Your dealership’s AI BDC, from the first question to the next visit.

What does Paddock’s AI BDC do?

Paddock handles the repeatable communication around a dealership visit: answering a question about a car, finding a suitable time, booking the appointment, and keeping the conversation available for staff. An AI BDC is software for parts of the business development center’s work. The useful measure is whether it completes the next step accurately and leaves a record your people can use.

A shopper can start on a vehicle page, continue by text, and call with a question later. Paddock can use the customer’s conversation history across those channels. Your dealership still owns its inventory accuracy, operating rules, staff coverage, and decisions that require judgment.

What happens on each channel?

Follow one customer through the workflow.

Here is an illustrative scenario to try in a demo. A visitor opens a vehicle detail page and asks whether the listed car is available. Paddock uses the page to understand which vehicle they mean, then uses the store’s records for the answer. If the shopper wants a test drive, the assistant checks available times before recording the booking.

Now have the same test customer send a text to move the appointment. Ask a question by phone afterward. Inspect the customer record: the conversation, the booking change, and the appointment source should make sense to the staff member who takes over. The demonstration is complete when the saved records agree with the conversation.

Inventory answers need a source of truth.

A convincing answer is not enough when a customer is planning a trip to the store. Paddock grounds inventory answers in dealership records. A vehicle page supplies context, while the store’s data supplies the authority for price and availability. If a needed fact is missing, the next step should be a lookup or a person rather than a made-up answer.

Before launch, confirm where inventory comes from, who maintains it, how changes reach the assistant, and what happens when a vehicle is sold or unavailable. Use an actual stock number and a deliberately missing fact in the demo. A supported workflow for your data matters more than a long list of integration logos.

Where does the human BDC fit?

Your people own the customer relationship and the judgment calls. They handle negotiations, unusual requests, complaints, and questions the assistant cannot resolve. Paddock’s console lets staff read conversations and take over with the context in front of them. A handoff should identify the unresolved work and who is responsible for it.

Decide who watches that work during opening hours and who handles overnight requests when the store reopens. Test the difference between a recorded handoff, a callback, and any phone-transfer workflow you intend to use. Each is a different promise to the customer.

Start with a workflow you can measure.

Choose a bounded first use: website questions about available cars, inbound phone coverage, or one follow-up play. Write down the current process and compare the pilot using the same definitions. Count eligible inquiries, meaningful responses, confirmed appointments, attended visits, and completed business outcomes separately.

Paddock shows the source of appointments so your team can inspect individual records. A booked visit is a useful result; it is not automatically a completed sale or incremental revenue. Use the ROI calculator to explore assumptions, then use your pilot to replace those assumptions with observed results.

• Bring representative inventory questions, including missing or conflicting details.
• Change a booking and inspect the saved time and vehicle.
• Ask for a person and review the handoff record.
• Check contact preferences and campaign stopping behavior with a test customer.
• Agree on the pilot window, reporting definitions, and staff owner before launch.