Dealership software / After-hours answering
After-hours answering for car dealerships: the calls that come in after you close, answered as your store
Lead Friendly answers the calls your dealership forwards to it after close, on Sundays and while everyone is with a customer, as your store and from your inventory, while your plan minutes or wallet cover them. It comes with Lead Friendly for Dealers, $349/month, month to month, plus a one-time $500 setup fee, and works on top of the DMS and CRM you already run. You can forward only your after-hours calls to it. It answers questions about your cars, books the visit into your open hours, takes a message for anything it cannot do, and leaves the caller, the summary and the transcript on the record your team opens in the morning.
Claims on this page were read against the code on November 4, 2026. Two independent stores in Kent, WA run their leads and inventory on Lead Friendly. Read the case study.
Who it is for
Lots that close at six and on Sundays
Shoppers research in the evening and at the weekend, which is when an independent lot is closed or down to one person. Those calls go to voicemail, and the caller rings the next lot.
Stores whose people answer by day
If your salespeople pick up during the day, keep it that way. Forward only the calls that come in after close, or the ones nobody picks up, and see what it catches before you give it anything else.
Stores without a BDC
An after-hours answering service usually takes a message. This takes the message too, but it also answers the question about the car and books the visit, which a message cannot do.
What happens to each kind of after-hours call
“Do you still have the silver Tacoma?”
It searches your inventory, or your website if it is attached, before it says anything about the car. If it cannot find it, it never says the car is sold: it says it is not on its list and takes the caller’s details so someone can check in the morning.
“What would my payment be?”
It does not quote a monthly payment, an APR or an out-the-door price, and by default it does not negotiate. It notes that the caller wants financing, tells them the real number depends on incentives and their trade, and books a visit for when your finance person is in.
“Can I come look at it tomorrow?”
It offers two concrete times inside your open hours, books the one the caller picks and reads it back. It checks your Lead Friendly calendar and any connected Google or Outlook calendar first, so it does not double-book.
“Can I talk to a salesperson?”
Once you set transfer hours, outside them it does not ring an empty showroom. It takes the message and saves a callback with the caller’s name and number on their record, and if you add a team member’s mobile number it texts that person before it promises the callback.
A service call
It takes the year, make and model, the problem and a day that suits, and books the visit. It cannot see a repair order or a car already in your shop, because it has no connection to your DMS.
A caller who hangs up
Once your business has passed identity verification and texting registration is approved, a call that ends without a conversation gets one text back from your number. A call missed during quiet hours is texted when quiet hours end, not dropped.
Putting it on after hours only
- We set it up with you, which is what the one-time setup fee covers: we load your inventory, wire your feeds and your lead sources, and build and tune the agent with you.
- Set your open hours, the sales, service and parts lines calls transfer to, and the hours someone is there to take them. Without transfer hours, the agent will try a transfer at any hour.
- Ask your phone provider to forward calls to your Lead Friendly number when the store is closed, or when nobody picks up. Your number stays yours.
- Add your CRM’s ADF lead email address so each answered call lands where your salespeople already work.
- Read the call summaries for a few weeks, then decide whether it should take daytime overflow too.
Works with what you already run
Lead Friendly sits in front of your DMS and your CRM. It replaces neither. What connects, and how, checked November 4, 2026:
Your CRM, by ADF/XML email
Give Lead Friendly the lead email address your CRM gives you, up to three of them, and each new inbound call the AI answered where the caller spoke, and each website form lead, is emailed there as an ADF/XML lead: name, number, the car they asked about when they named one, the call summary and a link to the call, and a trade-in when the AI agent took down the car or the form collected one. No customer has switched it on yet, so send a test lead first. Keep using AutoRaptor, VinSolutions, Elead, DealerSocket or whichever CRM takes ADF leads by email.
DealerCenter
Keep DealerCenter for deals, lenders, titling and accounting. One way: DealerCenter sends your inventory to Lead Friendly as a file. Nothing is written back to DealerCenter. There is no API connection, and Lead Friendly writes no deal or lead data into DealerCenter.
Frazer
There is no Frazer connection and no Frazer feed. Keep Frazer for deals, forms, accounting and your notes. Add cars to Lead Friendly with a VIN scan from your phone or an inventory feed URL, or attach your website so the agent answers stock questions from it.
CarGurus and Cars.com
Your inventory is pushed to CarGurus twice a day once CarGurus authorizes Lead Friendly as your feed provider, and Cars.com takes it as a file through ICC. Leads from both arrive by ADF email and become contacts. By default nobody texts or calls them until you switch that on.
