The early adopters of Numa, an artificial intelligence-powered phone answering service, included restaurants, medical offices and beauty salons. But when a few franchised dealerships began testing the system to relieve a common pain point — handling incoming service calls — company founders Tasso Roumeliotis and Joel Grossman decided to visit a service department.
"They were amazed at what they saw," says auto industry veteran and Numa automotive division Executive Vice President Derek Simonds. "There were sticky notes all over advisers' desks and computer screens, messages from customers wanting to make an appointment or wanting to know when their car would be ready."