
What the platform recorded
October 15 to November 13, 2026 · inbound calls only · test calls excluded
220
inbound calls answered by Alex, October 15 to November 13
66
of those were real conversations: the caller spoke and the call ran 45 seconds or more
45
different phone numbers behind the 66 conversations
41
conversations ended as a recorded callback request
9
of those conversations came outside the store's posted hours
79 s
median length of a real conversation, about 105 minutes in total
By period
| Period (Central) | Calls answered | Real conversations | Outside the store's hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 15–31 | 156 | 50 | 6 |
| November 1–13 | 64 | 16 | 3 |
A typical real conversation ran about a minute and twenty seconds (median 79 seconds), and the 66 conversations together ran about 105 minutes. Of the 66, 41 ended as a callback request, where Alex took the caller's details for the store to return the call. The rest ended with other outcomes, such as a message taken or a question answered.
Alex does not quote payments or trade values and does not sell the car. It answers, takes the details and passes them on; the deal still happens at the store.
What happened, in order
- October 15, 2026Account opened; the first inbound call is answered.
- November 13Every number on this page read from the account.
What this case study does not show
- Every answered call as a conversation. Of the 220 answered calls, 86 have no caller speech in the transcript and 146 were shorter than 45 seconds. They are counted in the 220 and not in the 66. We have not audited those recordings, so we do not say why they were silent or short.
- Cars sold. Lead Friendly records no sale from these calls, and we do not claim any.
- An appointment count. Alex can book a visit, but the account's bookings include ones made while the store was testing the agent and we have not separated them, so no count is shown.
- An explanation for the change in volume. Answered calls averaged about 9 a day from October 15 to 31 and about 5 a day from November 1 to 13. We have not established why, and the first weeks included setup and testing.
- A quote from the store. Hicks Auto Sales has not given us words for this page, so there are none.
- A before-and-after. There is no count of missed calls from before Alex, so there is nothing honest to compare against.
- Outbound calls. This page counts inbound calls only.
How we counted: an answered call is an inbound call with a recorded start time. Test calls are excluded, and so are 18 calls from the store owner's own phone, the store's own line and Lead Friendly's test phone. A real conversation is an answered call where the caller spoke at least once, the call lasted 45 seconds or more, and the outcome is not voicemail, an automated menu or no connection. Outside the store's hours means outside the hours posted on its website on November 13, 2026: Monday to Friday 10:30am to 5pm, Saturday 11am to 3pm, closed Sunday, Central time. The 30 days run from the first call, October 15, through November 13, 2026. Figures read from the store's Lead Friendly account on November 13, 2026.
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More on how this works for a lot: the AI phone agent for car dealers and after-hours answering.
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