Facebook Marketplace
A feed URL in Facebook’s vehicle-catalog format that Lead Friendly sets up on request. Not set up with Facebook for any dealer yet; nothing is posted to Marketplace. Lead Friendly does not post to Facebook Marketplace today, so keep listing and answering there through Facebook’s own tools.
Your phone line and your calendar
Keep your number. Your phone provider forwards calls to your Lead Friendly number: all of them, only when nobody picks up, or only after hours, whichever it can do. Connect a Google or Outlook calendar and the agent checks its busy times before it books.
What it does not do
- Lead Friendly does not change your phone line. Forwarding after close, or when nobody answers, is set with your phone provider, and not every provider can forward by time of day.
- It does not transfer outside the transfer hours you set, once you set them; with no hours set it will try a transfer at any hour. After hours, a caller who wants a person gets a message taken and a callback promised.
- It answers while your plan minutes or wallet balance cover the call. A call that neither covers is not answered by the agent, so keep the wallet funded before you forward your nights to it.
- It does not quote an out-the-door price, a monthly payment or an APR. By default it does not negotiate; it discounts only within a discount ladder you set on the agent. By default it gives no trade value.
- It can book a visit but cannot cancel or move one, and it takes no deposit or card payment.
- It does not connect to your DMS, so it cannot see a repair order, a service status or a deal.
- The missed-call text waits, paused, until your business has passed identity verification and the compliance step in Settings, and the text also needs your business texting registration.
- A website form lead that arrives at night is not called during quiet hours in the shopper’s time zone.
- We do not publish a response time, because none has been measured.
What it costs, and the terms
After-hours answering is the AI phone agent in Lead Friendly for Dealers, set to take the calls you forward to it. That plan is $349/month, or $279/month billed annually ($3,348 a year), plus a one-time $500 setup fee, and includes 1,800 AI voice minutes and 2,500 texts a month, then $0.12 a minute from a prepaid wallet. There is no separate after-hours price. A website for your store is included: contact us, tell us what you want, and we build it and show you.
Monthly billing is month to month: cancel and the plan ends at the end of the current period. Annual billing runs to the end of the paid year and does not renew once cancelled. Payments are not refunded.
A phone number is $3 a month from your wallet and is not part of any plan.
Frequently asked
What is after-hours answering for a car dealership?
A service that answers the store’s phone when nobody at the store can. Lead Friendly’s AI agent answers the calls forwarded to it as your store after close, on Sundays and when everyone is busy, answers questions about the cars in your inventory, books the visit into your open hours, and takes a message for anything else, with the transcript and summary saved on the caller’s record.
Can it answer only after we close?
Yes. It answers whatever calls reach your Lead Friendly number, while your plan minutes or wallet cover them. Ask your phone provider to forward calls there after close, or when nobody picks up, and keep answering yourself during the day. Not every phone provider can forward by time of day, so check with yours. Your number stays yours, and nothing changes on it until you set up the forwarding.
What does it do when a caller wants a salesperson at night?
Once you set transfer hours, it does not ring an empty showroom outside them. It takes the caller’s name and number and what they want, saves the callback on their record, and promises a call back. If you add a team member’s mobile number, it texts that person before it promises the callback, so someone knows tonight.
Does it book test drives after hours?
Yes. It offers two concrete times inside your open hours, books the one the caller picks and reads it back. Before it books, it checks your Lead Friendly calendar and any Google or Outlook calendar you have connected, and if the slot is taken it offers the nearest open times instead. It cannot cancel or move a booking.
Does it text back callers who hang up?
Yes, once your business has passed identity verification and your texting registration with the carriers is approved; until then the text waits, paused. A call that ends without a conversation then gets one text back from your number. A call missed during quiet hours is texted when quiet hours end, not dropped.
Where do after-hours leads go?
Onto the caller’s record in Lead Friendly, with the transcript, the summary and the car they asked about. If you give Lead Friendly your CRM’s ADF lead email address, each inbound call where the caller spoke is also emailed there as an ADF lead, so it is waiting in your CRM in the morning.
How much does after-hours answering cost?
It is the AI phone agent in Lead Friendly for Dealers: $349/month, month to month, plus a one-time $500 setup fee, or $279/month billed annually, with 1,800 AI voice minutes and 2,500 texts a month, then $0.12 a minute from a prepaid wallet. A phone number is $3 a month from your wallet. Sales tax is not included in plan prices: at checkout it is calculated from your billing address and added to everything on your invoice.
Keep reading
Call it yourself before you change anything
We build the agent from your website and your inventory and put it on a test number. Call it from your own phone and ask about a car on your lot. Nothing changes on your main line until you say so.